Yesterday, Apple announced the 2025 models of the iPhone. For many years now, in the Fall, Apple has released an entry-level iPhone, a high-end iPhone Pro, and something in between. In 2020 and 2021, that in-between model was a smaller version of the entry-level iPhone: the iPhone 12 mini and the iPhone 13 mini. In 2022 through 2024, that in-between model was a larger version of the entry-level iPhone called the Plus model: the iPhone 14 Plus, iPhone 15 Plus, and iPhone 16 Plus. This year, that in-between model is the iPhone Air. It is the thinnest iPhone ever made, and it is the lightest iPhone since the iPhone 13 mini. Each of these new models has its advantages. If you are a lawyer or other professional and you are ready for an upgrade, the 2025 models of the iPhone look to be excellent.
iPhone 17
Most people opt for the entry-level iPhone because it has a good set of features at a nice price, and that remains true this year. This is not the cheapest iPhone; Apple is still selling the iPhone 16e, which was released earlier this year, starting at $599, and perhaps in early 2026, Apple will release an iPhone 17e. And the iPhone 17 is arguably a little more expensive than last year’s iPhone 16, depending upon how you look at it. The iPhone 16 was $699 for the 128GB model and $799 for the 256GB model; for the iPhone 17, there is no 128GB model, and the cheapest version, the 256GB model, costs the same as last year, $799. But the iPhone 17 is cheaper than the other models released yesterday and still has lots of great features.
Last year, you got a slightly smaller iPhone screen with the iPhone 16, 6.1 inches, whereas the iPhone 16 Pro had a 6.3-inch screen. This year, both the iPhone 17 and the iPhone 17 Pro have a 6.3-inch screen. And it is a nice screen. Advanced features like an always-on display and ProMotion (which makes everything look smoother because the screen refreshes at up to 120Hz instead of 60Hz) now come in the entry-level iPhone 17 as well as the Pro model. And while the iPhone 16 and 16 Pro models could increase the screen brightness to up to 2000 nits when outdoors, the iPhone 17 (and iPhone Air and iPhone 17 Pro) can go up to 3000 nits. This could be very useful when you are outside on a sunny day.
All of the 2025 models, including the iPhone 17, use Apple’s latest A19 chip, so everything can run a little faster and processor-intensive tasks like on-device AI can be even more responsive.
That new chip also helps to improve battery life. When playing back video, the iPhone 16 would last up to 22 hours, whereas the iPhone 17 can last up to 30 hours.
Just like the iPhone 11 through the iPhone 16, you get three camera lenses: the one on the front (the selfie camera) and two on the back (one normal, one Ultra Wide). But two of those cameras are now better. On the back, the Ultra Wide camera used to be 12 megapixels, but now, both of the back cameras are 48 megapixels. You cannot always say that a smartphone camera with more megapixels takes better pictures, but the move from 12 to 48 is substantial, so I have no doubt that this will be a nice improvement.
The front-facing camera—the selfie camera—is also better in multiple ways. First, it is an 18 megapixel square camera instead of a 12 megapixel 4×3 camera. I don’t believe that you can actually take square pictures with this new camera. But what you can do is hold your iPhone in portrait orientation, making it easier to hold in your hand, and take a landscape photograph. And this camera really shines when combined with a new software feature: Center Stage. In the past, Apple has had Center Stage on certain Macs and iPads. It means that the camera can essentially “zoom in” on you, unless multiple people are in the frame, in which case it will “zoom out” to show everyone. You may start taking a selfie picture in the traditional portrait orientation mode, but then if others join you in the picture, the Camera app is smart enough to switch to a landscape orientation mode to keep everyone in the picture.
That better front-facing camera has another trick up its sleeve. If you are taking a video with a camera on the back of your iPhone, you can simultaneously take a video with the front-facing camera. Thus, not only can you have a video of your daughter shooting a three-pointer in a high school basketball game, but you can also film your reaction at the same time. (My daughter’s varsity basketball team just started practices for the 2025-26 school year, so you can understand why that is on my mind.) I want to learn more about how this works. Can I take video with both cameras but then choose only to use the video from the back camera, either some of the time or all of the time? We’ll have to see how it works, but it is an interesting idea. Note that this improved front-facing camera on the iPhone 17 is also used on the iPhone Air and the iPhone 17 Pro models.
The iPhone 17 can also charge even faster than previous models. If you use the right adapter—such as Apple’s new 40W Dynamic Power Adapter with 60W Max—you can charge up to 50% in only 20 minutes. You can also use Qi 2.2 fast charging devices, which is the latest wireless charging standard that is just as fast as the latest version of MagSafe charging.
Just like the iPhone 16, you get an Action button and a Camera Control button.
The iPhone 17 comes in five colors: Lavender, Mist Blue, Black, White, and Sage.
In sum, the iPhone 17 is a very capable model. The nicer screen that used to only come with the Pro model is now available for this entry-level model, plus you get better cameras, better battery life, and other features that make this a better device. If you want a model that does a good job of handling your work tasks, like reading emails and documents (even when it is bright outside), and you just have basic needs for taking pictures, this is likely to be the model that you will want to get.
iPhone Air
If you are willing to pay an extra $200, you can get the iPhone Air instead of the iPhone 17. And the main reason that you would want to do so is to have the thinnest iPhone ever made.
How thin is it? Unlike the iPhone 17 (0.31 inch thick) or the iPhone 17 Pro and Pro Max (0.34 inch thick), the iPhone Air is only 0.22 inches. I look forward to holding one in my own hands to see how it feels, but this seems like a noticeably thinner iPhone.
One of the tricks that Apple used is that this model still has a plateau at the top. That is where the camera is housed, but Apple put a lot of other electronics in that part as well.
The thin size is the primary reason to spend an extra $200 for the iPhone Air over the iPhone 17, but there are other advantages as well. The device is a little bit taller and wider, which means that there is enough space for a 6.5-inch screen, just like the iPhone 17 Pro, whereas the iPhone 17 has a 6.3-inch screen.
You also get more durability: a frame made of titanium instead of aluminum, and it uses Ceramic Shield technology not only on the front of the iPhone (like the iPhone 17) but also on the back, making the back stronger and more resistant to cracks.
You also get a faster device. Like the iPhone 17 Pro, the iPhone Air uses the A19 Pro chip instead of the A19.
With the thin size, I expected far less battery life. Instead, there is only somewhat less battery life: 27 hours of video playback instead of 30 hours. Part of the reason for the surprisingly good battery life is that instead of using a Qualcomm modem (which is more powerful but more power hungry), Apple is using a modem it designed itself, called the C1X, which is more efficient.
Moreover, if there is a specific circumstance in which you want extra battery life, Apple has reintroduced the $99 MagSafe battery pack that I love so much, and this time it has a USB-C connector instead of Lightning. Keep that in your pocket or purse, pop it on when you need a boost, and Apple says that you can get another 65% of charge (so I suppose another 17 hours of video playback). Note that the new iPhone Air MagSafe Battery only works with the iPhone Air (it is too tall to fit below the camera bumps of other iPhone models), so I guess I’ll have to keep using my old model (with its Lightning connector) with my iPhone Pro.
The front camera on the iPhone Air is the same, improved front camera that you get with the iPhone 17. On the back, there is only a single camera, so you don’t get the Ultra Wide camera (which is useful not only when you want to zoom out and see more but also when you want a Macro camera).
The iPhone Air comes in four colors: Sky Blue, Light Gold, Cloud White, and Space Black.
For the past few years, you could pay a little bit more than the entry-level iPhone and get a “Plus” model with a larger screen that was otherwise the same. This year, if you pay more, you get an iPhone that has a somewhat larger screen but also a new, incredibly thin body. Plus, you get a little more power, a little more durability, and a surprisingly good battery that you can easily supplement with the new iPhone Air MagSafe Battery. The only downside, besides the additional $200, is that you don’t get the Ultra Wide camera, but I suspect that if the camera really mattered to you, you would be getting an iPhone Pro.
I’m sure that many people will want the iPhone Air because they want the best iPhone. Based on the early feedback I’ve seen from people who held one on Apple’s campus yesterday, it looks and feels great in your hand. On the other extreme, if you just want an iPhone to get your work done, the iPhone Air may still appeal to you because this thin, light model is less intrusive. I look forward to reading the review from folks who have lived with this model for a while, but I suspect that this model will be popular and have lots of fans.
One last note: I’m surprised that it is called the “iPhone Air” and not the “iPhone 17 Air.” When it is improved in the future, I guess the next model will be called the iPhone Air 2?
iPhone 17 Pro and iPhone 17 Pro Max
The iPhone Air is a substantially new design, but the Pro models also get a new design this year. I think it looks great, and it is very functional. Apple is using a heat-forged aluminum unibody enclosure that is optimized for performance and battery life. And it features a vapor chamber with deionized water sealed inside to move heat away from the A19 Pro chip. My current iPhone 16 Pro can get noticeably hot when it is doing processor-intensive tasks, and when an iPhone gets too hot, it has to throttle down performance. Hopefully, this new design will mean that the iPhone 17 Pro stays cooler in your hand and has sustained performance.
The new unibody design also improves durability. Plus, like the iPhone Air, the iPhone 17 Pro has a Ceramic Shield on the back and the new Ceramic Shield 2 on the front, all of which should be more resistant to cracks and scratches.
The iPhone 17 Pro has a 6.3-inch screen. With the iPhone 17 Pro Max, you get a 6.9-inch screen. Those are the same screen sizes as last year’s iPhone 16 Pro and Pro Max. However, Apple says that these new screens have better anti-reflection.
The processor in the new Pro models is the new A19 Pro, the same chip used in the iPhone Air. But the Pro models are slightly better because they have a 6-core GPU versus the 5-core GPU on the iPhone Air. How much of a difference that makes in real life remains to be seen.
I like to take pictures and videos, so a major reason that I pay more for a Pro model is the better cameras. Last year, the iPhone 16 Pro and Pro Max featured three cameras on the back: a 48MP (megapixel) Ultra Wide camera (for 0.5x), a 48MP Fusion Main camera (for 1x and 2x), and a 12MP Telephoto camera (for 5x). This year, the main camera stays the same. The Ultra Wide camera now gains “Fusion,” which is the term Apple uses when the camera takes both a 12MP picture (to maximize light capture) and a 48MP picture (to capture fine detail) and then fuses those into a single 24MP image. In other words, photos that you take with the 0.5x lens should be better with this model.
Instead of last year’s 5x camera, this year there is a 4x camera. But that’s not a step down; it’s actually a step up. That’s because the telephoto camera on the iPhone 16 Pro was only a 12MP camera. The new iPhone 17 Pro telephoto camera is a 48MP camera. What this means is that the iPhone can use all 48MP to give you a 4x zoom, or can focus on just the 24MP in the middle to give you an 8x zoom. Yes, it is true that is cropped from the 4x image, but the 8x 24MP photo should be a step up from last year’s 5x 12MP photo. I often find it very useful to have a zoom lens. A zoom lens that is both better quality (48MP or 24MP versus 12MP) and a higher magnification (8x versus 5x) sounds great to me, and I cannot wait to try it out. The range from 0.5x to 8x is 16x, so you get a ton of flexibility on how you want to frame your shot.
Apple says that the 8x mode is equivalent to a 200mm focal length. Before I shifted to the iPhone for virtually all of my photography, I previously used a Nikon DSLR camera, and I really loved Nikon’s Superzoom lens, which went from 18mm to 200mm. When David Pogue was writing for the New York Times, he would frequently praise that lens, such as in this article from 2007. While I enjoy the 5x zoom on my iPhone 16 Pro (120mm equivalent), going up to 8x (200mm equivalent) seems like a substantial improvement. Of course, with that much zoom, it will be even more important to hold the camera very steady, but Apple has always done a great job with image stabilization software, and I’m sure that Apple has incorporated that into the 8x mode.
The Pro models also give you the best battery life. For example, video playback on last year’s iPhone 16 Pro was 27 hours, and last year’s iPhone 16 Pro Max was 33 hours. The new iPhone 17 is 30 hours. The new iPhone 17 Pro is 33 hours—just like last year’s Pro Max. And the new iPhone 17 Pro Max is 39 hours. Other tasks will result in different battery life, of course. I know that whenever I take 4K HDR video of my daughter playing basketball and she has multiple games in a single day, it can eat up a lot of my battery on my iPhone 16 Pro Max. With an iPhone 17 Pro Max, I should be able to do more without running out of battery life.
When you do need to recharge, if you use a 40W adapter, you can charge up to 50% in only 20 minutes. (Last year’s iPhone 16 Pro could use a 20W adapter to charge up to 50% in 30 minutes.)
And you get other various advantages with this Pro model. It has more memory than ever before. Just like last year’s model, the iPhone 17 Pro has USB-C that supports USB 3, allowing up to 10 gigabits per second transfer speed (if you use a cable that supports that speed). That can make it much faster to transfer video or other large files to and from the iPhone. And if you need tons of space for those large files, you can get a version of the iPhone 17 Pro Max with 2TB of capacity. That costs $1999, so it is the first iPhone to ever cost (essentially) $2000, but if you need to keep a ton of files on your iPhone, now you can do so. My current iPhone 16 Pro Max is the 512GB model, and I love being able to load it up with anything that I might want—whether it is a very large file associated with a lawsuit or tons of home videos that I might want to view or share with others. But I’m currently getting close to that 512GB limit, so I’m currently weighing whether to spend $1399 for the iPhone 17 Pro Max 512GB model or $1599 for the 1TB model.
As an Apple Vision Pro user, I like that my current iPhone can record spatial video at 1080p and 30fps, but I had hoped for something more in the iPhone 17 Pro, such as spatial video at 4K. But unfortunately, that wasn’t changed this year.
The iPhone 17 Pro models come in three colors: Silver, Cosmic Orange, and Deep Blue. Many people will love the new orange color because it is so different from all prior iPhones. Since 2008, I’ve been purchasing black iPhones, and for the first time, I’ll need to select a different color this year. I think I’m going to get the Deep Blue.
The Phone 17 Pro has 256GB and starts at $1,099. That is $100 more than the cheapest iPhone 16 Pro, but that model had only 128GB, and it is the same price as the 256GB iPhone 16 Pro. The iPhone 17 Pro Max also starts at 256GB, which costs $1,199.
If you want the most performance, the best battery life, and the best cameras, the iPhone 17 Pro or Pro Max is the model to get.
Conclusion
This is the strongest iPhone lineup that I’ve seen in a long time. There is so much to love here: a fantastic entry-level model, a great new thin design with the iPhone Air, and two powerful Pro models. Choice is a good thing, but I’m sure that many will have difficulty choosing between models. Pre-orders start this Friday, September 12, and these models will be available in stores one week later on September 19.