What the iPhone Air lacks in cameras and battery life, it makes up for in cutting-edge thinness.Credit: AP
The iPhone Air has the same chip as the new Pro phones and a larger screen than the standard iPhone 17, but is thinner and lighter.
The most powerful and expensive new models are the iPhone 17 Pro and Pro Max. The Pro has the same size as the standard iPhone 17, but it adds an extra camera lens for 4x zoom (Apple says up to 8x in optical quality), professional grade video recording features and newly designed internals to keep performance consistently high. If you were upgrading from a 14 Pro, you’d again notice a significant upgrade to all cameras, the addition of Apple Intelligence, faster charging and data transfer and around eight extra hours of battery (according to Apple).
This year, only the price of the Pro phones has gone up but unless tariffs are lowered on imports from India and China, that could extend to all models by next year.Credit: Bloomberg
The iPhone 17 Pro has a new design that extends the camera bar and adds a ceramic panel over an aluminium frame.Credit: AP
Pricing
The iPhone 17 starts at $1400, which is the same as last year’s iPhone 16, except the new phone actually has 256GB of storage which is double last year’s starting amount. The iPhone Air starts at $1800, the 17 Pro at $2000 and the Pro Max at $2200, all of them also with 256GB. As always, the price climbs quite steeply if you want more storage, but it does stick to a predictable formula:
- Add $400 to the starting price for the 512GB model
- Add $800 for the 1TB model (Air, Pro and Pro Max only)
- Add $1600 for the 2TB model (Pro Max Only)
As for how much storage you need, there’s no reason 256GB wouldn’t be enough for most people, especially if you have an Apple or Google cloud plan to store all your photos and documents. The highest capacity options are really only useful if you’re creating or working with massive files that need to be local to your phone, like 4K video or 3D renders.
It’s handy to keep in mind that Apple also still sells last year’s models (minus the Pros), and the prices have come down for some of them. The iPhone 16e remains at $1000 for the 128GB model and would be a decent upgrade if you’re on an iPhone 12 or SE, primarily because the modern chip gets you better performance, battery life and Apple Intelligence. The 16 and 16 Plus are down to $1249 and $1399, again for 128GB, though they are a hard sell against the improved iPhone 17.
Buying a new iPhone doesn’t seem likely to get less expensive in the next few years either, given the situation with US tariffs. Technically, Apple only needs to pay those on hardware it’s importing to America, but it will spread the cost out globally to avoid a massive spike for its US customers. This year, only the price of the Pro phones has gone up but unless tariffs are lowered on imports from India and China, that could extend to all models by next year.
Options for buying
Apple doesn’t offer financing in Australia, but it does offer trade-in discounts if you have an existing iPhone in working condition. The amount offered varies from decent to ordinary depending on how old your phone is; for example you can get around $800 for a 15 Pro, but only $100 for an iPhone X, at which point you might be better off selling on eBay.
Of course, you don’t need Apple for financing; you can buy from just about any retailer and pay via Afterpay or a similar service to break the cost of the phone into four payments over eight weeks, so between $250 and $950 a fortnight. And the major telcos will give you a phone with a new plan that you pay off monthly; the current line-up of iPhones would be between $28 and $106 a month for three years.
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Once you add in the cost of your mobile plan, and any Apple services including cloud storage or TV+, that still means you could be looking at more than $100 a month just for the standard iPhone 17. If you’re able to stomach the full cost of the phone upfront, it could end up saving you money, since you can jump around the smaller telcos taking up lower-cost month-to-month plans.
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