The iPhone 17 owes its very high rating in no small part to its excellent video quality in a wide range of lighting conditions, with reliable autofocus and effective image stabilization. The noise reduction works a bit more aggressively than on the iPhone 17 Pro to compensate for the smaller sensor, which results in visibly less detail. However, DxOMark praises the natural colors, fast autofocus, and well controlled image noise.
Compared to the iPhone 17 Pro, the main deduction is in the zoom score, which is no surprise, since the iPhone 17 lacks a telephoto camera entirely and relies instead on digital zoom. There’s also criticism of the Portrait mode, where faces are rendered with less detail, and of the insufficient depth of field in group photos, which can cause people in the background to appear blurry. More details about the iPhone 17 can also be found in our in-depth review.