Thanks for the responses. I suppose my long term dream, and perhaps a foolish one for a phone camera, is to have an iPhone that I could at least try and do some basic Astro-photography with. Not helped by the fact I live in London and obviously suffer from huge amounts of light pollution at night.
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iPhone 17 Pro Unimpressed with 17 series camera quality
Got the 17 pro max.
In the edges and corners, my 13 pro max shows better resolution, which is frustrating.
In the middle the new phone is better but the real detail is not as much as I thought...
Comparing pro raw pictures in both. Of course the new 17 has very soft processing but still...
Corner crop pro raw. Iphone 17 pro max at 100% on the left, iphone 13 pro max at 200% on the right
Mid frame crop. Same as above.
I guess the bigger sensor and the wider lens makes it more prone to edge and corner softness. Also 48 quad bayer mpx are not that real resolution after all...
I would like to test another sample but I have seen similar soft corners in other samples online.
In the edges and corners, my 13 pro max shows better resolution, which is frustrating.
In the middle the new phone is better but the real detail is not as much as I thought...
Comparing pro raw pictures in both. Of course the new 17 has very soft processing but still...
Corner crop pro raw. Iphone 17 pro max at 100% on the left, iphone 13 pro max at 200% on the right
Mid frame crop. Same as above.
I guess the bigger sensor and the wider lens makes it more prone to edge and corner softness. Also 48 quad bayer mpx are not that real resolution after all...
I would like to test another sample but I have seen similar soft corners in other samples online.
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I agree. That's frustrating because the 13 pro max probably had better optics, f/1.6 VS f/1.8 on the 17 pro. I was very disappointed that apple didn't upgrade the wide and ultra wide camera optics, So I did an upgrade. it almost seems that all of the cell phone manufacturers these days are sticking with the same cameras for at least 3 years minimum.. I still have a 16 Pro Max, and if I upgraded to the 17 pro Max, I would basically be getting the same cameras, except for the telephoto, in a different body. The 17 pro Max is 80% of the 16 Pro Max, so why bother? For this reason, i will keep my 16 Pro Max, but currently I'm using the Samsung Galaxy S25 ultra, which has far superior cameras.
however, I think your resolution issue with the corners on the 17 pro max camera usually is visible when you're shooting something up close, like a document or a page with words on it. Coma is visible in the corners. Apple has yet to correct the reflective flare seen within the camera optics when shooting video at night with bright lights, the reflective lights can be seen floating around in the image which is annoying. Thankfully, the S25 ultra doesn't have that. Anyway, I hope your experience with the new phone improves. It's still a good phone.
Your samples look very similar to what I’ve seen comparing my old 14 Pro to 17 Pro - a comparison which I’ve shared quite extensively here. Especially your rooftop photo is a very good example of the issue: it really cannot be explained away by the scaled down sharpening on the 17 Pro, there’s just an overall layer of haziness over the image on the 17 Pro corners. Very annoying to see worse results on a device that’s multiple generations newer.
The entirety of the extra “sharpness” you see in the 13 Pro shots here is computational. It’s basically a more advanced version of sliding the sharpening slider up in Lightroom.
These threads are actually very interesting because they demonstrate how much people’s preferences diverge. For me, the 13 Pro shots here are horrendously oversharpened, they look crunchy. The 17 Pro shots are substantially more natural looking.
This is only a problem because Apple downright refuses to let the user customize how processing is applied to their photos. You either like the amount of sharpening applied or you don’t.
At least if you’re one of those people who likes more sharpening, you can add it in post. Those of us who hate that processing can’t back it out after it’s baked in so I’m glad Apple is backing off from that.
It 100% can be explained by less sharpening. The 14 Pro has the most aggressive sharpening of all the iPhone lineup. It’s just not as simple as a sharpening slider since it’s applied by Deep Fusion and uses multiple exposures so it looks more “real”, but it’s still all computational.
I also don’t like over processing and that’s why I see that in the middle, the 17 has more detail.
However in the corner the thing is not true. The iPhone 17 has less detail with 4x the resolution.
Today I’m testing my phone with a 15 pro max and a 16 pro max at work and mine has the weakest corner.
For example, this is a phone screenshot from a corner in my 17 pro max
And same crop in a 15 pro max
This is not just over sharpening in the 15, this is a slightly decentered lens.
However in the corner the thing is not true. The iPhone 17 has less detail with 4x the resolution.
Today I’m testing my phone with a 15 pro max and a 16 pro max at work and mine has the weakest corner.
For example, this is a phone screenshot from a corner in my 17 pro max
And same crop in a 15 pro max
This is not just over sharpening in the 15, this is a slightly decentered lens.
It looks like oversharpening to me on the 15, but you could be right. Why would the lens not be centered?
Copy variation.
There are not 2 lens equal and there is quality control and manufacturer tolerances. Same as for the silicon.
Another corner crop
iPhone 17 pro max
15 pro max
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I agree that the 17 is soft to a fault, and the 48MP is not real 48MP at all. But saying that your "13 pro max shows better resolution"? Come on, you surely see the crazy ringing in your 13 photos? Just increase Sharpness in all your 17 shots in Lightroom if you want to reproduce that look.