For a lot of working creators, the camera that comes to every single shoot is the phone. Behind-the-scenes clips, location scouts, quick previews, social content – the phone does the unglamorous work that never makes the showreel.
So when the iPhone 17 Pro Max showed up, I didn’t read the spec sheet and call it a day. I put it next to my 16 Pro Max and used both side by side. I went in expecting the usual year-over-year shrug. The differences were bigger than I expected, which honestly surprised me.
The full comparison is in the video above. This post is the written version of my thinking: why I bothered comparing two phones one generation apart, what kind of upgrades matter for working creators, and how to decide whether this one is worth your money.
Why a one-year comparison is worth doing
Every September, Apple tells us this is the biggest leap yet. Every September, that is technically a claim. For most working creators, most years, the honest answer is that the new phone is better in ways you will never notice while actually making things.
So the question I asked wasn’t “is the 17 Pro Max better than the 16 Pro Max?” Of course it is. Newer phones are always better. The real question is whether it’s better in ways that show up in your footage, your workflow, and your day on set. That’s a much higher bar, and it’s the only bar that should matter when you’re spending your own money.
The upgrades that actually matter
I’m not going to recite spec-sheet numbers here, for two reasons. First, spec sheets lie by omission – they tell you what improved, not whether you’ll feel it. Second, a side-by-side comparison only really works when you can see it, which is exactly why the video above exists. Watch the two phones next to each other and judge with your own eyes instead of taking my word for it.
What I will say is this: the gap between these two phones is not the rounding error I assumed it would be. There are real upgrades here – the kind that affect how the phone performs as a working tool, not just the kind that look good on a keynote slide. In the video I walk through each one and explain which ones I think actually matter for people who create for a living.
The quiet improvements Apple didn’t hype
This was the more interesting half of the comparison for me. Every generation has changes that never make the marketing materials – the unsexy refinements you only notice when you use both devices back to back, which almost nobody does.
Those hidden improvements are often what decide whether a device is pleasant to work with day after day. The headline feature sells the phone; the small stuff determines whether you still like it in month six. In the video I break down the ones I found, and a couple of them genuinely surprised me. Apparently Apple’s engineers and Apple’s marketing team don’t always agree on what’s worth talking about.
Skip or upgrade: the questions I’d actually ask
Before you let any review – including mine – talk you into a new phone, I’d run through a short list. These are the questions worth asking before buying any gear, and a phone is gear:
- How much of your published, money-making content actually comes from your phone? Be honest.
- Is your current phone failing you in a specific, nameable way – or are you just bored of it?
- Are you upgrading from last year’s model, or from something several generations old? The math changes completely.
- Would that same money do more for your work in a microphone, a light, or a lens? That’s usually the boring, correct answer.
If you get through that list and the new phone still makes sense, great. If you get through it and feel a little defensive, you have your answer too.
My verdict: who should switch
I give my straight answer in the video above, including exactly which kind of creator I think should upgrade and which kind should keep their money. I’d rather you hear the reasoning with the footage in front of you than read a one-line conclusion stripped of context.
But here’s the honest frame. If your phone is your primary camera – the thing your content and income actually run through – the case for the 17 Pro Max is a very different conversation than if your phone is a B-camera sitting next to a dedicated rig. The differences between these two phones were bigger than I expected, and that genuinely surprised me. Watch the comparison, weigh it against the list above, and make the call based on your work, not the launch hype.
And if you’re curious about the rest of the gear I use, it’s all listed on my gear page.
