iPhone 17 launched : All you want to know

APPLE’S annual September event has kicked off and the gadgets are coming thick and fast – including the iPhone 17, a brand new pair of AirPods that let you understand other languages and a life-saving Apple Watch that can spot the signs of hypertension.

• iPhone 17

It’s that time of year again! Apple has officially unveiled the iPhone 17 series, and while the spotlight was on the Pro models and the all-new iPhone 17 Air, the base iPhone 17 quietly brings its own set of small but meaningful updates. Nothing dramatic, but enough to matter if you are upgrading from an older iPhone.

• iPhone 17 has launched with meaningful upgrades

The iPhone 17 made its debut during Apple’s latest September event, joining the lineup alongside the iPhone 17 Pro, iPhone 17 Pro Max and the completely new iPhone 17 Air. While this year’s bigger upgrades clearly went to the Pro models and the Air, the regular iPhone 17 hasn’t been left empty-handed.

Design-wise, the iPhone 17 doesn’t reinvent the wheel. It looks almost identical to last year’s iPhone 16 with its vertical dual-camera setup, but Apple did tweak the display. The phone now features a 6.3-inch OLED panel with Ceramic Shield, a bump up from the iPhone 16’s 6.1-inch screen. Despite the larger display, the overall size hasn’t really changed thanks to thinner bezels.

And the best of all? We finally get ProMotion, Apple’s way of saying 120Hz refresh rate. Plus, this time around the display supports 3000 nits of peak brightness.

• Color options this time include:

Lavender

Mist Blue

Sage

Black

White

The phone also comes with the expected IP68 water and dust resistance, making it capable of handling water and dust without issue. On the sides, you get two familiar buttons: the Action Button, which can be programmed for shortcuts like opening the camera or muting the phone, and the Camera Control Button (introduced last year), which lets you shoot, zoom in or out, and handle camera functions more easily.

Now, as I already mentioned, there is still a dual camera setup on the back. And while the rear cameras are unchanged from last year, the front camera gets a much-needed boost. Here is the full setup:

48 MP main camera

12 MP telephoto camera

24 MP selfie camera

Yep, the big change is that 24 MP selfie camera, which should make FaceTime calls, video chats, and selfies look much sharper – a long-overdue improvement for many users.

For the first time, the sensor is square, which means it delivers high resolution no matter how you hold the phone, offering four different compositions. That also means you don’t need to rotate your device to capture a landscape shot. On top of that, AI automatically expands the view, making it especially handy for group photos.

As usual, Apple didn’t share the exact battery size, but all signs suggest it is the same 3,600 mAh capacity as the iPhone 16. That should still be enough for a full day of moderate use, possibly more. Apple says that thanks to ProMotion, the base iPhone 17 now promises 8 hours more of video streaming. Charging is now faster, with Apple claiming 50% in 20 minutes.

Inside, Apple equipped the iPhone 17 with the latest A19 chipset, which gives it the extra horsepower needed to handle all the new Apple Intelligence features (more on those in a moment). The letdown, though, is memory – we are stuck with 8 GB of RAM when many were hoping for at least 12 GB this year. As for storage, your options are:

256 GB

512 GB

And since I’ve already brought up Apple Intelligence, let’s dive into it. The iPhone 17 ships with iOS 26 out of the box, and that means full access to Apple’s AI-powered tools, including:

Writing tools: proofread or rewrite text in different styles.

Transcript summaries: automatically condense long notes into key takeaways.

Priority messages in Mail: push time-sensitive emails straight to the top of your inbox.

Image Playground: create custom images in seconds from prompts, concepts, or even people in your Photos library.

Clean Up: erase distracting background objects in your photos with a single tap.

As always, you can count on at least six years of OS updates, plus a couple of extra years of security patches – though those tend to arrive less frequently.

(Phoneareana)