Which premium phone deserves a spot in your pocket? Based on specs and hands-on experience, here’s my early verdict.
It feels like yesterday when I sat in a Brooklyn warehouse to watch Jimmy Fallon introduce the Google Pixel 10 series to the world. Since then, Apple has joined the fray with the new iPhone 17, and now I’ve got a few too many new handsets on my mind.
Between what Apple and Google announced, the iPhone 17 Pro Max and Google Pixel 10 Pro XL stand out as the best of the best. They’re the models that tech enthusiasts drool about, fans wait in lines for, and journalists like me itch to compare before the year-end awards are due.
If you’re deciding on which of the two phones to buy, I’ve laid out the biggest differences below, based on specs, hands-on experience, and years of testing both iPhone and Pixel phones.SpecificationsYou should buy the iPhone 17 Pro Max if…
The iPhone 17 Pro Max received several camera upgrades this year, but the two that I’d like to focus on are the ProRes Raw video support and the 18MP Center Stage front sensor.
With the former, videographers can record content while bypassing all the usual, automated image processing, like adapting colors and sharpness. The result is footage that’s friendlier to edit, can be matched to the tone that you’re after, and, perhaps most importantly, appears more consistent with content captured by other cameras.
Apple has also upgraded the front camera, which can now take photos and videos with a wider field of view. It’s achieved this by opting for a square-shaped sensor versus a rectangular one, allowing the iPhone to crop in or out (read: take photos in landscape or portrait orientation) without requiring you to rotate the device.
