The iPhone 17 is essentially the most inexpensive of the four iPhones Apple launched at its September 2025 “Awe Dropping” event, and that mechanically makes essentially the most attention-grabbing to me. It might look like essentially the most “boring” at first look, however as I identified when I compared it with the iPhone Air, the iPhone 17 might be the very best new iPhone for most individuals. It is priced effectively, is filled with good new options together with a 120Hz ProMotion show, and it will get many of the options often reserved for costlier iPhones. Here is all the things you must know concerning the iPhone 17, and why you would possibly need to improve to it.
iPhone 17 physique, show, and weight
Credit score: Apple
The iPhone 17 is essentially the most colourful choice among the many 4 iPhones being launched in September 2025. You may select from 5 completely different finishes, together with Lavender, Sage (a inexperienced hue), Mist Blue, White and Black.
You get the 120Hz ProMotion show on this cellphone, which can make navigation and animations look smoother and was reserved for the Pro models till now. You may additionally have the ability to use it while you’re enjoying video games or watching movies, and the cellphone can nonetheless drop the refresh fee to 1Hz while you’re not utilizing it to preserve battery.
The iPhone 17 additionally has a barely bigger, 6.3-inch Tremendous Retina XDR show with Ceramic Defend 2 for improved scratch safety. Due to that 1Hz assist, the cellphone additionally works with Apple’s All the time-On Show, which suggests you can shortly test the time on it with out switching on the display.
Apple says the iPhone 17 is waterproof as much as a depth of 6 meters for as much as half-hour, too. Which means that should you drop your cellphone in water, it needs to be secure so long as it is inside these limits.
Apple has nonetheless managed to maintain this cellphone pretty gentle, at 6.24 ounces (177 grams). That makes it heavier than the iPhone Air (5.82 ounces or 165 grams), but it surely ought to nonetheless be moderately straightforward to deal with.
iPhone 17 processor
Credit score: Apple
The iPhone 17 ships with Apple’s new A19 chip, and it is the one one of many 4 new iPhones to make use of that. All different telephones launched in Apple’s September 2025 occasion use the A19 Professional chip. The A19 has a 6-core CPU and a 5-core GPU with Neural Accelerators. On the time of writing, early Geekbench scores give us a fair idea of the A19’s performance. It seems to attain round 7 to eight % greater than the iPhone 16’s A18 chip. Based on the identical report, the iPhone 17 has 8GB of RAM. Apple would not make RAM specs public, however benchmarking instruments are a dependable indicator for this metric.
This cellphone helps 2 eSIMs and would not have any bodily SIM slots within the US. In some areas, similar to India, the iPhone 17 has one bodily SIM slot and one eSIM. In China, the iPhone 17 would not assist eSIMs in any respect and ships with two bodily SIM slots as a substitute.
iPhone 17 cameras
Credit score: Apple
Apple has included two rear cameras on the iPhone 17, alongside the Heart Stage entrance digicam. The large information is that you don’t have to rotate your iPhone for landscape selfies any more. The Heart Stage digicam, which has an 18-megapixel sensor, makes use of AI to mechanically regulate your body to incorporate extra folks within the shot if wanted. It could actually take portrait and panorama selfies.
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The rear digicam setup has a 48-megapixel foremost sensor, and a 48-megapixel ultrawide lens. This implies you can take pictures in 0.5x, 1x, and 2x capturing modes. The iPhone 17 helps Twin Seize, too, which lets you file movies with the entrance and rear cameras on the identical time. The rear cameras assist macro images and so they can file movies in Dolby Imaginative and prescient as much as 4K at 60fps.
iPhone 17 battery life
Credit score: Apple
You may anticipate your iPhone 17 to simply final a full day on a single cost with average use. Apple says the gadget lasts for as much as 30 hours with steady video playback, which is increased than the iPhone Air (27 hours) and even the iPhone 16 Plus (additionally 27 hours). The iPhone 17 helps Apple’s MagSafe and Qi2 wi-fi charging. You may cost it from 0 to 50 % in half-hour utilizing a 30W or increased adapter paired with a MagSafe charger. When you purchase Apple’s 40W charging adapter, your iPhone 17 will go from 0 to 50 % inside 20 minutes.
The smartphone has a USB-C port, but it surely solely helps USB 2, which implies that switch speeds aren’t going to be as quick as that on the iPhone 17 Professional (which helps USB 3 with speeds as much as 10Gb/s).
improve and a terrific value
Credit score: Apple
The iPhone 17 total seems to be like a stable improve with a greater show, higher battery life, and higher cameras. It isn’t a revolutionary product, but it surely will not disappoint anybody who’s upgrading from an older cellphone. In case your iPhone 16 sequence gadget is working nice, then you possibly can in all probability proceed utilizing it for one more 12 months no less than, however you probably have an iPhone 12 Professional Max like I do, or an iPhone 15 or older gadget, then the 17 could possibly be a terrific improve.
As somebody trying to improve, at $799 for the 256GB variant, the iPhone 17’s value is especially interesting to me contemplating all of the options it has. The 512GB iPhone 17 is priced at $999 should you want extra space, and that needs to be sufficient storage to deal with all the things you possibly can throw at it.
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