- The iPhone 17 Pro has lost a popular photography feature
- The change has been confirmed by an official Apple document
- Still, Apple won’t say why the change was made
Usually, when you buy one of the best iPhones, you expect its features to be more advanced than what came before it. In most cases, this is true with the iPhone 17 Pro, but some eagle-eyed users have just noticed that it lacks a key camera feature compared to the iPhone 16 Pro – and people are disappointed.
Users on both Reddit and Apple’s official forums have noted that the iPhone 17 Pro doesn’t allow night mode to be used when taking pictures in portrait mode, with Catalytic Clover on Reddit saying, “Portraits at night don’t look nearly as good as they could, and it’s a downgrade compared to the quality that previous models could achieve.”
News site Macworld has confirmed that an Apple Support document supports users’ claims, as it lists the iPhone 12 Pro to iPhone 16 Pro Max as devices that can use Night Mode and Portrait Mode together — except for the iPhone 17 Pro and iPhone 17 Pro Max. Considering that last year’s iPhone 16 Pro made it possible to use these two functions at the same time, it seems that the latest high-end iPhone will come with a notable camera downgrade (at least in this area).
Portrait mode allows you to take studio-style photos that tastefully blur the background with bokeh effects while keeping your subject in focus. Apple’s Night Mode, meanwhile, enables long exposure shots that let you take better photos even when there’s very little available light. When put together, you can create artful images even in low light conditions.
Or at least you could on the iPhone 16 Pro. Macworld says that night mode photos taken on an iPhone 17 Pro lack the depth information used to create portrait photos, preventing the two features from being used together. Conversely, when you try to take a picture in portrait mode in the dark, the Night mode option disappears. Since the iPhone 17 Pro cannot combine these two tools, photographers will be left with fewer weapons in their arsenal.
An inexplicable move
Despite this disappointment, the iPhone 17 Pro’s camera is still a significant upgrade over its predecessor. It now comes with all three lenses with a resolution of 48 MP, the ability to take photos and videos at the same time, a front-facing camera with Center Stage and much more.
It is not known why Apple has dropped the ability to combine portrait and night modes in the iPhone 17 Pro, as the company has not commented on the move. We’ve reached out to Apple for comment and will update this story if we hear back.
Hopefully Apple decides to bring it back via a software update, but without knowing why the change was made in the first place, we don’t know if it’s due to a technical reason that would prevent its return.
All we know is that it’s very unusual for Apple to drop a popular feature like this, especially since you’ve been able to pair Portrait Mode and Night Mode since the iPhone 12 Pro launched in 2020. If you’re a fan of taking portrait photos in dark environments, the iPhone 17 Pro might not be the phone for you.
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