Less glitz but plenty of glamour as iPhone Air underlines Apple’s innovation

I’ve covered every Apple iPhone launch since Steve Jobs took to the stage in January 2007 to reveal the pioneering smartphone - a phone we fell in love with despite it launching without 3G and without apps that later changed the world.

Since then, we’ve had over 20 iPhone launch events - and as the years have rolled on, the excitement they generate diminishes every year.

This isn’t a criticism of Apple’s tech - but the reality that the magic always fades.  Weirdly - Apple’s tech gets better and better every year - but nowadays we all seem to take that for granted.

For those who wonder why we cover these launches - the iPhone sells over 7m handsets a year here in the UK - with the product range smashing through the 3bn devices sold since 2007.

Today - Apple came out confidently from the traps - the 72-minute long presentation from Cupertino, California felt pacier than recent efforts and after an opening from Steve Jobs about the importance of design going beyond the look and feel of a product - the company tore into announcing a whole raft of significant upgrades - and a nice little surprise in the new iPhone Air.

The first product was the new Airpods Pro 3. Perhaps the coolest feature of these new headphones is live translation.

The presentation showed an American in a Spanish market - with both receiving translations in real-time thanks to the new headphones.

The company talked heavily about AI integration in the headphones - not just in the live translation, but also for heart-rate sensing. 

I’m sold on Apple’s promise of 2 times noise cancellation in their new Airpods Pro 3 - their predecessors were trounced by headphones from both Bose and Sony in this space - so these are on my shopping list.

The Airpods Pro 3 go on sale September 19th for £219. - the same price as the current model. You can pre-order today.

When it came to the Apple Watch, the company celebrated lifesaving stories from its users - including a man who woke with a collapsed lung, and another who had a stroke - as well as users using the SOS feature to be rescued from a snowy mountain. 

Apple is an expert at finding and using these stories to their motivational advantage as they are perhaps the best possible advert for their smartwatches.

The latest generation of Apple Watch - Series 11 - has a new look and feel thanks to its operating system, and once again puts health tracking front and centre. 

In the presentation, they showed how the device would detect high blood pressure - which affects 1.3bn people worldwide. Apple reckons it will tell around 1m people they have undiagnosed high blood pressure in the next year.

The new model has a 24-hour battery life too - still not enough to convince someone like me to adopt the Apple Watch as I already have too many things to charge each day.

Apple also updated its cheapest smartwatch model, the Apple Watch SE and its premium sports and adventure model, the Apple Ultra Watch 3.

You can preorder these new models today and they go on sale September 19th.

Apple claimed the new iPhone line up was “raising the bar like never before” - and thankfully the iPhone Air did that.  We’ve got four new models this year - iPhone 17, iPhone Air, iPhone 17 Pro and iPhone 17 Pro Max.

When it comes to iPhone 17 - it launches in five colours and has a larger 6.3inch display.  They claim they’ve made it more readable in sunshine too - which is a win for folks like me with glasses.

The new phone promises best yet performance for AI on the base iPhone model - with a number of enhancements including real-time translation.

In what promises to be music to many iPhone users’ ears - the iPhone 17 offers quicker charging, with the company suggesting a 10-minute blast on the mains would give you an additional eight hours of video playback.

As you would expect, the iPhone 17 has upgraded camera equipment on the front and back of the phone - and continues to improve the onboard software to make shooting video and photos as easy as pressing a button and letting the device do the rest.

The biggest surprise of the night was the iPhone Air - the thinnest and lightest model yet - which the company boldly claimed was “designed to look like it was from the future.”

The iPhone Air certainly excites my inner tech-nerd as it’s only 5.4mm thin with a 6.5inch display, yet uses Apple’s Pro line of smartphone chips. 

The Air is once again built with AI in mind - with suggestions its capabilities match those of the company’s laptops.

To make the device so small, Apple had to create a number of new smaller components - another example of the company continuing to revolutionise the smartphone market without the razzmatazz of previous product reveals.

If you want the iPhone Air you’ll wave goodbye to your plastic Sim Card too - as the iPhone Air is eSim only.

Elsewhere, the iPhone 17 Pro and Pro Max continue to push Apple’s premium models far beyond high-end Android rivals from Samsung.

Inside these pro devices, Apple has made some significant changes we can’t see - but significantly boost performance by enabling improved component cooling.

The iPhone 17 Pro also introduces a load of professional film making standards to the device - meaning more Hollywood movies like 28 Years Later are likely to be shot on iPhone.

iPhone 17 starts at £799, iPhone Air from £999, and iPhone 17 Pro, from £1099. You’ll be able to pre-order new iPhones from Friday, and they go on sale September 19th.

As far as first impressions go - this was the most assured Apple launch in many years - and both the iPhone Air and the AirPods Pro 3 are already on the shopping list!

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