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

my 1st impression is the aluminum case will easily scratch and quite impressed with the new camera since I enjoy taking picture of my watches with iPhone.
 
AgeOfSpiracles said:
Guess I've been living under a rock, I had no idea Windows users didn't still sync via iTunes.
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I sync music only via iTunes.
mudflap said:
I would love to see an Air Mini. I miss small phones. I should have bought the SE's before but I was in a bigger-is-better phase that I've since grown out of. I just want something that can fit in my pocket without it looking like I have an angular armadillo in my trousers.
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"Angular Armadillos" sounds like a great punk band name. Or a good name for a bowling team!
 
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bmustaf said:
"There is no titanium this year, because Apple discovered that it wasn't great for dissipating heat." - This made me chuckle. They didn't discover this, it's been known for a very long time (e.g. Ti thermals). I find it hard to believe Apple didn't know this. Titanium's thermal properties have been very well understood for a very long time. A high school textbook would tell you it is one of the more inferior metals (in any of its alloys) for this purpose.

Apple employs some of the world's most talented people, there's no way they didn't know. They chose it knowing this (for what reasons, likely only they can say).
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The reasons for using titanium alloys are quite obvious. Titanium alloys are superb for making light strong frames for things like fighter airplanes and iPhone Pros. And the titanium alloys can also be beautiful and tough on the exterior.
 
ridgero said:
The Air will be the winner. Maybe not at the start, but over time.

Why: It has all the essentials of a modern phone and does not feel and look like a tumor.
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Your opinion "feel and look like a tumor" is noted, and we disagree. As the cheaper/lighter/lamed version, the iPhone Air will indeed sell well just like the cheaper/lighter/lamed MacBook Air does. However there are many folks like me who will tolerate a bit more weight to get far better three cameras instead of one and stronger two speakers instead of one.
 
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johnsawyercjs said:
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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Apple has never done this with an iPhone and they never will.

Next year they will call it the iPhone 18 Air or the iPhone Air 2.

They didn't need to do that this year as it's the very first of its kind.
 
I got the iPhone 17 Pro Blue, thank gos not the silver which may be the ugliest iPhone ever.

Air looks great, only one that looks premium or flagship like, but two specs I value most are battery life and camera.

I think this is a huge miss by Apple, it’s been a while since a phone maker has created such an ugly “flagship” phone.

I’d probably keep my 16 Pro if I hadn’t already told my son he could have it.
 
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segfaultdotorg said:
Huge fail on Apple's part. Only two out of these three should exist. Either make the flagship the thinnest/lightest or incorporate that into the base model. And do away with the camera warts!
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The Air will replace the vanilla iPhone in the not too distant future.
 
I got the Air after having the 16 Pro Max and I think it was the wrong choice for me.
Yes the Air is light. But it's also very noticeably smaller, turns out 0.5 of an inch is very noticeable🤷🏻‍♂️
Also it's not as thin as everyone makes it out to be. I found it surprisingly thicker than I expected.
 
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bmustaf said:
"There is no titanium this year, because Apple discovered that it wasn't great for dissipating heat." - This made me chuckle. They didn't discover this, it's been known for a very long time (e.g. Ti thermals). I find it hard to believe Apple didn't know this. Titanium's thermal properties have been very well understood for a very long time. A high school textbook would tell you it is one of the more inferior metals (in any of its alloys) for this purpose.

Apple employs some of the world's most talented people, there's no way they didn't know. They chose it knowing this (for what reasons, likely only they can say).
Click to expand...
My 15 Pro Max can’t function in a waterproof neck strap case like you see at the beach. Overheats when in camera mode so can’t take pictures!

My 8+ and 12pro did not have that problem nor does my wife’s 16.
 
Not going to lie, I wasn’t a fan of the Air rumours and just wanted to check out if they’d release a Plus model to replace my 15PMx, but after launch I feel more and more inclined by the Air over the regular 17.

The white air reminds me of the X, something I loved so much! With the battery not being as bad I expected, I really might upgrade to the Air once the discounts start to kick in by the new years.
 
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I took a look at all 3 in store. The Air isn't as light as one might think. It's lighter than the 17 of course, but not by a huge amount. All 3 phones had the PWM disable switch.

The line outside the local Apple store was the longest I've seen in many years.
 
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Good video. Saw the new iPhones in store. Love the orange color. Mine will take a couple of weeks to be delivered. Liked the polished titanium frame of the Air. But with one camera lens only, I decided not to go for it. Also the colors were unimpressive.
 
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jeffjank33 said:
I got the iPhone 17 Pro Blue, thank gos not the silver which may be the ugliest iPhone ever.

Air looks great, only one that looks premium or flagship like, but two specs I value most are battery life and camera.

I think this is a huge miss by Apple, it’s been a while since a phone maker has created such an ugly “flagship” phone.

I’d probably keep my 16 Pro if I hadn’t already told my son he could have it.
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I got the iPhone 17 Pro as well, thankfully not in vomit Orange or Debbie Does Dallas 70’s era porno Deep Blue.

I’m obviously kidding, because I think Silver is fugly too, but it offended my sensibilities a little less with the proper case than the other “choices”, all of which IMO are straight up fugly including silver.

The Air does look great because, unlike the iPhone 17 Pro, Apple actually offers up colors people want to and not the disgusting bag of farts they decided to offer up to their iPhone “Pro” user base.

After having read the iPhone 17 reviews, Apple is making that model the sweet spot between colors people want, most of the features people want with exception of the notable uptick in better battery life and the better camera.

I’m having buyers remorse big time with this new iPhone 17 Pro. I took the iPhone 15 Pro out of its case and couldn’t help but marvel at that awesome looking and feeling, black titanium finisnh.

It feels and looks superior to the iPhone 17 Pro in every way, but I too wanted more battery life and the better camera and, as always, hoped the better processor and additional RAM might pay dividends in the future which is exactly what happened with the iPhone 15 Pro.

The iPhone 15 Pro could run Apple Intelligence thanks to the extra RAM it had and Apple eventually brought ChatGPT’s image recognition … I mean “Visual Intelligence” … to the iPhone 15 Pro as well.

My hope is that Apple it sitting on some new features that won’t see or hear about until later in the iOS 26 or iOS 27 cycles that wind up only working on these Pro level devices.

If they don’t then I’m off the Pro train. I’ll go with the 2027 20 year edition, provided they come up with something really cool for the design, which I’m sure will be at Pro level pricing then off board to the regular iPhone models on a 3 to 4 year upgrade cycle because frankly the 12 to the 15 to the 17 has been underwhelming. We hit peak smart phone a while ago. Only AI plus AR glasses will likely move the needle for me in the next few years and Apple is way behind on both at the moment.
 
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