iPhone Air vs. iPhone 17 Pro: First Teardown Reveals Extreme Features!

Recently, a first disassembly video of the iPhone 17 Pro was released, but the major highlight of this year, the iPhone Air, had yet to be showcased. This has now been accomplished by Australian YouTuber Hugh Jeffreys.

In previous years, Jeffreys focused on checking whether Apple had eased restrictions on repairing with third-party parts. This year, he will not pursue this angle as Apple has already improved repairability significantly. However, the performance of third-party parts is still inconsistent across suppliers, making it an unreliable topic for a video.

Instead, Hugh Jeffreys has decided to perform a comparison between the internal components of the iPhone 17 Pro and the iPhone Air.

Right from the start, there are noticeable differences: the iPhone 17 Pro opens from the front due to its unibody design, whereas the iPhone Air continues the tradition of its predecessors by opening from the back. Inside the iPhone 17 Pro, the battery is attached to a large plate that contains the Vapor Chamber. The iPhone Air, on the other hand, does not incorporate such an advanced cooling system but offers easy access to its battery, securely housed within a metal casing.

The iPhone Air lacks a speaker at the bottom of the screen and has no SIM card slot. In contrast, the iPhone 17 Pro features a massive photo module that, when compared side-by-side with that of an iPhone 11 Pro, shows a stark difference.

The motherboards reveal even more distinct differences between the iPhone 17 Pro and the iPhone Air: while the motherboard of the iPhone 17 Pro is relatively thick, that of the iPhone Air is impressively thin!

The iPhone Air and the iPhone 17 Pro are indeed two very different beasts… yet both are remarkable feats of engineering.