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Apple, on September 9, announced the new iPhone 17 series alongside the iPhone Air, its slimmest smartphone to date. The new iPhone 17 series comprises of three models – the iPhone 17, the iPhone 17 Pro and the iPhone 17 Pro Max. While these smartphones do come with significant upgrades, many are confused if the new iPhones are worth the upgrade. Here we try to answer some of the most asked questions about Apple’s newest smartphones.
With the new iPhone 17 series, Apple has discontinued the “Plus” model and replaced it with its slimmest iPhone to date – the iPhone Air. The vanilla iPhone 17 has received some much-needed upgrades like ProMotion (120Hz) LTPO display with 3,000 nits peak brightness with Always-on Display support, and now has a high-resolution 48MP ultrawide shooter, something which flagship Android phones have had for years.
As for the iPhone 17 Pro and the iPhone 17 Pro Max, Apple has redesigned these smartphones with a new rectangular camera island that spans across the width of the device and upgraded the telephoto sensor to 48MP. Apple’s new Pro phones also come with the much faster A19 Pro and a vapour chamber, which should help keep the phone cooler when doing resource-intensive tasks for a long time.
The slimmest iPhone ever – the iPhone Air is just 5.6mm thick (minus the camera island), but to make the device thin, Apple had to compromise in areas like camera and battery. Unlike the other models in the iPhone 17 series, the iPhone Air has an elliptical camera island that houses a single 48MP sensor.
And while it does sport the A19 Pro, there’s no vapour chamber, meaning the device might heat up under heavy workloads. Another thing to note is that, because of its thin profile, the iPhone Air has a significantly smaller battery compared to Apple’s newest phones.
The iPhone Air is Apple’s slimmest and most lightweight smartphone to date. The device weighs just 165 grams, and the frame of the phone is just 5.6mm thick, making it thinner than Samsung’s Galaxy S25 Edge, which was launched earlier this year.
Another area where the iPhone Air differs from the new iPhone 17 Pro models is the screen size. It has a 6.5-inch Super Retina XDR display, which means it is slightly bigger than the iPhone 17 Pro (6.3-inch) and significantly smaller than the iPhone 17 Pro Max, which has a 6.9-inch screen. And while it has the same A19 Pro chip as the Pro models, the Air comes with one less GPU core, which means its performance will be lower than Apple’s most premium phones.
Apple recently started rolling out iOS 26 for supported iPhones. The tech giant’s newest operating system brings a brand new design language called “Liquid Glass”, a translucent interface that changes buttons, UI elements and the overall look.
The update is available for older and new iPhones all the way from the iPhone 11 series, but only the iPhone 15 Pro, iPhone 15 Pro Max, iPhone 16, iPhone Air and the newly launched iPhone 17 series will be getting Apple Intelligence features. For a complete list of devices which will be getting the iOS 26 update, click here.
Apple never reveals the exact battery capacity of any iPhones, but it does clarify how many hours of video playback these phones offer. The tech giant claims that the vanilla iPhone 17 offers 30 hours of video playback, while the iPhone 17 Pro and the iPhone 17 Pro Max can last up to 31 hours and 37 hours, respectively.
The iPhone Air can only last up to 27 hours when watching videos, which is lower than the base iPhone 17. However, you can extend the battery life by buying the iPhone Air exclusive MagSafe battery pack, which can be purchased separately.
Apple has slightly increased the price for the vanilla iPhone 17, as well as the iPhone 17 Pro and the iPhone 17 Pro Max. Compared to the iPhone 16, which launched at Rs 79,990, the vanilla iPhone 17 is priced at Rs 82,900, but it has double the storage and a better camera compared to its predecessor.
As for the iPhone 17 Pro and the iPhone 17 Pro Max, Apple has bumped up the price by around Rs 5,000, which may sound a lot at first, but when we compare these models against their predecessors, they are good value for money. Not only do the iPhone 17 Pro and the iPhone 17 Pro Max have a faster chip and better battery, but they also come with a huge upgrade to the telephoto shooter.
To give you a quick recap, the iPhone 16 Pro models had a 12MP telephoto sensor, while the newly launched iPhone 17 Pro models sport a 48MP telephoto camera and an 18MP Center Stage front camera. We cannot say anything about the iPhone Air since this is Apple’s one-of-a-kind phone, but if you are into slim smartphones and don’t care about specs or battery life, it might be a good buy.
The iPhone 17 series and the new iPhone Air are currently available for pre-order on the Apple India website and will go on sale September 19 onwards.
The vanilla iPhone 17 is priced at Rs 82,900, while the iPhone 17 Pro, iPhone 17 Pro Max, and the iPhone Air can be purchased for Rs 1,34,900, Rs 1,49,900 and Rs 1,19,900, respectively. However, the cheapest place to buy the iPhone 17, iPhone 17 Pro and the iPhone 17 Pro Max is still the United States, where these models are selling for Rs 70,500, Rs 97,000 and Rs 1,05,800, respectively.
If you are wondering how much the iPhone 17 series is priced at in other countries, click here to know more.
