I will say it: The iP17 base is more interesting than the 17Air. The 17Air is more elegant design than the iP17 base
Got a tip for us?
Let us know
Become a MacRumors Supporter for $50/year with no ads, ability to filter front page stories, and private forums.
iPhone 17 No love for the base model?
- Thread starter littlepud
- Start date
- Sort by reaction score
Polls here are irrelevant for the most part. It’s an echo chamber for techies. Ask the Apple Store reps about what models they’re bringing out from the stockroom. Mine told me less than 10:1.
No, it doesn’t. Apple claims the same 30 hours for physical SIM iPhone 17 compared to 27 hours for Air.
Most importantly, it’s hard to convince actual buyers otherwise - that a thin phone can last as long as a regular one - like trying to convince people a small car is as safe as a truck. It’s an uphill battle.
Irrelevant as well imo.
Regarding the poll, I’m not talking about which model is the best selling(obviously the Pro’s) I’m on about the most premium looking new iPhone.
The iPhone 17 will probably be the one that I will buy in the future when the time for my 13 Mini finally arrive.
Just the best model right now. 120hz finally.
Maybe in a couple of years I will get one cheap in ebay
Just the best model right now. 120hz finally.
Maybe in a couple of years I will get one cheap in ebay
All the vanilla iPhone 17 reviews I have read or watched have been extremely positive. Forums are going to focus on something perceived as exciting or bad.
It's the best upgrade in the lineup this year (IMHO). I absolutely love mine.
Base models are base models. The lowest spec's and lowest price. Perhaps the base model is of little interest to the majority of people looking at iPhone's?
Car manufacturers offered power steering and air-conditioning as upgrades long ago; "Should I get power steering in a my new 2 tonne car, or should I just do three point turns using 49 steering wheel rotations each time?" The answer was clear.
Here's my perspective on the base aka entry level model; if all you want to do is make calls, send messages, get emails, and take the occasional snap, then the entry level model is a no-brainer. Still, buying a new piece of tech excited a lot of people, and coughing up cash for something only to realise that it can't do something later because it's the entry level model is.. quite disappointing. Hence, my personal approach is to get the top of the line so that it does whatever is asked of it, within it's manufacturers scope of course.
So you're a great case study; what was it about the 17 base model that made you jump, especially given you came from the 16?
was hoping for "one more thing", a 17 mini....but, no
Yeah, I think the ship has sailed. I’d be glad to be wrong about that though.
base 17 is a new 11 model . Nothing to complain about. If you interested in a deep review by professional photographer take a look at this video :
Well, they just killed the base Plus model.. There is a little little hope. Maybe in 5 years.
I really love my 13 Mini. Rocking that iOS 18.6.2 with new battery. Right now is 8:52pm and it have 24% of battery being disconnected at 7am yesterday.. I'm just impressed with 2h 21m of screen yesterday and 1h 47m of screen today.
i agree with you.
the Pro models really deserve to be bought by people who really need or appreciate photography. not family or personal level photos.
the Air is great for "hand feel". i am using my Air daily now for 5 days. and things have settled down to where i end the day at 8pm with about 30% battery left. (and that is having set a battery charge limit of 85%). there's probably about 15 or 20 apps that im using per day, including a 90 minute run, and looking things up on the web, and quite a lot of actual call time (talking on the phone ) about 40 or 45 minutes of phone calls; and about 1 hour of Podcasts in bed before i fall asleep.
i have the Air's Mag Safe just in case. i haven't needed it so far.
but the real star of all of the new iPhones is actually the base model.if i didn't buy the Air, i would have bought the base iPhone 17. its incredible value for money.
i ended up buying the Air because its just too nice of a phone to not have. and for me, there are no compromises with how i use my device.
I think the Air stole most of the media “air”-time from the 17. If there were no Air, the 17 would get a lot more play in the tech-sphere. It didnt help that the dedign carried over from last year and it was mainly an internals overhaul only. The base 17, the base Mac Mini and the base MacBook Air are some of the best value products out there today in all of tech.
Speak for yourself.
You’re in the middle of a thread that disagrees, so what’s your point?
Luxurious? How? Because it‘s an entirely new design with obvious hardware drawbacks and no special software features?
Because it has the base iPhones storage and screen? Or a gimped Pro iPhone chip? Or the worst battery and heat management among all three? Or a different metal we also had the last 2 years? Or is it luxurious because it looks kinda new and feels different?
It’s worse than either in most regards, but it looks like the iPhone 20e so, that’s good?
Go for whatever makes you happy, but you’re making yourself a laughing stock with your claims in this thread.
Same thing was about Galaxy s24 and s25 lines, you could only find reviews of Ultra model and not regular.
I am not interested in it (neither in new Pro or Air) because it looks lazy, same as 16. It doesn’t look like a state-of-the-art device that I would love to give 800$+ for. All the competitors at this price point at least offer some sort of telephoto
I am not interested in it (neither in new Pro or Air) because it looks lazy, same as 16. It doesn’t look like a state-of-the-art device that I would love to give 800$+ for. All the competitors at this price point at least offer some sort of telephoto
Availability for any 17 or Air is non-existent where I live so I'll probably keep my iPhone 13 until Xmas and upgrade either to the base 17 or Pro. The base 17 is by far the best bang-for-buck as you're getting a device as powerful as the 16 Pro with an additional 128gb storage for $200 less with only minor drawbacks regarding the camera. I have never owned a Pro model before so I am tempted to go with that as I intend to keep my next phone for up to 4 years.