The iPhone 17 Series Is Here, Including the iPhone Air

After months of rumors and speculation, Apple has finally revealed the iPhone 17, iPhone Air, iPhone 17 Pro, and iPhone 17 Pro Max. ProMotion and always-on display are finally coming to the base iPhone, and all models are getting an improved front-facing camera and other improvements.

This time around, Apple has ditched the Plus model in favor of a special edition called the iPhone Air, with mostly premium hardware packed into a super-thin frame. The rest of the lineup is getting the usual year-over-year iPhone improvements, like updated cameras, new chipsets, and other upgrades. The base model iPhone is also getting more features previously limited to the Pro series, so if you prefer the smaller and more affordable model, this might be the year to upgrade.

iPhone 17

First up is the base iPhone, which has mostly the same design and features as last year’s iPhone 16, but with a few long-overdue upgrades. The screen is slightly larger at 6.3 inches (up from 6.1 inches), but more importantly, it’s finally a ProMotion screen. That means it has the same super-fluid 120Hz refresh rate during normal use that Pro phones have enjoyed, and an always-on display for notifications or a clock when the phone is idle.

Always-on display first showed up on the iPhone 14 Pro, so it has taken three years to trickle down to the base model, and around a decade since it showed up in competing Android phones. The screen also has updated Ceramic Shield 2 on the front screen, with “3x better scratch resistance and improved anti-reflection to reduce glare.”

As usual, there’s a new chipset powering the phone. The new A19 is built on a 3-nanometer process, with improvements to performance, power efficiency, Neural Engine processing, and more. The improvements here probably aren’t groundbreaking—Apple’s announcement compared the CPU to the A15 Bionic chipset in the iPhone 13 (a phone from 2021) and said the A19 is 50% faster. The GPU is “more than 2x” faster than the one in the A15 Bionic, which again, is a phone from four years ago. Still, all that GPU power is more useful on a 120Hz screen.

Apple also developed an “N1” chipset for the iPhone 17 series, which is responsible for Wi-Fi 7, Bluetooth 6, and Thread. Apple says it “improves the overall performance and reliability of features like Personal Hotspot and AirDrop.” Importantly, this is not the C1 modem Apple used on the iPhone 16e, which handled cellular connectivity in addition to other wireless functions. Apple might not be confident enough in its custom modems yet to use them for all iPhone models, so there’s some other modem for cellular connectivity (presumably from Qualcomm), with the N1 chip responsible for everything else.

Finally, there’s the usual mix of camera updates. The most exciting improvement might be the 18MP front camera, which now has a larger sensor and field-of-view. That allows you to take horizontal or vertical selfie photos without rotating your phone, and it now has the same Center Stage feature as some Mac and iPad front-facing cameras. The main rear camera is still 48MP, but the ultra-wide lens has bumped up from 12MP to 48MP.

You’ll be able to buy the iPhone 17 in lavender, mist blue, sage, white, or black colors.

iPhone Air

The long-rumored special thin iPhone is finally real, and it’s just the “iPhone Air,” without the 17 number. It has a custom titanium build to achieve a size just 5.6 millimeters at its thinnest point. There’s still a massive camera bump at the top of the phone, with the camera lenses sticking out even further than that, but part of the phone is super-thin. The front and back both have a ceramic coating, which is a first for iPhones.

The rest of the hardware is somewhere between a base iPhone and iPhone 17 Pro. It has an A19 Pro chipset with even faster CPU and GPU performance, a 6.5-inch display with ProMotion and always-on support, and an 18MP Center Stage front camera. The battery is smaller than the base iPhone 17—Apple is promising “up to 27 hours video playback” instead of 30 hours—and there’s only one 48MP camera.

Interestingly, this phone combines the A19 Pro and N1 wireless chip with a new “CX1” modem from Apple for cellular connectivity. Compared to the C1 found in the iPhone 16e, this is “up to 2x faster” and uses “30 percent less energy overall.” It’s a bit weird to see Apple mixing and matching wireless hardware across its iPhone models, but this is probably paving the way for future iPhones to have all-Apple wireless hardware.

It remains to be seen if the Air model will be a one-off experiment, like the iPhone X was in 2017, or if it will stick around in future iPhone series. Samsung’s own thin flagship from earlier this year, the Galaxy S25 Edge, didn’t turn out to be all that popular. Apple’s attempt could have a similar effect, but we’ll have to wait and find out.

The iPhone Air is available in space black, cloud white, light gold, and sky blue colors.

iPhone 17 Pro & Pro Max

Finally, the iPhone 17 Pro and iPhone 17 Pro Max have arrived, for those of you who want a phone with all the bells and whistles. The titanium frame from previous Pro phones has been replaced with a new “thermally conductive aluminum unibody,” with an “Apple-designed vapor chamber” for improved cooling.

The camera array is even larger this time around, spanning the entire width of the back of the phone. You get a main, ultra wide, and telephoto camera, all of which have 48MP sensors to deliver “the equivalent of eight lenses.” The 18MP Center Stage front camera from the base and Air models is also on the Pro phones.

Apple packed a 6.3-inch screen on the iPhone 17 Pro, and a 6.9-inch display on the Pro Max, both of which have ProMotion and 3000 nits of peak brightness. The Ceramic Shield 2 coating protects both the front and back of the phone, like the iPhone Air. Apple says that ensures “4x better resistance to cracks than the back glass on previous models.”

The Pro and Pro Max are available in blue, orange, and silver options. Each of them has a two-tone design—the back casing under the camera bump is a different shade than the frame around the phone.

Pricing & Availability

The iPhone 17 starts at $799 for the 256GB model, which is thankfully the same pricing as last year’s iPhone 16. The iPhone Air is $999 for the 256GB storage option. The iPhone 17 Pro starts at $1,099 for 256GB storage, which is a $100 price jump from last year’s 16 Pro. Finally, the the iPhone 17 Pro Max is $1,119 with 256GB storage, just like the 16 Pro Max.

The new phones will be available to pre-order starting at 5 AM Pacific Time this Friday, September 13 at the Apple Store and other retailers and carriers. Full retail availability starts September 20.

Source: Apple (1, 2, 3)