- Apple introduced its iPhone 17 series on yesterday’s AWE -Dropping event
- Lots of new features were revealed during the show
- But there were several important changes that got no air time
Apple’s ‘AWE DROPPING’ event saw the release of the new iPhone 17 series plus the radically slimline iPhone Air.
But while Apple wasted the beans on almost every aspect of these devices, there were still plenty of details that it did not advertise on stage – here are some of the most interesting but hid new features in the iPhone 17 lineup.
Faster charging …
Alongside the iPhone 17, Apple has also launched a new ‘dynamic’ power adapter that costs $ 39. It is rated for 40W power supply, but it can dynamic ramp up to 60W in short bursts. This allows the iPhone 17, iPhone 17 Pro and iPhone 17 Pro Max to be turned on to 50% in approx. 20 minutes – an improvement over the 30 minutes you get with the iPhone 16 series.
The iPhone 17 devices also support 25W Qi2.2 Wireless Charging, which means you don’t need a Magsafe charger to hit these speeds-eth every compatible third-party accessories can now also achieve these rates.
… but not for iPhone Air
Although the progress above applies to iPhone 17, iPhone 17 Pro and iPhone 17 Pro Max, iPhone Air unfortunately misses. First, it is limited to 20W Magsafe and QI2 charging speeds instead of the 25W you get with all other models.
In addition to that, iPhone Air’s speed charging speeds are slower than its siblings: You hit 50% after 30 minutes, not 20 minutes.
The return of the Magsafe battery
The Magsafe battery clicks magnetically for your iPhone to wireless juice it up. This accessory only works magnetically with iPhone Air as the camera’s shocks on the iPhone 17 models get in the way, which means they are not compatible.
That said, the Magsafe battery is technically compatible with other devices. While iPhone Air is the only iPhone it works with, Apple says it can be used to “charge smaller accessories via USB-C.” Apple did not specify what accessories it works with, but we expect it to be able to act as a battery pack and turn on any device that charges over USB-C.
Ward off spyware and hackers
Apple is hot on security and it continues in the iPhone 17 setup. In a blog post, Apple explained how these phones come up with a feature called Memory Integrity Enforcement (MIE), designed to protect against memory corruption utilities.
These vulnerabilities are often used by advanced spyware used at a national state level. Although that means most iOS users will not be targeted, some will certainly. To stop it, Apple Mie adds hidden tags to any memory block on iPhone. If something wants to use this memory but do not match the hidden roof, it will be blocked, which raises the cost of successful spyware techniques significantly and keeps your iPhone more secure than ever.
A solution for screen flickering
Apple uses Pulse Width Modulation (PWM) to control the brightness of your iPhone and it works by fast flickering joints or oled pixels on and off. This causes discomfort for some users in the form of headaches and eye loading, but the iPhone 17 Pro has a way to solve it.
This iPhone has an accessibility option that allows you to disable PWM if you want. According to macumors, it has only been discovered in the iPhone 17 Pro so far, but it can be expanded to other devices in the area.
Feel the heat
You may have noticed that the iPhone 17 Pro and iPhone 17 Pro Max have dug the titanium frames that last year’s phones had and instead switched to aluminum. Apple mentioned the change at its event, but it did not give any reason.
The most likely cause is heat drainage. Aluminum is far more warm leading than titanium, which means it can spread high temperatures much faster and efficiently. Combined with the new steam chamber in the iPhone 17 Pro devices, it should help them keep cooler than ever when running the powerful new A19 Pro chips.
Finewoven is not dead yet
Apple’s fine woven cases caused a voting when they launched with the iPhone 15 series, and not in a good way as the products were prone to scrub and discoloration that quickly degraded their appearance and feel. But even though Apple has not launched any new fine woven cases – and seems to have replaced them with a new tech -woven alternative – the fine woven lives on.
It didn’t get any air time on the iPhone 17 event, but Apple has launched a new set of Magsafe -cartoon books and Airtag keys made by Finewoven, suggesting that reports on the material’s death have been very exaggerated.
No mmwave for all
Apple proudly showed its C1X chip on the iPhone 17 event, and this modem drives the 5G connection with which each new iPhone comes. But there was a disadvantage that Apple forgot to mention.
It’s the fact that iPhone air loses on MMWAVE functionality. C1X includes MMWAVE in iPhone 17, iPhone 17 Pro and iPhone 17 Pro Max, and this gives faster speeds compared to regular 5G, but Apple’s thinnest and lightest phone misses.
Two-layer transfer rates
Want the fastest transfer rates when sending files over USB-C? You want to stick to the iPhone 17 Pro and iPhone 17 Pro Max. While these devices offer USB 3 speeds of up to 10 Gbps, the iPhone 17 and iPhone Air are far more restrictive.
That’s because they are limited to USB 2 speeds that are 480 Mbps. It will result in far slower transfer rates when using a cable.
