Acquiring the most affordable entry point into Apple’s latest “Pro” tier of iPhones has just become significantly more costly, with the base price of the new iPhone 17 Pro increasing by a full $100 compared to its immediate predecessor. This price adjustment coincided with Apple’s grand unveiling of the iPhone 17 family on Tuesday, during which the company placed much of its stage spotlight on the ultra-slim and design-forward iPhone Air. Yet despite the Air capturing much of the initial attention, the iPhone 17 Pro received a notable share of updates as well, accompanied by its own financial adjustment — a higher opening cost that may initially catch some buyers off guard.
To be specific, the iPhone 17 Pro now begins at a retail price of $1,099. While this figure is precisely $100 above last year’s iPhone 16 Pro launch cost of $999, the increase does not come without some justification: storage capacity for the base variant has been doubled. Unlike the 16 Pro, which initially shipped with a modest 128 GB configuration, the new iPhone 17 Pro eliminates that lower-tier option entirely, making 256 GB the new baseline. Effectively, what Apple has done is remove the 128 GB Pro version from its lineup, thereby repositioning the new 256 GB model at the entry-level slot. When viewed from that perspective, the $1,099 figure actually mirrors the price of last year’s 16 Pro configured with the same 256 GB of storage.
This subtle but important restructuring has understandably created some confusion. On the one hand, buyers are required to spend more money up front to gain entry into the Pro series; on the other, the additional expense is offset by the assurance of far greater built-in storage, allowing for longer-term usability in a world where apps, videos, and photos constantly grow in file size. In short, Apple is not raising the cost of a like-for-like device so much as streamlining its storage options, accelerating the ongoing transition away from lower-capacity models.
Pricing adjustments of this kind should not come as a surprise to anyone familiar with Apple’s strategy over the past decade. As smartphone technology has evolved, the demands placed on devices — particularly with respect to high-resolution photography, 4K video recording, and advanced computational imaging — have made larger storage capacities a necessity rather than a luxury. Historically, Apple has periodically raised base storage tiers across its product lines to reflect these shifts, ensuring that even entry-level configurations remain sufficient for modern use cases without compromising the premium experience the brand promises.
Indeed, industry analysts across Wall Street had already forecast that Apple was likely to introduce a price increase of some form. In the weeks leading up to the product reveal, projections varied, with some firms suggesting a modest $50 uptick while others anticipated as much as a $100 escalation. Morgan Stanley analysts, for instance, predicted a restrained adjustment to reflect heightened production costs, while Jefferies noted the influence of international trade dynamics, including tariffs that had cost Apple approximately $800 million during the prior quarter. Even though certain tariff exemptions were announced in August, the prevailing expectation was that Apple would embrace an upward price correction to mitigate ongoing global financial pressures.
It is essential to emphasize, however, that Apple’s price changes are not uniform across the iPhone 17 portfolio. The standard iPhone 17 continues to launch at $799, maintaining parity with its predecessor’s entry-level price point, while the iPhone 17 Pro Max also preserves the same base configuration cost. Despite this stability at the lower and upper ends of the spectrum, discerning buyers aiming for maximum capacity will find themselves facing record-high totals: a fully specced iPhone 17 Pro Max with an astonishing 2 terabytes of internal storage — an offering that doubles last year’s ceiling of 1 TB — now commands a price tag of $1,999. After factoring in taxes and regional levies, the reality for some consumers is spending well over two thousand dollars on a single smartphone.
Beyond pricing, the iPhone 17 Pro distinguishes itself through new design choices and technical enhancements. Apple introduced a new finish called “Cosmic Orange,” which offers buyers an additional color option to complement more traditional shades. From a hardware perspective, the camera system has undergone perhaps its most visually evident transformation. The back of the device now features a substantially enlarged plateau-style housing, a redesign that expands upon the more modest “camera bump” of earlier iterations. Nested within this broader structure are three advanced 48-megapixel fusion cameras, an upgrade that underlines Apple’s commitment to professional-grade photographic capabilities.
Internally, the advancements continue with Apple claiming the Pro model features the largest battery the company has ever placed in an iPhone. This expanded capacity translates into remarkably extended endurance: Apple estimates up to 39 hours of continuous video playback on the Pro Max and approximately 33 hours on the standard Pro. In practical terms, this means that the new Pro devices are engineered to last significantly longer than their predecessors in daily use, aligning with the growing demands of users who increasingly treat their iPhones as primary computing devices rather than supplementary tools.
For those who do choose to invest in the iPhone 17 Pro, Apple confidently asserts that they will be acquiring the most powerful iPhone ever assembled — a claim the company reiterates each year, but one that underscores the annual cycle of steady innovation and incremental supremacy. Of course, such a title is destined to be temporary, as history suggests it will inevitably yield to the next generation. Still, for the moment, the iPhone 17 Pro represents Apple’s sharpest synthesis of technological sophistication, industrial design, and aspirational branding.
Sourse: https://www.businessinsider.com/iphone-17-pro-price-storage-increase-2025-9
