Apple iPhone 17: Apple touts 'game changer' slimmer iPhone Air, Apple Watch, Apple iPhone 17 Pro, Airpods Pro

Apple has showed off a new, slimmer iPhone “Air” model with a high-density battery and a brand new processor.

The iPhone Air model was the star of the annual product launch event with CEO Tim Cook calling it a “game changer”.

Apple said the model is its most durable iPhone yet.

It will use the A19 Pro, a processor chip that it said it had tweaked for better energy efficiency and performance to match the device’s thinner battery.

Its price - at $US999 ($A1,510) in the United States - is slotted in between the company’s other models, as analysts had predicted.

The iPhone Air will go head-to-head against Samsung Electronics’ Galaxy S25 Edge, and analysts told Reuters it could be a stepping stone toward competing with Samsung’s folding phones, which are in their seventh generation.

A foldable phone is important for Apple to appeal to customers in China, where consumers like foldables and the company has been losing market share.

“This new device will bring a sense of newness to the iPhone, which has remained the same for too long,” said PP Foresight analyst Paolo Pescatore.

He said the “new and much-improved iPhone line-up looks impressive, which puts (Apple) in a strong position to cater for different segments”.

The company also launched the iPhone 17 and iPhone 17 Pro, the latest upgrade to its flagship smartphone, as well as a new version of its AirPods Pro wireless headphones and a blood pressure monitor in its latest Apple Watch.

The company effectively cut or held prices steady on these updated models.

Apple said the iPhone Air will also feature a new “N1” chip to handle Wi-Fi communications and new “C1X” modem for phone data.

Chips for those functions in Apple’s premium devices were long supplied by Broadcom and Qualcomm, whose shares were down 2.2 per cent and 0.5 per cent respectively on Tuesday afternoon.

Apple shares were down 1.6 per cent after the company announced pricing of the smartphones.

“This is MacBook Pro levels of compute, in an iPhone,” Tim Millet, one of Apple’s chip executives, said during the presentation at the company’s Cupertino, California headquarters.

The iPhone Air will have two cameras and eliminate the physical SIM card slot, freeing up more room for battery capacity.

Apple said the base model iPhone 17 will have a brighter, more scratch-resistant screen.

It will also have a better front-facing camera with a differently shaped sensor to make horizontal selfies look better.

The new AirPods Pro 3 will feature live translation of languages.

Apple also said that if both people in a conversation are wearing the new AirPods Pro 3, the earbuds will translate conversations in near real time.

Apple said the new AirPods will be priced at $US249, the same as the previous generation, and become available on September 19.

The blood pressure monitor feature is pending regulatory approval, Apple said.

The watch will not detect every case of high blood pressure but the company said it expects the feature to notify a million people and will make it available in 150 countries.