In the world of consumer products, general logic would dictate that across a variety of devices, from expensive flagship units to reasonably priced products, one would expect the latter to sell better than the former.
Higher-priced products are often seen as aspirational and flashy, serving more as a means of enticing people to buy products from the range rather than purchasing the highest-end model. Take carmaker Porsche for example: the 911 is its iconic sports car, but in 2024 the brand sold more cheaper Cayenne and Macan models. The same goes for Tesla: its Model Y sells much more than its flagship, the Model S.
It’s strange, since while we had those models on our best phones list, I think the TechRadar phones team and I would probably recommend the cheaper models as the best-suited phones for both people. However, sales figures do not seem to confirm this.
And I suspect the same thing will happen this year, since when I ran a reader poll on which iPhone 17 model people actually bought, the iPhone 17 Pro and iPhone 17 Pro Max together got 50% of the votes, with an even split between them.
This isn’t very surprising, since, anecdotally speaking, I see more people with iPhone Pros than their standard peers, even if those people appear to be neither creative professionals who need a trio of rear cameras for content production, or mobile gamers who want the power of the pro-grade A-series chip; I might be generalizing here, but I’ve been writing about phones for years, so I have instincts for this.
Perhaps this is due to the fact that once one spends, say, more than $700/£700 on a smartphone, it’s not too painful to put in a little extra effort to get a full flagship model. Or that Apple and Samsung have done such a good job of showing off their high-end phones that people not only aspire to get them but actually buy them. After all, a phone is probably one of the most used devices you have today, so it may make sense to purchase the best you can afford.
But I want more context, so use the survey above to tell me what the most important aspect of an iPhone Pro is that makes you choose it over the standard models. And if I’ve missed anything here, let me know in the comments below.
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