Apple has unveiled the iPhone 17 at its "awe dropping" event, and aside from a redesigned camera bump on the back, there are plenty of upgrades under the hood and on its display. That may not be enough to move the needle for consumers who picked up last year's iPhone 16, but there's plenty of small upgrades for folks who haven't upgraded in years.
The standard iPhone 17 remains the entry-level model of Apple's flagships, with all the new iOS 26 features but not all the spec upgrades that its Pro siblings get. But it's even more settled into its role now that the Plus model has been swapped out for the thinner and pricier iPhone 17 Air, which is more of a design marvel than simply a bigger non-Pro option.
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The big upgrades for the iPhone 17 are a new chip, a brighter and sharper screen, better cameras and improved selfie cameras. Here's everything in Apple's new entry-level flagship phone.
iPhone 17 price and availability
The iPhone 17 will be available for preorder starting Sept. 12, and will hit store shelves on Sept. 19. The iPhone 17 price will start at $799 for 256GB of storage, retaining its starting price from last year, or $999 for 512GB, which is the same price as the iPhone 16 at that storage capacity.
That still makes the iPhone 17 the most affordable handset in the new lineup, with the new iPhone 17 Air starting at $999, the iPhone 17 Pro starting at $1099 and the iPhone 17 Pro Max starting at $1199.
Apple/Screenshot by CNET
iPhone 17 design upgrades and colors
By and large, the iPhone 17 hasn't changed much from last year's iPhone 16, which introduced the Camera Control button on the right side of the phone. This year's big shift is a rearrangement of the camera bump on the back of the handset, shifting from the diagonally-placed lenses in a square block to vertically aligning them within a rectangular block that spans the width of the phone.
The iPhone 17's display got upgrades trickling down from the Pro model features of last year, with a larger to a 6.3-inch screen (up from 6.1 inches in the iPhone 16). It also gets ProMotion to be able to dynamically shift the refresh rate from 120Hz down to 1Hz to save battery -- previous standard iPhones were stuck with 60Hz. The iPhone 17 also has a new Ceramic Shield 2 layer on top of the screen to better resist scratches and cracks.
The iPhone 17's screen is also dramatically brighter, maxing out at 3,000 nits, up from 2,000 nits in the last iPhone 16 generation (including the Pro models).
The iPhone 17 comes in five colors: lavender, light blue, a dark gray, silver-white and green.
Apple/Screenshot by CNET
iPhone 17 cameras
The iPhone 17 has two rear cameras just like its predecessor, though the ultrawide has gotten an upgrade: a 48-megapixel main camera and 48-megapixel ultrawide shooter (up from 12 megapixels on the iPhone 16). Apple calls its 48-megapixel main camera "dual fusion" as it can take sharp photos at full resolution or take 2x crop-zoomed images at 24 megapixels.
The iPhone 17 packs a new 18-megapixel front-facing camera, and there are a few upgrades in its tech -- including the Center Stage feature that automatically centers the camera on you for video chats. It also has improved image stabilization, helpful keep the phone steady when on FaceTime or video chats while walking around.
Apple/Screenshot by CNET
iPhone 17 specs and software
Apple has kept the specs split between its standard and Pro models, giving the latter the newest A-series chip while leaving the non-Pro model with less advanced silicon.
The iPhone 17 gets a new A19 chip, which while not quite as advanced as the A19 Pro packed in the iPhone 17 Pro models and iPhone 17 Air, is 20% faster than the iPhone 16. The A19's 6-core CPU made on a 3-nanometer process, its improved neural engine has increased bandwidth to help make AI services faster, and its updated display engine helps power ProMotion and Always-On features of the display.
The A19 chip's 5-core GPU will also improve gaming, Apple says, specifically calling out the recent mobile game Destiny Rising that benefit from the ProMotion dynamic refresh rate.
The iPhone 17 also got a storage bump up to a starting 256GB, up from the 128GB in the iPhone 16, as well as the option for 512GB. If you want more space for apps and photos, you'll have to stick with cloud storage or upgrade to the iPhone 17 Air or iPhone 17 Pro for up to 1TB -- and if that's not enough, go for the iPhone 17 Pro Max, which now has a 2TB option.
The iPhone 17 launches with iOS 26, the follow-up to last year's iOS 18 that was renamed to align with the year it's released. Among the new features in iOS 26 include the polarizing Liquid Glass redesign, iMessage updates and a more transparent lock screen. The Camera app also gets streamlined to bundle all of its modes from a cluttered horizontal dial into a simple Video or Camera choice on screen, while additional modes like Pano or Cinematic are available by swiping left or right. These are just a few of the overhauls also coming to Safari, Photos and Music apps, among others.