Apple Goes Thin, Thick, Quiet, and Healthy, All While Keeping Prices Steady
When you have an extensive ecosystem and a solid base, iterative product development is an amazing thing. Apple’s new iPhones mostly build on previous models – the iPhone Air is an obvious exception – but it’s hard to complain when the improvements are extensive, noticeable, and come at no additional cost. Despite the threat of tariffs and inflation, Tim Cook’s exceptional supply chain (and regular engagement with President Trump) have resulted in better products priced the same as last year’s versions.
After prematurely pushing Apple Intelligence features for the iPhone 16 that still haven’t shipped a year later, Apple understandably downplayed AI at this event. However, the new Apple Silicon A19 and A19 Pro chips have larger NPUs; when Apple, its partners, or its acquisitions deliver more LLM-based features, the phones will be ready for them.
iPhone 17 is a Bargain
The base model iPhone 17 is a bargain: the same price for twice the base storage, better silicon, longer battery life thanks to a better display, and better cameras — including a front selfie camera that lets you hold your phone securely while taking pictures horizontally. That ProMotion display should also silence critics who objected on principle to a premium product with a 60Hz display, even if tens of millions of consumers bought them without complaint.
Nobody Asked for the iPhone Air, But it Sure is Nice
The iPhone Air is something you have to hold to appreciate; it's a Pro-level phone that feels incredibly thin and rigid. There is only one camera, and on days with the longest, heaviest usage you may need to carry Apple's MagSafe battery pack. It begs the question, “who asked for this?” At an onsite briefing I asked an Apple executive that very question, and he said that Apple built it because consumers like choice. But he also noted that Apple built the iPhone Air because it could: advances in Apple Silicon and its more-efficient home-grown C1x modem allowed its designers to move all the components up near the camera and fill the rest of the space with battery. Space is also the reason that even the international versions are eSIM-only, though Apple somehow put magnets inside for wireless charging. Lessons from the iPhone Air will undoubtedly be useful if Apple builds the foldable it is rumored to have in the works, but in the meantime, it does feel dense, designed, and incredibly rigid. Apple showed me a video of its engineers’ durability testing (torturing) the iPhone Air, but it feels anything but delicate. There is no flex to this phone whatsoever.
I brought Samsung’s Galaxy S25 Edge with me to Apple Park for comparison. Design may be a matter of preference, but to my eye, the iPhone Air looks like the more remarkable device when you hold it, even though it is only a millimeter thinner at the bottom. Partly, this is due to the curved glass edges on the iPhone Air vs the flat edges on the Galaxy S25 Edge, and partly it’s due to the iPhone Air’s thicker top section, where Apple squished everything that isn’t a battery. In one key sense, Samsung is equal to the iPhone Air: it’s hard to understand why it exists until you use it for a week or two. The iPhone Air is just really nice. The Galaxy S25 Edge is nice. It’s OK for companies to build nice things and for consumers to buy them. It’s worth noting that the iPhone Air doesn’t have a “17” designation, so this looks like Apple is testing the concept (similar to the iPhone mini and iPhone SE). If it’s a huge hit, I would look for an iPhone Air 2 in early 2027; if not it will get updated on its own schedule or not at all.
iPhone 17 Pro/Max: More Than Most People Need; May Be the Volume Leader Again Anyway
The iPhone Air gave Apple's designers room to make the iPhone 17 Pro just a little bit thicker and aim for the best battery life and better cooling for continuous performance. It's hard to imagine most consumers using even half of the iPhone 17 Pro's capabilities — especially the genuinely professional imaging and video features — but they may still want to buy it for the biggest battery and the best components. International versions are still available with physical SIM slots, but the U.S. (eSIM-only) version has more battery where that SIM tray would go.
The iPhone 17 Pro also looks different than any iPhone before it, and that matters in Asian markets where iPhones sell better in years when people can tell whether you have the new one or not. The design is distinctive, with a huge camera plateau I personally don’t like, and fully saturated colors that I love. The two-tone white glass on white titanium looks surprisingly good and there’s a nice deep blue for those looking for something tame, but the orange is my personal favorite. As with the iPhone 17, Apple was able to hold the line on pricing, so the iPhone 17 Pro costs the same as the iPhone 16 Pro did last year, despite the specter of tariffs and inflation.
Silicon Notes:
The iPhone 17 has a new Apple Silicon A19 SoC, while the iPhone Air gets an A19 Pro with reduced GPU specs. The iPhone 17 Pro and Pro Max feature a full-fat version of the A19 Pro, which Apple describes as “Mac-like performance,” in what is likely not an exaggeration.
Apple has a new N1 chip in the iPhone 17 family for Wi-Fi 7, Bluetooth 6, and Thread, replacing Broadcom and other suppliers. However, the iPhone 17 and 17 Pro are still using Qualcomm modems. The iPhone 16e is still in the lineup and has an Apple C1, while the iPhone Air uses a new, faster Apple C1x. My network testing of the iPhone 16e suggests that Apple’s modems are good-to-excellent in strong coverage areas; it appears that Qualcomm is still better in network edge cases. It is also worth noting that the modems in Qualcomm’s latest Snapdragon SoCs used by Samsung, Xiaomi, and others is often more advanced than the version Apple buys. Qualcomm has long expected Apple to move over to its own modems, but the transition has been fairly gradual.
Apple Watches Lean Harder into Health Tracking
Apple often starts its Watch segment with a customer vignette showing how it improved their health, but this year Apple devoted more time to it: people whose lives were saved when they had a stroke, Afib, car accidents, improved their fitness, and even managed their mental health. The only surprise was that Apple didn’t fit in anyone into the segment who was diagnosed with sleep apnea. Apple Watches really do save lives, and it’s good to see Apple dwelling on it, not just briefly calling it out and then talking about hardware or new watch straps.
Apple speculates that its newest feature, hypertension notifications, will go out to one million people in the coming year alone. This feature hasn’t finished regulatory approval but that is expected soon. It will ship to 150 countries and regions at launch, making Apple Watch Series 11 and Ultra 3 the first smartwatches to help people manage their blood pressure, albeit over a fairly long time period; this is not competing with Omron’s wearable instant blood pressure monitors.
There is, of course, new hardware and new watch straps, too. The Apple Watch Series 11 is thinner, making the screen appear to be bigger than before; it’s not, but it got bigger last year, so it will really look like an upgrade to older Apple Watch owners. The cellular version is now 5G, which could help with coverage on some networks (T-Mobile in the U.S. uses its far-reaching low-band spectrum for 5G) but is mostly just more efficient. It might be faster, too, but I struggle to see a use case where you’re downloading or streaming huge files to your watch. In any case, I expect wireless carriers to push the 5G Apple Watches hard: Apple showed off a slide of 28 carrier brands that are supporting it.
There is a new Apple Watch Ultra 3 with a slightly larger, brighter display in the same size case and even longer battery life. It too gets the 5G modem and now supports satellite connectivity for emergency SOS, Find My, and Messages. Most consumers buy the Ultra for the bigger display and battery, but if you are using it on a mountain or trail somewhere, this is a big selling point. Pricing on all versions of Apple Watch are the same as prior versions.
Perhaps most dangerous from a competitive standpoint, Apple updated the Apple Watch SE. For $249 the Apple Watch SE 3 has an always-on display (so, it’s, you know, a functioning time-keeping device) and parts of Apple’s health tracking suite including vitals, the updated sleep score, and sleep apnea detection. Apple Watch SE 3 is not just an entry point into Apple Health, but it’s a really good watch experience, and it only works with iPhones. Once someone gets an Apple Watch and wears it regularly, it is extremely hard for Android OEMs to pull them away from iOS.
AirPods Pro 3 is Better in Every Possible Way
Apple is a platforms and ecosystem company that monetizes premium hardware, but sometimes that hardware actually undercuts the competition on price. The first AirPods were better than the TWS “True Wireless Stereo” earbuds of the day and cost significantly less. The AirPods Pro don’t beat every “Pro” earbud competitor on price, but the ne AirPods Pro 3 are a fantastic value at $249.
Apple made pretty much everything about the AirPods Pro 3 better -- ANC, fit, battery life, health tracking, AI – at the same price as before. The earbuds can now measure heartrate. They can also act as live translators using Apple Intelligence; I’ll withhold judgement on this feature until I test it thoroughly; Apple is not the only company that is making this promise.
Whether or not the AirPods Pro 3 can serve as Babelfish, as earbuds they seem really impressive. I got a brief ears-on demo and the AirPods Pro 3 ANC was so good at completely muting the loud crowd outside Steve Jobs Theater that I wanted to take the samples back with me on my flights home. Audio quality was improved, especially the bass, which may also be partly due to the better seal from the new foam eartips. At 8 hours with ANC on, battery life will now exceed a transcon flight – a key failure of prior versions – and at 10 hours in transparency mode, the AirPods Pro 3 can make it through a full work day when used as hearing aids.
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