Apple’s recent launch saw as many as four new iPhone models with one of them being a brand new lineup - Air. While that may be the talk of the town, it is the regular iPhone 17 that seems to have got the biggest upgrade without change in the base price tag of Rs 82,990 and Rs 1,02,900 for the higher model, there are quite a few things to talk here. I have been using one for a few days now, and here’s how my experience been:
You may not notice any significant changes from the iPhone 16 to 17 at first glance - similar aluminium frame and glass combination - but on a closer look, there’s now a slightly taller 6.3-inch display and Apple has also upgraded to Ceramic Shield 2 on the front for added protection from day-to-day scratches. The phone has a matte finish back with the glossy Apple bang in the middle and a familiar pill-shaped dual camera setup near the left top corner. The left side houses the Action button and volume buttons on the top half and the SIM card tray slot at the bottom half; while on the right have the power/lock key near the middle and camera key near the bottom. The top just has cut-out line for network reception; and the bottom carries the second outlet for loudspeakers, USB type and primary mic. Weighing 177g, IP68 dust and water-resistant devices, I liked its Lavender and Sage colours and there’s also White, Black and Mist Blue options - arguably the best looking colour line-up among the new iPhones this time.
Coming to the 6.3-inch full HD+ (2622x1206) Super Retina XDR display - it is definitely the biggest upgrade of the phone over its predecessor. You now have a higher refresh rate 120Hz ProMotion display with always-on display support that only the Pro models had earlier. This is a brighter display with really good viewing angles, producing good colours for watching content or viewing high resolution images.
Talking about the camera performance, you get a 48MP (f/1.6) main camera and a 48MP (f2.2) ultra-wide camera. You can take. It takes sharp and detailed shots with good dynamic range to them. HDR shots seem to have improved a bit in terms of colour depth but portrait shots seem pretty much same. The front-facing 18MP (f/1.9) camera with a new feature called Centre Stage that automatically changes aspect ratios of your selfies as and when new face are detected. There are four aspect ratios supported so you don’t necessarily have to change to landscape mode to take a group selfie shot. The camera app is smooth to navigate through and has very little shutter lag most occasions. Another new feature is Dual Capture where you can shoot videos both from the rear and front cameras at the same time. It works well but it gives limited options to change settings while in this mode.
The device is equipped with the new A19 chipset (up to 4.26Ghz six-core CPU and 5-core GPU), 16-core Neural Engine coupled with 8GB and either 256GB UFS 3.1 storage or 512GB UFS 4.0 storage. It’s running in the new iOS 26.0 OS that brings a design refresh along with new features. Liquid Glass is what Apple calls this Shiney, translucent look with poppy animations and lighter tones and icons in place. Some people might prefer to tone down on transparency and increasing contrast from Accessibility settings. One feature I really like is you can now add and select custom ringtones just by adding it from the file manager and don’t have to rely on GarageBand and iTunes on your computer anymore. You can now also select a part of a message rather than the whole message by long-pressing it and tapping on select. Oh, and speaking of selecting context menu, it is now vertical in the OS rather than horizontal (but not inside apps). Being a new version, I did see a bug here and there, like the Spotlight Search feature seems broken - after searching and tapping on a result, it doesn’t go into that particular menu under Settings and rather only opens Settings so you have to search the same thing again. Performance-wise, I didn’t notice any issues.
Apps open and close quickly, switching green apps using gestures worked well and so did scrolling inside social media apps with smoother refresh rates than before, which Apple should have already done for the regular phone. For gaming, you can expect to play a game like BGMI and Wuthering Waves at 60FPS at highest settings for both and it might do higher frame rates once more games get updated for this new chipset.
Call quality in the device is top notch and so is its GPS lock-in. WiFi performance is also good and 5G network reception is also decent in line with the 16e with that C1 chip. Audio quality from the stereo speakers is loud and crisp for indoors use for gaming and music playback, noticed it has clearer dialogue delivery this than the last year’s regular 16 for watching shows and movies.
Powered by a 3,692 mAh battery unit, you can expect to last a day on low to moderate use and requiring another changer if any gaming, hotspot, and other heavy use cases involved for hours. You can charge it at 40watts now, taking around 1 hour to fully charge using a compatible fast charger with very little heating.
All in all, Apple has given a bunch of worthy and timely additions to the regular iPhone 17, some of which you can argue should have already been added by now. For the price tag, you get a quality high refresh rate display, a capable camera, decent battery life and reliable performance in place. OS is generally okay but should get it’s a few bugs here and there likely to be ironed out with a minor update next.
