APPLE'S BIGGEST LEAP

If you are a gadget aficionado, you are bound to feel like a kid in a candy store. The iPhone Air lures you with its elegance and daily performance, while the iPhone 17 offers more balanced value. If you create, game or push hardware, the iPhone 17 Pro Max has the right specifications for you. If you want the horsepower of the iPhone 17 Pro Max, but love the size of the iPhone 17, you won't be able to resist the iPhone 17 Pro says Sahil Mohan Gupta

- By Sahil Mohan Gupta

APPLE'S latest iPhones mark the most dramatic reset of the lineup since the iPhone X era. The iPhone 17 raises the baseline to a level that will make Android rivals squirm, the iPhone 17 Pro Max is a brawny creator's tool with genuine pro-grade chops, and the ultra-slim iPhone Air is the seductive new form factor that's turning heads at Apple BKC in Mumbai and Apple Saket in New Delhi, where long queues have returned with a vengeance.

India Focus

Pune and Bengaluru's newer stores aren't far behind; demand for the Cosmic Orange Pro Max has been feverish, with sellouts in multiple markets. The India focus is palpable as well, with Tim Cook posting an image of Apple BKC replete with giant metal installations signifying the PRO and AIR models.

After testing all four new models in the run-up to the launch, three themes are clear: battery life is up across the board, performance is exceptional, and the user-facing stuff – displays, cameras, call quality, iOS 26 – feels meaningfully better.

iPhone Air – The Seductress, Reimagined as a Daily Driver

The iPhone Air is Apple's most audacious hardware statement in years. At 5.6 mm, it's wafer-thin but crucially not fragile; the titanium chassis, Ceramic Shield 2 on the back and Apple's revised glass stack turn elegance into something you can actually live with. It feels like a luxury pen: slim, dense, and precisely milled.

The anxiety with very thin phones is stamina. In practice, the Air's stacked-cell battery and highly efficient C1x modem plus the N1 WiFi chip deliver a day for typical users. With heavy use it approaches the edge but still gets you home; for most people, that bespoke slim MagSafe power bank is a psychological safety net rather than a daily necessity.