THE WASHINGTON POST: The iPhone 17, Air and everything else revealed at the Apple new launch event

Apple has unveiled a new thinner iPhone Air, an upgraded pair of AirPods Pro with a heart tracker as well as an update to its smartwatches including a blood pressure monitoring feature at its annual September product launch event. In doing so, the company isn’t just looking to shore up its financials — it’s also hoping that a fresh wave of products can keep customers loyal and locked-in ahead of the crucial holiday shopping season. Here is everything you need to know about from Apple’s annual product launch, and what it means for customers.

The iPhone Air

At 5.6mm thick, the $1799 iPhone Air is the slimmest smartphone the company has ever built. But what does a super-svelte phone actually get you?

To start, a 6.5-inch screen and a titanium-forward design that Apple says is its most durable ever. Performance gets a step up from Apple’s cheapest new iPhone, too, using the company’s new, higher-powered A19 Pro chip set.

This sleek new design, however, means compromise. There’s just one 48-megapixel main camera around the back, though Apple claims it can act like a longer-range telephoto camera as well, these claims have yet to be verified independently. Battery life remains a question too, although Apple says the device should last all day.

Apple watchers have long suggested that a streamlined redesign was in the works, and the change means Apple’s iPhone lineup more closely aligns with its selection of iPads. What remains to be seen, though, is whether consumers are actually clamouring for a thinner iPhone.

Current iPhones aren’t exactly chunky as is, and an even slimmer design means the battery inside this new design has to be physically smaller than usual. (The Plus model the iPhone Air replaces had some of the highest-capacity batteries Apple has ever used.)

Thinner designs don’t seem to have equated to bigger sales for some of Apple’s rivals, either. According to Korean media outlets, Samsung — which released a trimmer version of its Galaxy S25 smartphone in May — hasn’t sold as briskly as the company expected. Samsung didn’t immediately comment.

iPhone 17 and iPhone 17 Pro

Apple has made some big changes to its portfolio of iPhones even apart from the Air.

At one end of the spectrum is the company’s new $1999 iPhone 17, which packs a slightly larger, higher-quality screen compared with earlier models. (Apple also says that screen reduces glare and is harder to scratch, in case you’re a little clumsy.)

Under the hood is Apple’s new A19 chip set, designed in part to improve the performance of the company’s AI tools. Those subtle silicon changes also made for better battery life this year; the company says the iPhone 17 will last eight hours longer than last year’s model when playing videos.

On the other end are Apple’s pricier Pro models, which have received their first major redesign in years.

Their screens are the same sizes — 6.3 inches diagonal for the Pro and 6.9 inches for the Pro Max — but the squarish bump that used to house their main cameras has expanded into a horizontal “plateau” that stretches across the phones’ backs.

(This isn’t exactly a new phenomenon; Google’s Pixel phones have embraced these big camera bars for years.)

The plateau isn’t just for looks: It’s meant to help dissipate heat so the Pro models can perform harder for longer, and it frees up room inside the main body for the batteries. For shutterbugs, that hump also houses a trio of upgraded 48-megapixel cameras, including a telephoto camera that offers up to 8x optical zoom.

Lurking inside is the same chip set powering the iPhone Air, though it’s not yet clear if the version inside Apple’s Pro phones are tuned to run faster.

AirPods Pro 3 with heart tracker

Thanks to an upcoming software update, Apple’s existing wireless earbuds are slated to get tricks such as live translations and a remote-control mode for the iPhone’s camera. So what do Apple’s new $429 AirPods Pro 3 bring to the table?

For one, a slightly tweaked design — they’re slightly smaller and feature new ear tips meant to help them fit better into peoples’ ears.

Apple says these new AirPods will also make audio more expansive and feature improved noise-cancellation performance — a must for dealing with commutes, flights and noisy neighbours.

Over the years, Apple has crammed so many features — sound amplification, hearing protection and the ability to shut off your music when you start talking, to name just a few — into its AirPods that it almost feels as though it doesn’t ever want you to remove them.

Whether that’s possible all boils down to battery life, though, and Apple highlighted some big gains here: Audio playback with noise cancellation should run for about eight hours on a single charge, up from about five hours, it said.

Apple Watch with hypertension monitoring

This year, Apple is updating all three of its smartwatch models — the mainstream Apple Watch, the rugged Watch Ultra, and the Apple Watch SE — at the same time.

Apple’s $679 Watch Series 11 doesn’t look too different, mostly because last year’s model already got a major redesign to sport a thinner frame and a larger screen. What is different, however, is the watch’s array of health-focused features.

The Series 11 will give your sleep quality a score to help identify potential areas of improvement. Apple also added a feature that can alert wearers of potential hypertension by monitoring 30 days’ worth of heart rate data. (Food and Drug Administration clearance is coming soon, the company said.)

Thankfully, Apple gave the Series 11 a notable battery boost: The company says it should run for 24 hours off a single charge.

Otherwise, the Series 11 comes with foundational changes — such as 5G cellular support — that can also be found in another of the company’s upgraded wearables, the $1399 Watch Ultra 3.

Apple’s latest rugged, chunky Watch Ultra remains just about as hefty as always, which means folks with more petite wrists may have to keep writing this model off. It does, however, have a larger, brighter screen wedged into it; among other things, the company says the updated screen should make it easier to read from an angle.

Unique to the Watch Ultra 3, however, is satellite connectivity for emergency outreach and off-the-grid messaging. Apple also made better use of the Ultra’s heft by upgrading its battery life to 42 hours on a single charge.

Then there’s the $399 Apple Watch SE, the cheapest of the company’s wrist-worn wearables. It’s pared back on purpose, but it’s getting an always-on screen and an S10 chip set that should give it a notable performance boost — one that might be especially palpable because Apple hasn’t upgraded this model in nearly three years.

The Washington Post