Hands-on: iPhone 17 is Apple’s best 'cheap' phone in years — silky-smooth ProMotion screen finally hits the entry level

When it comes to Apple’s cheapest iPhone model, there’s been a sense in recent years that you get what you pay for. It’s always a more-than-solid choice, but you’re going to have to begrudgingly accept that the bells and whistles of the Pro and Max models are going to be absent.

But, for the most part, that’s not the case with the newly-revealed iPhone 17 phones. This is, without question, the best an entry-level iPhone spec sheet has ever been. From display improvements to camera features and durability enhancements, practically every element that can be on a par with its pricier stablemates is on a par. Sure, there iPhone 17 Air gets the super-slim redesign, and the iPhone 17 Pro and Pro Max will have the flashier cameras and faster chips. But pound-for-literal-monetary-pound, the iPhone 17 is fighting fit.

We’ve been hands-on out in California at Apple’s HQ for the iPhone 17 launch event. Here’s everything you need to know about its affordable winner.

Design: A familiar look, but big changes where it matters most

Of all the new iPhones revealed by Apple today, the iPhone 17 is the most familiar — it quite closely resembles its iPhone 16 counterpart, especially around the rear. While the new iPhone 17 Air and iPhone 17 Pro and Pro Max have a new pill-shaped raised ‘plateau’ on the rear to house cameras, the iPhone 17 keeps the vertically-stacked dual camera lens that you’d have seen last year.

That’s no bad thing — it’s a good looking design, and the five shades on offer (lavender, mist blue, black, white, and sage) make for an attractive handset.

But the big change this year — and the one most requested for those regularly picking up the entry level iPhone each generation — comes with the display. For the first time in a regular ol’ iPhone, Apple’s put an always-on ProMotion display in the iPhone 17. That’s the silky-smooth, 120Hz refresh rate screen usually reserved for the Pro models, which will feel like a night-and-day difference in terms of responsiveness and fluidity for anyone making the jump from last year’s entry level devices.

It’s also a larger, brighter screen this year too. The iPhone 17 now sits at 6.3-inches on the diagonal, up from last year’s 6.1-inches, getting that extra screen real estate by shrinking down the bezels. That’s a match for the iPhone 17 Pro, then, which may swing some purchases in favour of this cheaper model. Brightness jumps to 3,000 nits at peak, and it’s also protected by the new Ceramic Shield gen 2 composite glass — 4x times more crack resistant and 3x more scratch resistant than previous devices, and better at deflecting glare, too. That makes it Apple’s most durable entry-level device.

Internal Specs: A19 chip ready for high-end gaming and on-device AI

If there’s one spot where the iPhone 17 reveals its entry-level standing, it’s with the chip that’s onboard. It gets ‘merely’ the A19 chipset, whereas the new Air, Pro and Max handsets get the A19 Pro instead. But using third-generation 3nm technology, it still represents a 20% speed bump over the iPhone 16, so is hardly to be sniffed at.

According to Apple, the 6-core CPU is 1.5x faster than the A15 Bionic chip in iPhone 13, and the 5-core GPU is more than 2x faster than A15 Bionic — the device generation it’s most anticipating people to be making the upgrade from. With neural accelerators in each GPU core, it should make for a responsive experience when using the increasingly-important Apple Intelligence features, and, when paired with the slick new screen, a very enticing gaming package, too.

Cameras: A selfie-shooting star

If you’re regularly shooting glamorous selfies with your iPhone (and, chances are that you are doing just that, given Apple says that 500 billion selfies were shot with its cameras last year), the iPhone 17’s upgraded front-facing camera may be reason alone for you to pick it up.

It’s being upgraded to what Apple’s calling its ‘Center Stage’ camera — taking a cue from the cameras found in its most recent Macs and iPads. Making use of an all-new square sensor capable of shooting high-detail, wider-field of view 18MP snaps, it’s a really useful new feature for iPhone 17. Combining that sensor with Apple’s AI contextual capabilities, it’ll now automatically crop or expand the field of view in a selfie based on what’s in frame. So if a bunch of your pals jump in to photo bomb you, it’ll automatically leap from a tight portrait crop to a wider-angle landscape ratio to accommodate, all the while keeping you centre stage in the picture, as the name suggests.

Around the rear, Apple’s pushed both lenses to 48MP. The main 48MP ‘Fusion’ camera shoots bold and detailed shots, with its combined 2x Telephoto mode letting you get closer to the action. The secondary 48MP Fusion Ultra Wide camera captures up to 4x the resolution compared to the last generation of iPhone, letting you get more detail out of expansive landscape shots or super-close-up macro shots.

As well as shooting in 4K and Dolby Vision HDR for video, the two cameras can be used in tandem for a new ‘Dual Capture’ mode, recording video from both lenses at once, and including both video feeds in a single clip. That way, you can capture what you see, and your reaction to it, in a single video without needing to stitch the two views together. All in, it’s looking like a great device for capturing content of all kinds, and not a giant step down from the top tier end of the iPhone range.

Battery and storage: Faster, bigger, better

Going back to the A19 chip, it’s not only powering all that AI and gaming action, but is doing a great job at ekeing out more battery performance than ever before on an entry level iPhone, too. It’s so efficient that Apple’s claiming it’ll give you an additional eight hours of video playback per charge compared to iPhone 16 — good for 30 hours of playback in total. That’s aided by the new AI-boosted Adaptive Power Mode in the new iOS 26 underlying OS, which will learn when you’re pushing your battery the hardest and adapt its draw to accommodate it. In terms of charging, a new fast charging mode will get you to 50% of a full charge with just 20 minutes connected to a wall when using a compatible fast-charging wall adapter.

And, if you’ve felt Apple’s been a bit stingy with its storage options on the entry-level models in the past, it’s got a bit more generous with the iPhone 17. It now comes with 256GB onboard storage as standard.

Price and release date

The iPhone 17 goes up for pre-order on September 12th, priced at $799, and going on general sale on September 19th. Setting the stage for the rest of this year’s iPhone line-up, it’s a very solid baseline that Apple’s building off and, for the first time in years, those picking up the entry-level device shouldn’t feel too much envy compared to its pricier stablemates.

• Hands-on: iPhone 17 Air is the biggest change to iPhone in a decade — here’s 5 things you need to know