Apple’s iPhone lineup has never been more diverse. You’ve got four new phones on display — the iPhone 17, iPhone Air, iPhone 17 Pro, and iPhone 17 Pro Max — with very different designs, dimensions, colors, battery sizes, and camera systems.
However, it feels like the iPhone 17 has been upgraded to the point where it is a very good option for many buyers; Finally, it has a 120Hz display, battery life is greatly improved, and like the other devices, it starts with 256GB of storage. The iPhone Air, on the other hand, has the same chipset and screen size as the iPhone 17 Pro, but with only one camera on the back.
For this reason, for many potential buyers, the choice will fall on cameras. Apple has promoted the iPhone Air’s single camera as a multi-camera system in one, but is it really on par with other iPhones, let alone with camera capabilities like the Google Pixel 10 Pro? Is the iPhone 17’s camera system quite as good as the one in the Pro models, just without the zoom, or is it noticeably weaker in other areas as well?
Let’s get hands-on and compare some photos to answer all your questions.
Camera shooting: daylight
From left to right: iPhone 17 Pro Max, iPhone 17, iPhone Air. In daylight, at maximum resolution, the differences between the three phones are almost nil.
Credit: Stan Schroeder/Mashable
I’m happy to report that all three cameras capture wonderfully detailed daytime shots with accurate colors. Increase the megapixel count to 48 if you want more detail, but only do so when lighting conditions are just right.
TL:DR: Three-way tie.
Camera shooting: Zoom in
From left to right: iPhone 17 Pro Max, iPhone 17, iPhone Air. Again, without zooming in, you’ll get very similar images across all three devices.
Credit: Stan Schroeder/Mashable
There’s no real competition here: The iPhone 17 Pro and Pro Max have a telephoto camera capable of 4x optical zoom, while the iPhone 17 and iPhone Air simply don’t have that lens. However, you can zoom in on all three phones (yes, even beyond the default 2x) as Apple will capture the thumbnail from the larger 48MP image.
From left to right: iPhone 17 Pro Max, iPhone 17, iPhone Air. The level of detail and sharpness you get on the Pro Max is much better than the digital zoom found on the other two phones. However, the iPhone Air has always performed slightly better than the iPhone 17.
Credit: Stan Schroeder/Mashable
As you can see above, photos without the dedicated telephoto camera simply can’t measure up to the level of detail you get on the iPhone 17 Pro Max, especially at 8x zoom. Interestingly, I got slightly better results with the iPhone Air than with the iPhone 17. This was quite consistent across many settings and zoom levels, suggesting that the Air has a better main camera overall than the iPhone 17.
TL;DR: The iPhone 17 Pro Max wins in this category, and that’s no surprise. What’s the surprise? The iPhone Air beat the iPhone 17.
Speed of light mashable
Camera shooting: Ultra wide
Leave:
Credit: Stan Schroeder/Mashable
right:
Left: iPhone 17 Pro Max, right: iPhone 17. Sometimes a scene calls for an ultra-wide photo, and iPhone Air doesn’t have that option.
Credit: Stan Schroeder/Mashable
Only the iPhone 17 Pro Max and iPhone 17 have the ultra-wide camera; The iPhone Air doesn’t even have the option to zoom out beyond the default 1x setting. On both the iPhone 17 and iPhone 17 Pro Max, the ultra-wide shooter produces noticeably blurrier photos than the fine, sharp main shooter, so I’d recommend avoiding it. However, sometimes you just have to use it – usually, when you need to fit a large group of people into the frame – and that’s where the option is great, image quality doesn’t matter.
TL;DR: The iPhone 17 and iPhone 17 Pro Max have a decent but not great ultra-wide camera; The air lacks this completely.
Camera shooting: low light
From left to right: iPhone 17 Pro Max, iPhone 17, iPhone Air. This night scene was captured beautifully by all three phones. The photo taken with the iPhone Air has the most accurate colors, but the differences are minimal.
Credit: Stan Schroeder/Mashable
I was particularly interested in low-light performance, as this is where you really see if the iPhone 17 and iPhone Air can hold their own against the Pro Max’s powerful main camera. And I’m happy to report that night photos were about the same, regardless of whether I was using the iPhone 17, iPhone Air, or iPhone 17 Pro Max.
TL; DR: All three phones took low-light photos at about the same quality.
Shooting on camera: macro
From left to right: iPhone 17 Pro Max, iPhone 17, iPhone Air. Photos taken with the iPhone 17 and 17 Pro Max are almost identical. The iPhone Air simply can’t capture many details up close.
Credit: Stan Schroeder/Mashable
This test is probably unfair to the iPhone Air, which doesn’t have a dedicated macro mode. But it’s still worth comparing the results, just to show how good the other two phones are when it comes to this specific type of photography.
The iPhone 17 and iPhone 17 Pro Max automatically switched to macro mode as I approached the flower, and both captured a beautiful, detailed macro photo with vivid colors. With the iPhone Air, getting close to this level would only result in a blurry image, so I used the 2x zoom option to get more detail from the flower. It’s not bad, but it’s also nowhere near as good as the other two images when it comes to detail. Also, the iPhone Air decided to blur the background, leaving me with a selfie; It’s not bad, but not exactly what I need here.
TL;DR: The iPhone 17 and iPhone 17 Pro Max excel at macro photography; The iPhone Air doesn’t even have a macro mode.
Shooting with camera: selfie
From left to right: iPhone 17 Pro Max, iPhone 17, iPhone Air. In Croatia, we don’t smile. Apparently.
Credit: Stan Schroeder/Mashable
On paper, the three cameras should be the same, and based on the selfies I took, they pretty much are. I’ve taken a number of selfies with all three phones and they’re always realistic, with accurate colors and plenty of detail. Here I’ve chosen a selfie that looks very similar on all three phones.
TL;DR: Three-way tie.
iPhone 17 vs iPhone Air vs iPhone 17 Pro Max: Which is better for photography?
They’re all very good, but the iPhone 17 Pro Max has the most versatile camera.
Credit: Stan Schroeder/Mashable
The good news is that the main camera looks very similar on all three phones, and the iPhone Air performed much better than I expected. For simple daytime photos, as well as low-light shots, nature shots, and selfies, you can pick any of these phones and you’ll be happy.
The ability to zoom in and zoom out (especially in) makes a difference in photography. And the iPhone 17 Pro Max’s video capabilities are really professional, compared to the basic (but still very good) video shooting you get on the other two phones. If you like to play around with settings, need a lot of storage space for videos (the iPhone 17 Pro Max has a capacity of 2TB), and use zoom a lot, the iPhone 17 Pro Max is a must-have.
How we tested
The rules of this competition were simple. I took photos in a variety of scenarios with all three phones, trying my best to use similar settings and take the photo from exactly the same position. Then I uploaded the photos to my computer to see how different they looked. In this article I’ve used cut-out details from each set of images to highlight the differences between each phone.
This is not a perfect test. Sometimes, you’ll get a bad (or surprisingly good) photo for no apparent reason. I took several sets of photos in each scenario to ensure that the differences I saw were real, but I only used one set of photos per scenario for the purposes of this article.