Apple’s September event seemed like a familiar ritual but after the dust settled and once I actually held these phones, the feeling was different. Not because Apple has reinvented the wheel, but because for the first time in a long time each iPhone in the lineup has a clear identity, and each one actually matters.
SurveyiPhone 17 First Impressions
Let’s start with the most important one: the iPhone 17.
For years, the base iPhone has felt like Apple’s “take it or leave it” option. You got the ecosystem, the polish, the design, but it always came with handcuffs: no ProMotion for the longest time, stingy 128GB storage, cameras that were good but deliberately held back. It was fine, reliable, but you always knew you were being nudged toward the Pro.
Not this year. The iPhone 17 is the first base iPhone in a decade that feels like the sensible pick. Apple finally gave it ProMotion, yes, 120Hz smoothness on a non-Pro iPhone. It’s like someone at Cupertino finally read the Reddit comments for once. Scrolling feels fluid, animations look alive and paired with slimmer bezels and a slightly larger 6.3-inch display, it feels like a proper generational leap from the iPhone 16.
Brightness is way up too: 3,000 nits versus 2,000 (iPhone 16) outdoors and durability has been bumped with Ceramic Shield 2, which Apple claims is three times more scratch resistant. Under the hood, the A19 chip replaces the A18 and now includes neural accelerators to push AI features forward.
Battery life also jumps meaningfully: Apple says up to 30 hours versus 22 on the iPhone 16, backed by a modest bump to 3,692 mAh. Charging is faster as well and Apple claims 50% in 20 minutes with a 40W adapter, compared to half an hour on the 16.
The major camera updates include the selfie shooter which jumps from 12MP to 18MP, adds Center Stage, ultra-stabilized video and even Dual Capture in Dolby Vision. You can now tap to zoom and rotate for framing.
On the back, the ultrawide finally gets a 48MP upgrade, meaning the second lens doesn’t feel like a token anymore. Three new colours: Lavender, Sage, and Mist Blue join White and Black.
For once, the base iPhone doesn’t feel like a compromise, it feels like the default. If you’re holding on to an iPhone 13 or 14, this is the upgrade year you’ve been waiting for.
iPhone Air First Impressions
You’ve got to hold the iPhone Air in your hand to get it, it’s thin in a way only Apple could pull off. Honestly, I haven’t felt this kind of excitement from an iPhone’s design since the iPhone 4 and 5S days. It’s light, elegant, different.
And it’s not just a design stunt. Inside its impossibly slim 6.5-inch titanium design sits the A19 Pro chip, the new N1 wireless chip with Wi-Fi 7 and Bluetooth 6, and the C1X modem for faster, more efficient 5G. The trade-off is that the battery space is so tight that Apple had to go eSIM-only, and the cell inside is just 3,149 mAh. Apple claims up to 27 hours of life (5 hours more than the iPhone 16) thanks to silicon efficiency, but we’ll have to test those claims in detail because these are video playback numbers. There’s an exclusive battery pack for the Air which also has a 3,149 mAh capacity, but sort of defeats the point of buying the thinnest iPhone ever, doesn’t it?
Look closer, though, and you realise what Apple’s really doing here. The Air isn’t about size preference, like the Mini or the Plus experiments. It’s a test run, a stepping stone toward the foldable iPhone that’s expected within the next couple of years. Apple wants to prove that thin phones can still deliver all-day battery and performance, while experimenting with packaging chips into the raised camera bump. In other words, don’t think of the iPhone Air as another hype device. Think of it as the first chapter in their foldable story.
iPhone 17 Pro Max First Impressions
The iPhone 17 Pro Max is Apple’s no-compromise iPhone, but it comes with a reality check. On the outside, the design is back to anodised aluminium, a step away from the titanium we just got used to on the iPhone 15 and 16 Pros. It’s thicker, heavier, and despite the design refresh, the display hardware itself hasn’t changed and it’s still the same size and panel tech as last year.
The camera system is excellent as always, but there’s a catch. The telephoto zoom, which was 5x on the 16 Pro Max, has been downgraded to 4x. Apple spins this as “8x optical-quality zoom” thanks to cropping on the new sensors, but if you’re serious about photography, you’ll know that’s not the same as optical reach.
Prices now go as high as Rs 2,29,900 for the top 2TB model, which means the Pro Max has officially crossed the Rs 2 lakh threshold. That’s laptop, or even motorcycle, money in India.
Inside is where the real upgrades are. The A19 Pro chip is paired with vapour chamber cooling for the first time, which should make sustained performance better, something Pro iPhones badly needed. And the 5,088 mAh battery, the largest ever in an iPhone, promises up to 39 hours of life, which finally feels like endurance worthy of a Pro Max.
So yes, it’s still the phone for people who want it all, but this year it comes with trade-offs: higher prices, heavier build, and one less notch of zoom.
So where does that leave us?
For the first time in years, Apple’s iPhone lineup actually feels layered rather than tiered. The 17 is the sensible choice, the phone you recommend without hesitation. It finally delivers the features Apple fans have been begging for, like ProMotion and usable base storage, without making you feel punished for not going Pro.
The iPhone Air is Apple’s flex, thin in a way that only Apple could make work, but also a quiet rehearsal for the foldable future. And then there’s the Pro Max. Still the all-in, no-compromise option but this year it comes with a vapour chamber cooling and the biggest iPhone battery ever, but it’s a reminder that “Pro Max” doesn’t automatically mean “better in every way.”
The difference this year is that each model finally stands on its own. You don’t look at the base iPhone and feel short-changed, you don’t look at the Air and dismiss it as a gimmick, and you don’t look at the Pro Max without weighing the trade-offs. That balance, that sense of choice, is what makes the iPhone 17 series feel different.
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Siddharth Chauhan
Siddharth reports on gadgets, technology and you will occasionally find him testing the latest smartphones at Digit. However, his love affair with tech and futurism extends way beyond, at the intersection of technology and culture. View Full Profile
