iPhone 17 Pro vs iPhone 16 Pro - Nerdy Camera Comparison!

So iPhone 17 Pro and iPhone 16 Pro are the best phones for filming videos and they're also one of the most compact pro phones you can get right now and that's exactly why I like them. I've used both iPhone 16 Pro and iPhone 17 Pro side by side, filmed with them across different countries and in this video I'll show you what changed camera-wise, what stayed the same and even show you how I use these cameras to take shots like this. So in the end you can decide which phone is a better choice for you. I mean I use iPhone 17 Pro as a daily phone right now for a long time and this iPhone 16 Pro has already like 390 battery cycles too, so I think I've gathered enough experience from using them both. So why do I choose the smaller Pro and not Pro Max? Well, the cameras are the same so there is no reason for me to carry a bigger phone anymore and these two are actually really compact which I love and the only time I feel like I personally would go for a larger phone again if it's a foldable phone. In that case the benefits of having a larger phone is just undeniable, like the Fold 7 that I tried recently. Let's be honest, it's probably the best media machine I tried this year. I know there are lots of you who haven't seen that video so make sure to hit the like button to not miss future videos of this series. Anyways, for filming videos I think this tool is where it's at right now. Both phones share similar main camera sensor and image quality is very close. Like you know I do edit shots from the iPhones and even without it being shot in RAW you still can manage some nice results. There is a difference in formats that is available on both phones but at the end of the day when I edit those shots they are coming out very similar. To the point of me just copying and pasting the same edits from one photo to another one and it just looks good on both phones. Like there is a tiny difference in temperature or tint but it's nothing major really. But if you are into more serious edits then you can take photos in RAW mode on both phones. Now guys, look at this beautiful scenery. This is just a perfect spot to test the RAW photography. So right here I have the iPhone 17 Pro and the RAW is enabled over here and we have the new liquid glass interface and this shot looks incredible. Look at this beautiful water surface. When you take RAW photo you're actually supposed to edit it and after you edit it looks like I don't know amazing wallpaper. I for sure will be making this my wallpaper for all of the phones because it just looks next level. I mean iPhone 16 Pro is a pretty decent phone too. It's still very powerful for RAW photography so I enable over here RAW max main camera and take the same shot and here they are side by side and I know sometimes people in the comments say oh you edited these RAW photos. Well, you're supposed to edit RAW photos. It's not like you look in the gallery and say oh this one is better or worse. No, RAW photo just contains so much information so you later color grade it, squeeze more dynamic range out of it, preserve the highlights, shadows and just overall you are supposed to edit the shot. If you don't want to edit anything then you switch on the iPhone 16 Pro into the HEIF MAX mode and on the iPhone 17 Pro you go into the HEIC format in 48 megapixels and if you want to adjust maybe a little bit of the style you know filter of the photo you can go through this undertones. Usually I go into the amber or gold and then I just tweak it depending on the scene. So this is the gold one. Here we are so just now we can take this shot but personally I have my own presets that I developed for all the photos and just like you know one two clicks and the photo is edited and it just you know becomes next level shot. Especially in this day and age you don't always have to carry your camera with you. You just can get amazing shots with the phones like this ones. And now back to the RAW photography. You see I can use the RAW format for all the cameras here so ultra wide angle lens supports it, main camera, four times telephoto even. You know throughout this whole video I took so many shots and they all look amazing even with the telephoto camera which is usually not the strongest part of the phone. So let me show you how it actually performs and let's compare it to the 16 Pro. But let's go to another spot. Actually we need to go back home. I need to back up the footage and we have like two hours drive so we need to leave before it gets really dark. Over here we are in a mountain lake. It's already getting really cold in here and I have this kind of mountain mist on the camera lens. Just one hour back we shot some of the epic scenes and photos on top of this mountain and the photos came out incredible. I think I will use them as wallpaper. Actually let me show you what gear I have with me. This is a tripod, lightweight below one kilo so very handy at all times. And backpack, another tripod with the phone clamp and here I have a film camera. I showed it in my Samsung Fold video so you already know what this camera is. Lens of course but yeah. As for the raw photography I like both phones here. They provide enough flexibility to edit the shots and get the results I'm happy with. Obviously you shouldn't expect a proper dedicated camera result. It's just a phone after all. But if you still do expect it then maybe a photo camera is a better choice for you. But still I personally think that we all have phones and just learning its strength is very important as a step towards going into more advanced cameras. So just learn more about composition, settings all that kind of stuff on the phone and then you'll be easier to progress into something more advanced. Now this year I tried so many phones and probably the best one for editing raw photos was once again Samsung Fold 7. It's probably my favorite phone overall in 2025 and the second phone that I added the most on is this iPhone 17 Pro. The Lightroom mobile here is just so optimized on it like it works really snappy and same on the iPhone 16 Pro and the results themselves are coming very similar with just minor improvements on the iPhone 17 Pro. Like there is a little bit more detail on the telephoto camera but overall I feel like if you are going from something like iPhone 14 Pro or even older than that then you would experience more of a jump in quality rather than between these two phones. And you know when I'm filming or editing the phone is always part of my setup. That's why the design and comfort really matter more than anything. And while working on this video I'm currently using the MOFT snap case on my iPhone 17 Pro. It has that minimalist design that keeps the phone slim, pocket-friendly and comfortable to hold all day. Their movable material feels leather-like, soft to the touch with that matte grip that makes it really comfortable to hold. The camera control button has that clean tactile click to it which makes taking photos feel more natural. And of course it connects magnetically with all the MagSafe gear I use. And that's actually the idea behind their snap studio box. Magnetic minimalist modular setup built for creators and designers to combine functionality with clean aesthetics. Inside the box there is a wallet, a tripod and a lanyard. Oh and an apple watch band. The wallet connects magnetically. It has space for cards, cash or even a memory card for your camera. That's a nice backup. It's got a side pull tab for quick access and it folds out into a small stand when I'm watching something on the go. The tripod snaps on magnetically with that satisfying click and folds out in seconds. It's got that origami style design that opens into three modes. Floating for video calls, vlogging for handheld shots and a stand mode. It's compact, quick to set up and even has space for a couple of cards on the back. The lanyard is one accessory I personally do not use day to day but for those days when I'm in a big city traveling like Barcelona or Paris I like having that extra bit of security. So it's one less thing to worry about when I'm filming or exploring new places. And last but not least there is that apple watch band. I don't wear an apple watch myself but my wife does. But even I can appreciate this quick on snap system. So to get your accessories for the iphone 17 pro check the link in the description below. Now one of the changes that apple made with the iphone 17 pro is they upgraded the telephoto camera. So right now it has more resolution 48 megapixels here but the iphone 16 pro has five times telephoto as opposed to the 17 pro is four times. So let's compare them side by side and see if the resolution matters and which one is better. So right over there I will zoom in. You see how amazing this landscape is. iPhone 17 pro can actually zoom digitally further. We can have up to 40 times zoom. So right now we will take it with the 17 pro and the same shot with the iphone 16 pro at the maximum zoom which is 25 times. So one two three. Now let's compare them side by side and if I zoom in at the maximum zoom to be honest with you guys they look equally bad. Like I will not post this photo but maybe iphone 17 pro preserved the pattern on the roof a little bit better. Like those tiles you can tell at least there are lines here whereas on the 16 pro it's completely merged but none of this is actually usable to me. So I would just stick to the default values or zoom maybe to like 10 times on the 16 pro or 8 times on the iphone 17. And right here guys this is just incredible look at that four times on the 17 pro and five times on the 16. Amazing shot man just look at this landscape this is incredible. I was standing here for like five minutes and I forgot that I have to actually talk to you guys because I was just so fascinated with this view. I was hypnotized really. Yeah I still think that the iphone 16 pro is very solid. Plus guys in terms of the materials this is a real titanium. Yeah this is the last pro iphone in titanium so there is clear value in it. So as for the telephoto camera iphone 17 pro provides slightly more crisp results when you stick to the default telephoto focal length like 4x or maybe okay zooming into the 8x telephoto. The difference maybe in detail would be like 5-10 percent. At least to my eye it's noticeable mostly only when I zoom in on the photo but not when I just look at them side by side as this. No in that case they're pretty identical. And if you want to zoom past their default zooms then the digital crop of the 8x cuts the resolution and it goes from 48 megapixels down to 12. But still the computational photography gives decent results even in that case. Most of the phones I wouldn't use the maximum zooms at all because they either fall apart in quality like on the iphone or they look like an over-processed cartoon. So I would say the telephoto camera just from real user experience maybe is better on the iphone 17 pro by like 5 to 10 maybe 15 percent. But overall 16 pro is very solid too. Where the difference feels more real between these phones though is in the selfie camera. Probably this is one of the biggest improvements camera wise on this phone. So right now I'm filming horizontal on the iphone 17 pro and for doing the same on this phone I would need to rotate the phone. And actually even in the landscape I feel like I need to extend my arm a little bit more outwards with the 16 pro in order to get a similar framing with this phone. So this new selfie camera is actually much wider and I think it suits a lot for vlogging content. So if you travel a lot and you want to film your trips like this one I think this is a better choice. Yeah as much as I like the 16 pro titanium and overall probably this design I prefer better well the selfie quality is just undeniable on the iphone 17 pro. So not only it feels more comfortable to record selfie videos this way but also when you look at the image preview on the display your eyes are more aligned with the selfie camera which makes you look more natural on the footage like you're actually looking over there not to the side of the screen. The portrait mode is very similar on both iphone 16 pro and 17 pro. The main camera for me is identical and probably the most difference you will see between these two phones in portrait mode is if you switch into the telephoto camera since the iphone 16 pro has five times telephoto and the 17 pro is four times. So the newer iphone has the wider field of view while the less here flagship allows you to get closer to the subject. But the background separation and everything else is very very similar thanks to the lidar sensor. All right and now let's talk about filming videos. The iphone 17 pro delivers the best cinematic mode you can get on the phone right now. I used to ignore that mode but now with this iphone cinematic mode feels very very stable and the cutout is just more clean. But will you see the difference between these two phones in cinematic mode? I personally didn't see anything that would give away the iphone 17 pro and make it better over the 16 pro. Both are good like the background blur feels pretty natural and yes in the scenes with tons of details they do struggle but still it is as good as it gets on any phone i've tried this year. Now if we talk about cinematic videos not cinematic mode then apple gave us this year open gate recording to the iphone 17 pro and pro max and it is pretty impressive. Unfortunately if you use a native camera app it will be active only in pro res raw which i would never use on any camera guys like no i simply do not need it but once again if you are subscribed then you know that i talk about one free app in every iphone video and finally they gave us open gate recording in h.265. That means you can record full sensor area while having small file size and in that instance i'm very interested in recording and using that feature. Just for comparison this is the field of view on iphone 16 pro or any other android phone for that matter and this is the iphone 17 pro and this is just crazy and this gives me extra framing flexibility for just adjusting cropping or reframing my shot in post and also i can use my anamorphic lens to the full extent right now and this literally my lens right here my name on it and these are the shots that you can get with it. Now if we talk about open gate recording the only catch there is that you will lose image stabilization in that mode but that is understandable since the phone just captures the whole sensor area so simply there is just no room for cropping on the sensor to adjust for that movement the gyroscope captures so i mean it's just technical limitation at this point so open gate recording with the lens or without it is great for tripod or gimbal setups but it is not ideal to film when you're just walking and recording vlogs in that case you better just you know avoid lots of shakes handheld recording i mean handheld is possible but since the phone is just so light it will pick up every little shake you produce with your hands so you need to be very cautious of that now apple log 2 is new addition to the iphone 17 pro and i think it is slightly better but the log from the iphone 16 pro or even prior to that is pretty good too as far as the phones go and apart from the open gate recording or anamorphic lenses the video quality is very similar between the iphone 16 pro and 17 pro like the dynamic range colors are nearly identical they both still lead the industry in my opinion for mobile videos display quality is great on both phones there is a slight anti-reflective coating applied to the iphone 17 pro but once again if you install a screen protector it basically disappears so i use the screen protector that also removes the reflection slightly so on paper iphone 17 pro is a little bit better and also is a bit brighter but in real world i didn't see much difference a better life on the 17 pro has been better for me i've been traveling over the past month i think like three countries maybe even more constant filming gps navigation and camera stuff and it held up pretty well the 16 pro was already solid but the 17 pro feels like it holds the charge longer and it really is noticeable also guys i have a sim card version of both phones 16 pro and 17 pro and as you know the iphone 17 pro is available if you choose without a sim card it will have a larger battery capacity so in that case it will perform even better but i will not give in into that e-sim train and still waiting for that day when not only the sim card is removable but also the battery too anyways the battery life is better on the 17 pro as i said on the iphone 16 pro i actually stayed on the ios 18 and honestly it feels smoother yes it feels smoother than newer iphone but there is also a new feature that actually is really cool on the iphone 17 pro and it's called dual capture mode it's been around on android phones forever and i showed it in my many samsung galaxy videos but yeah long story short it just lets you use both front and rear cameras at the same time so you can still film yourself reacting to something that's happening in front of you it is fun but it's not something you will want to use for every shot so far you haven't seen me using it pretty much at all in my videos so that should give you an idea of how often i use that so here's the deal if you already have the 16 pro you're not missing much really the main camera and performance are basically the same but if you're upgrading from anything older than iphone 14 pro then the 17 pro will give you better battery life improved telephoto camera dual capture feature open gate video recording better selfie camera so there is a lot all wrapped in the same compact pro size phone and just one thing i really like the titanium on the iphone 16 pro yeah on the iphone 17 pro it's not there although i have to tell you i did drop the iphone 17 pro without the case when i was cleaning it from the dust and it fell on the marble tile so yeah there is damage there but it's not as bad as i expected from some posts online when the phone is just smashed all the way through no i mean from my experience even the 17 pro feels pretty durable so for me the 17 pro feels like it's just perfect size powerful enough for work compact enough for travel and still feels like one of the best video tools you can feed in your pocket and as for the iphone 16 pro i'm sure it will work like 10 years into the future without a problem like i still have a fully functioning iphone 7 plus which is almost 10 years old right now just think about it and it still works fully this is the consistency and quality so i hope apple keeps it this way and the iphone 17 pro will not disappoint me in the future but anyways that's just my opinion let me know what you think about these phones in the comments which you go for the titanium 16 pro or newer iphone 17 pro with better selfie camera and i'm already working on my next video which is going to be super epic so make sure to subscribe to the channel and check out this video next i think it will be perfect for you um yeah and i will see you there bye