Since Apple's iPhone 17 launch event ended, I've been thinking about which of its non-Pro phones I'd like to buy. The choice isn't very straightforward this year, because both the iPhone 17 and the iPhone Air have a few trade-offs, and even if the iPhone Air is a little more expensive, it's not necessarily better at everything. Here are the most important differences between the iPhone 17 and iPhone Air, and why I think the former is probably the better choice, at least for me.iPhone 17 is available in more colors Credit: Apple I do care about my iPhone's looks, even if my previous, less colorful iPhones suggest otherwise. I've usually opted for subtle, dark shades, but this time around, I feel like switching things up a bit and going for a colorful option. The iPhone 17 gives me lots of great choices, with five different finishes. You can get this phone in Lavender, Sage (a green hue), and Mist Blue, apart from the usual white and black. That gives it five different colorways overall, many of which are the type of vibrant I'm looking for.On the other hand, the iPhone Air is only available in four color variants: Sky Blue, Light Gold, Cloud White, and Space Black. Of these, I like the black and white color variants, but the others are a bit too subtle for me this year.iPhone Air promises better build quality Credit: Apple If you compare the displays of the iPhone Air and the iPhone 17, you'll notice that they're identical in everything except size. The iPhone Air gets a slightly larger 6.5-inch screen, as opposed to the iPhone 17's 6.3-inch display. As for overall size, the iPhone Air is 6.5 inches tall, 2.94 inches wide, and 0.22 inches thick. Yes, this means that it's the thinnest iPhone yet, but the iPhone 17 isn't withouts charms. Because of that smaller screen, it's a little more compact, at 5.89 inches tall and 2.81 inches wide. You just have to be willing to put up with it being slightly thicker, at 0.34 inches.Then there's weight. Even though the iPhone Air is larger, it is lighter than the iPhone 17. The iPhone Air weighs 5.82 ounces (165 grams), while the iPhone 17 weighs 6.24 ounces (177 grams). To me, the big difference in build quality is that the iPhone Air gets a Ceramic Shield on the back of the phone as well. The iPhone 17 still has glass on the back, which means that it's more likely to crack if you drop it. Both smartphones use Ceramic Shield 2 to protect the display.iPhone Air has a faster processor, but worse battery life Credit: Apple The iPhone Air ships with the same A19 Pro chip that the iPhone 17 Pro models have. It has a 5-core GPU instead of the 6-core one on the 17 Pro, but otherwise, you should get similar performance benefits from the iPhone Air. The iPhone 17, meanwhile, ships with the A19 chip. If you don't use your iPhone for heavy workloads like editing videos, shooting lots of videos, or playing graphics intensive games, you probably won't notice much of a difference between the A19 Pro and the A19. But for people with heavy usage, the additional processing power will be nice to have. It's not a pure upgrade, though. The side effect of being thinner and lighter is worse battery life, which is one big con to the iPhone Air. Apple says you'll get up to 27 hours of video playback on a single charge on the iPhone Air, but 30 hours on the iPhone 17. This means that you might want to consider buying Apple's MagSafe battery pack to boost the Air's battery life to 40 hours of video playback, but then you end up with a bulkier and heavier phone, which kind of defeats the purpose.Plus, the iPhone 17 also charges faster than the iPhone Air. Apple says the iPhone Air supports MagSafe wireless charging up to 20W with a 30W adapter, whereas the iPhone 17 supports up to 25W with a 30W charging adapter. This means that the iPhone 17 will charge faster wirelessly. It's a similar story for wired charging, with one caveat. According the Apple's specs, an iPhone Air can charge from zero to 50% in 30 minutes with a 20W adapter or higher, while the iPhone 17 can do that in 20 minutes with a 40W adapter. That is faster, although we don't currently have charge time claims for the base iPhone 17 using a 20W charger, so this isn't an exact comparison to the Air. iPhone 17 is better for photography Credit: Apple For me, the iPhone Air's single camera is a dealbreaker for a phone that costs $1,000. The 48-megapixel sensor on the camera is probably good on its own (Lifehacker has yet to go hands-on with it), but in getting the Air, you miss out on the ultrawide lens available on all other iPhone 17 models. That means no 0.5x shooting mode. The iPhone 17 also supports macro photography/video recording and Spatial photos/videos, which is missing in the iPhone Air. Fortunately, the Center Stage front camera is exactly the same on the iPhone 17 and the iPhone Air, so you'll be able to take horizontal videos with it even while holding your phone vertically.iPhone 17 is cheaper than the iPhone Air Credit: Apple Having looked at all the specs for the two phones, I'm leaning towards the iPhone 17 over the iPhone Air. I'm not really obsessed with the thinness and lightness of my phone so much as what it can do. I'd rather have more camera options and better battery life, and the iPhone 17 is better in both aspects, according to Apple's own specs pages. The biggest positive, though, is the price of the iPhone 17, which is a full $200 cheaper than the iPhone Air. The 256GB iPhone 17 is priced at $799, and the 512GB variant costs $999. The iPhone Air has three storage variants, with the 256GB option at $999, 512GB at $1,199, and 1TB at $1,399. If I were to pre-order an iPhone today, I'd most probably choose the iPhone 17 512GB. That keeps the price around the $1,000 mark and gives me more than enough storage to handle all my photos, videos, apps, and games for years to come. As nice as the iPhone Air looks, I think most people would be better off either spending a little more for the better cameras of the iPhone 17 Pro, or just saving money and going with the well-rounded iPhone 17 instead.