New Delhi, Sept. 24 -- About 11 years ago, I was told by a then-colleague that Apple was one of the few consumer brands that took the 'Pro' moniker seriously. After all these years, spending time with the iPhone 17 Pro Max ( Rs.1,49,900 for the 256 GB variant) felt like I could truly justify that statement. In its past five iterations, the 'Pro' version of the iPhone started veering toward being a social statement, rather than standing for the abridgement of the word 'professional'. This year, the iPhone 17 Pro Max brought to the line a first differentiated design in five years-and a host of features that actually make sense of its 'Pro' branding.

This is driven by the fact that the base-line iPhone 17 no longer feels deliberately underp...