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Disclaimer: Please note that this article presents a preliminary test results summary. The full results will be available soon.
We put the Apple iPhone 17 Pro through our rigorous DXOMARK Camera test suite to measure its performance in photo, video, and zoom quality from an end-user perspective. This article breaks down how the device fared in a variety of tests and several common use cases and is intended to highlight the most important results of our testing with an extract of the captured data.
Technical notes: The rendering engine of this website does not support HDR formats or .HEIC files. To view the images from this article on an HDR display (with a compatible operating system), click on a photo to open the original file, then use an application capable of displaying HDR photo content (such as Apple’s Safari or Google Chrome).
Image sources in this article:
- iPhone 17 Pro: Original .HEIC file converted on Mac running macOS Sequoia 15.1, producing a JPEG with an embedded ISO-standard gain map
- For other devices: direct JPG output with no further conversion
Overview
Key camera specifications:
- Primary: 48MP sensor, 2.44μm quad pixels, 24mm equivalent f/1.78-aperture lens, Dual Pixel AF, OIS
- Ultra-wide: 48MP sensor, 1.4μm quad-pixel, 13mm equivalent f/2.2-aperture lens, Dual Pixel AF
- Tele: 48MP sensor, 1.4μm quad-pixel, 100mm equivalent f/2.8-aperture lens, Dual Pixel AF
- A19 Pro chipset
Scoring
Sub-scores and attributes included in the calculations of the global score.
Apple iPhone 17 Pro
185
175
169
169
Use cases & Conditions
Use case scores indicate the product performance in specific situations. They are not included in the overall score calculations.
Portrait
Portrait photos of either one person or a group of people
Outdoor
Photos & videos shot in bright light conditions (≥1000 lux)
Indoor
Photos & videos shot in good lighting conditions (≥100lux)
Lowlight
Photos & videos shot in low lighting conditions (<100 lux)
Zoom
Photos and videos captured using zoom (more than 1x)
Pros
- Excellent video performance
- Accurate exposure and wide dynamic range, even in low light
- Pleasant colors across most conditions with a fairly neutral white balance.
- High texture levels at preset zoom levels
- Smooth zooming, including when switching between camera modules
- Bokeh effect is natural in segmentation, intensity, spotlights.
- Image artifacts well under control
Cons
- Occasional slight focus and white balance instabilities on moving subjects in video mode
- Decreased texture levels at intermediate zoom settings, close to preset levels
- Slight image noise when shooting indoors or in low light
Apple’s brand new iPhone 17 Pro comes with the company’s latest and most powerful chipset to date, the A19 Pro, which features a 6-core CPU architecture, as well as a 6-core GPU, allowing for faster processing and rendering. In addition, the new chip helps accelerate AI tasks, thanks to a new 16-core neural engine.
On the camera side, the iPhone 17 generation introduces design changes not only under the hood, but also on the exterior of the device. The raised square camera section of previous iPhone generations has been replaced by a ‘camera plateau’ which covers almost the full width of the device. The three lenses of the individual camera modules remain on the left, but the LIDAR and flash modules have been moved to the right.
On the inside, there are important improvements to the camera hardware. The dedicated tele module now comes with a 48MP sensor. After the ultra-wide camera was previously upgraded to the same resolution with the introduction of the iPhone 16 Pro/Pro Max, the 17 Pro now features 48MP sensors across all three camera modules. This opens up new zooming capabilities and increases versatility. Using intelligent cropping and changing sensor capture modes, the camera is now offering a range of preset focal lengths with optimized image quality, which can be selected via dedicated buttons in the camera UI. Apple calls this the ’48MP Pro Fusion camera system’ and claims it replaces ‘8 pro lenses in your pocket.’
The following equivalent focal lengths can be selected directly via a button in the UI when shooting under normal light conditions:
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- macro (12MP)
- 13mm (0.5x, 24MP)
- 24mm (1x, 24MP)
- 35mm (1.5x, 24MP)
- 48mm (2x, 12MP)
- 100mm (4x, 24MP)
- 200mm (8x, 12MP)
In very low light (5 lux and less), the camera switches to the long exposure night mode which was introduced with the iPhone 11 in 2019. In this mode the output resolution is 12MP.
Video mode has been improved as well. The iPhone camera now offers a Dual Recording feature which allows for simultaneous recording with the front and rear cameras. This way a scene and the videographer’s reaction to it can be filmed at the same time. On the primary camera module, the 17 Pro can now also record 120fps slow motion video in Dolby 4K HDR. This feature is not tested under our v6 test protocol, however.
For videographers who want or need maximum flexibility in post editing, and do not mind very large file sizes, there is now also a new ProRes RAW recording mode which allows for a direct recording of the raw data from the sensor. This feature is not available through the default camera app, though.
With a 7-point boost in its Camera score compared to last year, the Apple iPhone 17 Pro secures a spot in the top of our database, competing head-to-head with other flagship devices released earlier this year. The device stands out with its best-in-class video performance, impressive zoom capabilities, and overall versatility across nearly all scoring categories.
Test summary
About DXOMARK Camera tests: DXOMARK’s camera evaluations take place in laboratories and real-world situations using a wide variety of use-cases. The scores rely on objective tests for which the results are calculated directly using measurement software in our laboratory setups, and on perceptual tests where a sophisticated set of metrics allow a panel of image experts to compare aspects of image quality that require human judgment. Testing a smartphone involves a team of engineers and technicians for about a week. Photo and Video quality are scored separately and then combined into an overall score for comparison among the cameras in different devices. For more information about the DXOMARK Camera protocol, click here. More details on smartphone camera scores are available here. The following section gathers key elements of DXOMARK’s exhaustive tests and analyses. Full performance evaluations are available upon request. Please contact us on how to receive a full report.
Photo
Apple iPhone 17 Pro
180
For scoring and analysis, DXOMARK engineers capture and evaluate more than 3,800 test images in controlled lab environments as well as outdoor, indoor and low-light natural scenes, using the camera’s default settings. The photo protocol is designed to take into account the main use cases and is based on typical shooting scenarios, such as portraits, landscape and zoom photography. The evaluation is performed by visually inspecting images against a reference of natural scenes, and by running objective measurements on images of charts captured in the lab under different lighting conditions from 0.1 to 10,000+ lux and color temperatures from 2,300K to 6,500K.
Main
Apple iPhone 17 Pro
185
In daylight shooting the iPhone 17 Pro is one of the very best devices tested to date. In photo mode the camera delivers accurate exposure and a wide dynamic range, thanks to Apple’s proprietary Smart HDR 5 technology, which is capable of recovering noticeable amounts of fine detail in the brightest highlights and darkest shadow portions of the frame.
While face contrast is pleasant, in sunny conditions white balance can occasionally appear slightly more yellow than on competing devices at default settings. In addition, darker skin tones can show a slightly reddish undertone. This can be easily fixed, though, thanks to the Photographic Styles feature which allows for intelligent tone, color, and look customization after capture. First introduced with the iPhone 13 series in 2021 and improved for the latest models, this feature is not covered by our current test protocol, however.
The iPhone 17 Pro is our new number one device for night shooting. When shooting at light levels of 5 lux or under the camera switches to its night mode which uses a long exposure of 1 second or even longer. While in this mode the camera produces lower resolution 12MP images than in the 24MP default mode, it captures higher levels of detail than last year’s iPhone generation and provides natural detail rendering, avoiding issues we have seen on some competitors.
Higher texture-noise tradeoff with very fine detail visible
Loss of fine details
Tele
Apple iPhone 17 Pro
169
All image quality attributes are evaluated at focal lengths from approximately 40 mm to 300 mm, with particular attention paid to texture and detail. The score is derived from a number of objective measurements in the lab and perceptual analysis of real-life images.
The new 48MP sensor on the 4x tele module definitely improves zoom performance in both photo and video modes, mostly closing the gap to the best-in-class devices for zooming. At close range tele zoom the iPhone 17 Pro uses the primary camera with intelligent cropping, and is capable of challenging some of the best tele zoom devices, such as the Vivo X200 Ultra or the Oppo Find X8 Ultra.
At medium range settings, the dedicated tele camera module springs into action at around 100mm equivalent focal length. Across all test attributes performance is still slightly lower than on the best rival devices at this zoom factor. At long range, Apple’s ‘Fusion Tele Camera’ algorithms are activated, creating a bump in our measurement graph at around 200mm and narrowing the gap to some of the best competitors. Only the Huawei Pura 80 Ultra is still noticeably ahead at long range tele, thanks to its dual tele setup with a dedicated long range lens.
At 4x tele zoom fine detail is well preserved and textured facial features, such as eyebrows or hair, are rendered naturally.
At longer tele settings, some competitors deliver better performance, though, in particular devices with dual tele camera setups and dedicated long range lenses, such as the Oppo Find X8 Ultra and the Huawei Pura 80 Ultra.
DXOMARK engineers capture and evaluate almost 3 hours of video in controlled lab environments and in natural low-light, indoor and outdoor scenes, using the camera’s default settings. The evaluation consists of visually inspecting natural videos taken in various conditions and running objective measurements on videos of charts recorded in the lab under different conditions from 0.1 to 10000+ lux and color temperatures from 2,300K to 6,500K.
Like previous iPhone generations, the new iPhone 17 Pro makes it to the very top of our video ranking thanks to the best video performance we have seen to date and improvements over the iPhone 16 generation across all test conditions. It particularly stands out with generally more neutral white balance, lower noise levels in handheld low light recording, and fewer texture artifacts.
Tele
Apple iPhone 17 Pro
140
Zoom performance is one of the areas where camera systems are pushed to their limits. With the iPhone 17 Pro, Apple’s Fusion system works to deliver consistent detail and smooth transitions across different focal lengths. Here are our lab results, showing the product’s performance step by step, from moderate zoom to longer telephoto ranges.
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- At around 60mm Equivalent focal length (roughly 2x), the Fusion system of the Wide Camera allows for a high performance, higher than competitors.
- At around 72mm Equivalent focal length (roughly 2.4x), there is a drop in the detail preservation metric across all the flagships, since we usually are cropping far in the main sensor.
- At around 93mm Equivalent focal length (roughly 3x), cropping further in the main sensor, the metric decreases even more. For other competitors though, such as the Huawei Pura 80 Ultra, they already switched to their medium tele module, which explains the gap.
- At 127mm Equivalent focal length (roughly 4x), the tele module is now in use and the performance closes the gap with competitors: the iPhone shows more details than last year’s, close to the Oppo Find X8 Ultra.
The iPhone 17 Pro does a great job in terms of zoom smoothness. Switches between camera modules are smooth and hardly noticeable. During testing our experts also noticed that at some switching points, for example 2x and 8x, there seems to be a sudden increase in image detail. This is probably enabled by the fusion camera system, allowing for optimized detail across the entire focal range.