Apple’s 2025 iPhones are right here, and issues are quite different for the primary time shortly. The bottom iPhone 17 will nonetheless really feel acquainted, however the iPhone 17 Professional fashions have a totally new look, and there is a brand-new mannequin known as the iPhone Air. The “Air” branding has been considerably diluted of late—the current-gen iPad Pro fashions are lighter than the iPad Air—however the iPhone Air brings that means again to the original idea: a super-thin and ultra-lightweight system.
Preorders kick off September 12, and official gross sales begin September 19. When you’re contemplating an improve, what mannequin must you get? I will break down the important thing variations and similarities among the many iPhone 17 lineup, so you may hopefully make a extra knowledgeable selection in your next iPhone.
Desk of Contents
You Don’t Must Improve
When you have an iPhone from just some years in the past, you in all probability need not improve to Apple’s newest, until your system has points. Even then, there are issues you are able to do to fix your iPhone, like getting a battery replacement, or you may attempt some of these troubleshooting steps. The purpose is, you should not really feel the necessity to improve simply because Apple has a brand new mannequin.
When you’re set on shopping for an iPhone 17 mannequin, we’ve got a information on how to sell your iPhone in order that it would not simply accumulate mud in a drawer. When your new system arrives, back up your old iPhone earlier than switching to the brand new one, then comply with our information on factory resetting your device earlier than promoting or giving it away. We even have recommendations on how to set up your new iPhone and what settings to change to get essentially the most out of it.
Which iPhone 17 Is Proper for You?
Let’s rapidly speak in regards to the similarities throughout all of the iPhone 17 fashions this yr, and sure, that features the iPhone Air, even when it would not have “17” within the title.
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{Photograph}: Julian Chokkattu
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{Photograph}: Julian Chokkattu
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{Photograph}: Julian Chokkattu
Apple
iPhone 17, iPhone Air, and iPhone 17 Professional
The Show
Though iPhones differ in display dimension, all of them characteristic an OLED display (Apple refers to it as a Tremendous Retina XDR show) and make use of ProMotion expertise. That is the primary time the non-Professional fashions have ProMotion, which is basically a 120-Hz refresh fee.
This has been a standard characteristic on Android telephones for some time, however it means your show refreshes 120 instances per second somewhat than 60, like on the iPhone 16, so all the things you do will really feel smoother. (We now have a broader explainer here.) These are adaptive refresh charges that may drop as little as 1 Hz when there’s little exercise on the display, which is why the brand new iPhone 17 and iPhone Air now assist the always-on show.
Apple additionally says there is a new Ceramic Defend 2 entrance glass that is 3X extra scratch-resistant than earlier than, and a brand new antireflective coating to scale back glare. All of those screens may hit as much as 3,000 nits of peak brightness, that means it will be simpler to learn your iPhone display on sunny days.
The Digital camera
The front-facing selfie digicam is equivalent on all of the iPhone 17 fashions. It is a new square-shaped 18-megapixel sensor, and which means you may count on extra element out of your selfies. Nevertheless, the sq. sensor additionally introduces a wiser approach to seize group selfies. You may maintain holding your cellphone in portrait orientation for the perfect grip, and it’ll routinely zoom out to ensure everybody matches within the body, whereas additionally switching to a panorama orientation for the widest view. All of those fashions additionally assist Twin Seize, which helps you to shoot with each the entrance and rear cameras on the identical time. You may learn more about these features here.
The Standard Specs
The entire iPhones are IP68 water- and dust-resistant and have Face ID, the Digital camera Management button, Motion Button, USB-C, and Qi2 magnetic wi-fi charging (MagSafe). All gadgets begin at 256 GB of storage. There’s Apple Intelligence on these gadgets, the identical Emergency SOS by way of Satellite tv for pc and Crash Detection capabilities, they usually make the most of Apple’s new N1 wi-fi networking chip for Bluetooth 6, Wi-Fi 7, and Thread support.
The Variations
{Photograph}: Julian Chokkattu
Now, here is the place they diverge, which can aid you higher perceive what mannequin to purchase.
