Help Preparing for iPhone 17

By David Lai, 14 October, 2025

Forum

iOS and iPadOS

Hi everyone,

This is David. I posted about my iPhone upgrade dilemma a while back. Now I just learned that my friend successfully brought the phone with him and will bring it to me when he visits me later this week. So I'll be upgrading from the 13 mini to the standard 17.

What are some new changes I should be aware of? Things to prepare? Settings to adjust?

Thanks for any tips!

David

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Comments

Differences between the iPhone 13 Mini and iPhone 17

While the upgrade from an iPhone 13 Mini to an iPhone 17 shouldn't dramatically change how you use the device, the 17 has some additional features and capabilities to be aware of:

Apple Intelligence may be on by default on the iPhone 17. Apple Intelligence settings can be changed in Settings > Apple Intelligence & Siri. You may also want to review your notification summary settings in Settings > Notifications > Summarize notifications.
The iPhone 17 has two more buttons than the 13 Mini, the Action button in place of the Mute switch, and the Camera Control on the right side of the device. Both of these buttons offer a range of customization options for either general iOS system actions, in the case of the Action button, or camera functions for the Camera Control.
If you can't see the screen, you won't benefit from the always-on display, and you may be able to increase your battery life by turning it off in Settings > Display & Brightness. With always-on display off, the time and Lock Screen will not be displayed when the device is asleep.
To help optimize battery longevity, you can limit charging to 80%, 85%, 90%, or 95% in Settings > Battery > Charging.
The iPhone 17 can play a sound when it turns on or off, before iOS boots. This setting can be found in Settings > Accessibility > Audio & Visual.
There are a number of additional camera features and settings when compared to the iPhone 13 Mini, but as I don't use the camera heavily, I can't comment on their usefulness in a given context.

HTH

Thank you!

Well, I can't see the screen, so the boot and shut down sounds are very useful. Can I turn off the camera control? I don't want a camera shortcut since I don't use it that often. And lastly, what can the action button do besides serving as the mute switch?

Thanks very much!

action button

If you go to setting, action, you have several choices. I use it for AI, which I had not use it. The camera button if you get the 15 pro and up, is for that, you can not change it.

Buttons

Thank you! But can I turn the camera control button off? I don't want to trigger the camera...

No

Not sure. Never had an issue. I use a case with it and it does not affect it. If you are going to use a case to protect your phone, you will not need it even without a case.

Will buy Later

I didn't buy a screen protector or case this week, might consider getting them at a later date. Or i could let someone bring to me from China, they make these things really cheap there.

David Lai

Amazon has nice deals check it. If I was me, also would use a screen protector. Let us know what happen. Some suggest that you save everything to iCloud before you do the transfer. Also some suggest to do as if it was a knew phone.

Re: Holger Fiallo

Thanks! Prices in China are really cheap, like a few bucks (US dollar equivalent) you'll get a nice screen protector. The cases there are also quite cheap, under 10 USD or less. I'd rather try that. :)

Camera control

Hi, got my iPhone Air this week and the camera control was accidentally being triggered by my fat finger.

It is possible to change it to a double tap for activation as well as changing it's sensitivity inside the accessibility settings.

It's also possible to change what it launches, not just the camera, this can be found inside the main camera settings.

Thank you!

That sounds a lot better regarding the camera control button. :) So I won't have to trigger it if I don't have to.

Camera control

Personally I found the camera control extremely useful.
With it, I was able to eliminate the need of finding apps on my Home Screen notably the photos app and the be my eyes app.
With a single click the camera app opens
another click, a photo is taken
immediately I am able to recognise what I’m looking at by sharing to be my eyes
Another use case for it is to send images in my photo gallery very quickly and simply.
When my phone is unlocked one click I am able to open the camera a few more swipe on my screen, I’m able to share the image to social media so I feel the camera button is quite useful
Really like it.
In fact, now I do not even have the camera app and the be my eyes app on my Home Screen layout as both of them are hidden somewhere in the App Library