iOS 26.1 beta, iPhone Air thoughts, 17 Pro durability saga
9to5Mac Happy Hour
9to5Mac
4.4 • 924 Ratings
🗓️ 25 September 2025
⏱️ 65 minutes
🧾️ Download transcript
Summary
Benjamin and Chance reflect on how Apple describes the unibody in iPhone history. Then, Benjamin shares his experiences with his first week of having the iPhone Air, meanwhile online durability and battery tests show impressive results across the new iPhone lineup. Nevertheless, Apple is forced to comment on 17 Pro ‘ScratchGate’, and the first iOS 26.1 beta adds some new swipe gestures in the Music app.
And in Happy Hour Plus, Chance tries the new Jupiter environment in visionOS 26, as Apple previews a swathe of new third-party immersive video content in the works. Subscribe at 9to5mac.com/join.
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Hosts
Chance Miller
- @chancemiller.me on Bluesky
- @chancehmiller@mastodon.social
- @ChanceHMiller on Instagram
- @ChanceHMiller on Threads
Benjamin Mayo
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Links
- iPhone 17 Pro Max easily beats Samsung Galaxy S25 Ultra in battery life test
- iPhone 17 battery life test shows strong results across the lineup
- iPhone Air battery pack teardown shows a surprisingly familiar component
- The new iPhone 17 Pro aluminum body may be more prone to scuffs and scratches
- iPhone Air bend test affirms Apple's claim of most durable iPhone ever, front glass scratch resistance also impresses
- Apple responds to iPhone 17 Pro scratch and durability concerns
- Apple releases first iOS 26.1 developer beta for iPhone
- Apple Music in iOS 26.1 adds a new gesture to switch songs
- Everything new in iOS 26.1 beta 1
- Apple working on MCP support on Mac, iPhone, and iPad
- Apple looks set to make two important iOS 26 security changes
- MotoGP documentary shot in Apple Immersive Video races onto Vision Pro today
- Apple reveals seven new Immersive Videos coming soon to Vision Pro
- Here's Apple Vision Pro's new Jupiter Environment
Transcript
Click on a timestamp to play from that location
| 0:00.0 | So when we were talking about the iPhone 17 Pro design last week, Mayo, I said that it was not Apple's first unibody iPhone, but the first since the iPhone 6. You doubted my claim. We pulled up the press release of the iPhone 6. Apple described it as an aluminum unibody design. And as I kind of expected you to do, in between last week and this week, you did some more research and realized something Apple said during the iPhone 17 Pro keynote. |
| 0:30.6 | Yeah, because when you said that, I was confused. I was like, I'm sure they said it was their first unibody. |
| 0:36.6 | And sure enough, I looked it up. |
| 0:38.3 | And in the design video where you have Molly Anderson narrate the introduction for the |
| 0:43.1 | iPhone 17 Pro design, she calls it our first aluminium union body for the iPhone 17 Pro and Pro Max. |
| 0:50.5 | That is false advertising. |
| 0:52.8 | But indeed, as well as the iPhone 6 press release, if you go to the iPhone 6 event back in 2014, |
| 1:00.0 | you have Johnny Ive narrate a design video where he says the new iPhone 6 models feature |
| 1:04.8 | a precision unit body enclosure. |
| 1:08.8 | So I don't know whether the Apple marketing team have changed their definition |
| 1:12.7 | on Aluminant Unibody is, or if they just disagree on our technicality, or they just don't care. |
| 1:19.7 | But I did think it was odd that when you – like, my memory was pinging at me. |
| 1:25.2 | I'm sure they said it was their first union body. |
| 1:28.6 | And here we go. |
| 1:29.8 | They technically, depending on which person you talk about in terms of which year |
| 1:34.2 | isn't either their first union body or not their first unit body. |
| 1:38.0 | I'm sure there might be some technical discrepancy. |
| 1:40.3 | I think that's probably it. |
| 1:41.7 | Yeah. |
| 1:42.1 | Changes their claim. |
| 1:43.3 | But it is very true that back in the iPhone 6 days, |
| 1:45.7 | they introduced it as a unibody design. |
... |
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