iPhone 17 Pro Secrets, iPhone Air’s Fashion Gamble, Buying Your New iPhone
Apple CEO Tim Cook holds a next generation iPhone 17 (Photo by Justin Sullivan/Getty Images)
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Taking a look back at this week’s news and headlines from across the Apple world, including the big launch event, iPhone 17 Pro benchmarks, iPhone Air fashion, iPhone 17’s limited innovation, Apple Watch’s silicon surprise, AirPods Pro’s European limitation, and iPod gaming is complete.
Apple Loop is here to remind you of a few of the many discussions around Apple in the last seven days. You can also read my weekly digest of Android news here on Forbes.
It’s September
This week saw Apple announce several key products during its September event. These include the iPhone 17, iPhone 17 Pro, iPhone Air, and updates to the Apple Watch and Apple AirPods range. The full roster can be found in Apple’s newsroom. Let’s take a look at some of the key points across the new portfolio.
But first, when can you buy your next iPhone? While they go on sale on Friday, 19th Sept, and pre-orders are open now, there are some dates to be aware of. Forbes contributor David Phelan takes you through them, including two other key dates for your consideration
“iOS 26 General Release On Monday, Sept. 16
“This is the date I and others have been predicting for the release of the new iPhone software, which works with phones from iPhone 11 onwards. It’s now been confirmed by Apple and release is expected for 10 a.m. Pacific.
“First Reviews On Tuesday, Sept. 17, Or Wednesday, Sept. 18
“If Apple sticks to last year’s schedule, the review for the iPhone 17 series (all four of them) will go live at 5 a.m. on Wednesday, Sept. 18, but the day before is also an option.”
(Forbes).
iPhone 17 Pro Benchmarks
The key upgrade inside the iPhone 17 Pro and iPhone 17 Pro Max is the A19 Pro chip. It offers more memory, improved performance, enhanced graphical capabilities, better battery efficiency, and more. With the 17 Pro and 17 Pro Max appearing on Geekbench (presumably reviewers are working on embargoed devices this week), we have our first good look at the uplift:
“…the A19 Pro chip across the Pro models and the iPhone Air appears to deliver up to 13% to 15% faster multi-core CPU performance compared to the A18 Pro chip in the iPhone 16 Pro models.
“On the graphics side, the A19 Pro offers more significant improvements. Based on early Metal scores in the Geekbench 6 database — also unconfirmed — the full 6-core GPU variant of the chip in the iPhone 17 Pro models is up to 40% faster than the A18 Pro’s 6-core GPU.”
(MacRumors).
The iPhone Air Wears Prada
The big news (or should that be the svelte news) is the iPhone Air — and don’t think we see the lack of a number in the title, Tim! It’s a move away from a pure specs and performance play for Apple, something we’ve not seen for many years, as Cook explains in an interview with the WSJ:
“Apple says it made several design tweaks to ensure that the Air’s size won’t compromise performance, but at 36% thinner than the new iPhone 17 Pro, it doesn’t boast its sibling’s battery life or camera quality. The company is making a different wager with the Air, one staked less on functionality and more on vibes: They hope you’ll want to pick one up because you think it’s the most stylish device on the market. “
(Wall Street Journal).
The iPhone 17 And Choosing What To Change
The iPhone 17, to lift an Apple favourite, is the best iPhone there has ever been. Assuming you are under a limited and specific set of circumstances. Ben Thompson takes a closer look at where Apple innovates, and where it doesn’t. And with AI the most significant disruption in the mobile space, Apple may not be innovating in the right space:
“Apple, to be fair, isn’t selling the same sugar water year-after-year in a zero sum war with other sugar water companies. Their sugar water is getting better, and I think this year’s seasonal concoction is particularly tasty. What is inescapable, however, is that while the company does still make new products — I definitely plan on getting new AirPod Pro 3s! — the company has, in the pursuit of easy profits, constrained the space in which it innovates.”
(Stratechery).
Old Internals Drive New Apple Watches
Apple introduced three new Apple Watches this week — the Apple Watch SE 3, the Apple Watch Series 11, and the Apple Watch Ultra 3 — but did not announce a new Apple Silicon S chip. The heart of the 2025 watches will be the 2024 chipset:
“As a result, Apple sticking with the S10 chip for the Series 11 and Ultra 3 is not materially different to if it contained an “S11″ chip as expected, and it looks like the company is simply holding off on that name for a more substantial change in the future. The S10 chip comes as the biggest upgrade to the Apple Watch SE, which previously had the S8.”
(MacRumors).
AirBuds Pro For All (Not You, Europe)
Apple’s AirPods Pro 3 were trailed with live translation on incoming audio. The Babel Fish of the seventies may soon be here… except for users in Europe. Due to the interoperability mandated by the EU’s Digital Markets Act, Apple will not be offering the service in Europe, lest its status as a gatekeeping technology would force it to open up the AirPods platform to other manufacturers:
“On its official page detailing the features available on iOS 26, the company said EU residents or those with EU Apple IDs won’t be able to use live translation, which is powered by Apple Intelligence and will also be coming to AirPods 4 and AirPods Pro 2. According to Apple, the delay is due to interoperability requirements of the Digital Markets Act (DMA). The company noted that other legal requirements around user data protection were not a factor here.”
(TechCrunch).
And Finally
A little bit of iPod news this week, as the iPod Clickwheel Games Preservation Project confirms that all 54 games released by Apple to play with the iPod Clickwheel have been recovered and are available to play. Although many would argue that it’s Apple’s role to preserve the history of the iPod, when the megacorps fall short, the community will rise:
“To Olsro, completing the project “means this whole part from the early 2000s will remain with us forever.” He also expressed hope that “this Virtual Machine can also be useful towards any security [or] archeologist researcher who want to understand how the DRM worked.””
(Ars Technica).
Apple Loop brings you seven days worth of highlights every weekend here on Forbes. Don’t forget to follow me so you don’t miss any coverage in the future. Last week’s Apple Loop can be read here, or this week’s edition of Loop’s sister column, Android Circuit, is also available on Forbes.