{"id":216002,"date":"2026-02-21T10:00:00","date_gmt":"2026-02-21T15:00:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/news-you-need.com\/index.php\/2026\/02\/21\/iphone-17-pro-max-vs-iphone-3-gs-perfectly-illustrates-16-years-of-smartphone-photography-progress\/"},"modified":"2026-02-21T10:15:07","modified_gmt":"2026-02-21T15:15:07","slug":"iphone-17-pro-max-vs-iphone-3-gs-perfectly-illustrates-16-years-of-smartphone-photography-progress","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/news-you-need.com\/index.php\/2026\/02\/21\/iphone-17-pro-max-vs-iphone-3-gs-perfectly-illustrates-16-years-of-smartphone-photography-progress\/","title":{"rendered":"iPhone 17 Pro Max vs IPhone 3 GS perfectly illustrates 16 years of smartphone photography progress"},"content":{"rendered":"

iPhone 17 Pro Max vs IPhone 3 GS perfectly illustrates 16 years of smartphone photography progress<\/a><\/p>\n

https:\/\/www.techradar.com\/phones\/iphone\/iphone-17-pro-max-vs-iphone-3-gs-perfectly-illustrates-16-years-of-smartphone-photography-progress<\/a><\/p>\n

Publish Date: 2026-02-21 10:00:00<\/a><\/p>\n

Source Domain: www.techradar.com<\/a><\/p>\n

There it was, nestled among our office’s pile of aging smartphones, a white iPhone 3GS. I felt like I’d just stumbled on a vintage Furby. Cradling the tiny, 4.5-in phone in my hand, I wondered if it still worked.<\/p>\n

I had reason to doubt. After all, the iPhone 3GS shipped 16 years ago, and this one had been sitting in a drawer for I don’t know how long. The only way to know was to charge it up. Fortunately, I’m a bit of a hoarder, and I still have quite a few 30-pin charging cables lying around.<\/p>\n

After plugging the phone in, I waited. It wasn’t long before I saw the classic Apple logo, circa 2009, appear on the 3.5-inch display. I pressed the physical home button, slid the virtual unlock button to the right, and the iPhone 3GS woke up, presenting me with a homescreen I haven’t seen in years. It’s so quaint, so skuemorphic. I love it.<\/p>\n


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(Image credit: Lance Ulanoff \/ Future)<\/span><\/p>\n

Now that I had the iPhone 3GS fully charged, I wondered what to do with it. I couldn’t put it on a cell network since 3G support ended around 2022. Wi-Fi worked, however, so I opened the settings and put the phone on my local office network.<\/p>\n

I should say that every operation with the phone was a trial. Each keystroke took a beat to appear, but it worked well enough for my purposes.<\/p>\n

What were those purposes? A camera comparison, of course, and not with just any shooter. I planned to pit one of the earliest iPhones against the apex handset, the iPhone 17 Pro Max.<\/p>\n

Since the iPhone 3GS has just one camera, and the iPhone 17 Pro Max has four, I decided to only compare the 3GS lens with the 17 Pro Max’s main camera.<\/p>\n

Sign up for breaking news, reviews, opinion, top tech deals, and more.<\/p>\n

From a specs point of view, here’s how they compare:<\/p>\n

Swipe to scroll horizontally<\/p>\n\n\n\n
\n

iPhone 3GS<\/p>\n<\/td>\n

\n

iPhone 17 Pro Max<\/p>\n<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n

\n

3-megapixel still camera<\/p>\n<\/td>\n

\n

48MP Fusion Main: 24 mm, \u0192\/1.78 aperture, sensor\u2011shift optical image stabilization, Focus\u00a0Pixels<\/p>\n<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n<\/table>\n

Right. There is no comparison. This table doesn’t even mention the significant…<\/p>\n

Source<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

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