Apple Unveils iPhone 17 Lineup, Including Ultra-Thin iPhone Air

“I’d rather see Apple refocus its efforts on a smaller iPhone rather than making one that’s even larger yet…”
I agree. There is a need to return to the original iPhone concept of a compact phone with useful extra features. The current models are more like a small tablet that also functions as a phone.

I’d love a smaller phone, too, but Apple tried that for two years and too few people bought them.

Based on rumors, it seems obvious to me that this Air is a precursor / test run for a foldable phone next year, which will need two thin halves in order to not be too thick.

Is there data to back this claim up? My impression has always been that the SE line was incredibly popular. I think Apple killed this form factor because they want to stop supporting smaller screens, not because the form factor was unpopular.

I still haven’t upgraded my SE, and I remain unsure what I’ll go to when I do.

It occurred to me after posting that you might be talking about the “mini” line of phones, which were in fact unpopular. I think Apple shot itself in the foot with this line in a number of ways. But bear in mind the SE was out there as on option the whole time the Minis were on the market.

I think that ship has sailed.

I think this Apple follows the money and if the smaller form factor was selling, they’d go with it. They’re not; it’s not.

(I realize this will never convince the mini-ride-or-die contingent)

I’d love to know the actual numbers on that, whether in units sold or, more importantly, profitability. I’d expect that they were able to turn on a profit on the minis and SEs, even if it wasn’t enough to give Apple’s shareholders the margins they are looking for. I doubt the issue is that they didn’t sell; the issue is that they didn’t sell enough to meet their targets. My 13 mini remains a great phone.

(I realize that Apple doesn’t break out its numbers that way.)

I’d also prefer focus put on a smaller device, not just thinner. That said, I do like that the Air emphasizes great screen and lighter weight while remaining humble when it comes to cameras. In the past, Apple forced folks who wanted a great screen to go Pro and thus incur the size and weight penalty that comes from a truck of a camera array. The Air now gives people a great screen without forcing camera overkill. With my photo skills I’m sure an Air or 16e would easily suffice. The 16e was dismissed for having just a single camera, but I have little doubt if the Air takes off those same reviewers will spin things so that the single camera is not an issue at all.

Some of the criticism leveled elsewhere against the Air in terms of battery I cannot follow. The battery life of the Air is exactly the same as that of the 16 Pro. And I do not recall the 16 Pro getting dinged for its “all-day” battery life. Perhaps some people are getting carried away with the battery pack offered for the Air.

Personally I wouldn’t get an Air. For me it’s just too big at 8+ mm taller and 3+ mm wider than my 15 which I already cannot operate single handed. And I could not argue that the better screen of the Air over the 16e justifies an extra $300 (256 GB model). The Air certainly offers other improvements over the 16e, but to me the only one that really counts would be the better screen. I don’t need the extra CPU or RAM (on a phone), I don’t need a better selfie camera or Wifi7/BT6/Thread.

The 17 itself seems to be the star of the show. It got a superior screen that was previously exclusive to the Pro. And with the new 256 GB base, most users will be perfectly happy getting pretty much everything you need at $800 and forgetting about $1100+ Pro models that at this point seem to be geared at people who want the best cameras possible, videographers with huge storage demands, or those that just want the most expensive iPhone money can buy.

I guess if my 15 got run over by a truck, I’d likely replace it with either a 16e or a 17, not a 16. The 17 offers a much nicer screen for only $100 more than the 16e at 256 GB. Even if I’d be content with 128 GB (which I am now, but assume I’ll no longer be a year or two from now) I’d probably still not go for the 16, but rather just take a 16e and enjoy saving $100 with no real perceived downside. Of course, what I’d really like is the guts of the 17 in a 12/13 mini form factor and that appears just not to be happening.

I’m still turned off by Apple thinking it’s acceptable in 2025 to sell a $1k premium phone with 480 Mbps USB2 from the year 2000. But I won’t lose sleep over it. I’ve just given up hope they will once again become sufficiently aggressive, unless eventually forced to by declining sales revenue.

What I do find really surprising is that Apple seems to have made a much stronger case this time for their regular non-Pro iPhone and buyers saving money. I’m used to seeing them emphasize upsell and pushing people to their high revenue models. But not feeling that this time. Perhaps they expect the Air will do spectacular and if that happens I’m sure they’ll make a ton of profit off of it considering the $1k price tag. OTOH perhaps they are hedging their bets for a broader economic downturn they anticipate. If people start limiting their spending on these phones, perhaps it makes more sense to offer them a cheaper iPhone that still presents a decent upgrade and at least making some profit from that sale over watching people just hold on to their older iPhone and not buying at all.

I’m very happy Apple made use of the space saved by not having a SIM card slot (on models sold in the US, Canada, Japan, and a few others) for extra battery. Much better than just installing a plastic insert. Great improvement!

Last thought. Any idea why the iPhone Air was labeled the Air and not the 17 Air? Could this be intended as a one-off? Perhaps until release of the foldable?

I think Apple believes, correctly, that if they stop offering a small iPhone, most customers who want a small iPhone will buy a larger one. If you can serve the same number of customers with a smaller number of products, you make more money, and that’s been Apple’s general approach to product lines since Steve Jobs came back in 1997.

Even if most of these customers were willing to switch to Android (I suspect most are not), nobody else is making a sub 5" smartphone either (unless you count foldables, which I really don’t). Apple’s motivation to keep making a small phone might be higher if they had competition in this area which was stealing a substantial amount of their business-- but they don’t. They just have legacy customers who refuse to upgrade. Apple won’t blink, and eventually those holdouts will stop holding out.

And if the customers don’t like it, they can try using two dixie cups and a string.

I’m going to move from the iPhone 13 to the 17. I don’t need the Pro features and while the Air is intriguing it’s not worth $200 more to me. Like Adam, I wish the colors were nicer. But that’s not enough to make me wait another year to upgrade.

Actually, 2 TB is only an option on the Pro Max, not the regular Pro.

I’m one of the 13 mini holdouts. It doesn’t particularly affront me that Apple doesn’t make a phone I want to buy now; they don’t owe me anything, after all. But on the other hand they’re not getting any upgrade dollars from me either.

If something happened to this phone tomorrow, I would buy the cheapest available model - the 16e maybe, or something refurbished. It’s all well and good how many jigaflops the new cpus can crunch, but I’m still going to mainly use my phone for email and Signal and some dumpy bank apps.

Very likely, but it’s not as though the iPhone 16 Plus was enough of a hit to keep around either. It seems that the plain iPhone, the iPhone Pro, and the iPhone Pro Max are all popular, and there’s a fourth slot that will never be equivalent. If Apple is going to goof around in this slot, I’d prefer to see a smaller model. Whether or not it sold well, it’s an absolute constant in what people in my everyday life tell me for why they aren’t upgrading, usually from a rather old iPhone. Eventually, they’ll break down since there’s no alternative.

Fixed, thanks!

Same. It should run for many more years even if I cannot upgrade iOS.

I won’t. I will stay with the SE3 until it dies. After that, maybe not even bother with a phone.

Thanks for the excellent summary and perspective, Adam.

You know? After all these years of watching these introductions I’ve come to think that deep in Cupertino there is an Apple Superlatives Thesaurus (with modern movie trope enclosures). Kind of like the library in Dr. Strange with books behind doors, chained to their shelves. “Ah! Glasshoppah! You must describe the latest iPhone? Take this and memorize every adjective and pungent noun! You may not take it out of the library before your performance—too dangerous for mortals. Memorize ‘greatest,’ ‘astounding,’ and most importantly ‘neural cores’ or ‘amazing neural cores’ for success!”

Dave

I suspect they’re separating it out to take it off the annual upgrade cycle. The specs are high, it’ll be a solid choice for a good while.

My 16 Pro overheats regularly. This, I may add, is in Ireland.

I found it interesting that they spent quite a bit of time on the thermal approach for the 17 Pro.

That seems logical, but this is a premium phone, not like the SE which is sold as a budget model. Will the iPhone Air lose its luster compared to an iPhone 19 (non-fold)? And if that’s how numbering (or not) works, does that mean there will inevitably be an iPhone 17e?

I understand making different phones for different folks, in order to appeal overall to a larger market, but are we at risk of spreading out so far that we will need a Jobsian clean-up in a few years?

My wife loves a bigger phone. Doesn’t bother with any iPad once she got one (the house has a bunch of iPads lying around, I tend to be the sole user). She’d love the Air I bet.

I’m currently rocking a 2022 iPhone SE, and for me it’s not so much the size — I wouldn’t mind if it was larger — but the form factor that I like and prefer, particularly the Home button / Touch ID.

The new iPhones get a collective ‘meh’ from me. With the exception of the iPhone Air — or the iPhone Supermodel, as I’m going to call it — it’s mostly interations of last year’s models and those of the year before. I think @ace is right that it’ll be owners of older iPhones who’ll get the most benefit from upgrading, though even then it might me worth checking if a refurbished phone or last year’s model would be a better investment.

My biggest comment about the iPhones 17 is the Ceramic Shield glass on back, as well as the Pro design that minimizes the amount of glass. For me it’s about time. Fragile glass on the back or front of the phone was always a terrible design decision to me. I get that MagSafe charging required a non-metal surface, but a glass cutout like they’ve done on the Pro was always a better idea in my mind.

The A19 Pro shows impressive performance, especially its massive graphics boost vs. A18 Pro. Bodes well for the M5.

The svelte iPhone Air beats the iPhone 16 Pro tank despite fewer cores and thermal throttling. Quite impressive.

I’m curious about differences between A19 Pro and non-Pro, but my usual corners of the internet seem a bit mum on that right now. It’s tempting to think of Pro as more RAM, higher clock (due to vapor chamber thermal envelope), and more GPU cores but then the Air comes with a tighter thermal envelope and fewer GPU cores and yet it has a Pro. And there’s good indication that the non_Pro GPU’ 5 cores actually come with a higher peak clock than the Pro’s 6 GPU cores. So there must be some more going on here. Looking forward to a technical deep dive like the ones AnandTech used to do.

Not really that I care about iPhone CPU/GPU performance, just curious about the hardware. Especially considering the A19 likely tells us quite a bit about the upcoming M5 which I do care about. And not to forget, chances are we might soon see a new MacBook equipped for the first time with an A-series CPU, the A19 perhaps?

What seems to have been glossed over is the fact that the iPhone air does not support 5G mmWave (bands n258, n260 and n261) whereas even my lowly iPhone 13 does. So be prepared to sacrifice speed.

I have an iPhone 13 Pro and typically upgrade every 4 year years. I read over the specs generally, and see that optical zoom is improved from my 3x to 8x. I like using zoom. Macro too, but that’s fine.

Still, my iPhone 13 Pro still works fine, and remains under warranty. So I don’t feel a huge urge to upgrade right away. I understand the later versions support Apple Intelligence, but I still don’t know what that is and what it means for iPhone users.

Anyway, I’m not rushing to place an upgrade order. I will look for a side-by-side comparison of the iPhone 13 Pro and 17 Pro though. I think the “max” is too heavy and large for me.

To me the iPhone Air is the ugliest phone ever designed. I just don’t like camera bumps on phones, which increase their effective thickness. And once you add a case to make it flat so it won’t wobble when laid down on a table it makes no difference anyway. Why not make the whole thing as thick as the camera and use the space for an ultra high capacity battery?

I’m not sure I get the wobble thing – I just put my iPhone 16 down on the table and it’s lying there without wobbling. It would wobble if I typed on it or some such, but I don’t tend to do that. Do people put their phone down and then type on it?

Based on the thickness of the camera “plateau” plus the lenses, that would both be a very thick plus very heavy phone. Batteries are heavy.

I’m not a customer for the Air - I also want great battery life that lasts for at least three years, and I fear that the Air won’t be that - so I’m glad that Apple makes this compromise. With the full-length “plateau” on the Air and Pro, the wobble will not be much of a thing anyway (plus I always get a case anyway.)

I have reached the point where I am TRULY tired of Tim Cook saying every year “This is the best (insert product name) we have ever made.” I’m ALMOST to the point of not watching any more Apple Event keynotes at all. I still prefer the ones Steve Jobs did, although he also used superlatives a lot.

I’m afraid the problem will remain (if not made worse) because the camera lenses themselves stick out significantly beyond the plateau/bar itself on the Air and Pro, unfortunately. It’s a missed opportunity to make this part of the device flush. Just like, totally bizarre to me, Apple’s cases often added a lip around the bump area making sure even with a case on the device still cannot sit flush.

Perhaps a bit of a saving grace here is that the wobble is worst when tapping toward the top of the iPhone, but most of the typing is done toward the bottom of the device where iOS default puts the KB.

…because they designed them that way. They could have designed them like a Sony DSC-T1. The lens doesn’t extend out, because the extension is inside the camera, sideways. The optical path uses a prism to take 90 degree turn.

That I believe is how Apple engineered the telephoto lens on the 15 Pro Max. Not that that prevented its lens from sticking out beyond its already bulky camera bump.

Yes, I noticed that too. I was going to write about how I didn’t really notice any issues with my iPhone 16 Pro, and while I haven’t had any thermal warnings, I backed off on that comment when I remembered that it’s not uncommon to put it in my pocket (where it’s sitting full-face against my leg) and think, “Huh. It’s a little warm. I wonder why.” Usually, it was just charging or using GPS or something, but it does happen often enough that it triggered a neuron.

I’ve only seen thermal shutdown warnings when the phone is on the dashboard of my car on a hot day. I don’t do that anymore.

But that having been said:

• On a sunny day, even if the air is cool, the extra-bright screen will generate a lot of heat. After about 15 minutes or so, the screen drops down to very low brightness (thermal throttling?) until the phone cools off.
• I have often seen the “not charging due to temperature” warning, especially if I’m using it as a passenger in a car on a sunny day. (When I use it for navigation, it’s usually on a vent-mount so the car’s AC keeps it cool).

This might be because I have my phone in a case, which probably interferes with heat dissipation.

I’m afraid the case alone cannot explain it as I have no case at all on my 15 and I routinely see both behaviors you describe during the warmer times of the year.

The screen overheat is particularly annoying — the screen dims down precisely when you most need it to be bright, in direct sunshine. I’ll also note, this is in Berkeley, which is usually quite a bit cooler than Apple HQ down the road. It’s mind boggling to me that Apple engineers, sitting in one of the sunniest and warmest populated places on the planet, don’t see how this defies the entire use case. And that’s before we even consider what it’s like for folks in super hot areas like Phoenix, at any rate by now metro #5 in the US so you’d think the issue would carry some weight.

I’m glad I’m not buying an iPhone this year.

Why? I’ve been replacing my phone every 3 years, but to save money, buying the previous year’s model after the new model is released. I get 256 MB of storage.

The baseline for the iPhone 17 is 256 MB. Yay!

But, Apple just removed the 256 MB iPhone 16 from the store; you can only get it with 128 MB.

Which means, if this was my iPhone purchase year, I would be forced to buy the iPhone 17 for $100 more.

Fortunately, I hope, when I buy an iPhone 18 in 2027, there won’t be this problem since the minimum storage would be at least 256 MB.

But the price for the 16 with 128G is only $100 less than the price of a 17. If you could still get a 16 with 256G, it would have the same price as the 17 with 256G.

So what is the real complaint? If you want a phone, buy the base model 17 for the same price you would have paid for a 256G 16.

Since you were apparently willing to spend that much on a 16, why is paying the same price for a 17 with the same storage a problem?

Would it, though? Normally they lower the price on the prior year phones. Did they not do that this year?

For example, last year after the iPhone 16 came out, an iPhone 16 with 256 MB cost $929. The iPhone 15 with 256 MB cost $829.

The whole point of buying the previous year is to avoid the OLED tax. The price for the iPhone jumped dramatically with the iPhone X – ostensibly because OLED displays were supply constrained – and never went down.

On top of this is the 5G tax. The price for iPhones went up again with 5G. People who buy their iPhone from a major carrier (AT&T, Verizon, T-Mobile) can get a discount equal to the 5G tax, but not people like me who buy their phones unlocked.

For what it is worth…

* adjusted for carrier subsidy

That’s not correct. If you buy a 16 now it’s $100 less than a 17. As last year, with the 15 discounted vs. the 16.

What’s different this year is that if you opt for the 17 instead, for the same price as last the 16 last year, you now get an extra 128GB storage.

Now, if you need 256GB storage, that this year indeed pushes you to the 17, but you’re still saving $100 over what the storage-bumped 16 would have cost you on Mon. And if they had kept the 256GB config of the 16 around, that would still have cost you the same $800 as the 256GB base config of the new 17, so no loss there either.

The only way IMHO to spin this as a net negative is to claim that Apple, after the launch, is somehow obligated to offer all previous configs for one more year at –$100 compared to the new models with the same config ^[1]. But since they never truly did this before (the previous Pro, for example, was always removed right away), I fail to see why anybody would feel they are entitled to such an offer.

1. In essence calling for them to drop the 128GB 16 and instead offer the 256GB config of the 16 at –$100, i.e. amping up the base storage on the previous model rather than just on the new model as they did this time. ↩︎

Those numbers, adjusted for inflation:
2015 $750 is 2025 $1,020
2018 $750 is 2025 $963

They already adjusted the prices. Please look at the iPhone 16 product page.

• The 16 is $700, and is only available in 128G.
• The 16 Plus is $800 for 128G or $900 for 256G.

And the price for the 17: $800 for 256G and $1000 for 512G.

Compare this against that page, on September 5th (a week ago), which lists:

• The 16 for $800, $900 or $1100 for 128G, 256G or 512G, respectively.
• The 16 Plus for $900, $1000 or $1200 for 128G, 256G or 512G, respectively.

In other words, as @Simon wrote, the 17 is $100 less expensive than the old pricing was for a 16 with identical storage.

If Apple had kept the 256G 16, it would have been discounted by that same $100, making it the identical price to a 256G 17.

Oh, it’s a strongly-rumored new product that’s supposedly coming in the next 6-ish months.

On the note of iPhone Air battery life, it was just published that on all iPhone 17 models Apple has default turned on their new “Adaptive Power Mode” which supposedly leverages Apple Intelligence to curtail your circuitry’s power draw if it appears increased compared to some kind of learned baseline.

This setting iOS 26 is, however, default turned off on the iPhone 16 and 15 Pro despite their support for the feature (15 and lower don’t offer it due to lack of Apple Intelligence).

This raises the question if Apple’s battery life figures for the new iPhone 17 family, especially that of the Air, are perhaps inflated compared to previous generations because Apple is crediting some gain from Adaptive Power Mode. That’s certainly not illegitimate as long as the gain is real, but it would nevertheless be interesting to know what the baseline is for these comparisons. We know how battery capacities (mAh ratings) compare to previous models, but without knowing exactly how power consumption of the hardware has changed, that does not translate directly to battery life figures. I look forward to an apples to apples comparison in serious reviews.

I have been holding out, but I am caving for the 512GB Air. My battery is supposedly 80% and healthy, but I have found in use when out and about it drops precipitously. I could just get the battery replaced and did think about it, but there’s just enough I think I am missing out on: the Dynamic Island UI, ProMotion, some Apple Intelligence features, USB-C (or more accurately, being able to get closer to retiring Lightning) — and not experiencing lagginess in Safari when RAM gets low. And, I have the 256GB mini but it seems every time I want to use an app I haven’t used in a while, it has been offloaded. I hope the thinness offsets the linear dimensions… I guess we’ll see!

It is a pity though: my “fantasy” iPhone has always been the piece of glass the size of a credit card — like OG late '90s Sony phones, and I think not uncoincidentally, the screen size of the original iPhones, though clearly in both cases they had much more bulk. Sadly, the big phone people are winning, and I think they will continue to win until the “screen” is separated from the “puck,” assuming that this is the future of course (I think it probably is).

I have a 12 which is just fine but is at the upper end of physical size at 5” x 3” for me using the spacing between my ear canal and mouth.

When I went from a 12 mini to a 15 I was looking forward to Dynamic Island. While it is neat gimmick, two years later I don’t feel I’d miss it if it were gone. It doesn’t really do anything for me. The best part of it IMHO is that it’s less wide than the notch thus leaving more space for other stuff (but ironically still not enough, eg. wifi calling or alarm still all require me to open Control Center just to see if activated). But the actual functionality of Dynamic Island IMHO is totally meh. Just my 2¢ of course.

You can deactivate the auto offload and instead clean house manually (if and when necessary).
Settings > General > iPhone Storage > Offload Unused Apps > Disable

Completely agree. I still regret trading an iPhone XS for a 16 last year. Even with a case, it wobbles due to the lip around the camera tumor. And it’s just one factor that makes me call the 16 the worst industrial design Apple has put out in years. I’d use the iMac’s original hockey puck mouse all day if I could have an X form factor with updated battery and processor.

Yes, I’d definitely also take that deal. I’d only miss the right mouse button. The rest I’d adjust to.

Meh!

I don’t need any of this fancy new stuff, hardware or software wise. Impressive achievements in tech for sure, chasing worldwide user cases is also not easy.

Still, I might not say no to an ‘upgrade’ to a, say, Silver Wisdom color Senior Strong iPhone Air in 13 Mini or 7 size with 16GB, simple one-lens camera, no added ‘intelligence’ (human is sufficient), wifi, LTE, for like $299 or something.

Today’s age-related Accessibility features might be sufficient, I haven’t thoroughly checked them, but I think there are emergency call button products whose features could be integrated into iPhone’s what is it, ‘action button’ or multi tap on back etc.

Other features for Apple’s early adopters could be developed or enhanced (I started using Macs in the early 80s, in my 20s, and have stuck with Apple products since, so guess what, my tech needs are changing…) that would address this market segment. But I was never good at business so it’s pretty likely these will remain ideas… Maybe for another thread…

A first set of battery life tests has revealed that the Air lasted (web surfing over 5G) as long as the regular 17 to within a few %. This is just a first test and these tests are always tricky, so there’s that.

It is a shame though, they didn’t also run the same test on a 16 Pro to see if they can confirm Apple’s claim that the Air should hold up just as long as the 16 Pro. Considering the vastly different battery capacities (mAh), this would tell us quite a bit about the new circuitry’s power draw. Also, ideally using iOS 26, they’d also compare 16 Pro with and without Adaptive Power Mode.

Interesting perhaps is also that the Air lasted about equally as long as Samsung’s Air (25 Edge). The latter, despite essentially the same weight and thickness, though, comes with a dual lens complement, unlike the iPhone Air.

Last year’s 16 Pro review had 5G web surfing time of 14:07 for the 16 Pro (vs. this year’s 12:02 for the Air and 15:32 for the 17 Pro.) Last year’s 16 was 12:43 vs. this year’s 17’s 12:47, so basically it’s the same. Yes, different OSes, but also it would be hard to re-test a 16 Pro right now without figuring out some way to get one with a brand-new battery (though, of course, they could buy a new 16 I guess.)

I have an iPhone 14 and have always been frustrated being unable to focus on a plant in a landscape. In spite of being able to tap on my object of interest within the larger image, which summons a framed box indicating what you want to focus on, the camera always focuses on the background field. Many times a particular plant, for example a wild columbine, is the major plant against a field of stones or even a section of ledge yet the camera can’t distinguish the object of my desire. Any suggestions?

I’ve asked this before and no one answered…when does your phone wobble? Do you type with it on the table?

I keep my phone in a case (in my case, a Spigen case for an 13 mini), so there’s no wobble - the case flattens everything.

How many people don’t use a case of any kind with their phones? Everybody I know does, usually the result of some past incident involving damage from being dropped.

Typing isn’t really the issue. Set the phone on a horizontal surface such as a desk or cafe table and it can’t lie flat. The camera tumor raises the top right side. Any touch of the screen—tapping to wake/unlock, opening an app, anything—makes it rock. Previous models had flush backs, particularly with a case. They were quite usable in the horizontal. The camera tumor means you can only use it when holding. Very bad design.

I don’t really see this. Just compared my 16 Pro Max to the 17 Pro Max. The 16 has the camera in one corner, but it’s big enough the phone doesn’t rock unless you touch the top left corner. There it can be pressed down. But swiping up from the bottom or typing it is very stable.

The new 17 has the “camera plateau” which goes the full width of the phone and it’s even more stable, though pressing the top edge can cause some movement.

I do have mine in simple cases. Not sure if that makes a difference, though, not with the camera backs so huge. Maybe it’s different on models with a smaller camera bulge or smaller phone.

I do find the camera bulge ugly and wish the phone could be flat, but that’s more aesthetics than functionality.

I understand the mechanics of it. My question stems from the fact that I can’t imagine using the phone that way. If my phone’s on the desk, I pick it up for faceID and then continue to hold it for use (typing with my thumbs). Using it flat on the desk would require me to hunch over it, hold it in place with one hand, and then type with the other. That sounds really awkward.

But that’s me (anecdote!) so I was looking for someone with a specific actual use case that they either can’t do now or want to do but can’t because of the wobble.

I have never had a case. I tend to handle my equipment with care, a general life philosophy. And I don’t feel inclined to spend a lot of money on a device engineered to be as thin and pretty as reasonably possible only to then make it fat and ugly with a case. I would have been interested in starting to use a case because of camera tumor wobble, but since that proved apparently impossible thanks to case lips, I’m still where I’ve always been: no case on my iPhones.

A use case where the top bump makes a difference is if you are using the phone as a substitute for a spirit level (via the Measure app, for example). If you leave the phone by itself on a level surface, you’ll see a minus reading. Pushing the top down so that the phone rests on the top bump (in my case, the ridge on the case that surrounds the top bump and is slightly above the camera lenses), changes the reading to 0%.

So, while the bump doesn’t eliminate the ability to use the phone as a level, you need to be careful to get an accurate measurement.

Unlike in previous years, the iPhone Clear Cases for the iPhone 17 Pro and Pro Max are not completely clear. The flat area covering most of the back, below the plateau, is covered by a white insert with a centered Apple logo. Allegedly, this is because the treatment to ensure MagSafe compatibility is not centered and artistically conflicts with a centered Apple logo. So, Apple just avoided the whole problem by hiding the MagSafe circle and line in the insert. While this doesn’t look too bad on a silver phone, I imagine it is less than ideal on an orange or blue phone. With those phones, you may want to consider using a different case.

Clear Case on a Blue iPhone 17 Pro

Apple really should have produced variants of the case with the white panel replaced by one color-matched to the phone.

After I set up my iPhone 17 Pro on Friday, I had a weird networking issue that persisted for several hours:

I was using the phone on my home WiFi network and listening to a podcast, using AirPlay to send the audio to my Mac Studio speakers. Naturally, the phone is usually locked. However, when the phone was unlocked, WiFi would disconnect, with it taking 10 to 20 seconds to reestablish the connection. Because AirPlay was disrupted, the podcast would suddenly pause. I was worried that this would be a continuing issue. However, later in the day, the problem went away, with the iPhone maintaining WifF connectivity as it changed between locked and unlocked status in either direction.

While the problem was occurring, I tried various procedures to fix it. However, none of those actions seemed to have any effect; I was preparing to call Apple Support the next day, but the problem then resolved itself. I probably wouldn’t have noticed the issue if I hadn’t been running a task (AirPlay) that required a connection to the home network.

My feeling is that there are two basic groups of touchscreen users: two thumbers and one-finger pokers. I also think group “membership” is highly correlated with age. So, for me, I probably wouldn’t have any idea that poking and flat surface use happened much—along with the rocking problem—if I wasn’t a classical music, ballet, and opera fan.
;-)

I have used a 13 Mini for some years to image a wide variety of plants in our garden.

While I can’t speak for the 14, maybe it works similar, so it might depend on your technique. For instance, if you are moving close enough to fill the frame with the flower and the camera can’t focus that close, it might focus elsewhere.

There might be a tech spec somewhere saying what the minimum focus distance is with various lenses. You could carry a tape measure or remember a swag at this distance as a general guide to how close you can get.

Also you could try moving back, and cropping aggressively in Edit phase.

To help with focus maybe carry a small flashlight in your pocket/bag and use it to highlight the object you’re shooting, that might both improve the look and help camera focus.

Finally I’d suggest trying Portrait mode. I haven’t yet used Portrait mode on a human but it has served well for things like flowers and insects etc. and even provides some really odd and interesting effects sometimes.

If I think of anything else later I’ll aim to add it to the thread.

The button feel is much better for the iPhone 17 Pro Clear case. Previous clear cases have always had a mushy button feel, requiring a notable amount of effort to establish that a button had been pushed. The new Clear Case actually feels like a button has been pressed when you press the case over it.

I keep recipes on my phone. I often need to tap or scroll (or even type, if I’m amending a recipe) while I’m baking. That often involves tapping with my cleanest flour-and-fat coated finger (usually a pinky). If the phone rocks or wobbles, that makes the experience much less satisfactory.

Similarly, when I’m doing low-level coding I sometimes have reference material and notes on my phone since I’m frequently re-booting the computer to test code. Having to take both hands off my keyboard to pick up the phone just to navigate or type impedes my flow.

I am forever caseless.

Got it! Thanks.

I was just transferring my iPhone 16 Pro to my new iPhone 17, and to compare the physical dimensions, I took the iPhone 16 Pro out of its case and set it next to the iPhone 17 on the desk. (They’re nearly identical to eye and in heft.) I continued to perform the transfer steps from the old to the new while both were sitting uncased on the desk, and I did indeed find the wobble on both terribly distracting whenever I tapped buttons in the migration process. It was even worse on the iPhone 17 due to the camera bump being smaller.

That said, I then discovered that the iPhone 17 fits perfectly in the case I had for the iPhone 16 Pro, which completely eliminates the wobble. I’m not comfortable with an uncased iPhone, so the wobble doesn’t come up in real life. My lack of comfort stems from the fact that the iPhone is pretty slippery on its own, whereas the case makes it much less likely to slip from my fingers. Even with a case, I drop the iPhone in ways that I think would likely harm it several times a year, and each time I do, I breathe a sigh of relief after determining that the case has prevented any damage.

Thanks for the example!

Oh, wow, yes. My 16 is worse than a wet piece of soap.

Does anybody do stick on grip strips for iPhones?

(Wait! I searched Amazon and found this. I’m going to order it and see how it works. Will report back.)

I’m also careful with my equipment (the comment about being dropped refers mostly to friends and family).

In my case, I got the Spigen case, not so much for protection, but because I found that the side buttons are just too small for me to press comfortably. The Spigen Tough Armor case has plastic button-covers that make them much larger and easier to manipulate.

Funny you should mention that. I would probably be interested in a (thin) case that covers up all buttons and reroutes the on/off button to the top, like it used to be on iPhones before their Samsungification. I cannot count the number of times I have inadvertently pressed buttons just because I’m trying to grip that bar of soap or get it into a vent mount. Apple keeps adding more and more buttons to the side, but the only one I really need is on/off.

Ooo, those grippy strips look interesting for those who don’t want the bulk of a case.

Thanks, David. I look forward to a more thorough exploration of your suggestions. The problem is really illustrated by columbine which in the wild is often a bit gangly with pronounced leafless flowering stems. It is very difficult to get an image of the plant in its environment. Years ago I had a small digital camera that I liked a lot. This early digital camera took images in a macro way, although it was not a setting, where the plant I was interested in was in good focus but everything else in the background was too. Not a sophisticated image I understand but it worked for my needs.

This annoying YouTuber claims that Apple let the designers win over the engineers and thus everybody’s iPhone 17 pro will show abrasion along the sharp edges.

Have folks here already seen that on their Pros? Or is everybody here using a case because of stuff like this?

I searched for images of wild columbine and it reminds me a bit of Honeysuckle that we have here.

It has been fairly easy for me to photograph though as it is spreading along a chain link fence and thus background items are already a couple of meters away.

I like cameras that are only cameras too! i had a variety of them to keep in pocket or small belt pouch over the years. I usually sought those with like 28mm equivalent view lenses and close focus capability. I have one now that is not pocketable but with an adapter can do 1:1 macro.

I just looked for tech specs pages at Apple and I couldn’t find the close focus distance for the 13 mini or 14. So I took a ruler and focused the 13 mini on my mac screen and at 1x it was about 3" away, with .5x it was about 1.5" distance.

As a former photojournalist I generally try to photograph the way things are, partially as a personal challenge in seeing. But if you are not opposed to some manipulation of subjects, you could slightly move the stem of the plant to get it in an advantageous position.

Another idea is that if you are shooting with ability to have a tripod and props, you could find the right Columbine and angle, put iPhone on a tripod, and say position a background (paper or board) behind it to isolate it and then shoot with or without the background. Focus/exposure lock might help here if the setup is larger than arm-length.

Report: Nope. The strips go on pretty nicely and seem to hold in place well. I got the transparent version which shows the phone color through nicely. But the surface of the strips are both not grippy enough and annoyingly rough. It still feels like I don’t have enough of a grip, but the roughness of the strip is slightly irritating to my skin. Felt like it would be annoying to hold for more than a minute or two, which defeats the purpose. I took them off almost immediately.