iPhone 17 lineup, iPhone Air, new Apple Watches, and AirPods Pro 3 revealed.
On September 9, Apple held its big fall event, and wow, it was packed. We got the entire iPhone 17 lineup (including the very first iPhone Air), new AirPods Pro 3, a fresh batch of Apple Watches Series 11, Apple Watch SE 3 and Apple Watch Ultra 3 – basically, Apple unloaded the whole toy chest.
Everything ships on September 19, and here’s the kicker: prices are staying put. Yep, no price hikes this year, which almost feels like a miracle. If you missed the keynote live, don’t worry – here’s every major announcement Apple dropped on stage.
The iPhone goes Air
The star of the show was easily the new iPhone Air – Apple’s thinnest phone ever at just 5.6mm. Up until now, the Air name was reserved for MacBooks and iPads, but Apple just decided phones deserve the slim treatment, too.
It is rocking a 6.5-inch ProMotion display and a camera “plateau” (Apple’s word, not mine) that stretches nearly the entire back. Most of the internals live inside that plateau, leaving room for a decent battery in the rest of the razor-thin body.
Powering it all is the new A19 Pro chip, which Apple claims brings MacBook Pro-level performance to your pocket. The Air also debuts the N1 chip for wireless connection (Wi-Fi 7, Bluetooth 6, Thread) and a new C1X modem that’s supposedly twice as fast as last year’s one, which is inside the iPhone 16e.
The Air’s camera setup is unusual, too – a single-lens Fusion system that doubles as both an ultrawide and a 2x telephoto, with f/1.6 aperture.
The whole new series has a new 18 MP Center Stage front camera, borrowed from Apple’s laptops and iPads, to keep you centered in the frame.
For group shots, Center Stage uses AI to automatically widen the view and even flip between portrait and landscape so nobody gets cut out. It also brings ultra-stabilized 4K HDR video, and with the new Dual Capture mode, you can record with the front and rear cameras at the same time – perfect for talking to the camera while showing what’s happening around you.
iPhone 17 finally ditches 60Hz and 128 GB
At last, the regular iPhone catches up with a 120Hz ProMotion OLED display. The 6.3-inch screen is smoother than anything we’ve seen on a “non-Pro” iPhone before.
Inside is the A19 chip, tuned for both speed and efficiency. Apple says the GPU is 20% faster than the A18 and almost double the iPhone 14’s performance – music to the ears of mobile gamers.
The dual-camera system also got an upgrade: a 48 MP fusion ultrawide lens that can pull double duty as a macro, plus a 48 MP main lens that can turn into a 12 MP 2x telephoto. Add the new Center Stage selfie cam, and this year’s base iPhone isn’t so “basic” anymore.
