Apple has just pulled back the curtain on its September 2025 event, unveiling the new iPhone 17, the iPhone 17 Pro, and, in a surprising twist, the iPhone Air. These are our initial impressions, offering a quick rundown of the standout features, design changes, and a few questionable decisions.
Let’s start with the iPhone 17, the base model. Our ultra simple summary for this one is: it gains ProMotion and a better selfie camera. The rest remains largely familiar. The design is mostly unchanged, save for new colours, maintaining the same screen sizes, dimensions, camera bump, and button layout. Internally, however, we find the new A19 chip, which was widely anticipated. This should deliver welcome performance gains and improved efficiency, with Apple claiming approximately 20% faster CPU performance. Battery life is also expected to see a slight improvement, and the display boasts increased brightness, reaching up to 3,000 nits.
A significant development for the base iPhone 17 is the inclusion of ProMotion. Apple’s adaptive 1 to 120 hertz refresh rate. This marks the first time this previously Pro exclusive feature has made its way to a non Pro iPhone, and it appears to be implemented without any handicaps. While in the past, the argument was often made that regular people don’t care about 120 hertz, its presence on the new base iPhones significantly enhances the user experience. Another welcome upgrade is the new base storage, now set at 256GB.
All the new iPhones now incorporate a massively upgraded, larger 24-megapixel square selfie camera sensor. This Center Stage system (though the name might undersell its actual utility, given the mixed reception of its laptop counterpart) allows the phone to intelligently crop a standard vertical selfie, or to automatically or manually capture a horizontal selfie without requiring the user to rotate the device. Considering that most people default to vertical selfies, but often rotate for group shots, placing the lens off centre, this larger, square sensor can simply crop an 18 megapixel image in either portrait or landscape orientation, for both photos and videos. This could prove to be the most practical and impactful upgrade for the iPhone 17.
Moving on to the iPhone 17 Pro. Our quick summary for the Pro models is: improved zoom capabilities, increased battery life, and a new orange colour option. The Pro iPhones actually present a more distinct design this year. Colour options include Cosmic Orange, Deep Blue, and Silver notably, there’s no black Pro phone this time. The most striking visual change on the rear is the prominent camera bar, which Apple refers to as a “plateau.” This design, reminiscent of Google Pixel’s visor or indeed many Android phones from previous years, isn’t solely for cameras. Apple has cleverly reorganised internal components, including the A19 Pro chip, logic board, and storage, within this bar. This strategic relocation has freed up additional space in the lower section of the phone for a larger battery, hinting at a substantial improvement in battery longevity, which is always a significant advantage. Other subtle design elements include the millimeter wave antenna at the top, integrated into the plateau’s ring.
An interesting design shift is the return to an aluminium unibody construction. This move away from the titanium focus of the iPhone 15 Pro is driven by thermal performance. The iPhone 17 Pro also incorporates a vapour chamber, a first for an iPhone.. centrally located on the rear. This new cooling system, combined with the aluminium build, is designed to significantly reduce heat generation during sustained heavy workloads, such as rendering long videos or extended intense gaming sessions with ray tracing. Apple claims a 40% improvement in sustained performance. Thus, this design is more than cosmetic, focusing on efficiency, enhanced cooling, and better battery performance. Apple quoted 39 hours of video playback – a somewhat arbitrary statistic, but for context, the iPhone 16 Pro Max offered 33 hours, suggesting a potential 10% increase in overall battery life.
The cameras, as expected with Pro models, receive considerable attention. The primary enhancement is a new 48-megapixel 4x telephoto camera. While the 4x zoom factor is numerically less than the previous generation’s 5x, this new sensor is 56% larger and offers substantially higher resolution. This reduction in the gap between the main and zoom cameras allows for improved quality and greater flexibility in cropping images. The Pro phones also benefit from the new selfie camera and the brighter display. Additionally, they gain Qi2 support and introduce advanced Pro features like Genlock sync support and ProRes RAW video, which are slated for future testing.
Finally, we have the most intriguing new iPhone: the iPhone Air. Without a numerical designation, the “Air” branding immediately signals its ultra thin profile. Measuring a remarkably slender 5.6 millimetres at its thinnest point, its aesthetic impact is undeniable. While the demand for thinner phones may not be a universal plea, the engineering achievement of such a device is impressive. However, this design also brings several potential concerns.
The iPhone Air features a 6.5-inch ProMotion display, an A19 Pro chip (with one less GPU core than the Pro models), a titanium body, the new selfie camera, and a single 48-megapixel Fusion camera on the back, incorporating the Pro phone’s plateau design. It also integrates a new N1 chip for networking (Wi-Fi 7, Bluetooth 6, Thread) and a more energy efficient C1X modem for cellular connectivity. This phone, positioned at £999, replaces the Plus models in the lineup. Objectively, it is surrounded by other iPhones that surpass it in almost every metric, with its primary differentiator being its exceptional thinness and lightness. This represents a significant gamble for Apple.
Despite featuring the A19 Pro chip, the iPhone Air’s titanium body likely lacks the internal space for advanced thermal solutions, such as the vapor chamber found in the Pro models. This raises concerns that the phone could experience higher temperatures and quicker performance throttling – a clear red flag. Furthermore, ultra thin phones have historically demonstrated reduced durability, with instances of bending. While Apple states it’s the “most durable iPhone ever,” this remains a point of concern given the physical characteristics.
Battery life is another significant consideration. Given the extremely thin profile, achieving robust battery performance appears challenging. While Apple reiterated “all-day battery life,” the physical constraints suggest a smaller battery capacity, and there’s no indication of special ultra high density battery technology. The announcement of a dedicated MagSafe battery accessory specifically for this phone, which when combined, only barely matches the 17 Pro’s quoted video playback, strongly signals potential battery limitations. The iPhone Air is also e-SIM only globally, due to the lack of space for a physical SIM card, and it omits millimeter wave 5G. At £1,000, it is more expensive than the base iPhone, which offers a better camera system, superior battery life, and potentially better thermal management.
Regardless, it is likely that logical reasons for choosing this first generation iPhone Air will be scarce. However, the experience of physically holding the device is likely to be compelling, as its stunning thinness is quite impressive in person. Only time will tell its true success.
Beyond the iPhones, Apple also announced new AirPods Pro 3, boasting twice the Active Noise Cancellation (ANC) of the previous generation, IP57 water and dust resistance, and heart rate tracking during workouts, all at the same £250 price point. The new Apple Watch Series 11 now features 5G and potential hypertension detection, while the Watch Ultra 3 receives thinner bezels, LTPO3 display technology, and slightly extended battery life. We look forward to thoroughly testing all these new devices in the coming weeks.
