By Charlie Levin
It happens every year. Yet, it’s still a moment not to be missed.
In the annual Apple launch event on September 9, Tim Cook, Apple CEO, was just rolling through his presentation. And just like clockwork, come 9:41 (give or take a few minutes), the iPhone 17 dropped.
This was perhaps one of the most anticipated tech announcements of 2025. With Samsung and Google starting to redevelop the flip phone, it was expected that something special was going to happen this time around. It was finally Apple’s time to shine, to make a big announcement of its own, to flip the tech sector on its head.
Did it do that?
No.
Frankly, the iPhone 17s aren’t much different than the 16s. All the hype was too much. But they’re not bad devices. In fact, they have some really impressive new features.
Let’s start with the elephant in the room. The iPhone Air, as Apple called it, is thin. In fact, at 5.6 mm, it is the thinnest iPhone ever. Made of titanium, it weighs only 165 grams. And that’s not all.
Its features are pretty good too. As advertised, it has most of the features, battery life, and processing power of last year’s 16. And that is hard to do in that small of a chassis. Could it have some drawbacks? Yes. It might not be as substantial as your current phone or as powerful as some of the devices other brands have on the market, but overall it seems like a good investment.
Now to the iPhone 17 and 17 Pro. They aren’t as exciting as the Air, because they’re not breaking any records. However, once again, Apple made it pack a punch.
On the 17, it has amazing new cameras. With a super long range and a 48 megapixel camera, you can capture anything you want. And with the new A19 chip, it is “40 percent faster than the chip in iPhone 14 Pro”, making it a pretty big upgrade.
The iPhone 17 Pro has that too. And, with a new liquid supercooling method, it can work a lot harder while consuming less power. Plus, with an “aluminum unibody design” it can withstand the everyday drop to the floor or the fall over the staircase in your house. Don’t worry. It happens. And the iPhone 17 and 17 Pro are built to withstand exactly that.
While it might not be worth an upgrade if you got a new phone in the last two or three years, it might be a good choice to replace that out-of-date SE from middle school or a hand-me-down from a sibling.
And while the iPhone 17s might not be the breakthrough that tech fanatics were hoping for, it is still a step towards the future of the sector.