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iPhone 17 Lineup Hands On: Air's Thinness vs Pro's Power

Gosh, Air has a single speaker and USB2 speed on top of a single camera, questionable thermals, low battery life.

Prediction: It is pretty so will sell well until the complaints about "battery life" make it into the daily discussions for non-technical folks (and as the battery degrades will worsen), "Did you hear, Air battery is horrible. My friend got one and says its pretty but hates the battery life"
 
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WannaGoMac said:
Gosh, Air has a single speaker and USB2 speed on top of a single camera, questionable thermals, low battery life.

Prediction: It is pretty so will sell well until the complaints about "battery life" make it into the daily discussions for non-technical folks (and as the battery degrades will worsen), "Did you hear, Air battery is horrible. My friend got one and says its pretty but hates the battery life"
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Gosh....no
 
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Just got my iPhone 17 Pro and omg this is the worst experience I've ever had with setting up my new phone. It has kept erroring out each time with a prompt of an old phone number that's not associated with my account. I'm literally stuck and refuse to restore my old Apple info. FU Apple, I'm done with this ****.

Update: After trying over and over again, it finally allowed me to sign-in. Not sure why, but okay. Now, trying to fix this old authorized phone number that is no longer active on my account. Sadly, Apple forces me to go to the web on all my devices to change it, but if I try to add or remove the old number, it says, do it from your Apple device. WTF, all flows on Apple devices, redirects back to the web. Another bad cycle of UI/UX that I guess has no solution but to call Apple support.

3rd update: Contacted Apple support. Having to do the account recovery process and then try to do an account migration to another account. That was the only solution, and that requires me to wait 72+ hours with the account recovery process. Which makes sense for account security, but is annoying.
 
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Apple.Fanatic said:
Just got my iPhone 17 Pro and omg this is the worst experience I've ever had with setting up my new phone. It has kept erroring out each time with a prompt of an old phone number that's not associated with my account. I'm literally stuck and refuse to restore my old Apple info. FU Apple, I'm done with this ****.
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That sounds frustrating. Sorry you are having to deal with this. When I bought my last iPhone 13 Pro it took about 10 minutes. It appears Tim may not have had the products ready for the Sept launch but decided he needed to do it anyway. Sad.
 
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chrono1081 said:
I've never once found these stories to be credible. I remember how people were saying how easily "chipped" the M2 MacBook Air in the midnight color was, yet after years of constantly plugging peripherals in and out I still have yet to see any of that. Same goes for my MBP, same goes for my titanium banded phone...

I think some people just are super careless with their stuff and blow it up online so that they can try and get apple on their side for an exchange.
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Some drop tests compared it to the 16 pro and aluminum wins all day everyday, sure the paint chips but when both were dropped, it took a long time for the 17 pro to break, reason being aluminum absorbs more of the fall than titanium for it being heavier. The 16 pro was shattered front and back easily, while the 17pro had to be thrown with force or a higher height for it to finally break.

darngooddesign said:
Which one is the 'All iPhone'? Is it the iPhone 17 All?
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So what’s your argument about Apple Watches? Do you consider the Ultra the Apple Watch 11? Not once in the keynote did they call it 17 air, Just Air.

It’s the new line up, next year or two years from now it will be Air 2, not 19 Air or whatever.
 

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Macalway said:
There isn't a 17 for the Air. Mainly, because:

1) It's not needed
2) Being light, it's doesn't need the baggage
3) It's in a league of it's own.
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Yup, at least for now, just "Air" is enough to tell people what it is, since there's been no prior Air model.

But this makes for a minor situation in the following years when Apple releases the subsequent Air models. If every year's Air is just called "Air", its base name, it won't convey which year a given Air model is. I suspect Apple will continue calling later models "iPhone Air" in much of its sales literature, but most people will call it 17 Air, 18 Air, etc.

Apple has plenty of precedent for this, since every time they release a new Macbook Air, Pro, Mac mini, etc., their website's opening ad and sales pages refer to these just using their base names, without their official addendums or generation names like '13-Inch, M4, 2025', though it's a mix of naming conventions on those pages, since there Apple does use numbers for iPhones, Apple Watches, etc. Deeper into Apple's website, where more details are listed for their products, they tack on the more detailed addendum which usually includes the model year designation, if applicable.

While it would seem odd, at least now, to start referring to products like Macbooks as the "Macbook 17" if it's the 2017 model, once the next Air is released, it'll be natural to refer to it as the "17 Air", "18 Air", etc., or maybe "Air 1", "Air 2", etc.
 
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Got my iPhone Air today. Some observations:

1) I can’t believe how thin it is. Coming from a 16 Pro, this thing is amazing — even with my low-profile case on it

2) Mono speaker is fine. I’m listening to YouTube Music as I type this on my phone and I don’t see what all the fuss is over the lack of stereo speakers. I’m at 30% volume and it’s plenty loud and sound good. I use my AirPods Pro 2 or AirPods Max most of the time anyway.

3) It got very warm when I was doing the data transfer from my iPhone 16 Pro to the Air. The Air was at 62% when I took it out of the box and I immediately put it on my 60W USB-C charger. In the middle of the transfer when the battery got to 82% it threw up a warning that charging would be disabled until the phone cooled down. It wouldn’t charge for about 15 mins, then it started back to charging once the file transfer was winding down. My iPhone 16 Pro gives this message EVERY TIME I attempt to charge it on our Teslas’ wireless charging pads.

I haven’t really messed with the camera or cellular connectivity yet, but I don’t foresee having any issues.
 
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chrono1081 said:
This was the first year in a long time I didn't upgrade my phone. I went to Best Buy hoping that maybe it would spark interest but the I hate hate hate the pros now. They're thick, heavy, and ugly (and I say this as someone who had a Pro Max for years). I like the Air but I use the camera a ton, if it wasn't for that I'd grab one of those.

The pros don't even look like Apple phones IMO, the sleekness is gone and it looks like a phone inside a cheap case.
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Hmmmm
 
I pre ordered the 17PM Orange. It’s a beautiful device. But this morning they had black air for pickup still at the Apple Store…

Holy hell the air is something special. It’s such a tough choice. I’ve had a PM size since the Xs Max.

I’ve wanted an orange forever. And my gosh that color is incredibly beautiful.

I have no idea what to do!!!!
 
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ceddy said:
Stopped by the Apple store to check out the new phones. The Air really is thin for sure. My takeaway was that the Pro models feel way less premium than the last gen, and the orange hue is a bit pale for my tastes.
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That orange hue is far from pale…..
 
ab2c4 said:
Macrumors, you mentioned that the 17 Pro's have slightly more rounded edges making them more comfortable to hold. Does the Air have the same more rounded edges like the 17 Pro, or are they like the 16 Pro?
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It’s like the 17 pro. Rounded. The pros do feel really nice to hold. It doesn’t feel premium. But it does feel pro.

The air is just something else. I instantly fell in love. So now I have an air in black and pro max in orange…. Gotta choose. I’ll probably go air for price. $899 with my discount, with my 16PM $700 trade… $199 for that thing… vs $499 for the orange is really all I want.
 
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