Everything Apple announced at its big event: iPhone Air, iPhone 17, new Apple Watches and more

By Clare Duffy, CNN
New York (CNN) — Apple announced the first major redesign of the iPhone in years on Tuesday when it confirmed the launch of a new, thinner model called the iPhone Air. CEO Tim Cook called it the “biggest leap ever for iPhone.”
That was one of a number of product upgrades that came during Apple’s annual hardware event at its Cupertino, California, headquarters, which also included improvements to the Apple Watch and AirPods Pro.
The iPhone maker had teased the event with the phrase “awe dropping” — a nod to the fact that the pressure for Apple to impress with its latest devices was especially high this year. iPhone sales have been bumpy for years, Apple has fallen behind competitors on artificial intelligence and the company has been caught in the crosshairs of President Donald Trump’s trade wars.
During Tuesday’s event, Apple seemed to double down on its hardware leadership, noting how its new devices could enable AI features without making its “Apple Intelligence” the star of the show. And analysts were impressed.
“Apple’s iPhone 17 Air was the headline announcement, reflecting the company’s push to prove it can still differentiate through design,” Emarketer analyst Gadjo Sevilla said in emailed commentary following the event. “It’s a reminder that Apple’s competitive advantage remains rooted in product experience rather than raw AI as a product.”
With the new iPhone lineup, “there is an iPhone for everybody at a reasonable price,” tech analyst and PP Foresight founder Paolo Pescatore said in an email.
Still, Apple shares (AAPL) were down around 1.5% following the event, bringing the stock down nearly 4% since the start of this year and suggesting that even a new model may not be enough to wow shareholders. That could be because some of the new releases and features Apple announced on Tuesday are trailing similar offerings previously released by rivals. For example, the iPhone Air will compete with Samsung’s thin Galaxy S25 Edge model, which was announced in May.
Here’s everything the company announced during Tuesday’s event:
A new addition to the iPhone family
Apple’s new iPhone lineup includes four devices: the iPhone 17 base model; the iPhone 17 Pro; iPhone 17 Pro Max with a bigger display and 2-terabyte storage option; and the thin iPhone Air.
All the new iPhone models have gotten more damage-resistant, with new “ceramic shield” displays rather than glass screens. The iPhone 17 Pro has been completely rebuilt for increased durability, a bigger battery and more memory. The new design should also enable it to better dissipate heat resulting from gains in performance. And the iPhone Air is built with “spacecraft titanium” to maintain durability despite its 5.6-millimeter edges.
While the iPhone Air features only one rear camera and one front camera to accommodate its thin design, Apple said it will still have “all-day battery life,” although it’s not clear exactly how many hours that will be.
Apple Senior Vice President of Hardware Engineering John Ternus described the iPhone Air as “so thin and light, it seems to disappear in your hands.”
The iPhone 17 base model and iPhone 17 Pro feature a 6.3-inch display, the iPhone Air features a 6.5-inch display and the iPhone 17 Pro Max features a 6.9-inch display. The devices come in new colors like “lavender” (iPhone 17), “sky blue” (iPhone Air) and “cosmic orange” (iPhone 17 Pro).
And in teasing the devices’ new camera capabilities, Senior Vice President of Worldwide Marketing Greg Joswiak said Tuesday’s launch event was filmed on an iPhone 17 Pro.
“It has been a few years since Apple has had new iPhones that you could put on the table in a coffee shop, meeting room or pub, and people would ask, ‘Is that the new iPhone?’” CCS Insight chief analyst Ben Wood said in an email. “With the iPhone 17 Air and the redesigned iPhone 17 Pro models, particularly the bright orange variant, Apple is delivering products that will create renewed interest.”
AirPods Pro 3 with live translation
Apple’s AirPods Pro got their first refresh in three years with the AirPods Pro 3.
The new wireless earbuds can sense a wearer’s heart rate and offer improved spatial audio and noise cancellation, live language translation and an improved fit with a wider range of ear tip sizes.
The voice translation will be enabled by Apple Intelligence. If you’re an English-speaker traveling to Spain, for example, the AirPods Pro 3 can translate someone speaking Spanish into English directly into your ears, while lowering the volume of the other speaker so you can focus on the translation. Then, the user’s iPhone can translate their speech back into Spanish for the other speaker. Google and Samsung have also launched language translation features for their earbuds.
New Apple Watches
Apple announced three updated Apple Watch models: the Apple Watch Series 11, a new version of its lower-priced model called the Apple Watch SE 3 and a new version of its pro model called the Apple Watch Ultra 3.
The company called the Series 11 its “thinnest and most comfortable watch,” and it will feature stronger, more scratch-resistant glass, 5G connectivity and 24 hours of battery life on a single charge.
The Apple Watch SE 3 comes with a more powerful chip, meaning it will now have always-on display. Apple Watch Ultra 3 will have a larger and easier-to-read screen and a bigger battery to provide 42 hours of battery life. The Ultra 3 will also have satellite connectivity, an important emergency feature that has become popular in the iPhone that lets people use messaging and “Find My” even if they don’t have cell service.
The new watches will also include additional health features such as high blood pressure alerts and temperature detection — more on that in a moment.
Doubling down on health
Apple announced a slew of new health-related capabilities and features across its new devices, leaning into a focus area that the company has seen as a way to get more users to buy wearables and sign up for services like Apple Fitness+.
The company’s Tuesday event also included video of Apple Watch users recounting how their devices helped alert them to health issues or aid them in emergencies.
The Apple Watch Series 11 will now include a blood pressure monitor that could alert users to possible high blood pressure, or hypertension, as well as a “sleep score” feature to help users understand the quality of their rest. Apple is playing catch up to rivals like Oura, Google and Samsung that have long offered a sleep score on their devices.
“We expect to notify over 1 million people with undiagnosed hypertension in the first year alone, empowering them to make life saving behavioral changes or start treatment,” an executive said, adding that Apple expects to get FDA clearance for the feature in the coming weeks.
The Apple Watch SE 3’s temperature detection feature could help users predict when they’re ovulating, among other uses.
And the AirPods Pro 3 are designed to be more useful for people’s workouts — and not just because they’ll fit better. The Pro 3 will also be able to sense heart rate and calories burned during workouts and track up to 50 different kinds of exercises through Apple’s fitness app.
Prices remain mostly the same, despite tariffs
A big question heading into Tuesday’s event was whether Apple would raise prices for its devices because of tariffs on the company’s US imports this year. Apple has said it expects to take a $1.1 billion hit from tariffs this quarter alone.
But the base prices for iPhones have remained mostly consistent with last year, when compared to prior-year models with the same amount of storage. In the case of the iPhone 17, users will get even more storage for their buck.
The iPhone 16 with 256 gigabytes of storage started at $899, while the iPhone 17 with 256 gigabytes of storage will start at $799. The iPhone 16 Plus with 256 gigabytes of storage started at $999, and the iPhone Air with 256 gigabytes of storage will start at $999. The iPhone 16 Pro with 256 gigabytes of storage started at $1,099, and the iPhone 17 Pro with 256 gigabytes of storage will start at $1,099.
All of the devices Apple announced on Tuesday will be available starting on September 19.
This story has been written through with new developments and context from the Apple event.
–CNN’s Lisa Eadicicco, Aditi Sangal, Ramishah Maruf and Jordan Valinsky contributed to this report.
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