iPhone 17/Pro/Air Impressions: Spot the Red Flags!

Summary

MKBHD provides his first impressions from Apple’s September 2025 event, covering the iPhone 17, iPhone 17 Pro, and the new iPhone 17 Air. His key takeaway for the base iPhone 17 is that it finally gets ProMotion (120Hz) while remaining mostly unchanged otherwise. The iPhone 17 Pro features significant thermal improvements with a switch back to aluminum and a new vapor chamber, plus an upgraded 48-megapixel telephoto camera. The most controversial announcement is the iPhone 17 Air - an ultra-thin phone at 5.6mm that MKBHD identifies as having multiple “red flags” including potential thermal throttling, questionable battery life, and durability concerns, despite its stunning visual appeal.

Highlights

”Horizontal Selfies Might Be Genius”

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“And honestly, this might be genius. The default for most people is obviously to take vertical selfies. But if you go to take a horizontal selfie to fit more people, suddenly the camera is off to the side and it’s a little bit awkward. So now since the selfie camera is a larger square sensor, it can literally just crop in portrait or landscape.” — Marques Brownlee, 2:59

”iPhone Air: If You Subtract Emotions, It’s the Worst One”

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“If you subtract emotions from it, it’s the worst one. This is gonna jump in the lineup at 999. And it is surrounded by other iPhones that are better than it in almost every way other than being super thin and light. So it’s a fascinating gamble.” — Marques Brownlee, 8:53

”All Signs Point to Battery Being Trash”

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“I’ve been reviewing phones for years and all signs point to it being trash… Apple also announced it alongside a special dedicated MagSafe battery pack just for this phone. So if that doesn’t scream red flag, I don’t know what to tell you.” — Marques Brownlee, 10:24

”Maybe an Ultra-Thin Foldable iPhone Next Year”

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“Maybe the same way Samsung came out with the Galaxy Fold and then a few months later they came out with their super-thin Galaxy Z Flip… Maybe we’re gonna see an ultra-thin foldable iPhone next year. Maybe.” — Marques Brownlee, 12:27

Key Points

• 0:00 - Introduction to Apple’s September 2025 event coverage
• 1:04 - iPhone 17 base model: Gets ProMotion (1-120Hz adaptive) for the first time - the biggest upgrade
• 1:26 - A19 chip brings ~20% faster CPU and improved efficiency
• 2:28 - New 24-megapixel square selfie camera enables horizontal selfies without rotating the phone
• 3:32 - iPhone 17 Pro: New camera bar “plateau” design with components rearranged for more battery space
• 3:52 - Pro colors: Cosmic Orange, Deep Blue, and Silver only
• 4:58 - Switched back from titanium to aluminum for better thermal performance
• 5:21 - First vapor chamber in an iPhone for improved sustained performance
• 5:54 - Apple claims 40% better thermal performance
• 6:09 - 39 hours quoted video playback (~10% improvement over iPhone 16 Pro)
• 6:30 - New 48-megapixel telephoto camera (upgraded from smaller sensor 4X)
• 7:25 - iPhone 17 Air: Ultra-thin at 5.6mm, priced at $999
• 8:17 - Air has A19 Pro chip (minus one GPU core), titanium body, single 48MP camera
• 8:42 - New N1 chip for Wi-Fi 7, Bluetooth 6, Thread connectivity
• 8:55 - Air is “the worst one” if you subtract emotions - it’s a fascinating gamble
• 9:41 - Red Flag #1: No room for vapor chamber, will throttle faster than Pro
• 9:49 - Red Flag #2: Ultra-thin phones tend to bend over the years
• 10:23 - Red Flag #3: Battery life “all signs point to it being trash”
• 10:53 - Apple announced a dedicated battery case (3,149 mAh) just for the Air
• 11:12 - e-SIM only globally, no millimeter-wave 5G
• 12:13 - Could be a preview of future ultra-thin foldable iPhone
• 13:18 - AirPods Pro 3: 2x better noise cancellation, IP57, heart rate monitoring at $250
• 13:31 - New Apple Watch with hypertension detection
• 13:37 - Apple Watch Ultra 3 with thinner bezels and LTPO3 display

Mentions

Companies

Products

People

Technologies

Surprising Quotes

“If you subtract emotions from it, it’s the worst one.” - On the iPhone 17 Air at 8:53

“I’ve been reviewing phones and all signs point to it being trash.” - On iPhone Air battery life at 10:24

“So if that doesn’t scream red flag, I don’t know what to tell you.” - On Apple selling a dedicated battery case for the Air at 11:08

“Maybe we’re gonna see an ultra-thin foldable iPhone next year.” - Speculation on Apple’s strategy at 12:49

“This might be genius.” - On the horizontal selfie feature at 2:59

Full Transcript

0:00 Hey, what’s up, MKBHD here, and welcome to your summary of everything Apple at their 2025 September event. This is iPhone 17, 17 Pro, and 17 Air. Definitely get subscribed to see the full reviews. But this is my first impressions.

0:18 And I actually found it pretty simple to synthesize my thoughts on everything they announced today. Like there is some good tech, there’s some interesting new designs, and some questionable decisions. But the funny thing is, and as I think about all of this stuff, what usually happens is I end up typically getting some texts from friends asking what I think of the announcements. And my mental task is to summarize everything I’m thinking about into one or two easily-digestible sentences to understand what’s going on. I don’t wanna tell them everything. And so that’s what I’m gonna give you about each of the things - I’m gonna give you my super, super compressed summary.

1:02 So let’s just start with the base new iPhones. My ultra-simple summary for the iPhone 17 would be, hey, it got ProMotion and the rest is mostly the same. So the design is mostly unchanged, other than the new colors. Same screen sizes, same buttons, and camera control, which they barely talked about. But there’s a new A19 chip that should see some performance and efficiency bumps. Roughly 20% faster CPU, which is nice. And battery life should improve. And the display is brighter.

1:40 But this is the first time we are seeing a Pro-branded feature trickle down because every new iPhone across the range now has ProMotion. And it’s the same ProMotion too. It’s the adaptive 1 to 120 hertz. Doesn’t seem to be handicapped at all. It’s funny, we always used to have that “Oh, regular people don’t care about 120Hz.” But now here it is on the base iPhone, so hey, sounds great to me. This makes the base iPhone much more compelling, and so does the new base selfie camera. So those are welcome upgrades.

2:14 But the other new thing is the selfie camera. And it was funny, the presentation was building up until the point where they announced it and it was actually the loudest applause, and it was really tempting to make fun of. But I actually do think it deserves applause because all these new iPhones have this massively-upgraded front-facing camera. They’re calling it Center Stage, but I actually think that’s a bad name because the actual Center Stage is kind of annoying.

2:39 But what’s happening is with these phones, they all have a larger 24-megapixel square selfie camera sensor. And so then when you go to take a selfie, the phone can take a vertical shot or can manually, or even automatically, take a horizontal selfie without you having to rotate the phone. And honestly, this might be genius. Like the default for most people is obviously to take vertical selfies. It just fits on the phone. You’re probably viewing it on the phone. But if you go to take a horizontal selfie to fit more people, suddenly the camera is off to the side and it’s a little bit awkward.

3:14 So now since the selfie camera is a larger square sensor, it can literally just crop in portrait or landscape. And for videos or photos. I think it’s great, it’s very useful. It might be the biggest upgrade to the base iPhone.

3:32 So then there’s the iPhone 17 Pro. And my quick, friendly summary is, hey, they got better thermals and orange. So the Pro iPhones actually got a pretty big redesign. There’s actually quite a bit going on here with this new design. First of all, there’s only three colors. Cosmic Orange, Deep Blue, and Silver. Really bumming me out that there’s no black option. But then I remembered dbrand exists. Nevermind.

4:02 But then the thing that’s gonna catch everyone’s eye is the camera bar up at the top, which is what Apple keeps calling a plateau. It kind of looks a little like the Pixel, or frankly, what we’ve been seeing on a ton of other Android phones. Just a huge bar across the top. But it’s actually not just for aesthetics. Apple’s done some rearranging to actually shove more components, like the A19 Pro chip, and other stuff up here in that bar, so they could fill out more of the body with more battery.

4:40 And that approach is gonna come back in a little bit. But my first reaction to hearing that is that sounds like these Pro phones might actually come with a real battery upgrade from last year, which is, again, very welcome. Now you might also notice like the millimeter-wave antenna cutout, and the ring around that plateau actually also being an antenna.

4:58 But then the other new design element is that they actually switched back to aluminum. Which is interesting, because we just saw, like, two years ago the iPhone 15 Pro’s big thing was the new titanium color and titanium rails. And it was a whole big deal. But now they’re switching back because it’s much better thermally.

5:21 And so there’s also a new vapor chamber right in the middle of the phone. First time we’ve seen a vapor chamber in an iPhone. And so this new cooling system, and new unibody aluminum build, should mean the iPhone can maintain peak performance for longer from sustained loads to the chip. Which is different from normal, bursty, quick on-and-off workloads. I’m talking more about extended video rendering or playing an intense game for a long time with ray tracing at high frame rates. This phone should be able to keep cool, and keep that performance up.

5:54 Apple is saying 40% better sustained thermal performance. So yeah, this design, it is just a little bit of engineering magic. You know, rearranging some components, being more efficient, better cooling, and better battery. The number that they quoted on stage was 39 hours of video playback, which, whatever, dumb benchmark. It’s kind of ridiculous. But okay, we’ll take that. And I also looked up the iPhone 16 Pro Max and that was also a video playback stat. That one quoted 33 hours. So maybe up to like 10% better battery life, which is sick.

6:28 And then there’s the cameras. They always go hard with Pro camera upgrades. And this generation is no exception, with the main improvement being the new 48-megapixel telephoto. Now 4X might be a lesser zoom than the 5X we had before, but that was a smaller sensor at 12 megapixels. This new zoom camera is 4X but has way more resolution. It’s 48 megapixels. So that is a smaller gap between the main camera and the zoom. And you should be able to zoom in and crop more with less consequence, now that you have 48 megapixels.

7:06 The Pro phones also get the selfie camera upgrade, they also get the new brighter display. These also got Qi2 support. And then they also got some pro video features that I’m looking forward to testing, like Genlock sync support, which I will hopefully be getting to test in an autofocus video coming up very soon.

7:25 But of course there was one more phone - iPhone Air. No number, just Air. And you all know what that means? They’re doing the ultra-thin thing, and they’re leaning in hard. So this thing is 5.6 millimeters at the thinnest part. And you can tell from the commercials, you can tell from my footage here, and, you know, the first impression - it has the same effect on me that the S25 Edge did from Samsung, which is just, it’s so sick.

7:56 Like clearly nobody’s asking for this, but once you hold one, you appreciate that they’re able to make it this thin. But there are also some concerns that come along with this.

8:10 So the basics are, it’s a 6.6-inch display. It’s got the A19 Pro chip inside. Titanium body. The new selfie camera upgrade, and it has a single 48-megapixel rear camera with the new design, again. Same camera as the iPhone 17, but with the nice plateau design on the back. And then there’s a new N1 chip inside for all the networking connectivity, which is Wi-Fi 7, Bluetooth 6, Thread, and a new, more energy-efficient 5G modem.

8:42 I put out a short about this already, but I really think this phone is the most interesting announcement because if you subtract emotions from it, it’s the worst one. This is gonna jump in the lineup at 999. It replaces essentially the Plus spot. And it is surrounded by other iPhones that are better than it in almost every way other than being super thin and light. So it’s a fascinating gamble.

9:09 This phone has the same A19 Pro chip in it as the Pro phones, minus one GPU core. Interesting choice. Apparently it’s a bit more efficient, so that’s good for battery life. But we also just heard about all the changes Apple made with the Pro phones to make them more thermally capable. Switching from titanium to aluminum, and adding a vapor chamber to the back.

9:34 But this phone is still titanium, and absolutely does not have room for an advanced thermal solution, or any sort of vapor chamber. So it sounds like this phone will overheat and throttle performance much quicker. It’s a red flag.

9:49 Now we also know that ultra-thin phones have a tendency to be a bit fragile. They’ve bent over the years. And I’m not gonna be the one to do the durability testing. I mean, you’re, I’m sure already glued to JerryRigEverything for his bend test. And Apple of course says it’s durable. They’ve for sure tested this, and they’re telling us it’s fine. But I mean, I’m looking at the phone, and I think it qualifies as a red flag.

10:15 And then we already know that battery life can be good in an ultra-thin phone, right? There’s just no way. I’ve been reviewing phones for years and all signs point to it being trash. There was a slide in the keynote today about how they were still proud to achieve all-day battery life. But, like come on. Really?

10:37 I mean they still do the thing where they rearranged the components up into the little plateau at the top to make room for more battery below. But there’s just absolutely no room for a large battery. And it doesn’t appear to have any sort of a special battery chemistry.

10:53 And Apple also announced it alongside a special dedicated MagSafe battery pack just for this phone, that adds 3,149 mAh, and just barely, combined, matches the Pro in terms of quoted video playback. So if that doesn’t scream red flag, I don’t know what to tell you.

11:12 It is also e-SIM-only, globally, ‘cause there’s no room in the thin body for a plastic SIM card. There’s also no millimeter-wave 5G. And like I said, it’s coming in at $1,000, which is more expensive than the base Pro, which will have a better camera system, and better battery life, and may overheat less.

11:34 So look, I think there’s two ways to look at the iPhone Air. This is either Apple just throwing something at the wall and seeing if it sticks. Like we just saw them try, okay, they had the Mini and that really didn’t sell that well. So then they moved to the Plus, and that was also a bit disappointing. So now they’re trying that approach for a ultra-thin phone, and seeing if maybe they can market that to turn into some more sales. So you can see it as that.

12:03 Or you can see this as a visionary, long-time-in-the-making preview at the future of all phones. Like, maybe someday in the future every phone will be this thin. And Apple is just now, today, finally achieving the breakthrough with the battery and display and modem and Apple Silicon to make it happen.

12:27 Maybe kind of like how the MacBook Air was expensive and was underpowered, but then eventually all laptops became thin and light. Maybe that’s also what’s happening here. And maybe the same way Samsung came out with the Galaxy Fold and then a few months later they came out with their super-thin Galaxy Z Flip, and I felt like the Edge phone was one half of that foldable. Maybe that’s also what Apple’s doing. Maybe we’re gonna see an ultra-thin foldable iPhone next year. Maybe.

12:55 Either way, I do think it’s clear that you probably won’t find me recommending anyone to pick up this first-gen iPhone Air. But I do also think that the sheer impressiveness of holding it is gonna convince a lot of people, ‘cause it’s pretty stunning in person. And it’s the same thing I said about the S25 Edge. It’s pretty sick. But only time will tell if it sells.

13:16 Now, there were a couple other quick announcements. There were new AirPods Pro 3, which have twice as good noise cancellation, which is crazy. Plus IP57, and heart rate monitoring. All at the same $250 price. Definitely gonna test those.

13:31 And there’s also a new Apple Watch Series 11 with a new sensor and possible hypertension detection. And a slightly new Watch Ultra 3 with thinner bezels, LTPO3, and slightly longer battery life. I’m gonna be testing all this stuff over the next couple weeks, so get subscribed and I’ll have those reviews up soon.

13:48 And shout out to channel sponsor Ridge for being ahead of the game, because while the iPhone Air might have bad battery life, it does still have MagSafe, which means you’re gonna wanna carry a power bank. I’ve seen plenty of power banks over my 15 years of reviewing tech, but this Ridge one is impressive.

14:04 It’s got five ways to charge, 15-watt MagSafe-compatible wireless charging, two built-in cables, USB-C up to 20 watts, and Lightning for older Apple devices. And a charging pad for your Apple Watch, pass-through charging, and it also comes in three colors. Matte Black, Matte Olive, and, I guess, perfect for the new iPhone, Basecamp Orange.

14:26 Ridge also makes a MagSafe card holder that snaps right onto your iPhone and holds up to three cards. Every Ridge product comes with a lifetime warranty and a 99-day risk-free trial. So get one today, and head over to the link in the description.

14:38 Thanks for watching. See you guys very soon in the next videos. Peace.