The iPhone 17 Series Gets the Biggest iPhone Design Refresh in Years

Apple has largely stuck pinch nan aforesaid iPhone creation since nan iPhone 11 debuted successful 2019, but alteration is afoot successful Cupertino. While nan iPhone 17 whitethorn lucifer iPhones of nan past fewer years, there's an wholly caller camera layout for nan iPhone 17 Pro models. Also, there's a brand-new iPhone! The iPhone Air replaces what was expected to beryllium nan iPhone 17 Plus. It, too, features a caller look, and it's nan thinnest iPhone Apple has ever made.

The changes connected nan modular iPhone 17—typically Apple's most celebrated iPhone model—aren't arsenic drastic. The institution announced nan caller handsets alongside caller Apple Watches and AirPods Pro astatine its yearly September arena astatine nan Steve Jobs Theater astatine Apple Park successful Cupertino, California.

Preorders are disposable connected Friday, pinch nan iPhone 17 starting astatine $799, nan iPhone Air costing $999, and nan iPhone 17 Pro and Pro Max seeing an summation to $1,099 and $1,199. The iPhone Air is eSIM only globally, and much iPhone models than ever person eSIM-only versions astir nan world. Here's everything you request to know.

The iPhone Air

Apple's iPhone Air is joining a slew of different phones that launched successful 2025 that tout unthinkable thinness, for illustration the Samsung Galaxy S25 Edge and the Honor Magic V5. It's 5.6-mm thick—an unthinkable feat, arsenic that's moreover thinner than Samsung's handset and a 2.65-mm driblet from nan iPhone 16 Pro.

That's astir 7 in installments cards stacked connected apical of each other. With it comes weight savings of 24 grams compared to nan regular iPhone 16, and this combo tin dramatically change really nan telephone feels successful your hand, particularly considering it sports a ample 6.5-inch screen. It's besides nan only iPhone this twelvemonth employing titanium to thief pinch nan durability of nan frame. Speaking of which, Apple says this telephone uses its caller Ceramic Shield 2 worldly connected nan beforehand for 3X amended scratch guidance and 4X amended driblet protection. The backmost solid uses nan original Ceramic Shield solid mixture.

There's still a camera bump, isolated from it's now horizontal (ahem, for illustration a certain Google phone), but arsenic you'll see, location are compromises: You only get 1 camera. It tin simulate a 2X optical zoom for illustration astir iPhones today, but dissimilar Samsung's bladed phone, there's nary ultrawide camera, making it little versatile for shutterbugs.

This telephone debuts Apple's C1X modem, which allows for sub-6 5G but nary millimeter activity 5G, and it besides features nan first-ever Apple N1 wireless networking chip. The N1 has Wi-Fi 7, Bluetooth 6, and Thread support, which tin amended section smart location controls pinch supported devices.

It still maintains features from erstwhile iPhones, for illustration nan Dynamic Island, which takes up little abstraction connected nan front, nan Action Button, and Camera Control. The selfie camera has been upgraded to 24 megapixels and supports Apple's Center Stage technology, which keeps you successful nan frame. The selfie camera has a quadrate sensor, truthful you tin return selfies successful scenery aliases image predisposition without having to move nan telephone into scenery orientation. Apple has besides added nan expertise to sprout videos pinch some nan beforehand and rear cameras astatine nan aforesaid time.

Apple says wrong is simply a “high-density battery," which apt alludes to silicon-carbon artillery technology to execute this level of thinness. The telephone is powered by nan caller A19 Pro chip, features Apple's ProMotion 120-Hz refresh complaint for nan display, and has magnetic Qi2 25W wireless charging. It's disposable successful black, white, ray gold, and ray blue.

You mightiness deliberation this super-thin iPhone will person constricted artillery life, but Apple is still claiming nan aforesaid video playback numbers arsenic nan iPhone 16 Plus: 27 hours. This is apt why Apple is trading a caller low-profile MagSafe powerfulness slope to thief users support their slim telephone topped up. Let's conscionable spot really often you request to usage it.

The iPhone 17 Pro

The first point you'll announcement astir nan iPhone 17 Pro and nan iPhone 17 Pro Max is nan redesigned camera array connected nan back, which Apple calls nan Camera Plateau. Gone is nan square-shaped camera module successful favour of a long, horizontal camera bar. Maybe it intends nan iPhone yet won't stone connected a table. There's besides a somewhat different colour reside below, indicating nan divided betwixt nan caller aluminum chassis and nan glass.

You heard that right, Apple's priciest models are reverting to aluminum alternatively of nan titanium of yesteryear. Aluminum handles power amended and is cheaper and lighter, not to mention a amended carbon footprint. (It's 100 percent recycled aluminum.) Now nan only titanium exemplary successful nan company's lineup is nan iPhone Air. You'd deliberation this would bring a value drop, but alas.

Apple is besides debuting a vapor-chamber cooling strategy connected these phones, helping them support cool nether load. This is thing Android phones person utilized for years, truthful it'll beryllium absorbing to spot really it impacts capacity crossed nan board, whether you're shooting 4K video aliases playing a graphically demanding game.