Apple’s iPhone 17 line-up includes new ultra-thin model and price hike for Pro

Apple has rolled out its next generation of iPhones which includes a new ultra-thin model and a slight price hike for one of its high-end handsets, while the company feels the squeeze of a global trade war.

The iPhone 17 line-up includes a new slimmed-down model that will adopt the Air name that Apple already uses for its sleekest iPads and Mac computers.

In what has become an annual rite for Apple, all four new iPhone 17 models will feature better cameras and longer-lasting batteries than last year’s line-up.

The iPhone 17 will all boast at least 256 gigabytes of storage, doubling the minimum amount from the last generation.

“We are raising the bar again,” Apple chief executive Tim Cook boasted in front of a crowd gathered in an auditorium named after the company’s late co-founder, Steve Jobs, located on its campus in Cupertino, California.

The new iPhones are the first to be released since US president Donald Trump returned to the White House and unleashed a barrage of tariffs, in what his administration says is an attempt to bring overseas manufacturing back to the US — a crusade that has thrust Mr Cook into the hot seat.

All the iPhone 17 models are still expected to be made in Apple’s manufacturing hubs in China and India, exposing them to some of Mr Trump’s tariffs.

Analysts believe the additional fees on iPhones coming into the US increase the pressure on Apple to raise prices to help protect its profit margins on its most marquee product.

Without giving a specific reason, Apple will charge 1,100 US dollars (£813) for the iPhone 17 Pro, an increase of 100 dollars (£74), or 10%, from previous versions of that model. The iPhone Air will start at 1,000 dollars (£740) — the price of last year’s iPhone 16 Pro.

Apple is sticking with the same starting price for the basic iPhone 17 at 800 dollars (£592) and the iPhone 17 Pro Max at 1,200 dollars (£888).

All four models would be in stores on September 19.

Apple’s shares closed down 1.5% on Tuesday amid gains in the broader stock market, an indication that investors might be worried the company did not do enough to prop up its profits amid the trade war.

In a move aimed at the selfie culture, the iPhone 17 models will feature a front camera with more megapixels for crisper photos.

The front camera will also have an option called “centre stage” that will take advantage of a wider view of field and a new sensor that will enable users to take landscape photos without having to rotate the iPhone.

Although most of the upgrades to the iPhone 17 are similar to the incremental improvements of recent years, Apple appears to have done enough to “bring a sense of newness to the iPhone, which has remained the same for too long”, said PP Foresight analyst Paolo Pescatore.

While the iPhone 16 released last year fared reasonably well, the models did not sell quite as well as analysts had anticipated because Apple failed to deliver all of the artificial intelligence features it had promised, including a smarter and more versatile Siri assistant.

The Siri improvements have been pushed back until next year.

The global trade war has compounded Apple’s challenges.

Both Mr Trump and US commerce secretary Howard Lutnick have repeatedly insisted that iPhones be made in the US instead of overseas.

It is an unrealistic demand that analysts say would take years to pull off and would result in a doubling, or even a tripling, of the iPhone’s current average price of about 1,000 dollars.

Mr Cook tried to placate Mr Trump by initially pledging that Apple would invest 500 billion dollars (£370 billion) in the US over the next four years, and then upped the ante last month by adding another 100 billion dollars (£74 billion) to the commitment. He also gifted Mr Trump a statue featuring a 24-karat gold base.

This kind of diplomacy has helped insulate Apple from Mr Trump’s most severe tariffs. But with the iPhones being brought into the US still facing duties of about 25%, some analysts speculated the company would raise prices to help preserve its hefty profit margins.

But for the most part, Apple is sticking with the same price tags it has slapped on its newest iPhones over recent years.

Although Apple’s stock price is still down by 4% so far this year, the shares have been bouncing back in recent months amid signs it would not be as hard hit by the tariffs as once feared, and a highly anticipated court ruling cleared the way for the company to continue receiving 20 billion dollars (£15 billion) annually to lock in Google’s search engine as the default option on iPhones.