For as long as I can remember, the base iPhone has been a bit of an “it is what it is” situation. Apple gave you the iconic design, the ecosystem, and the camera that’s good enough, but they also kept a long list of things away from you. You wanted high refresh rate ProMotion? Too bad, that’s for the Pros. The extra lens? Better luck next year. Storage that doesn’t make you panic every time you shoot a few 4K videos? Sorry, pay up for the higher tier. The regular one was… fine. Reliable, polished, but restrained.
With the iPhone 17, it seems like Apple finally gave in to years of collective groaning from its users. It changes in a way that actually matters to regular buyers in India and feels like a complete iPhone.
The iPhone 17 now starts at Rs 82,900 for 256GB, and the higher 512GB variant is Rs 1,02,900. No more 128GB starter pack. It’s a subtle thing, but it changes how you use the phone. You stop obsessively deleting old videos just to fit that one software update.
ProMotion at 120Hz is finally here on the base model, and the display itself is brighter too, topping out at 3,000 nits outdoors. If you’ve ever used a Pro iPhone, you know that the 120Hz screen is the single biggest “oh wow” feature that doesn’t show up on a spec sheet. The scrolling just feels liquid, and animations look alive. Once you’ve lived with it, going back to 60Hz feels like watching TV through a dirty window. This one change alone makes the 17 feel like it’s leapt generations ahead of the 16.
The camera system has matured. The 48MP main and ultrawide combo means you can finally take detailed shots without feeling like Apple kept the good glass locked away. And that new Center Stage front camera is not just higher-res (18-megapixel), it uses a square sensor. That solves a real problem: no more wrist rotations just to get a wide selfie in landscape. It feels like a tiny Apple touch that actually makes selfie capture more natural, and suddenly the iPhone 17’s camera setup feels… dare I say, Pro-ish.
Even battery life, the Achilles’ heel of many base iPhones, gets a boost. Apple claims up to eight more hours of video playback than the iPhone 16, thanks to the new A19 chip and smarter ProMotion scaling, but the battery pack is also around 4% bigger than the iPhone 16 (3,692 mAh vs 3,561 mAh).
Here’s where it gets really interesting: if you’re holding on to an iPhone 13 or 14, this is the year you’ve been waiting for. The 15 wasn’t a big enough leap, and the 16 felt like déjà vu. But the 17 finally gives you all the things you’ve been side-eyeing on the Pros for years. You get a smooth screen, better cameras, and higher base storage, all without forcing you to break into the Rs 1.2 lakh club.
The point is: for once, for the first time in a long time, you don’t look at the iPhone 17 and immediately feel punished for not going Pro. It’s not a half-step, it’s the sensible pick.
Apple didn’t just add a feature or two. They finally bridged the gap. This year, the base iPhone feels like fair value, and that’s a sentence I don’t think I’ve written in a long time.
Also Read: The Awe-Dropping Silence: Why AI took a backseat at Apple’s 2025 event
