Apple’s latest high-end iPhones give two very different swings of the bat at “best phone.” The iPhone Air goes super skinny and single-camera; the iPhone 17 Pro Max brings on all the speed, camera depth, and battery miles. I had both in my household, and the difference between them is greater than their names imply.
Design and durability: thin elegance versus rugged power
The iPhone Air is the talker. At 5.6mm thick, it’s the thinnest iPhone that Apple has ever shipped, and you get a sense of how remarkably light it is while still feeling sturdy. There’s a Grade 5 titanium frame and Ceramic Shield 2 in the front glass, adding real toughness, and Apple claims it has scratch resistance that is up to three times better than before because of the new glass chemistry.
- Design and durability: thin elegance versus rugged power
- Displays you can see anywhere, indoors or outside
- Performance and thermals under sustained workloads
- Cameras: simplicity versus scope for creators and more
- Battery life and charging: endurance and fast top-ups
- Connectivity, storage, and future-proofing
- Price and value: weighing features against cost
- Verdict: the winner for most buyers and use cases
The 17 Pro Max is recognizable up to the moment you pick it up: It’s a slab built for working. The bigger chassis and aluminum construction accommodate a vapor chamber cooling system and larger battery. If you are the type who is hard on phones, or go caseless frequently, you might just find that the bulk and surface area of the Pro Max improve grip.
Displays you can see anywhere, indoors or outside
Both phones feature ProMotion Super Retina XDR panels, which means scrolling and gaming feel slick at up to 120Hz. The break is visible at the scale and punch: the Air has a 6.5-inch screen that prioritizes reachability, whereas the Pro Max expands to almost 6.9 inches with a peak 3,000-nit brightness level bright enough to remain readable in uncomfortable sunlight. That top-end brightness is in line with what the display analysts at DSCC deem “outdoor reliable” for HDR content.
Audio follows suit. The Air’s speakers are good for its size but the Pro Max kicks out a broader stage and fuller bass — that you’ll notice both in action games, say, and on YouTube.
Performance and thermals under sustained workloads
Both come with Apple’s A19 Pro, and that initial burst performance feels exactly the same when you open a heavy app or export a batch of RAW photos. The Pro Max’s vapor chamber is the differentiator over time, though. During multiple 4K edits and a graphically intensive, 20-minute gaming session, the Pro Max retained higher frame rates and cooler temps. It’s that thermal headroom that will bring creators and competitive gamers to the larger phone.
The Air isn’t slow — far from it — but you will feel the chassis shed heat less effectively during long sustained loads. For mainstream messaging, social and maps, it’s perfectly fine.
Cameras: simplicity versus scope for creators and more
iPhone Air adopts a single 48MP Fusion rear camera that simulates multiple lenses. Apple’s computational pipeline provides you with natural 24mm shots and uncluttered 28mm and 35mm equivalents without having to switch modules. This is the best kind of photography for most people: point, compose, shoot. It’s consistent, sharp, and fast.
The 17 Pro Max crams in a 48MP Fusion main, 48MP ultra-wide and 48MP telephoto. In practice, that translates into better edge-to-edge detail at 0.5x, truer 3x portraits and more flexibility at events or travel. Low light also benefits from the bigger thermal envelope – which you get by keeping power use down at lower temperatures, inhibiting noise in long exposures as it rides a perfect pair of high-speed processing clocks.
Both feature the new 18MP Center Stage selfie camera, that’s smart enough to keep up with landscape or portrait all without needing to move the phone.
- Where the Pro Max gets a lead on creators is in video: ProRes RAW support, Log 2 for greater dynamic range and genlock to synchronize multicamera shoots.
That toolkit is the type of feature set cinematography teachers, as well as studios, point to in order to demonstrate that a phone can serve as a jumping-off point for professional workflows.
Battery life and charging: endurance and fast top-ups
Apple promises the Air will last up to 27 hours of video playback and the Pro Max up to 39 hours. On my mixed day — 5G-guided navigation, two hours of streaming video, some camera use and email — the Air ended with about 20%, while the Pro Max consistently cleared at least 40%. That gap is the difference between plugging in every night and confidently skipping a plug-in on those occasional light days.
USB-C charging and MagSafe are shared on both. The Pro Max’s larger cell also copes better with sustained wireless charging, producing less heat over a 30-minute top-up.
Connectivity, storage, and future-proofing
The iPhone Air goes eSIM-only, which means no object takes up any critically valuable body space anymore and it makes it super easy for you to protect or fry: just accept/provision/destroy in the cloud. According to GSMA Intelligence, adoption of the eSIM has been quick among leading carriers in North America and Europe while support is growing across Asia-Pacific and Latin America. If you’re the sort of person who depends on physical SIM swaps when going abroad, Pro Max’s implementation of dual eSIMs means that a plan still needs to be changed, rather than just the tray—all you jet-setters take note!
Both start with 256GB of storage. Power users will also take note of the Pro Max’s 2TB limit; the Air maxes out at 1TB. For those shooting ProRes RAW, or for phone users with a massive library of offline media clips, that added headroom is something of a guardrail against continuous storage micromanagement.
Price and value: weighing features against cost
The iPhone Air costs $999 with titanium, the newest processor and best-in-class thin design. It’s a luxury item that is still practical. The 17 Pro Max starts at $1,199, but there is good reason you’re paying for the largest screen, longest battery life and most versatile cameras as well as creator-level video formats. Independent labs like Consumer Reports consistently find that long battery life has an outsized impact on owner satisfaction, and that’s where the Pro Max excels.
Verdict: the winner for most buyers and use cases
If you want the best iPhone—period—the iPhone 17 Pro Max is for you. It’s the superior phone for photographers, filmmakers, audio heads, gamers and anyone who values endurance and long-term performance. As it is, I love my iPhone Air because it is a marvel of engineering and fun to carry around, and if you’re the sort of minimalist who values design and keeping things simple, I wouldn’t hesitate to recommend it. But in a battle for most people, the Pro Max is victorious.