Apple’s ‘Awe Dropping’ event was filled with new gadgets, with the tech large unveiling the iPhone 17, iPhone Air, iPhone 17 Pro, and iPhone 17 Pro Max, in addition to the Apple Watch Ultra 3, Apple Watch Series 11, Apple Watch SE 3, and AirPods Pro 3.
As TechRadar’s Workers Author for Cellular Computing, I’m naturally drawn to the brand new iPhone lineup, and even accounting for my very own preferences there’s one machine that rose above the remainder throughout Apple’s hour-long presentation.
I’m talking about the regular, standard, base-model iPhone 17 – if you ask me, the iPhone 17 was the clear winner of this Apple Event, getting some welcome (and overdue) upgrades that bring it closer than ever to its Pro siblings.
While the iPhone Air takes the honors as the biggest design innovation, and the iPhone 17 Pro and iPhone 17 Pro Max are rocking some intriguing camera upgrades, the fundamental improvements made to the iPhone 17 mean its starting $799 / £799 / AU$1,399 price tag now offers more value than ever before.
There are three key upgrades that make the iPhone 17 such an impressive update – keep reading for my breakdown.
This is the big one – as an iPhone fan, an Apple fan, a tech fan, I absolutely lit up when Apple announced that its ProMotion technology would finally come to the standard iPhone 17.
I and many other TechRadar writers have been practically begging Apple to ditch its 60Hz displays for years now. The low-refresh-rate screens on the iPhone 16 and iPhone 16 Plus were inexcusably outdated, and paled in comparison to the 120Hz screens on the Samsung Galaxy S25 and Google Pixel 10, to not point out on many extra inexpensive Android handsets.
For reference, refresh charge refers to how typically a show redraws the on-screen picture, and the next refresh charge makes animations and movement look a lot smoother.
Apple has additionally caught up with its principal Android rivals by bringing an adaptive refresh charge to the iPhone 17. ProMotion isn’t only a fancy identify for 120Hz – it adjusts the show’s charge between 1-120Hz relying on what’s taking place on-screen, which additionally helps to protect battery life.
In equity, the brand new iPhone Air additionally will get ProMotion, however its A19 Professional chipset and beginning value of $999 / £999 / AU$1,799 align it extra with the iPhone 17 Professional than the iPhone 16 Plus it replaces. The Professional fashions have had ProMotion because the iPhone 13 Professional, which launched in 2021, in order that’s considerably much less of an enormous deal.
I’m genuinely ecstatic to see this improve come to the iPhone 17 – however I do should mood my pleasure by recognizing that this can be a long-overdue enchancment. Nonetheless, the refresh charge race is lastly over, and that’s one thing to have a good time.
A bigger display
The iPhone 17 inherits the enlarged 6.3-inch display from last year’s iPhone 16 Pro, matching this year’s iPhone 17 Pro. In fact, it seems that the iPhone 17 and iPhone 17 Pro now have the exact same display.
That’s a welcome improvement for Apple’s compact flagship phone – and the actual frame of the iPhone 17 is unlikely to be much bigger than the iPhone 16, as some of that extra screen size is reclaimed from shrunken-down bezels.
A larger screen means the iPhone 17 is better suited to watching videos, playing games, and multitasking. As long as the standard iPhone remains easily pocketable, I’m game for as high a screen-to-body ratio as we can get.
Longer battery life
Apple is normally pretty cagey about its devices’ battery specs, but this year the tech giant was even more guarded than usual. For example, the iPhone 17 was said to get eight more hours of video playback compared to the previous generation – which is kind of a massive deal when you dig up last year’s numbers.
The standard iPhone 16 is rated (by Apple) for 22 hours of continuous video playback. That would suggest the iPhone 17 can manage a full 30 hours – a massive 36% increase.
Keep in mind that this might not translate to a 36% larger battery capacity – some of that longevity will be due to the new, more efficient A19 chipset and software optimizations in iOS 26.
Still, if Apple’s figures prove accurate, that’ll be an absolute coup of an upgrade.
We’ll be testing the iPhone 17’s battery life, and all its other specs and features as soon as we can – for now, let us know what you think of the new iPhone lineup in the comments below.
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