Skip the iPhone 17 and buy the old iPhone 16 Pro instead

If you’re planning to line up for the newest iPhone release this fall, hold onto your horses. The iPhone 17 event from early September brought a host of exciting announcements, and, surprisingly, the newest iPhone 17 series wasn’t among the top attractions.

The iPhone Air is what stole the show, at just 5.6 millimeters thick and an equally sleek price tag to boot. The actual iPhone 17 launch offered less novelty, and it begs the question: Is it worth upgrading to? For those in the market for a new Apple device, there’s a more promising alternative.

Why 2024’s iPhone 16 Pro still makes sense

A significantly more powerful device at only a slightly higher price tag

If you place both phones side by side, the iPhone 16 Pro and iPhone 17 look almost the same. They have the same 6.3-inch screen with a 90.1% screen-to-body ratio, and both devices feature the dynamic island. Unless you turn them around, you won't notice a difference in the camera setup.

Coming to color, the iPhone 16 Pro comes in four variants, with a metallic, premium finish that many prefer over the iPhone 17’s more colorful, almost pastel aesthetic. But this is a matter of preference, and both devices look excellent in the hand.

Where the older phone really shines is its internals. It has a more powerful camera, an additional telephoto lens, two additional graphics cores, and up to 1TB of storage. The entry-level 16 Pro costs about $25/month on Best Buy with a carrier contract or $899 if you make a one-time payment. The entry-level iPhone 17 costs about $23/month, or $829.99. That’s a small price to pay for a lot of extra horsepower.

The 12MP telephoto lens is a game-changer

iPhone 16 Pro’s triple camera setup is ideal for shooting faraway objects

On the rear, both devices feature two cameras with 48MP resolution each. One is a wide lens, with another ultra-wide lens to capture expansive scenes. The 16 Pro features a 12 MP telephoto lens with 5X optical zoom, enabling the magnification of distant objects and creating a shallow depth of field.

It’s one of the most powerful camera setups around, and an entire movie (28 Years Later) was shot using an identical setup on the 15 Pro Max.

Incidentally, the iPhone 17 Pro Max bumps up the telephoto lens megapixel count to 48 MP but reduces the optical zoom to 4X, which makes the 16 Pro a solid middle ground.

Differences under the hood

The iPhone 16 Pro quietly inches ahead in terms of GPU and storage

Since Apple 17 is the newer device, it uses the Apple A19 processor, compared to the A18 Pro on the iPhone 16 Pro. If you dig a little deeper, you’ll see that real-world performance changes very little across the two generations. The A19 is 5% faster and supports 9% higher GPU frequency, according to performance tests. Impact on battery life is identical for both processors, and you’re unlikely to see any visible difference in everyday processing speed.

Coming to the GPU, the 16 Pro features a 6-core GPU (an impressive specification for an older phone), whereas the iPhone 17 utilizes a 5-core version – a notable difference for gamers, video editors, and other graphics-intensive power users.

The iPhone 16 Pro offers much more flexibility in terms of storage. The entry-level edition features 128GB of storage, increasing to 1TB for the top-tier variant. The iPhone 17, on the other hand, comes in only 256 GB and 512 GB variants.

The iPhone 17’s battery is slightly better

It lasts around four hours longer under lab conditions, but is that reason enough?

This is where Apple has made a genuine improvement over previous years. The iPhone 16 Pro had a Class B battery (according to its EU label), with 37 hours of endurance. The iPhone 17 is much better, with 41 hours of endurance and a Class A EU label. However, whether that’s enough to warrant spending over $800 on a two-camera setup phone with a weaker GPU and less storage than older versions is up for debate.

If you head to Apple’s website, the 18 MP selfie camera stands out as one of the iPhone 17’s biggest selling points. Yet, Apple has quietly done away with the ProRes video recording (up to 4K) capability we saw on the 16 Pro and would have liked to see on the iPhone 17 as well.

One Pro feature that Apple has retained is its ProMotion 120Hz refresh rate, which is good news for gamers. (Of course, you’ll get this on the 16 Pro too.) The same applies to the action button, another Pro feature available on both the 16 Pro and the iPhone 17.

Weighing your options

2024’s iPhone 16 Pro is a compelling alternative to the latest iPhone

For those of us who upgrade to the latest iPhone every year, the 17 series has a lot to offer. For the rest, the older phone offers a more powerful alternative at nearly the same price point.

Photography enthusiasts will benefit from the triple camera setup. Those requiring more storage (like vloggers) can choose 1TB memory. In fact, the only reason to upgrade to the iPhone 17 is probably the superior battery, which may not be a big differentiator for everyone.

Outside the Apple family, the Pixel 10 also costs between $800 and $900, if you want the newest mobile tech but are open to a non-iOS experience.