By Kavita Mistry 
As September dawns upon the tech horizon, excitement soars, for it brings along Apple’s annual iPhone event. This year was no different. “Awe Dropping,” as Apple called it, was an hour and 15-minute-long event, and in such a short span of time, Apple sure did cram A LOT of new products and information in it.
The brand touched many bases, launched new AirPods Pro, three different Apple Watches, introduced new cases and a crossbody strap, but the highlight of the show (of course) was the new iPhones. Apple released the much anticipated/ talked about/ leaked iPhone 17 series which included the iPhone 17, the iPhone 17 Pro, the iPhone 17 Pro Max and also added a new arrival to the iPhone family, the iPhone Air. As always, while the products occupied the spotlight, there were a number of not-so-obvious takeaways nestled in the event, and here are seven of the most notable ones:
We are Pro-Air, but the iPhone 17 gets the best updates…again!
“No longer hand-me-down Harry” is how we had described the iPhone 16 last year when the ‘basic’ iPhone finally got very good updates. And this year too, the most improved or value for money iPhone launched, at least on paper (we await our review units), was the base iPhone 17. The phone received a number of spec bumps, even while its price stayed at USD 799, which made it a terrific value for money.
The most affordable new iPhone of them all now has a bigger 6.3-inch display with an adaptive 120 Hz refresh rate display (ProMotion in AppleSpeak). It also received a major camera upgrade and now brings two 48-megapixel sensors on the back and an 18 megapixel sensor on the front. The phone runs on a newer A19 and has a bigger battery along with fast charge support too (Apple claims it can go from 0-50 percent in 20 minutes with a 40W adapter). Top this off with a bumped-up base storage of 256 GB, all at the same price, and we think that this is the most improved iPhone of the iPhone 17 series lineup.
Wearables need to be health-forward too (even if they are AirPods)!
Apple launched a number of wearables at its Awe Dropping event – three Apple Watches (Apple Watch SE 3, Apple Watch series 11, and Apple Watch Ultra 3), and a new AirPods Pro – the AirPods Pro 3. While all of these devices came with a number of substantial upgrades, one theme was common between them: Apple added a bunch of health-forward features to all of these devices.
While Apple Watch Ultra 3 received a new Workout Buddy, which is online workout coaching via Apple Intelligence, both Apple Watch Ultra 3 and Apple Watch Series 11 received features like Hypertension alerts, sleep score, and improved sleep tracking. The Apple Watch SE 3 was also given new health sensors that can keep an eye on body temperature and sleep apnea detection. Even the AirPods Pro 3 come with heart rate sensors for workout and health, to offer more accurate results. Clearly, health is wealth on the Apple wearable front.
Oh, AI, AI, where art thou, AI?
Whenever a new smartphone is launched, AI takes the centre stage these days. Regardless of whether it is an upper mid-segment phone or a premium device, Android phones use AI as a USP to highlight how “smart” and savvy their device is. Apple too talked of AI (although it called it ‘Apple Intelligence’) a fair bit last year, and highlighted how it would be an absolute game-changer on the iPhone. That promise, unfortunately, did not come through, and the year that followed saw some rather ordinary attempts at getting Apple Intelligence to the iPhone.
While real Apple Intelligence is now expected to arrive only in 2026, we expected Apple to talk about it at Awe Dropping, considering that it is likely to be a part of all the products showcased at the event. However, the brand visibly steered clear of all things Apple Intelligence, making only perfunctory mentions of it. Perhaps Apple is still not completely ready to embrace the AI wave and is likely to take its own sweet time to warm up to the idea.
Are you an iPhone camera? Then you must be 48 MP!
Apple has been making clear camera distinctions between different iPhones in terms of megapixels for a while now. This started with the iPhone 14 series, where Apple introduced a 48-megapixel main sensor on the iPhone 14 Pro paired with two 12-megapixel sensors (one telephoto and another ultrawide), whereas the non-Pro iPhone 14s came with two 12-megapixel sensors.
On the iPhone 15, we saw a combination of a 48-megapixel main sensor and a 12-megapixel ultrawide as opposed to one 48-megapixel sensor paired with two 12-megapixel sensors on the iPhone 15 Pros. Then came the iPhone 16 series, where Apple kept the megapixel-matter the same in non-Pro iPhones but gave the iPhone Pros two 48 megapixel sensors along with a 12 megapixel one.
In terms of pure numbers, this has changed with the launch of the iPhone 17 series. All four phones– iPhone 17, iPhone 17 Pro, iPhone 17 Pro Max, and the iPhone Air have the 48-megapixel main sensor and an 18 megapixel front-facing sensor. The add-ons also have the same megapixel count, which means the secondary sensor on the iPhone 17 and the iPhone 17 Pro, and the Pro Max are also 48 megapixel ones. The third sensor on the iPhone 17 Pro and Pro Max is also a 48-megapixel one.
So, finally, after a while, all rear sensors on all iPhones have the same number. It goes without saying that there have been differences in sensors, aperture, and overall capability of these sensors (regardless of their megapixel count), but it is nice to see some uniformity. It also seems to hint that in the coming days, Apple will be looking to operate in much higher resolution spaces, even in base models.
iOS, anyone? We would even have been app-y with some game-play
In recent times, the annual iPhone event has increasingly become mainly about hardware. Apple comes in and puts its best hardware foot forward, but while highlighting hardware, the brand used to show how well the software integrated with hardware, making the iPhone a best of both worlds. It was also very common for the brand to highlight certain third-party apps and even invite their developers on stage to showcase them, showing how well it all worked in the Apple ecosystem. Apple, however, decided to stick to hard figures and largely skipped the soft(ware) part, preferring to talk mainly of numbers and features. We would have loved to see apps and games that ran especially well on those new processors, but Apple clearly thought differently. Typical.
There is only one (relatively) affordable new iPhone: just one iPhone below USD 999
Apart from being the most value-for-money device, the iPhone 17 base model is also the ONLY phone in the lineup to come under USD 999 (or Rs. 1,00,000). This is the 256 GB variant, which is priced at USD 799 (Rs 82,900). Look at any other new iPhone and you will end up paying USD 999 or above – even the 512 GB variant of iPhone 17 is priced at USD 999, which is the same as the starting price of the iPhone Air in the US (in India, it is much higher).
This makes it easily the most expensive series of iPhones ever launched in sheer price terms. Even after Apple had breached the USD 999 (Rs 1,00,000) barrier with the iPhone X, consumers always had a few options priced below it. For instance, in the iPhone 16 line-up, there were four options that were under Rs 1,00,000 – the iPhone 16 128 GB, iPhone 16 256 GB, iPhone 16 Plus 128 GB, and even the iPhone 16 Plus 256 GB was under the mark of Rs 1,00,000. But this time around, there are only two storage variants in the ‘normal’ iPhone, the iPhone 17 – 256 GB and 512 GB. And only one of them is priced below Rs 1,00,000.
…And the curious case of the pricing of the iPhone Air in India
The iPhone Air (256 GB) is priced at USD 999 and is available in India for Rs 1,19,900. However, the iPhone 17 (512 GB), which is also priced at USD 999, is available in India for Rs 1,02,900. Why this staggering difference in price (Rs 17,000, which is about USD 190)? We have no real idea. It is just out of sync with other prices – most iPhones that have similar prices in the US have similar prices in India.
But even then, prices of the iPhone 17 have actually come down (yes, they have!)
They may inspire kidney jokes, and their overall pricing seems rather high, but while it may not seem like it, the prices of the iPhone 17 this time around are comparatively lower than those of the iPhone 16. That might seem odd – after all, both the iPhone 16 and 17 started at USD 799.
In India, the iPhone 17 actually starts at Rs 82,900, which is Rs 3,000 more than the starting price of the iPhone 16, which started at Rs 79,900. The point to note, however, is that Apple has actually doubled the storage of the base variant, so we are getting an iPhone 17 (256 GB) at Rs 82,900, which is Rs 7,000 less than the 256 GB variant of the iPhone 16 (Rs 89,900). Similarly, the 512 GB variant of the iPhone 16 was priced at Rs 1,09,900, while the 512 GB variant of the iPhone 17 is available for a lower price of Rs 1,02,900. Yes, we would have loved a 128 GB iPhone 17 at Rs 72,900, but well…