Soon after I had some hands-on time with the new iPhone 17 Pro and 17 Pro Max, I really thought more about the new 48MP telephoto camera that adorns both models. On paper, it sounds like a substantial upgrade and exactly what the latest iPhones need to be a solid best phone contender — especially considering how the previous iPhone 16 Pros came with a mere 12MP sensor for their zoom lens.

However, the other notable change to the zoom lens involves the length of the optical zoom. Instead of a 5x optical zoom lens like on the iPhone 16 Pro models last year, Apple switched to a 4x optical one for the iPhone 17 Pro. As I’ve detailed in my iPhone 17 Pro telephoto camera explainer, it’s the classic trade-off between the sensor resolution and optical magnification.

Just how big a trade-off is e

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