Apple’s iPhone LineUp has never been different. You have four new phones on offer – iPhone 17, iPhone Air, iPhone 17 Pro, and iPhone 17 Pro Max – with very different designs, and camera systems.
And yet, it feels like the iPhone 17 has been revived to the point of being the best option for many consumers; Finally it has a 120hz display, its battery life has been greatly improved, and, like other devices, it starts with 256GB of storage. The iPhone Air, on the other hand, has the same chip size and display size as the iPhone 17 Pro, but only one camera on the back.
That’s why, for many potential buyers, the choice will come down to cameras. Apple hyped up the iPhone Air’s single camera as a multi-camera system-in-one, but is it really there for other iPhones, let alone powerful models like the Google Pixel 10 Pro? And the iPhone 17 camera system is just as good as it is in the pro models, only without zoom, or is it weak in other areas, too?
Let’s get involved and compare some photos to answer all your questions.
Camera shot: daylight
Left to right: iPhone 17 Pro max, iPhone 17, iPhone spirit. During the day, in solving big money, the difference between the three calls is almost non-existent.
Credit: Stan Schroeder / Mashable
I’m happy to report that all three cameras take incredibly detailed shots with accurate colors. Open the megapixel count to 48 if you want more detail, but only do it when the light conditions are right.
TL: Dr: A three-way tie.
Camera shot: Zoom in
Left to right: iPhone 17 Pro max, iPhone 17, iPhone spirit. And, without zooming in, you’ll get very similar images on all three devices.
Credit: Stan Schroeder / Mashable
There’s no real competition here: The iPhone 17 Pro and Pro max have a telephoto phone camera capable of 4x optical zoom, while the iPhone 17 and iPhone 17 wind simply don’t have a lens. However, you can zoom in on all three phones (Yes, even at the default time 2x) Since Apple will take an effective picture of the closing height, which is 48-megapixel.
Left to right: iPhone 17 Pro max, iPhone 17, iPhone spirit. The level of detail and sharpness you get from the Pro max is much better than the digital zoom on the other two phones. However, the iPhone 17 still performs better than the iPhone 17.
Credit: Stan Schroeder / Mashable
As you can see above, photos without a dedicated phone camera simply can’t measure up to the level of detail you get on the iPhone 17 Pro max, especially at 8x magnification. It is interesting that I got slightly better results with the iPhone air than with the iPhone 17. This was not very consistent with various zoom levels and zoom levels, which shows that the air has a bigger camera overall than the iPhone 17.
TL; DR: The iPhone 17 Pro max wins in this category, which is no surprise. What is the surprise? The iPhone spirit hit the iPhone 17.
Bright light speed
Camera shot: Ultra-Wide
Left:
Credit: Stan Schroeder / Mashable
Right:
Left: iPhone 17 Pro Max, right: iPhone 17. Sometimes a beautiful landscape calls for an Ultra wide image, and the iPhone spirit just doesn’t have an option.
Credit: Stan Schroeder / Mashable
Only the iPhone 17 Pro max and the iPhone 17 have an Ultra-Wide camera; The iPhone Air doesn’t even have an automatic zoom option, which is set to 1X. On both the iPhone 17 and the iPhone 17 Pro Max, Ultra-Widole produces more beautiful photos than the amazing main shooter, so I recommend avoiding it. However, sometimes you have to use it – in general, when you need to put a large group of people inside the frame – and that’s when it’s a good option to have, the quality of the pictures has been lost.
Tl; dr: iPhone 17 and iPhone 17 Pro max have good but not good Ultra-Wide camera; Spirit is completely devoid of this.
Camera shot: low light
Left to right: iPhone 17 Pro max, iPhone 17, iPhone spirit. This night event was well captured by all three phones. The one taken with the iPhone spirit has the most accurate colors, but the difference is minute.
Credit: Stan Schroeder / Mashable
I was very interested in the low light performance, because that’s where you really see if the iPhone 17 and the iPhone spirit can hold their own against the big camera of the powerful Pro max? I’m happy to report that night photos come out almost the same, whether I’m using the iPhone 17, the iPhone 17, or the iPhone 17 Pro max.
Tl; dr: All three phones took low-light photos of similar quality.
Camera shot: Macro
Left to right: iPhone 17 Pro max, iPhone 17, iPhone spirit. The photos taken by the iPhone 17 and 17 Pro max are almost identical. The iPhone Air can’t capture a lot of close-up detail.
Credit: Stan Schroeder / Mashable
This test probably doesn’t make sense for the iPhone spirit, which doesn’t have a dedicated macro mode. But it’s still worth comparing the results, just to show how much better the other two phones are when it comes to this particular kind of photography.
The iPhone 17 and iPhone 17 Pro max switched to macro mode automatically when I got close to a flower, and both took a nice, detailed macro shot with bright colors. With the iPhone spirit, going this close can only produce a blurry image, so I used the 2x zoom option to get more detail due to the flower. It’s not bad, but it’s also nowhere near the quality of the other two images when it comes to detail. Also, the spirit of the iPhone decided to fade into the background, leaving me with a picture of a picture; Not bad, but not exactly what I need here.
Tl; dr: iPhone 17 and iPhone 17 Pro max excel in Macro Photography; The iPhone Air doesn’t even have a macro mode.
Camera shot: selfie
Left to right: iPhone 17 Pro max, iPhone 17, iPhone spirit. In Croatia, we don’t smile. Obviously.
Credit: Stan Schroeder / Mashable
On paper, all three cameras should be the same, and judging by the selfies I took, they were pretty good. I’ve taken tons of selfies with all three phones and they’re always true-to-life with accurate colors and tons of detail. Here, I chose a portrait selfie that was very similar across all three phones.
Tl; dr: three-way tie.
iPhone 17 vs. iPhone AIR vs. IPHONE 17 Pro Max Max: Which is the best for getting photos?
All is well, but the iPhone 17 Pro max has a more versatile camera.
Credit: Stan Schroeder / Mashable
The good news is that the main camera seems to be pretty much the same across all three phones, and the iPhone’s spirit performed much better than I expected. With dowle-and-butterle daytime photos, as well as low-key shots, nature shots, and selfies, you can choose any of these phones and have fun.
Being able to zoom in and out (especially indoors) makes all the difference in photos. Also, the video capabilities of the iPhone 17 pro max are truly pro-grade, compared to the basic (yet excellent) swimming video shooting that comes with the other two phones. If you like to tinker with settings, need tons of video storage (the iPhone 17 Pro max goes up to 2TB), and use a lot of zoom, then the iPhone 17 Pro max is a must.
How we are tested
The rules of this competition were simple. I took pictures in many situations with all three phones, doing my best to use the same settings and take the picture from the same situation. After that, I uploaded the pictures to my computer to see how they differed. In this article I’ve used details ripped from each set of images to highlight the differences between each phone.
This is not a fair test. Sometimes you’ll get a bad (or surprisingly good) picture for no apparent reason. I did take several sets of photos in each scenario to confirm the differences I saw were real, but I’ve only used a single set of photos for each scenario for the purposes of this article.
