Hey, what's up? MKBHD here and welcome to your first look and hands-on of everything Apple just unveiled today at their 2025 September event. This is iPhone 17, 17 Pro, and 17 Air. Definitely get subscribed to be among the first to see the full reviews when they come out. But this is my first impressions. And I actually found it pretty simple to to synthesize my thoughts on on everything they announced today. Like there is some good tech, there's some interesting new designs and some questionable decisions, but the funny thing is, you know, as I go to these events and as I think about all this stuff, what usually happens is I end up typically getting some texts from friends asking what I think of the announcements and my mental task is to summarize everything I'm thinking about into one or two easily digestible sentences or just words to understand what's new and what happened. I don't want to tell them too much information. And so that's what I'm going to give you about each of the things Apple announced today. I'm going to give you my super, super compressed version of what I saw. So let's just start with the iPhone 17, right? The base new iPhones. My ultra simple summary for the iPhone 17 would be, hey, it got ProMotion and a better selfie camera and the rest is mostly the same. So the design is mostly unchanged other than the new colors. Same screen sizes, same dimensions, same camera bump, same buttons and camera control, which they barely talked about. But there's a new A19 chip inside, which we expected. That should see some nice performance gains and efficiency bumps, roughly 20% faster CPU, which is nice. And battery life should be a few beats longer. And the display is brighter, too, getting up to 3,000 nits. But this is the first time we are seeing a pro-branded feature on a non-pro iPhone because every new iPhone across the range now has ProMotion. And it's the same ProMotion, too. It's the adaptive 1 to 120 Hz. Doesn't seem to be handicapped at all. It's funny, we always used to have that, oh, regular people don't care about 120 Hz argument, but now here it is on the new base iPhones. So, hey, sounds great to me. This makes the base iPhones much more usable. And so does the new base storage of 256 gigs. So those are welcome upgrades, but the other new thing was the selfie camera. And it was funny, the keynote was pretty chill up until the point where they started to talk about this and it was actually the loudest applause and it was really tempting to make fun of it, but I actually do think this is really clever because all these new iPhones have this massively upgraded selfie camera system. They're calling it Center Stage, but I actually think that kind of does a disservice because the actual Center Stage on their laptops and stuff is kind of annoying. But what's happening is with these phones, they all have a larger 24 megapixel square selfie camera sensor. And so then when you go to take a selfie, the phone can take a regular vertical selfie or can manually or even automatically take a horizontal selfie without you having to rotate the phone. And honestly, this might be genius. Like the default for most people is obviously to take a vertical selfie now. It just fits on the phone. You're probably viewing it on the phone. But if you go to take a horizontal selfie to fit more people, suddenly the camera lens is off to the side and it's a little bit less natural looking. So now, since the selfie camera is larger and a square, it can literally just crop an 18 megapixel selfie in portrait or landscape. And for videos or photos. It's I think it's great. It's very useful. It might be the biggest upgrade to the iPhone 17. So then there's the iPhone 17 Pro. And my quick friendly summary of the Pro phones is, hey, they got better zoom and more battery and orange. So the Pro iPhones actually look a little bit different. There's actually quite a bit going on here with this new design. First of all, there's only three colors, Cosmic Orange, Deep Blue, and Silver. Really bumming me out that there's no black Pro phone, but then I remembered Dbrand exists. Never mind. But then the thing that's going to catch everyone's eye on the back is the camera bar up at the top, which is what Apple keeps calling in their keynote a plateau. Uh, it kind of looks a little bit like the Pixel's visor or frankly what we've been seeing on a ton of other Android phones for years now, just a huge bar across the top of the back of the phone. But it's actually not just cameras in here. Apple's done some rearranging of the insides of the phone to actually shove more components like the A19 Pro chip and the logic board and storage up here in that bar so they could fill out more of the bottom of the phone with more battery. And that approach is going to make even more sense in a little bit, but my first reaction to that is, oh, yeah, great. That sounds like these Pro phones might actually come with a real substantial battery upgrade from last year, which is again, very welcome. Now, you might also notice some other little things like the millimeter wave antenna at the top of the phone and the ring around that plateau actually also being an antenna. But then the other new design element is that they actually switched back to aluminum, which is interesting because we just saw like two years ago, the iPhone 15 Pro's whole thing was titanium, the new titanium color and titanium rails and it was a whole big deal. But now they're switching back to aluminum in a unibody form because it's much better thermally. And so there's also a new vapor chamber right in the middle of the back of this phone. First time we've seen a vapor chamber on the iPhone. And so this new cooling system and new unibody aluminum build should mean the iPhone shouldn't get nearly as hot from sustained loads to the chip, which is different from normal bursty quick on and off workloads of everyday use. I'm talking more about like rendering long videos or playing an intense game for a long time with ray tracing at high frame rates. This phone should be able to keep cool and keep that performance high without overheating. Apple is saying 40% better sustained performance. So yeah, this design, it is just a little bit more than meets the eye, you know, rearranging some components here and there, being more efficient, better cooling and better battery. The number that they quoted on stage was 39 hours of video playback, which whatever, dumb stat, video playback is kind of ridiculous. But okay, we'll take that. And I also looked up the iPhone 16 Pro Max's video playback and that was also a great battery life phone. That one quoted 33 hours. So maybe up to like 10% battery life on this phone, which is sick. And then there's the cameras that I mentioned. They always go hard with Pro phones and cameras and this generation is no exception with the main improvement being the new 48 megapixel 4x telephoto camera. Now, 4x might be a lesser number than last year's 5x, but that was a smaller 12 megapixel sensor. This new zoom camera is a 56% larger sensor and has way more resolution. It's 48 megapixels. So that is a smaller gap between the main camera and the zoom. And you should be able to continue to zoom further and crop more with less consequence now that you have 48 megapixels. The Pro phones also get the new selfie camera. They also get the new brighter display. These also got Qi2 support. And then they also got some seriously pro features that I'm looking forward to testing like genlock sync support and also ProRes RAW video, which I will hopefully be getting to test in an autofocus video coming up very soon. But of course, there was one more new iPhone, the iPhone Air. No number, just Air. And you all know what that means. They're doing the ultra thin thing and they're leaning in hard. So this thing is a stunningly, ridiculously thin 5.6 mm at the thinnest part. And you can tell from the commercials, you can tell from my footage here and, you know, the first time I hold the phone, it has the same effect on me that the S25 Edge did from Samsung, which is just it's so sick. Like clearly nobody's asking for thinner phones, but once you hold one, it is pretty impressive that they're able to make something like this. But there are also absolutely some red flags that come along with this. So the basics are, it's a 6 and 1/2 inch Pro motion display. It's got the A19 Pro chip inside, minus one GPU core. Interesting choice. Apparently it's a bit more efficient than the base A19, so that's good for battery life. But we also just heard a whole long list of choices Apple made with the Pro phones to make them more thermally efficient to not overheat, switching from titanium to aluminum and adding a vapor chamber to the back. But this phone is still titanium and absolutely does not have room for an advanced thermal solution or any sort of vapor chamber. So it sounds like this phone could get much hotter and throttle performance much quicker. It's a red flag. Now, we also know that ultra thin phones have a tendency to be a little bit less durable. They've bent over the years and I'm not going to be the first one to point this out. I mean, you're I'm sure already glued to JerryRigEverything's channel for his bend test. And Apple, of course, has thought about this. They've for sure tested this and they're telling us it's the most durable iPhone ever. But I mean, I'm looking at the phone and I think it qualifies also as a red flag. And then we already know there is just no way battery life can be good on this phone, right? There's just no way. I've been reviewing phones for more than a decade and all signs point to it being trash. There was a slide in the keynote today about how they were still proud to achieve all-day battery life, but like, come on. Really? I mean, they still do the thing where they rearrange the components up into the little plateau at the top to make room for more battery at the bottom. But there is just absolutely not enough room in this phone for a large battery and it doesn't appear to be silicon carbon or any sort of a special ultra high density battery. And Apple also announced it alongside a special dedicated MagSafe battery accessory just for this phone that adds 3,149 milliamp hours and just barely combined will match the 17 Pro in terms of quoted video playback. So, if that doesn't scream red flag, I don't know what to tell you. It is also eSIM only globally because there's no room in any version of this phone for a plastic SIM card. Uh there's also no millimeter wave 5G. And like I said, it's coming in at $1,000, which is more expensive than the base iPhone, which will have a better camera system and better battery life and may overheat less. So look, I think there's two ways to look at this phone. This is either Apple just throwing something new at the wall and seeing if it sticks. Like we just saw them try, okay, they had the mini phone for like two years and that really didn't sell that well. So then they moved to the plus and that was also a little bit underwhelming. So now they're trying that same spot in the lineup for an ultra thin phone and seeing if maybe they can market that to turn into some more sales. So you can see it is that or you can see this as a visionary, long time in the making preview at the future of all phones. Like maybe someday in the future, every phone will be this thin. And Apple is just now today getting the tech together with the battery and display and modem and Apple Silicon to make this phone possible. Maybe, kind of like how the first MacBook Air sucked and was underpowered, but then eventually all laptops became that thin. Maybe that's also what's going to happen to smartphones. And maybe the same way Samsung made the ultra thin S25 Edge and then a few months later they came out with their super thin foldable, the Z Fold 7, and I felt like the Edge phone was one half of that foldable. Maybe that's also what Apple's doing. Maybe we're going to see an ultra thin foldable iPhone next year, maybe. Either way, I do think it's clear that you probably won't find too many logical reasons to pick up this first gen iPhone Air, but I do also think that picking it up and holding it is going to convince a lot of people because it's pretty stunning in person and it's the same thing I said about the Samsung phone, it's pretty sick. But only time will tell for that part of the story. Now, there were a couple other announcements today. There were new AirPods Pro 3, which have twice as good ANC as the last gen, which is crazy, plus IP57 and heart rate tracking during workouts, all at the same $250 price. Definitely going to test those. And there's also a new Apple Watch Series 11, now with 5G and possible hypertension detection, and the slightly new Watch Ultra 3 with thinner bezels, LTPO3 and slightly longer battery life. I'm going to be testing all this stuff over the next couple weeks, so get subscribed and I'll see you in those videos. And shout out to channel sponsor Ridge for being ahead of the game because while the iPhone Air does lack battery, it does still have MagSafe, which means you're going to want to pick up a Ridge power bank. I've seen plenty of power banks over my 15 years of reviewing tech, but this Ridge one quickly became a favorite. It's got five ways to charge, 15 watt MagSafe compatible wireless charging, two built-in cables, USB Type C up to 20 watts and lightning for older Apple devices, and a charging pad for your Apple Watch. Pass-through charging, so it doubles as a hub. And it also comes in three colors, matte black, matte olive, and I guess perfect for the new iPhone 17 Pro color, Basecamp Orange. Ridge also makes a MagSafe card holder that snaps right onto your iPhone and holds up to three cards. Every Ridge product comes with a lifetime warranty and a 99-day risk-free trial. So get one today and head over to ridge.com/MKBHD for 10% off. Thanks for watching. See you guys very soon in the next videos. Peace.
A fast-paced, stylized motion graphics intro with black, white, and red geometric shapes.
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A montage of close-up shots showing different colored iPhones being held and used. MKBHD's face is seen briefly, focused on a phone screen.
"Hey, what's up? MKBHD here and welcome to your first look and hands-on of everything Apple just unveiled today at their 2025 September event."
Setting: Apple event hands-on area — bright, diffuse
People (1):
• using phone, wearing dark t-shirt, short, black hair — focused, looking down at phone
A close-up shot of MKBHD holding a silver, ultra-thin iPhone sideways, examining its profile.
"This is iPhone 17, 17 Pro, and 17 Air."
Setting: Apple event hands-on area — bright, even
People (1):
• seated, examining phone, wearing black t-shirt, short, black hair — partially visible, focused on the phone
MKBHD sits in a hotel room, looking directly at the camera and speaking.
"Definitely get subscribed to be among the first to see the full reviews when they come out. But this is my first impressions."
Setting: hotel room at night — warm, soft, from the side
People (1):
• seated, facing camera, wearing black t-shirt with red geometric pattern, short, black, styled top hair — neutral, speaking
MKBHD continues speaking to the camera, gesturing with his hands to explain his thought process.
"pretty simple to to synthesize my thoughts on on everything they announced today."
Setting: hotel room at night — warm, soft, from the side
People (1):
• seated, facing camera, wearing black t-shirt with red geometric pattern, short, black, styled top hair — thoughtful, slightly smiling
A montage of close-up B-roll shots: an orange iPhone 17 Pro held near a plant, a white iPhone 17 Air held in a crowded room, and two iPhones (gold and silver) being compared side-by-side.
"Like there is some good tech, there's some interesting new designs and some questionable decisions, but"
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MKBHD gestures with his hands, creating a large circle in the air to represent the breadth of information he has to process.
"what I think of the announcements and my mental task is to summarize everything I'm thinking about into"
Setting: hotel room at night — warm, soft
People (1):
• seated, leaning forward, wearing black t-shirt with red geometric pattern, short, black, styled top hair — focused, explaining
MKBHD continues to explain, bringing his hands together and then opening them up as if presenting a simplified concept.
"one or two easily digestible sentences or just words to understand what's new and what happened."
Setting: hotel room at night — warm, soft
People (1):
• seated, engaged with camera, wearing black t-shirt with red geometric pattern, short, black, styled top hair — clear, articulate expression
MKBHD brings his hands together, interlacing his fingers, then gestures forward to emphasize his point about giving a compressed summary.
"about each of the things Apple announced today. I'm going to give you my super, super compressed version of what I saw."
Setting: hotel room at night — warm, soft
People (1):
• seated, wearing black t-shirt with red geometric pattern, short, black, styled top hair — determined, making a point
A close-up shot of a light blue iPhone 17. The camera focuses on the dual-camera system on the back.
"So let's just start with the iPhone 17, right? The base new iPhones."
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People (1):
• — partially out of focus
MKBHD is back in the hotel room, speaking directly to the camera and summarizing the iPhone 17's features.
"My ultra simple summary for the iPhone 17 would be, hey, it got ProMotion and a better selfie camera and the rest is mostly the same."
Setting: hotel room — warm, soft
People (1):
• seated, wearing black t-shirt with red pattern, short, black hair — neutral, speaking clearly
A montage of different colored iPhone 17s. A light green one is shown from the back, then a light blue one is shown from the side, highlighting the buttons.
"So the design is mostly unchanged other than the new colors. Same screen sizes, same dimensions, same camera bump, same buttons and camera control, which they barely talked about."
Setting: hands-on area — bright, even
A graphic of the Apple A19 chip appears on a black background. It's a silver square with the Apple logo and 'A19' text. The graphic then animates to show a colorful schematic of the chip's internal layout.
"But there's a new A19 chip inside, which we expected. That should see some nice performance gains and efficiency bumps, roughly 20% faster CPU, which is nice."
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Text: "Apple A19"
A hand holds an iPhone, swiping through the home screen and control center. The screen appears very bright against the white background.
"And battery life should be a few beats longer. And the display is brighter, too, getting up to 3,000 nits."
Setting: indoor setting — bright, clean
People (1):
•
A graphic with the word "ProMotion" in a purple gradient appears on a black screen.
"But this is the first time we are seeing a pro-branded feature on a non-pro iPhone because every new iPhone across the range now has ProMotion."
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Text: "ProMotion"
On-screen text shows "120Hz" and then an iPhone lock screen is shown with the refresh rate animating from 30Hz down to 1Hz for the always-on display.
"And it's the same ProMotion, too. It's the adaptive 1 to 120 Hz. Doesn't seem to be handicapped at all."
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Text: "120Hz", "30Hz", "1Hz"
MKBHD is in his hotel room, speaking with a slightly amused expression and gesturing with his hands.
"It's funny, we always used to have that, oh, regular people don't care about 120 Hz argument, but now here it is on the new base iPhones."
Setting: hotel room — warm, soft
People (1):
• seated, wearing black t-shirt with red pattern, short, black hair — smiling, amused
MKBHD smiles and gestures with open hands, expressing his approval of the new features.
"So, hey, sounds great to me. This makes the base iPhones much more usable. And so does the new base storage of 256 gigs."
Setting: hotel room — warm, soft
People (1):
• seated, wearing black t-shirt with red pattern, short, black hair — smiling
MKBHD points his index finger up to introduce the next topic, the selfie camera.
"So those are welcome upgrades, but the other new thing was the selfie camera."
Setting: hotel room — warm, soft
People (1):
• seated, wearing black t-shirt with red pattern, short, black hair — focused expression
MKBHD gestures with his hands while explaining the reaction at the Apple keynote, looking slightly amused.
"And it was funny, the keynote was pretty chill up until the point where they started to talk about this and it was actually the loudest applause and it was really tempting to make fun of it, but"
Setting: hotel room — warm, soft
People (1):
• seated, wearing black t-shirt with red pattern, short, black hair — amused, smiling slightly
MKBHD holds up an iPhone and takes a selfie. The phone screen shows his face in the camera app.
"I actually do think this is really clever. because all these new iPhones have this massively upgraded selfie camera system."
Setting: indoor setting — bright
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•
MKBHD is back in the hotel room, explaining his opinion on the 'Center Stage' branding with a critical expression.
"They're calling it Center Stage, but I actually think that kind of does a disservice because the actual Center Stage on their laptops and stuff is kind of annoying."
Setting: hotel room — warm, soft
People (1):
• seated, wearing black t-shirt with red pattern, short, black hair — slightly frowning, critical
A graphic animation shows the internal components of the selfie camera, highlighting the larger, square sensor.
"But what's happening is with these phones, they all have a larger 24 megapixel square selfie camera sensor."
Setting: N/A — internal glow
A hand holds an iPhone vertically. On the screen, the user takes a vertical selfie, then taps a button to switch to a horizontal crop of the same selfie, all without turning the phone.
"And so then when you go to take a selfie, the phone can take a regular vertical selfie or can manually or even automatically take a horizontal selfie without you having to rotate the phone."
Setting: indoor setting — bright
A split screen graphic. On the left, a vertical selfie is shown. On the right, a horizontal group selfie is shown, demonstrating the two modes.
"And honestly, this might be genius. Like the default for most people is obviously to take a vertical selfie now. It just fits on the phone. You're probably viewing it on the phone."
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MKBHD is back in his hotel room, explaining the awkwardness of taking a horizontal selfie by mimicking holding a phone sideways.
"But if you go to take a horizontal selfie to fit more people, suddenly the camera lens is off to the side and it's a little bit less natural looking."
Setting: hotel room — warm, soft
People (1):
• seated, wearing black t-shirt with red pattern, short, black hair — explaining, slightly furrowed brow
An animation shows a large square sensor with a vertical rectangle (portrait crop) and a horizontal rectangle (landscape crop) being extracted from it.
"So now, since the selfie camera is larger and a square, it can literally just crop an 18 megapixel selfie in portrait or landscape."
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MKBHD gives a thumbs-up gesture and nods approvingly while talking about the new selfie camera feature.
"And for videos or photos. It's I think it's great. It's very useful. It might be the biggest upgrade to the iPhone 17."
Setting: hotel room — warm, soft
People (1):
• seated, wearing black t-shirt with red pattern, short, black hair — smiling, nodding
Two purple iPhone 17 Pro models are shown lying on a white surface, angled towards each other.
"So then there's the iPhone 17 Pro."
Setting: studio — bright, clean studio lighting
An orange iPhone 17 Pro is shown suspended from the ceiling, rotating slowly. The background is a modern, circular room with ceiling lights.
"And my quick friendly summary of the Pro phones is, hey, they got better zoom and more battery and orange."
Setting: exhibition hall — multiple bright spotlights
A hand holds the orange iPhone 17 Pro, showing the back with its prominent camera 'plateau' design.
"So the Pro iPhones actually look a little bit different. There's actually quite a bit going on here with this new design."
Setting: indoor/outdoor space — bright, natural
A shot of the three iPhone 17 Pro colors (Silver, Cosmic Orange, Deep Blue) lined up against a black background.
"First of all, there's only three colors, Cosmic Orange, Deep Blue, and Silver."
Setting: studio — studio lighting, highlighting the phones
MKBHD looks disappointed, then smiles and winks as he mentions Dbrand.
"Really bumming me out that there's no black Pro phone, but then I remembered Dbrand exists. Never mind."
Setting: hotel room — warm, soft
People (1):
• seated, wearing black t-shirt with red pattern, short, black hair — initially disappointed, then smiling and winking
A close-up shot of the orange iPhone 17 Pro's back, focusing on the new horizontal camera bar design.
"But then the thing that's going to catch everyone's eye on the back is the camera bar up at the top, which is what Apple keeps calling in their keynote a plateau."
Setting: hands-on area — bright
A close-up of the dark blue iPhone 17 Pro, with a finger tapping on the matte back panel below the camera plateau.
"Uh, it kind of looks a little bit like the Pixel's visor or frankly what we've been seeing on a ton of other Android phones for years now, just a huge bar across the top of the back of the phone."
Setting: hands-on area — bright, clean
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A close-up of the orange iPhone 17 Pro's side profile, held between MKBHD's fingers, showing its thickness and button layout.
"But it's actually not just cameras in here. Apple's done some rearranging of the insides of the phone to actually shove more components"
Setting: studio — soft, bright
People (1):
• , short, black hair — out of focus in background
MKBHD explains the internal rearrangement in his hotel room, using his hands to show components moving to the top and the battery expanding at the bottom.
"like the A19 Pro chip and the logic board and storage up here in that bar so they could fill out more of the bottom of the phone with more battery."
Setting: hotel room — warm, soft
People (1):
• seated, wearing black t-shirt with red pattern, short, black hair — focused, explaining
MKBHD nods and smiles, expressing initial approval for the design change that allows for a larger battery.
"And that approach is going to make even more sense in a little bit, but my first reaction to that is, oh, yeah, great."
Setting: hotel room — warm, soft
People (1):
• seated, wearing black t-shirt with red pattern, short, black hair — smiling, nodding
A hand holds a dark blue iPhone 17 Pro, swiping through the settings menu to the battery section.
"That sounds like these Pro phones might actually come with a real substantial battery upgrade from last year, which is again, very welcome."
Setting: hands-on area — bright, clean
A finger points to the small millimeter-wave antenna cutout on the side of the orange iPhone 17 Pro.
"Now, you might also notice some other little things like the millimeter wave antenna at the top of the phone and the ring around that plateau actually also being an antenna."
Setting: studio — studio lighting
MKBHD makes a circular gesture with his hand, indicating a reversal or a switch back in design philosophy.
"But then the other new design element is that they actually switched back to aluminum, which is interesting because we just saw like two years ago,"
Setting: hotel room — warm, soft
People (1):
• seated, wearing black t-shirt with red pattern, short, black hair — raised eyebrows, surprised expression
MKBHD explains the material change, looking thoughtful and gesturing to emphasize the technical reason (thermals).
"the iPhone 15 Pro's whole thing was titanium, the new titanium color and titanium rails and it was a whole big deal. But now they're switching back to aluminum in a unibody form because it's much better thermally."
Setting: hotel room — warm, soft
People (1):
• seated, wearing black t-shirt with red pattern, short, black hair — thoughtful, explaining a technical point
A CGI animation shows a vapor chamber component being placed inside the iPhone. A thermal imaging view then shows it dissipating heat (orange/yellow) away from the processor.
"And so there's also a new vapor chamber right in the middle of the back of this phone. First time we've seen a vapor chamber on the iPhone."
Setting: N/A — internal glow
A person is shown playing an intense, graphically-rich game on the orange iPhone 17 Pro, held horizontally.
"And so this new cooling system and new unibody aluminum build should mean the iPhone shouldn't get nearly as hot from sustained loads to the chip,"
Setting: indoor setting — bright, natural
MKBHD is back in his hotel room, using his hands to describe sustained, heavy workloads on the phone.
"I'm talking more about like rendering long videos or playing an intense game for a long time with ray tracing at high frame rates. This phone should be able to keep cool and keep that performance high without overheating."
Setting: hotel room — warm, soft
People (1):
• seated, wearing black t-shirt with red pattern, short, black hair — serious, focused
A shot of the orange iPhone 17 Pro being held, looking sleek and powerful.
"Apple is saying 40% better sustained performance."
Setting: studio — bright, clean
MKBHD summarizes the design changes, ticking off points with his fingers.
"So yeah, this design, it is just a little bit more than meets the eye, you know, rearranging some components here and there, being more efficient, better cooling and better battery."
Setting: hotel room — warm, soft
People (1):
• seated, wearing black t-shirt with red pattern, short, black hair — nodding, summarizing
MKBHD looks skeptical and rolls his eyes slightly when mentioning the 'video playback' metric, then shrugs.
"The number that they quoted on stage was 39 hours of video playback, which whatever, dumb stat, video playback is kind of ridiculous. But okay, we'll take that."
Setting: hotel room — warm, soft
People (1):
• seated, wearing black t-shirt with red pattern, short, black hair — skeptical, eye-roll
MKBHD looks up and to the side as if recalling information, then looks back at the camera with an impressed expression.
"And I also looked up the iPhone 16 Pro Max's video playback and that was also a great battery life phone. That one quoted 33 hours. So maybe up to like 10% battery life on this phone, which is sick."
Setting: hotel room — warm, soft
People (1):
• seated, wearing black t-shirt with red pattern, short, black hair — impressed, raised eyebrows
A hand holds the orange iPhone 17 Pro, opening the camera app. The phone is outdoors, surrounded by green plants.
"And then there's the cameras that I mentioned. They always go hard with Pro phones and cameras and this generation is no exception"
Setting: outdoors, garden — bright, outdoor sunlight
The camera app on the phone is shown, with the user pinching to zoom in, and the zoom level indicator shows '4x'.
"with the main improvement being the new 48 megapixel 4x telephoto camera."
Setting: outdoors, garden — bright, outdoor sunlight
A close-up shot of the three camera lenses on the back of the orange iPhone 17 Pro. The lenses appear large and prominent.
"Now, 4x might be a lesser number than last year's 5x, but that was a smaller 12 megapixel sensor."
Setting: studio — studio lighting
MKBHD is in his hotel room, using his fingers to show a size comparison, indicating the larger sensor.
"This new zoom camera is a 56% larger sensor and has way more resolution. It's 48 megapixels."
Setting: hotel room — warm, soft
People (1):
• seated, wearing black t-shirt with red pattern, short, black hair — explaining a technical detail
A hand holds an iPhone in a crowded event hall, using the camera app to zoom in on people in the distance, demonstrating the telephoto capability.
"So that is a smaller gap between the main camera and the zoom. And you should be able to continue to zoom further and crop more with less consequence now that you have 48 megapixels."
Setting: event hall — bright, indoor lighting
MKBHD is in his hotel room, listing off additional features of the Pro models.
"The Pro phones also get the new selfie camera. They also get the new brighter display. These also got Qi2 support."
Setting: hotel room — warm, soft
People (1):
• seated, wearing black t-shirt with red pattern, short, black hair — neutral, listing features
MKBHD looks enthusiastic and points towards the camera, talking about advanced video features he plans to test.
"And then they also got some seriously pro features that I'm looking forward to testing like genlock sync support and also ProRes RAW video, which I will hopefully be getting to test in an autofocus video coming up very soon."
Setting: hotel room — warm, soft
People (1):
• seated, leaning forward, wearing black t-shirt with red pattern, short, black hair — excited, smiling
An ultra-thin, white iPhone Air is shown lying on a pinkish surface next to an orange iPhone 17 Pro. The camera pans slowly towards the Air.
"But of course, there was one more new iPhone, the iPhone Air."
Setting: studio — soft, diffused
A hand holds up the white iPhone Air against a bright, circular-lit ceiling, emphasizing its thinness.
"No number, just Air. And you all know what that means. They're doing the ultra thin thing and they're leaning in hard."
Setting: event hall — bright spotlights
An extreme close-up shot of the side profile of the iPhone Air, showing how incredibly thin it is. A hand holds it steady.
"So this thing is a stunningly, ridiculously thin 5.6 mm at the thinnest part."
Setting: event hall — bright, diffuse
MKBHD is in his hotel room, looking impressed and shaking his head in disbelief while talking about the phone's thinness.
"And you can tell from the commercials, you can tell from my footage here and, you know, the first time I hold the phone, it has the same effect on me that the S25 Edge did from Samsung, which is just it's so sick."
Setting: hotel room — warm, soft
People (1):
• seated, wearing black t-shirt with red pattern, short, black hair — impressed, shaking head
A hand holds a black version of the ultra-thin iPhone Air, showing its sleek, minimalist design.
"Like clearly nobody's asking for thinner phones, but once you hold one, it is pretty impressive that they're able to make something like this."
Setting: hands-on area — bright, clean
MKBHD's expression turns serious as he raises a cautionary hand, signaling a shift in tone to discuss the phone's drawbacks.
"But there are also absolutely some red flags that come along with this."
Setting: hotel room — warm, soft
People (1):
• seated, wearing black t-shirt with red pattern, short, black hair — serious, concerned
A montage of shots showing the iPhone Air: the bright ProMotion display, a close-up of the titanium edge, and the single camera on the back.
"So the basics are, it's a 6 and 1/2 inch Pro motion display. It's got the A19 Pro chip inside, titanium body, the new selfie camera, of course, is in there."
Setting: studio — bright studio light
A close-up of the back of the white iPhone Air, focusing on the single camera lens and the small raised 'plateau' it sits on.
"and it has a single 48 megapixel fusion camera on the back with the new design again, same camera as the iPhone 17, but with the nice plateau from the Pro phone."
Setting: hands-on area — bright
A graphic shows the Apple N1 chip, followed by icons for Wi-Fi, Bluetooth, and Thread.
"And then there's a new N1 chip inside for all the networking connectivity, which is Wi-Fi 7, Bluetooth 6, Thread, and a new more energy efficient C1X modem for cellular."
Setting: N/A — N/A
Text: "Apple N1"
MKBHD speaks with a very direct, analytical expression, making a strong point about the iPhone Air's value proposition.
"I put out a short that basically already said this, but I really think this phone is going to be a hard sell because if you subtract emotions from it, it's just it's the worst one."
Setting: hotel room — warm, soft
People (1):
• seated, wearing black t-shirt with red pattern, short, black hair — serious, making a critical point
A shot of the full lineup of new iPhones on display stands: iPhone 17, 17 Pro, and the thin 17 Air.
"This is going to jump in the lineup at 999. It replaces essentially the Plus phones in the lineup."
Setting: studio — bright studio lighting
MKBHD is in his hotel room, using his hands to frame the 'thin and light' concept, emphasizing that it's the phone's only major advantage.
"And it's surrounded by other iPhones that are better than it in basically every way other than being super thin and light."
Setting: hotel room — warm, soft
People (1):
• seated, wearing black t-shirt with red pattern, short, black hair — serious, critical expression
A hand holds the ultra-thin, silver iPhone Air, showing the home screen with colorful app icons.
"So it's a fascinating gamble. This phone has the same A19 Pro chip in it as the Pro phones, minus one GPU core."
Setting: indoor setting — bright, focused on the phone
MKBHD is in his hotel room, looking directly at the camera while explaining the technical trade-offs, looking thoughtful.
"Interesting choice. Apparently it's a bit more efficient than the base A19, so that's good for battery life. But we also just heard a whole long list of choices Apple made with the Pro phones to make them more thermally efficient to not overheat,"
Setting: hotel room — warm, soft
People (1):
• seated, wearing black t-shirt with red pattern, short, black hair — thoughtful, explaining
A hand holds the ultra-thin iPhone Air, rotating it to show its sleek titanium sides. The shot emphasizes the lack of internal space.
"switching from titanium to aluminum and adding a vapor chamber to the back. But this phone is still titanium and absolutely does not have room for an advanced thermal solution or any sort of vapor chamber."
Setting: event hall — bright
MKBHD looks concerned and shakes his head, reinforcing the idea of a 'red flag' with the phone's potential thermal issues.
"So it sounds like this phone could get much hotter and throttle performance much quicker. It's a red flag."
Setting: hotel room — warm, soft
People (1):
• seated, wearing black t-shirt with red pattern, short, black hair — concerned, shaking head
A shot comparing the side profile of the ultra-thin iPhone Air to a standard, thicker iPhone. The difference in thickness is stark.
"Now, we also know that ultra thin phones have a tendency to be a little bit less durable. They've bent over the years."
Setting: living room setting — soft, indoor
MKBHD smirks and gestures as he references the popular durability tester JerryRigEverything.
"And I'm not going to be the first one to point this out. I mean, you're I'm sure already glued to JerryRigEverything's channel for his bend test. And Apple, of course, has thought about this."
Setting: hotel room — warm, soft
People (1):
• seated, wearing black t-shirt with red pattern, short, black hair — smirking
A hand delicately holds the thin iPhone Air, which looks fragile despite the claims of durability.
"They've for sure tested this and they're telling us it's the most durable iPhone ever. But I mean, I'm looking at the phone and I think it qualifies also as a red flag."
Setting: event hall — bright
MKBHD shakes his head emphatically, expressing strong doubt about the iPhone Air's battery life.
"And then we already know there is just no way battery life can be good on this phone, right? There's just no way."
Setting: hotel room — warm, soft
People (1):
• seated, wearing black t-shirt with red pattern, short, black hair — shaking head, expressing disbelief
A graphic appears on a black screen with the text "All-day battery life" in a blue gradient.
"I've been reviewing phones for more than a decade and all signs point to it being trash. There was a slide in the keynote today about how they were still proud to achieve all-day battery life, but like, come on. Really?"
Setting: N/A — N/A
Text: "All-day battery life"
A CGI transparent view of the iPhone Air shows the internal components being rearranged, with parts moving into the top camera plateau.
"I mean, they still do the thing where they rearrange the components up into the little plateau at the top to make room for more battery at the bottom."
Setting: N/A — internal glow
MKBHD holds a black iPhone Air next to a white MagSafe battery pack, illustrating the need for an external battery.
"But there is just absolutely not enough room in this phone for a large battery and it doesn't appear to be silicon carbon or any sort of a special ultra high density battery."
Setting: studio — bright, clean
A hand attaches the white MagSafe battery pack to the back of the black iPhone Air. The phone screen shows a charging animation.
"And Apple also announced it alongside a special dedicated MagSafe battery accessory just for this phone that adds 3,149 milliamp hours and just barely combined will match the 17 Pro in terms of quoted video playback."
Setting: studio — bright, clean
Text: "79% Charged"
MKBHD is in his hotel room, looking directly at the camera with a look of exasperation, throwing his hands up slightly.
"So, if that doesn't scream red flag, I don't know what to tell you. It is also eSIM only globally because there's no room in any version of this phone for a plastic SIM card."
Setting: hotel room — warm, soft
People (1):
• seated, wearing black t-shirt with red pattern, short, black hair — exasperated expression
A shot comparing the thin iPhone Air to the thicker, standard iPhone 17. The shot highlights the trade-offs in features vs. thinness.
"uh there's also no millimeter wave 5G. And like I said, it's coming in at $1,000, which is more expensive than the base iPhone, which will have a better camera system and better battery life and may overheat less."
Setting: studio — soft, diffused
MKBHD holds up two fingers, indicating he will present two different perspectives on the iPhone Air.
"So look, I think there's two ways to look at this phone. This is either Apple just throwing something new at the wall and seeing if it sticks."
Setting: hotel room — warm, soft
People (1):
• seated, wearing black t-shirt with red pattern, short, black hair — serious, analytical
MKBHD gestures with his hands, outlining the history of Apple's recent iPhone lineup changes (Mini to Plus).
"Like we just saw them try, okay, they had the mini phone for like two years and that really didn't sell that well. So then they moved to the plus and that was also a little bit underwhelming."
Setting: hotel room — warm, soft
People (1):
• seated, wearing black t-shirt with red pattern, short, black hair — explaining, recounting history
A shot of the ultra-thin, white iPhone Air held in a hand, looking very stylish and premium.
"So now they're trying that same spot in the lineup for an ultra thin phone and seeing if maybe they can market that to turn into some more sales."
Setting: hands-on area — bright, clean
MKBHD holds up two fingers again, presenting the second, more optimistic perspective on the iPhone Air's purpose.
"So you can see it is that or you can see this as a visionary, long time in the making preview at the future of all phones."
Setting: hotel room — warm, soft
People (1):
• seated, wearing black t-shirt with red pattern, short, black hair — thoughtful, looking upwards slightly
A shot shows a gold and a silver iPhone side-by-side, with the gold one being significantly thinner, representing the 'future' of phones.
"Like maybe someday in the future, every phone will be this thin. And Apple is just now today getting the tech together with the battery and display and modem and Apple Silicon to make this phone possible."
Setting: hands-on area — bright
MKBHD draws a parallel to the original MacBook Air, looking thoughtful and making a comparison with his hands.
"Maybe, kind of like how the first MacBook Air sucked and was underpowered, but then eventually all laptops became that thin. Maybe that's also what's going to happen to smartphones."
Setting: hotel room — warm, soft
People (1):
• seated, wearing black t-shirt with red pattern, short, black hair — thoughtful, making a historical comparison
A hand holds a very thin, foldable smartphone, opening and closing it to show the flexible screen and slim profile.
"And maybe the same way Samsung made the ultra thin S25 Edge and then a few months later they came out with their super thin foldable, the Z Fold 7, and I felt like the Edge phone was one half of that foldable."
Setting: indoor setting — soft, indoor
MKBHD speculates about a future foldable iPhone, looking intrigued and shrugging.
"Maybe that's also what Apple's doing. Maybe we're going to see an ultra thin foldable iPhone next year, maybe."
Setting: hotel room — warm, soft
People (1):
• seated, wearing black t-shirt with red pattern, short, black hair — speculative, intrigued
MKBHD summarizes his conflicting thoughts on the iPhone Air, acknowledging its logical flaws but also its emotional appeal.
"Either way, I do think it's clear that you probably won't find too many logical reasons to pick up this first gen iPhone Air, but I do also think that picking it up and holding it is going to convince a lot of people"
Setting: hotel room — warm, soft
People (1):
• seated, wearing black t-shirt with red pattern, short, black hair — thoughtful, weighing options
A final, lingering shot of the ultra-thin white iPhone Air, held delicately in a hand, emphasizing its aesthetic appeal.
"because it's pretty stunning in person and it's the same thing I said about the Samsung phone, it's pretty sick. But only time will tell for that part of the story."
Setting: hands-on area — soft, clean
A hand opens a white AirPods Pro case. An earbud is taken out and shown up close.
"Now, there were a couple other announcements today. There were new AirPods Pro 3, which have twice as good ANC as the last gen, which is crazy, plus IP57 and heart rate tracking during workouts, all at the same $250 price."
Setting: indoor setting — bright, even
A hand holds two Apple Watches side-by-side for comparison: a silver Series 11 and a darker Ultra 3.
"Definitely going to test those. And there's also a new Apple Watch Series 11, now with 5G and possible hypertension detection, and the slightly new Watch Ultra 3 with thinner bezels, LTPO3 and slightly longer battery life."
Setting: hands-on area — bright, clean