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Apple iPhone 17 review: Sometimes boring is best | Ars Technica

The least exciting iPhone this year is also the best value for the money.

For close-up shots like this, the main thing you'll notice is the slight difference in focal length, which will require you to stand back just a bit further from your subject to get it in focus. We'll reuse the 4x and 8x photos from our iPhone Air review to show you what you're missing—the telephoto camera captures considerably more fine detail on faraway objects, but even as someone who uses the telephoto on the iPhone 15 Pro constantly, I would have to think pretty hard about whether that camera is worth $300, even once you add in the larger battery, ProRAW support, and other things Apple still holds back for the Pro phones. Andrew is a Senior Technology Reporter at Ars Technica, with a focus on consumer tech including computer hardware and in-depth reviews of operating systems like Windows and macOS.

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