Apple's 'Plateau' Event
Look, you can't go wrong with a Steve Jobs quote.
I'm not really sure why Apple chose to open their 2025 iPhone event with the famous "Design is not just what it looks like and feels like. Design is how it works." quote. It preceded a video focused on design elements of Apple products that I guess was meant to show case how well all their products work together? It was a nice little video. But overall, I don't think this year was more about design than any other Apple keynote. If I had to stretch towards a guess, maybe the notion of emphasizing that this year wouldn't be massive external design tweaks – such as with the AirPods and Apple Watches – but in refining how it all works?
Then again, the iPhones sort of do look different this year? So maybe this was just Tim Cook's attempt to do a sort of reset with regard to the narrative about Apple. Internally and externally. To take back control of the message. Forget AI and everything else, Apple is first and foremost about design, as was seemingly the point of his post-video opening.
I don't know. It doesn't matter. The quote always works.
My actual biggest takeaway from this keynote was how animated Tim Cook was. For once I don't mean animated literally with a goofy emoji face or whatever, he just seemed to have a pep in his step that I hadn't recalled seeing in quite some time. Perhaps ever when it comes to these pre-recorded keynotes. It's almost as if someone told him that if they wanted to keep doing these as recordings versus going back to live events, he had to seem about 200% more excited. And he did!
It was sort of nice to see, even if staged. Especially after that one sleepy earnings call where he seemed completely disengaged and well, whatever the fuck this was.
From there, we were off to the races. The AirPods Pro 3 segment was maybe 10 minutes long, but chock-full of great stuff. The AirPods-to-AirPods translation feature looks killer.1 As does adding some health/fitness capabilities to the headphones. Better ANC, better fit, better battery life, sweat-proof, same price. An absolute no-brainer of an upgrade.
Apple Watch was more like 15 minutes as we had three different models to get through (as well as the now-standard testimonials of how the device has literally saved lives, which despite being showcased every year is no less affecting).2 The hypertension alert functionality – which Apple is openly predicting will help over a million people in the first year alone – seems incredible. New sleep tracking moves to match Oura Ring and others. While everything generally looks the same,3 they've managed to jack up battery life across the board. The company still feels far ahead here.
And there we were, just 30 minutes in, when Cook kicked off the iPhone portion of the iPhone event. Not a Jimmy Fallon in sight to distract everyone, Apple was cooking.
iPhone 17 got a solid 10 minutes by itself. Nice updates, new colors, pretty standard stuff – presented from... Miami? The biggest thing of note may have been the lack of a literal big thing: no more "Plus" model, only one 6.3" version. Of course, this was well known because...
The worst kept secret in Cupertino (this year) is here: iPhone Air. Notably, it's not 'iPhone 17 Air', just 'iPhone Air' which stands out in the line up with iPhone 17 and iPhone 17 Pro. And it leads to the obvious question if Apple views this as a one-off design, perhaps if it doesn't sell well? That seems unlikely, so perhaps they'd just do an 'iPhone Air 2' next year? But that would be a bit awkward and confusing if they stick with the standard naming schemes for the other iPhones – i.e. do I buy an iPhone 18, an iPhone 18 Pro, or an iPhone Air 2 next year? Then again, next year should also see the 'iPhone Fold' introduced, so perhaps we're slowly moving away from the bigger numbers, which were always untenable at some point. Were we really going to get an 'iPhone 37' in 2045?
The intro video highlights the narrator, Abidur Chowdhury, who is an industrial designer at Apple. Nice soothing, dulcet tones. English accent, but decidedly not Jony Ive... This was also the first mention of the "iconic plateau". Now, you and I may call this the "camera bump" but you and I are mistaken. It's a "plateau". Which is French for "big ass camera bump". But it's iconic, so there's that.
"It's our thinnest iPhone ever with the power of 'Pro' inside. A paradox you have to hold, to believe." That's some very nice copy. And it highlights the true key of both the device and perhaps of the entire event. The iPhone Air isn't so much an iPhone 'Plus' replacement, as much as it's a skinny iPhone Pro model.
That was a legitimate surprise and makes a decision on which iPhone to get for many users decidedly more difficult. If the iPhone Air was going to be relatively under-powered, you were probably still going to get a Pro. So the question would have been if iPhone 17 buyers wanted to shell out more money for the thinner model. But it's a different equation when you're offering something that's sexier and cheaper than the Pro lineup, but powered by the same A19 Pro chip...
Of course, the decision will ultimately likely come down to two things: camera system and battery life. On the former, the Pros are still clearly ahead. So if that's you're most important factor, you're still getting a Pro. With the Pros now getting even bigger batteries than before, that should also be relatively straight-forward if that's your main concern. But the introduction of a new iPhone Air-only (ugh) MagSafe battery that apparently brings battery life up to par with the Pro (though not the Pro Max) is interesting... But with that add-on, the price is up to Pro levels too.
Regardless, it's an impressive feat of engineering to even get the battery life up to these levels in such a thin device. And by all accounts, the device looks and feels great in hand. Personally, I care too much about camera and battery life – and I've long been a 'Max' guy anyway – but I get why this is a debate now.
Speaking of the A19 Pro chip, the most notable thing Tim Millet mentioned was "MacBook Pro-levels of compute in an iPhone", specifically when discussing its "Neural Accelerators" (read: AI) capabilities. A new 'N1' chip brings WiFi, Bluetooth, and Thread capabilities fully built by Apple to the iPhone for the first time. And yes, the 'C1X' brings Apple's modem chip to a flagship device – "it is even faster than the modem in iPhone 16 Pro" which is a veiled shot at Qualcomm, of course. The follow-up power efficiency point certainly has shades of Intel shade back in the day. Boy is Apple happy to be well on its way to severing this tie too...
A single-lens camera system that John Ternus swears is great – we'll see. eSim-only, which may be an issue you-know-where.4 And a bumper! Yes, the bumper is back! Hopefully without the cellular performance issues this time... And I appreciate that Apple showed a man putting on the cross-body iPhone strap while getting ready to go biking, showcasing a use-case and alleviating some "European Carry-All" fears...
For the iPhone Pro models, we got a video narrated by Molly Anderson, Apple's VP of Industrial Design – who wasn't shy about busting out "a-lew-min-e-um". Orange! Which almost distracted from "the first iPhone unibody" – which is probably only cool to those of us who recall the OG MacBook unibody reveal 15 years ago. Oh my god what are they doing to that poor iPhone Pro in that video? Bombarding it with keys, concrete, coins... um, beakers?
Broken beaker proof iPhone!
I was almost too distracted by Greg Joswiak clearly enjoying saying "vapor chamber" when he busted out "Cosmic Orange". I'm sorry, what? I knew Apple wouldn't just go with "orange" or "papaya" but what exactly is "cosmic" about "orange"? Perhaps the ease at which Apple can trademark such branding is out of this world... Actually, in a way, my guess of "Sunbeam Orange" may not have been far off or out.5
The new thermal system does seem impressive if it can boost performance as much as Apple is touting (thanks to being able to run the chips longer and thus, hotter, at max capabilities). We even got a "running local large language models" out of Joz.
Aluminum and ceramic are the new titanium and glass. 48MP on all three cameras – which are all now "Fusion" which means little to anyone outside of Apple's marketing department. 8x zoom. The entire event was filmed with an iPhone 18 Pro – nice touch. The device can now do "bullet time" shots. Whoa.
"TechWoven" is indeed the new "FineWoven" but hopefully actually, you know, good this time. (It certainly looks better.)
Looks like I was right in my early guesstimations about how much Apple might charge for the iPhone Air – which is to say, more than the iPhone Plus models (even though I assumed it wouldn't have the better specs of the Pro, so that's a nice bonus here). With a fully-spec'd-out iPhone 17 Pro Max with the new 2TB storage option, we finally have a $2,000 iPhone – fine, a $1,999 one. That means next year's Fold is undoubtedly going to shoot right past that...
Tim Cook turn back to design to close. And he does so quickly, wrapping at the one hour, eleven minute mark. Overall, a nice and tight Apple event featuring three no-brainer updates and nothing more. No AirTags, no Apple TV, no iPad Pro (on its exact 10th anniversary, harsh), certainly no Vision Pro. That just means we'll get another fall event, perhaps around Halloween again.
As for me, while the iPhone Air being decidedly more 'Pro' was an interesting wild card thrown out there, my upgrade path is clear: AirPods Pro 3, Apple Watch Ultra 3, iPhone 17 Pro Max – in "Cosmic Orange".
One more thing: maybe the biggest surprise of the entire event? There is no black option for the iPhone Pro model. Just silver, orange, or blue ("Deep Blue" – though oddly, Apple doesn't try to brand "Silver"). Sort of wild. Bruce Wayne is going to be so pissed.
1 Yes, yes, Android has had live translation for a while, which apparently has sort of worked, sort of not over that time. But Airpods-to-Airpods in particular seems killer since, well, a lot of people have Airpods – Pixel Buds? Not so much. ↩
2 Notably absent? Newly-announced-to-be-retiring Jeff Williams who previously always helped to introduce new Apple Watches. But perhaps CEO-in-waiting Jeff Ternus got his stage time during the all-important iPhone portion – well, screen time. ↩
3 The Apple Watch Ultra 3's screen is slightly larger, but that was shrinking the bezels, not changing the case. ↩
4 Apparently only one carrier, China Unicom, is ready to roll with eSIM. ↩
5 But I was really hoping for something more "Copper" but figured "Orange" was more likely... ↩