The iPhone 17 Event is over, and Apple announced its biggest redesigns in a while – even if the base iPhone 17 looks incredibly similar to the iPhone 16. The iPhone 17 Pro brings a new vapor chamber that will help cool the A19 Pro during demanding workloads, which should make it an interesting gaming phone. Apple also finally announced the iPhone Air, which has been rumored for years at this point. The Air will feature the same A19 Pro chip as the 17 Pro, only in a much thinner chassis.
Apple also announced the Apple Watch Series 11, along with an updated Watch SE and Watch Ultra that pack even more health features. Speaking of health features, the Cupertino company also announced the AirPods Pro 3, which now have a heart rate tracker, in case the Apple Watch wasn’t enough for you. We live blogged the event as it happened, and you can check out below what happened, as it happened.
iPhone 17 Event Liveblog
All times are in EDT
2:10pm: The iPhone 17 will be $799, the iPhone Air will start at $999, and the iPhone 17 Pro will start at $1099. The new phones will be available September 19, just like everything else announced today. And that’s the event!
2:05PM: The camera samples for the iPhone 17 Pro look incredible, but keep in mind that they’re taken by professional photographers. Anyway, time for the obligatory sample filmshot on the iPhone 17 Pro that we get every year. I wonder if we’ll get another zombie movie shot with giant iPhone rigs.
2:03PM: All three cameras on the iPhone 17 Pro are the same “Fusion cameras” that the iPhone Air has. On top of having a 48MP main lens and a 48MP telephoto, it should be an incredible camera – which will of course be paired with incredible software to help the images pop more.
1:59PM: There it is! A vapor chamber welded into the chassis, which will help dissipate heat throughout the aluminum chassis – rather than titanium. That will make it less hot to the touch when you’re gaming, allegedly. I’ll definitely be testing it. The camera bump is also replaced by the new ‘Forge Plateau’ which holds the same components as it does on the iPhone Air. Though, if the iPhone 17 Pro needed an all new chassis design to prevent the A19 Pro from overheating, how is the iPhone Air going to handle it? Not as well, for sure, but at least it’s pretty!
1:56PM: The iPhone 17 Pro looks way different. New heating system, is this the vapor chamber? Is it real?
1:54PM: Thanks to being eSIM-only, the iPhone Air is able to fit in a battery that Apple claims offers all-day battery life. That’s awesome. What’s less awesome is the cross-body strap that the company is selling for the iPhone Air, which is probably the dorkiest thing I’ve seen in my life.
1:50PM: Despite seeming like a single lens from the photo, Apple is claiming that this camera has incredible capabilities. A lot of the tech seems like its software enhancements, which is probably helped by the A19 Pro having a beefier GPU with AI accelerators. iPhone Air is eSIM only. Finally.
1:46PM: Ooh, the iPhone Air is backed by the A19 Pro, which has an upgraded CPU with more ‘Performance Cores’. It also has an upgraded GPU, though it still has 5-cores, just with AI accelerators built right into the GPU, rather than just in the dedicated neural engine. That makes sense, given GPUs are typically very powerful in AI workloads. The company is cllaiming it has ‘MacBook Pro level performance’. Again, we’ll have to see, but with how much thin devices throttle, I have my doubts.
1:45PM: The iPhone Air is finally real, with a 6.5-inch display. The back glass is 4x more resistant to shattering, which is important, because there’s a new bump that hides the single camera lens, along with the antenna and speaker.
1:40PM: Now we got the mysterious iPhone. It looks super thin, maybe it’s Apple’s S25 Edge competitor? Going to be interesting to see if it aggressively throttles like other ultra-thin phones. Apple is claiming that it’s the company’s most durable phone yet – again, we’ll see! ‘A paradox you have to hold to belive’, lol.
1:38PM: Apparently the iPhone 17 will have 8 hours longer battery life during video playback than its predecessor. As for the camera, the base iPhone 17 will have a 2-lens setup with a 24MP default resolution. The file size is also smaller, which should make uploading photos to social media a bit faster. The camera also has a 48MP Ultrawide lens.
1:35PM: Oh, wow, the iPhone 17 will have up to 3,000 nits of brightness. That’s bright for a phone. The screen also has a new coating that should make it 3x more resistant to scratches, according to Apple. The new phones are powered by the new A19 chip, a 3nm SoC with a 6-core CPU, and a 5-core GPU. Apple claims this new chip has 20% faster than the iPhone 16 when it comes to GPU performance. This should make it a better gaming phone, but I’ll have to benchmark it to see exactly how it performs.
1:31PM: There are four new iPhone models this time around. And, hey, Tim Cook says iPhone 17 is incredible, so it has to be, right? The iPhone 17 comes in 5 diffferent colorways: Lavender, Mist Blue, Black, White and Sage.
1:29PM: Pricing on the new Apple Watch models is $249, $399, and $749 for the SE, Series 11 and Ultra, respectively. They’ll be on store shelves September 19.
1:27PM: Apple Watch Ultra is also getting a refresh, the big new feature is Satellite connectivity. This should help you stay connected in remote areas without cell coverage.
1:25PM: The new Apple Watch SE 3 now has an always-on display, gestures, and Sleep Apnea notifications. It also supports fast charging. These are all features that have been standard on the mainline Apple Watches for a while, but this one should be a bit more affordable.
1:22PM: Three new colorways for the Series 11: Natural, Gold, and Slate. Apple Watch SE is upcoming.
1:21PM: The Apple Watch Series 11 will also be able to help identify Hypertension, and the company expects FDA approval soon.
1:18PM: Apple Watch Series 11 has new glass that’s more scratch resistant, and finally supports 5G. This should lead to better network performance. Apple claims this will also boost battery life, and, well, maybe. Apple is claiming that the Apple Watch can help with my mental health – how??
1:15PM: A lot of testimonials about how Apple Watch has positively impacted people’s health and lives. Expect more health features in whatever the new Apple Watch is.
1:12PM: Apple is claiming 8 hours battery life with ANC on and 12 hours in transparency mode. If that’s real, that would be enough to get through a cross-country flight. We’ll see! They’ll be available September 19, either way. Watch is next.
1:10PM: The AirPods 3 are also smaller, with 5 sizes of ear tips to make them fit better “even during the most intense workouts”. The earbuds also have IP57 water resistance for rain and sweat. It has a heartbeat sensor!
1:07PM: The AirPods Pro 3 will have better bass than before, thanks to some fancy airflow tech. Apple is claiming that these new headphones have 4x the noise cancelling performance of the AirPods Pro 2. In fact, its claiming it has the best noise cancelling of any in-ear headphone. We even have our first Apple Intelligence mention, with live translation.
1:05PM: Starting with AirPods. A new generation of AirPods Pro – the last generation introduced the capability to act as hearing aids, and Tim Cook is claiming this new gen has even more capabilities.
1:02PM: This little montage has had like, every Apple product. How many things is the company announcing? Tim Cook is pretty serious about design this time around, and is really excited for Liquid Glass in the new operating systems. Me? Not so much, Windows Vista broke me.
1:00PM: And here we go. Starting with a Steve Jobs quote this time, ok.
12:55PM: Five minutes to go. How many times will we hear the phrase ‘Apple Intelligence’ over the next hour? I’m betting at least 10.
12:45PM: The stream has technically started. Make sure you refresh your browser if you’re trying to watch along. We’ve got music, and the same multi-colored Apple logo we had before. Things are happening.
12:35PM: It’s probably not going to be happen, but wouldn’t it be hilarious if this was the year Apple finally announced a foldable? It would definitely be fascinating to see it go head-to-head with the excellent Galaxy Z Fold 7 and the Google Pixel Fold 10.
12:20PM: If the vapor chamber is real, it could go a long way to making the iPhone 17 one of the best gaming phones. After all, recent mobile chipsets have been notorious for throttling during heavy workloads. If Apple is able to find a way around that, it could be huge.
12:00PM: The event starts in about an hour, and I’m just sitting here watching this holographic Apple logo. It kind of looks like the colors typically associated with thermal imaging. Maybe that weird vapor chamber rumor has some weight to it?
How to Watch the Apple iPhone 17 Event
If you want to watch Apple reveal the new iPhone yourself, you can do so on Apple’s own website and on YouTube. In my experience, if you open the page early, the stream won’t automatically start. So, make sure to refresh the page about 15 minutes before the event starts at 10am PT / 1PM ET.
Jackie Thomas is the Hardware and Buying Guides Editor at IGN and the PC components queen. You can follow her @Jackiecobra
