Four months with the iPhone 17 Pro has changed the way I use my phone – the jury is still out whether that’s for the better or worse

I’ve been an iPhone user since Apple launched the iPhone 5 in 2012, then upgraded to the 6s in 2015. I’ve typically waited three or four years to upgrade to a newer model, so my next Apple handset was the iPhone X, which was followed by the iPhone 13 Pro.

Each new phone was a revelation to use, given the improved performance after a few generations but, despite that, they didn’t really change the fundamentals of how I used my phone. In fact, I’d been so happy with the 13 Pro that I wasn’t planning on upgrading to the iPhone 17 series – but I’m so glad that I did.

As such, I was expecting much the same when I upgraded to the iPhone 17 Pro last September – so I was quite surprised when it bucked the trend established by ...