On the first of what will be a three-day announcement cycle, Apple pushed out some minor spec bumps by announcing iPhone 17e and iPad Air updates. The biggest thing to stand out to me was base model storage in the iPhone 17e doubling to 256GB while keeping the price at $599. I believe this is Apple’s current answer to critics who said of the 16e last year that it was a $499 phone priced $100 too high.

During the iPhone event last September, the new iPhone Air took the $999 price slot; this pushed the 17 Pro to a starting price of $1,099 coupled with a base storage bump to 256GB, up from 128GB. So while the entry price technically increased, in actuality it was priced the same as the 256GB 16 Pro model it replaced. With the 17e being solely a cost-sensitive product aimed at emerging markets, I think the increased value on offer after a single 12-month cycle is hard to argue with. I also believe within a few years a price tag of $499 is a realistic goal for the company.

The most curious part of today’s iPhone update is the inclusion of MagSafe. It’s great to see it now, but why weren’t the magnets added last year when the case design remained the same? This also doubles the wireless charging rate to 15W, which is nice until you compare it to the 25W speed in the iPhone 17 and Pro models.

The iPad Air was quite literally a “chip it and ship it” update with M4, N1, and C1X additions. They didn’t even bother to change the colors — the 17e, by contrast, comes in a nice new soft pink. The best news for the iPad today was not seeing an expected price increase due to RAM shortages.