Apple on Tuesday showed off its iPhone 17 lineup at a media event dubbed, "Awe Dropping," favoring timeworn self-adulation over a more literal pun like "Four Play."

The Cupertino-based computer biz announced four iPhone models – iPhone 17, iPhone 17 Pro, iPhone 17 Pro Max, and iPhone 17 Air.

CEO Tim Cook lauded iPhone 17 Air, the newest member of the iPhone family, with the usual superlatives. "With the advancements made possible by Apple Silicon, we've been able to push the limits of iPhone design and innovation," he said. "And that breakthrough has led to something truly amazing."

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He left the details to John Ternus, Apple SVP of hardware engineering, who said, "We are thrilled to introduce the impossibly thin iPhone Air. At 5.6 millimeters, it's the thinnest iPhone we've ever made. And it's also exceptionally light."

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Starting at $999, the iPhone 17 Air is not as light on the wallet as the iPhone 17 ($799+) but it's less than the 17 Pro ($1,099+) and 17 Pro Max ($1,199+).

Much work has gone into making the iPhone Air sturdy, to prevent it from shattering when sat upon or dropped from a modest height.

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"The frame of iPhone Air is made of titanium," Ternus explained. "This is an essential material choice for such a thin design and enables it to exceed our stringent bend strength requirements."

Available in space black, cloud white, light gold, and sky blue, the iPhone 17 Air comes with a 6.5-inch Super Retina XDR display with ProMotion adaptive 120Hz refresh technology. It's protected by Ceramic Shield on the back and Ceramic Shield 2 on the front, to defend against cracked glass.

The [5]iPhone 17 Air runs on an Apple Silicon A19 chip, which Tim Millet, VP of platform architecture, described as "the fastest CPU in any smartphone."

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A19 Pro (3nm) comes with a 6-core CPU, a 5-core GPU, and neural accelerators built into each GPU core, upping its peak GPU compute to three times last year's model.

The iPhone 17 Air, like its peers, includes Apple's N1 and C1X chips – the former handling Wi-Fi 7, Bluetooth 6, and Thread communications, and the latter being the second iteration of Apple's homegrown cellular modem hardware.

To save space, the iPhone 17 Air doesn't support physical SIM cards – it's eSIM-only worldwide. The other iPhone 17 models are eSIM-only in specific countries: Bahrain, Canada, Guam, Japan, Kuwait, Mexico, Oman, Qatar, Saudi Arabia, the UAE, the US, and the US Virgin Islands.

The iPhone 17 Air includes a 48MP Fusion camera system that combines the equivalent of four lenses in one unit. The main lens offers 28mm and 35mm focal lengths while the 2.0µm quad-pixel sensor provides low-light capability. And it provides 2x optical telephoto. The Center Stage front camera captures 18MP images.

Battery life, according to Ternus, is "all-day."

The [7]iPhone 17 Pro and 17 Pro Max – deep blue, cosmic orange, and silver – trade slimness for bells and whistles, and thermally conscious design that enables the devices to dissipate heat at higher CPU load on the device's A19 Pro chip.

"At the heart of the new thermal management system is an Apple-designed vapor chamber," explained Greg Joswiak, SVP of worldwide marketing. "This efficiently moves heat away from the components, allowing for higher sustained performance."

The 17 Pro and 17 Pro Max carry three 48MP Fusion cameras – Main, Ultra Wide, and a new Telephoto that can manage 8x optical zoom. There's also an 18MP Center Stage front camera. The devices support various features aimed at pro videomakers, specifically ProRes RAW, Apple Log 2, and genlock (a multi-camera video synchronization technique).

And the [8]iPhone 17 – black, lavender, mist blue, sage, and white – offers similar capabilities with a slightly less ambitious chip, Apple's A19.

You can pre-order the various iPhone models on Friday, September 12, and the devices should be available Friday, September 19. Apple's latest iDevices run iOS 26, scheduled for release on Monday, September 15.

[9]Intel shuffles executive deckchairs, tosses 30-year veteran chief overboard

[10]Chip designer SiFive aims to cram more RISC-V cores into AI chips

[11]If Broadcom is helping OpenAI build AI chips, here's what they might look like

[12]Judge who ruled Google is a monopoly decides to do hardly anything to break it up

"The new iPhone 17 lineup represents the biggest design overhaul since the iPhone X, launched years ago," said Francisco Jeronimo, Vice President EMEA, Devices, at IDC, in a statement. "In itself, this is a strong reason for users to upgrade. This approach aims to sustain iPhone dominance, which currently dominates 18 percent of the global smartphone market and 42 percent of the worldwide market value as of the first half of 2025."

Translation in your ears

Kate Bergeron, VP of hardware engineering, introduced the [13]AirPods Pro 3 , a redesigned version of the company's earbuds that adds support for live language translation or Live Translation as capitalized by Apple.

Using Apple Intelligence – the company's [14]overpromised suite of machine learning services – AirPods Pro 3 can provide synthesized translations of spoken English, French, German, Portuguese, and Spanish into another one of these languages, with Italian, Japanese, Korean, and Chinese (simplified) said to be coming by the end of the year.

AirPods Pro 3-wearing individuals can respond in their native, supported tongue and a translated version can be displayed on or spoken by the speaker's iPhone.

The service is in beta, so translation accuracy isn't necessarily a given.

Le Xuan Chiew, research manager at Canalys, a part of Omdia, told The Register in a statement that AI adoption is accelerating rapidly and that, by the end of 2025, one in four smartphones is expected to be AI-capable, up from 9 percent last year.

"Apple’s perception as being 'late to the AI party' presents a significant challenge," said Chiew. "While its focus on privacy and on-device processing remains a competitive advantage, this value proposition needs to be communicated more effectively to reinforce user trust and adoption."

AiPods Pro 3 boast improved active noise cancellation and a redesigned shape that is supposed to fit most ears better. With IP57 sweat and water resistance, the ear wadges include a custom photoplethysmography (PPG) sensor for improved heart rate measurement.

AirPods Pro 3 are available for pre-order now at $249, arriving September 19.

Apple also announced the [15]Apple Watch SE ($249+), sporting the company's S10 chip and an Always-On display. Battery life is pegged at 18 hours and charging is said to be 2x faster than prior models. 5G cellular service is available.

Watch SE adds a health feature called sleep score, for assessing sleep quality. It's also capable of wrist temperature sensing, retrospective ovulation estimates, and sleep apnea notifications.

[16]Apple Watch Ultra 3 ($799+) comes with built-in satellite comms capacity, enabling wearers to text emergency services and send location messages to family and friends in the absence of a cellular connection. It features the largest Apple Watch screen yet, based on LTPO3 and OLED display technology, which helps deliver 42 hour battery life or 72 in low power mode or 20 hours for continuous outdoor workout tracking – those heart measurements require energy. 5G cellular service is also an option.

The Ultra 3 (and Ultra 2, as well as Watch Series 9+) should soon support hypertension notifications, to alert wearers to the risk of chronic high blood pressure. Apple says that it expects clearance for this feature from the FDA and other regulators soon. ®

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[5] https://www.apple.com/newsroom/2025/09/introducing-iphone-air-a-powerful-new-iphone-with-a-breakthrough-design/

[6] https://pubads.g.doubleclick.net/gampad/jump?co=1&iu=/6978/reg_onprem/personaltech&sz=300x50%7C300x100%7C300x250%7C300x251%7C300x252%7C300x600%7C300x601&tile=3&c=33aMCjePacdAFAzUHqYwXSDAAAAQM&t=ct%3Dns%26unitnum%3D3%26raptor%3Deagle%26pos%3Dmid%26test%3D0

[7] https://www.apple.com/newsroom/2025/09/apple-unveils-iphone-17-pro-and-iphone-17-pro-max/

[8] https://www.apple.com/newsroom/2025/09/apple-debuts-iphone-17/

[9] https://www.theregister.com/2025/09/08/intel_executive_changes/

[10] https://www.theregister.com/2025/09/08/sifive_ai_cpu_cores/

[11] https://www.theregister.com/2025/09/05/openai_broadcom_ai_chips/

[12] https://www.theregister.com/2025/09/03/google_doj_antitrust_ruling/

[13] https://www.apple.com/newsroom/2025/09/introducing-airpods-pro-3-the-ultimate-audio-experience/

[14] https://www.theregister.com/2025/03/21/apple_hallucinated_siri_ai_features/

[15] https://www.apple.com/newsroom/2025/09/apple-introduces-apple-watch-se-3/

[16] https://www.apple.com/newsroom/2025/09/introducing-apple-watch-ultra-3/

[17] https://whitepapers.theregister.com/