Apple unveiled the iPhone 17 at its “awesome” event and aside from a redesigned camera on the back, there are plenty of improvements under the hood and on its display. That may not be enough to turn things around for people who picked up last year’s iPhone 16, but there are plenty of small updates for those who haven’t upgraded in years.
The standard iPhone 17 remains the entry-level model of Apple’s flagship devices, with all the new features of iOS 26 but not all the spec upgrades its Pro siblings get. But it’s even more settled into its role now that the Plus model has been swapped out for the slimmer, more expensive iPhone Air, which is more of a design marvel than simply a larger non-Pro option.
The big updates for the iPhone 17 are a new chip, a brighter and sharper display, better cameras, and improved selfie cameras. Here’s everything that’s included in Apple’s new entry-level flagship phone.
iPhone 17 price and availability
He iPhone 17 will be available for pre-order this Friday, September 12 at 5 a.m. PT and will hit stores a week later on September 19.
It will start at $799 for 256GB of storage, maintaining its starting price from last year, or $999 for 512GB, which is the same price as the iPhone 16 with that storage capacity.
That still makes the iPhone 17 the most affordable device in the new line-up, with the new iPhone Air starting at $999, the iPhone 17 Pro starting at $1,099 (£1,099, AU$1,999) and the iPhone 17 Pro Max starting at $1,199 (£1,199, AU$2,199).
iPhone 17 design and color updates
Overall, the iPhone 17 hasn’t changed much from last year’s iPhone 16, which introduced the camera control button on the right side of the phone. The big change this year is a rearrangement of the camera bump on the back, going from the lenses placed diagonally in a square block to a simple vertical oval placed at the top left.
The iPhone 17’s display received feature updates from last year’s Pro model, with a larger 6.3-inch screen (up from 6.1 on the iPhone 16). You also get ProMotion so you can dynamically change the refresh rate from 120Hz to 1Hz to save battery life; Previous standard iPhones were stuck at 60Hz. The iPhone 17 also has a new Ceramic Shield 2 layer on top of the screen to better resist scratches and cracks.
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The iPhone 17’s display is also dramatically brighter, peaking at 3,000 nits, up from 2,000 nits on the last generation iPhone 16 (including the Pro models).
The iPhone 17 comes in five colors: lavender, light blue, dark gray, silver white, and green.
iPhone 17 cameras
The iPhone 17 has two rear cameras, just like its predecessor, although the ultra-wide one has received an upgrade: a 48-megapixel main camera and a 48-megapixel ultra-wide camera (up from 12 megapixels on the iPhone 16). Apple calls its 48-megapixel main camera “dual fusion,” as it can take sharp photos at full resolution or take 2x cropped zoom images at 12 megapixels.
The iPhone 17 includes a new 18-megapixel front camera and there are some improvements to its technology, including the Center Stage feature that automatically centers the camera on you for video conferencing. It also has improved image stabilization, useful for keeping the phone stable when doing FaceTime video chats while walking.
iPhone 17 specifications and software
Apple has kept the specs split between its standard and Pro models, giving the latter the newer A-series chip and leaving the non-Pro model with less advanced silicon.
The iPhone 17 gets a new A19 chip, which, while not as advanced as the A19 Pro included in the iPhone 17 Pro and iPhone Air models, is 20% faster than the iPhone 16. The A19’s six-core CPU is made on a 3-nanometer process, its improved Neural Engine has increased bandwidth to help make AI services faster, and its updated Display Engine helps power ProMotion and Always-On screen.
The A19 chip’s five-core GPU will also improve gaming, Apple says, specifically highlighting that the recent mobile game Destiny Rising will benefit from the ProMotion dynamic refresh rate.
The iPhone 17 also got a storage boost up to an initial 256GB, compared to the iPhone 16’s 128GB, as well as the 512GB option. If you want more space for apps and photos, you’ll have to stick with cloud storage or upgrade to the iPhone Air or iPhone 17 Pro for up to 1TB, and if that’s not enough, opt for the iPhone 17 Pro Max, which now has a 2TB option.
The iPhone 17 launches with iOS 26, the follow-up to last year’s iOS 18 that was renamed to align with the year of its release. New features in iOS 26 include the polarizing redesign of Liquid Glass, updates to iMessage, and a more transparent lock screen. The Camera app is also optimized to group all of its modes from a cluttered horizontal dial into a simple Video or Camera option on the screen, while additional modes like Pano or Cinematic are available by swiping left or right. These are just some of the revisions that will also come to the Safari, Photos and Music applications, among others.