Marques Brownlee: iPhone 17/Pro/Air Impressions: Spot the Red Flags!

Apple's 2025 September event unveiled the iPhone 17, 17 Pro, and 17 Air, marking notable upgrades and design changes. The base iPhone 17 now features ProMotion displays and an improved selfie camera, while retaining familiar design elements.

The iPhone 17 boasts a brighter display up to 3,000 nits, an A19 chip delivering roughly 20% faster CPU performance, and longer battery life. ProMotion, previously exclusive to Pro models, is now standard across the lineup, enhancing usability.

The iPhone 17 Pro introduces a new design with a 'plateau' camera bar housing the A19 Pro chip and logic board, allowing more battery capacity below. It switches back to aluminum for better thermal management and includes a vapor chamber for improved cooling and sustained performance.

Camera upgrades on the Pro include a 48MP 4x telephoto lens with a 56% larger sensor, enabling better zoom and cropping capabilities. The Pro also features a brighter display with C2 support, enhanced selfie camera, and professional video features like genlock sync and ProRes RAW.

The ultra-thin iPhone Air, at just 5.6mm thickness, offers a titanium body, A19 Pro chip (minus one GPU core), and a 48MP fusion camera. Despite its stunning design, it raises concerns about battery life, thermal throttling, durability, and lacks features like mmWave 5G and physical SIM slots.

Apple also announced new AirPods Pro 3 with improved ANC, IP57 rating, and workout heart rate tracking, plus Apple Watch Series 11 with 5G and hypertension detection, and Watch Ultra 3 with thinner bezels and longer battery life. These complement the iPhone lineup upgrades.

Overall, Apple's 2025 lineup blends evolutionary tech with bold design gambles, especially with the iPhone Air. While the Pro models focus on performance and battery improvements, the Air targets ultra-thin aesthetics at potential cost to durability and battery.