Apple just held their second major event of the year yesterday (well, at least as of starting to write this post) and they launched many new products. None that I hadn’t already seen in leaks over the past weeks/months, but still a fun time nonetheless.
As always, I was live-posting to my Bluesky account, as it was live. I posted quite a few of my initial thoughts there as it was unfolding, but here I want to dump them all in one place.
Apple Watch
SE 3rd Generation:
The SE did get some nice updates this time around, perhaps unsurprising considering it hasn't really been updated in over 2 years at this point (even then I believe the 2023 version was just a small colour refresh..?)
The SE 3rd generation comes with an always-on display (AOD), previously only seen on the "Series" (in recent years) and "Ultra" lines of watches.
However, it's still a shame to see that there are still those chunky bezels around the display:
Series 11:
Apple boasts a 24 hour-long battery life, but this just makes me question, what really are the hours that people charge their Watches? My Apple Watch SE 2nd generation broke in June earlier this year, but even from the start when I got that it was never able to last long enough to sleep with it on, so I never made use of the sleep tracking capabilities. Note: the SE 2 was advertised with an 18 hour battery life.
Other than that, did they change much? Seems like it's some improvements to the glass to make it more resistant, which is always welcome, however mostly-small changes such as 5G addition make it feel like it's not too dissimilar from the previous generation.
Apple Watch Ultra 3:
This seems to have the biggest upgrade of the Watch collection. Now the Ultra is able to use its two-way Satellite system for sharing Find My locations, and calling emergency services. I've only ever tried this feature out, when I was in South France this summer and I had the option to try the Satellite functionality on my iPhone - it's cool, although I wonder if anyone has had any real use cases from it.
The Ultra 3 also got a bonus 6 hours of battery life (up to 42 hours from 36 on the Ultra 2.) Honestly, this is really nice. The biggest issue I had with my Apple Watch SE 2nd gen was the battery. Personally, in a watch, I'd argue that battery is one of the most essential features.
This also got 5G support from 4G on the Ultra 2, a common theme across all the new Watches.
AirPods Pro
It was loooong rumoured that they were going to be releasing a new AirPods Pro model this time around, and (as many other leaks), they weren't wrong!
Personally I was waiting for this announcement. It's been nearly 3 years since the launch of the AirPods Pro 2! The only refinement on them was the update from Lightning to USB-C a year later in 2023.
I'm still unsure whether I'll get these, but I'm super interested. They're less than £200 at my local retail store! (Official reseller, too!) I'm currently using the regular AirPods 2nd generation (2019), yet I've been told that the jump from regular AirPods to any with ANC is huge, so this has piqued my interest.
Anyway, getting to the technical side of things, the largest points seem to be that it has a 2x better ANC (Active Noise Cancellation) system than the previous generation, and a 4x boost from the original Pro model.
Apple also managed to squeeze in a HR sensor inside these! Pretty interesting they're bringing over some Apple Watch features! 👀 I'm currently debating whether to get an Apple Watch or these AirPods, and whilst the AirPods won't be in my ears 24/7, I do use my current (regular) AirPods 2nd gen very frequently.
As for the battery, Apple are reporting that it lasts 8 hours of use with ANC enabled, compared to the 6 hours from the previous model.
Finally, Live Translation seems to be a big selling point for these - the idea that you can use Apple Intelligence with a local on-iPhone model to translate what you hear in the real world between languages in real-time. I'd be curious to see how this works in the end, and if it'd feel awkward at all? However, I'm sure Waveform (specifically Ellis) will love this! 🤣
Now for the heart of the event, the iPhone 17 models:
This is where it might get a little heated. Across Bluesky, Threads and Twitter, I've seen many takes on each one of these new models.
Let's start off with the iPhone 17 Air. Interestingly they decided to call it the "iPhone Air" instead of iPhone 17 Air, anyways. This is an entirely new model. Again, this was no surprise to anyone within the tech community, however there's always that [] feeling you get when Apple announce it themselves (that feeling being whatever you think of the device itself.)
I'm personally not a fan of this model at all. I've spoken with multiple of my friends irl, and a lot of them are just saying it's trying to look like a Google Pixel, and I see the vision.
Not to mention its awful camera "bump":
EW the iPhone 17 Air side profile lmao #AppleEvent #iPhone17
Delving into the tech specs again, I want to start by putting it out there that I'm not a fan of the fact that it's eSIM only globally. I know that all US iPhones have been eSIM only for a couple years now, but globally, really? It makes it a pain in the ass to switch between phones quickly, and more notably not all carriers even support this technology (yet, at least.)
On the other hand, and this goes for all new iPhones, I like how the base storage is now 256GB! Even though I've still not hit my 128GB limit on my current iPhone 16, and never hit the 64GB limit on my SE 2nd gen beforehand, it's still nice that Apple are giving you more storage for the same price - especially considering how much they charge for additional storage. This is a great change - wonder if we'll soon see base model Macs use 512GB storage? Last year they upped the Mac lineup to have 16GB main memory at the base model, and coming from a user of a base model M2 Mac mini, the 256GB storage limit is the most limiting part of it! (I've complained about this a LOT on Bluesky!)
Although, I'm still confused who exactly Apple thinks will be buying this iPhone Air. I've seen many say they're doing it to prove to investors/the public that they can innovate. It's at a weird place where it's got a better chip than the default iPhone 17, yet in battery, camera and SIM choice it's worse than the 17 Pro/Pro Max.
Finally, they brought back the bumper case! The last time these were around were for the iPhone 4 due to the issues it had at launch with connectivity due to the covering of the antennas.
I reckon they're just launching it like this so that users can still appreciate the true thinness of the device itself. A clunky case would remove the main selling point of this phone.
In conclusion, my main question is - why?
Who looks at their phone in 2025 and wishes it was thinner? I'd honestly give up my iPhone 16's current thickness to be a little larger, but with a larger battery.
But maybe this is just another chance for them to sell more expensive battery packs - which only work on this iPhone!
Next is the base iPhone 17. This looks identical to the iPhone 16, other than the colour selection - btw, Apple ran out of ink again this year!
Before I get into anything else, I just want to point out how much I LOVE the "Sage" iPhone 17. I think this looks sick:
Luckily, this one still has a regular SIM card tray! But on a serious note, this iPhone got the A19 chip (note, the iPhone Air and 17 Pro/Pro Max have an A19 Pro chip.) Also, pause, we ... FINALLY got 120Hz ProMotion on the regular iPhone model! It's been 4 years since the iPhone 13 Pro / Pro Max got the beautiful 120Hz display, and finally we're now getting it on this model. It's debatable whether you can notice it or not, but I've compared my iPhone 16 to my mum's 15 Pro and I can 100% notice a difference personally. I'd love to experience Liquid Glass in 120Hz, however I personally won't be able to (for a few years) haha!
As mentioned before, the base model has 2x the storage for the same price (128GB -> 256GB) and we got some minor tweaks to the battery, and a maximum screen brightness of 3000 nits, up from 2000 nits on the iPhone 16.
Honestly, I think this iPhone is very much worth the price. It's the same price as the iPhone 16 was, but you get a silky smooth ProMotion display, a bigger battery, and double the storage!
That's pretty much all there is for this iPhone, there's a few other technical details, however they're more minor, and you can compare it to an iPhone 16 here.
Finally, the 17 Pro and Pro Max. I have a lot to say 😅.
For starters, they have 2 new colours, Cosmic Orange and Deep Blue. Personally, I'm a huge fan of Deep Blue. But it's worth noting that for some reason, Apple removed the Black colour option from their Pro lineup? This is a really strange decision imo. I'm unsure why they would choose to remove this of all colours, I'd imagine that it's one of the better selling ones?
Delving into the design, I'm also not a fan of the new back design. Looks pretty fugly to me. I'm not sure why they designed the camera bump to reach all along the top of the device, but I'm not really a fan - and I feel like they could have at least made it not have the multiple sheets of metal for the backplate, as I feel like it stands out too much:
They also downgraded the material from the 16 Pro. It was previously made from titanium, but it's now back to aluminium. Presumably this is coupled with the new Vapor Chamber which allows heat from the internals into the frame of the device, then spread out, to allow heat to dissipate. Fair enough. Not felt one in my hand to compare to the 16 Pro, although the 17 Pro is ~5 grams heavier than the 16 Pro!
Beyond the design, it's also got a peak brightness of 3000 nits (also up from 2000), the camera can now zoom into 8x with its +36MP reach, and digital zoom can now go up to 40x from 25x!
Conclusion?
Overall, it's an Apple event - it can't not be exciting (although, I do wish they were in-person and truly live again, as they were pre-COVID, that'd be much more exciting!)
I'm pretty disappointed with the design of the 17 Pro, and the Air feels a little tacky and rushed to me, however the regular 17 is much better value for money, and I've even had an irl friend say it'll likely be his next phone! (coming from an Android user that formerly disliked Apple, mainly for the prices).
The AirPods do look very nice though, and the Apple Watches are alright! What do you think? You can reply to this post on Bluesky (when it's published) and let me know your thoughts, I'm curious.
Extra notes:
An easter egg I hadn't spotted initially:
Just noticed that when Apple announced the iPhone Air in the #AppleEvent, there was a MacBook Air hidden in an envelope… fun easter egg! 👀 idk how I missed this haha
Is Apple tricking us, and gradually increasing the prices even more?
at what point does this become too much? 😭 tweet by @markgurman.bsky.social
A final shoutout to the BEAUTIFUL Sage iPhone 17!!
