Planning to buy this iPhone 17 series phone? Its resale value could be peanuts

iPhone Air is reportedly not holding its value well. Here’s what we know.

If you bought an iPhone Air, there is bad news for you, especially if you plan on selling it soon or sometime next year when you upgrade to a new iPhone. A new report by SellCell says the iPhone Air has seen significant depreciation, with the phone already losing between 40.3% and 47.7% of its value depending on the storage variant one has.

iPhone Air retails for ₹1,19,900 in India. (Shaurya Sharma - HT )

By Shaurya Sharma

Shaurya Sharma is the Technology Editor at Hindustan Times Digital Streams, where he oversees technology coverage across digital and social platforms. With over eight years of experience across editorial, video production, and digital media, his work focuses on smartphones, AI, consumer gadgets, and shaping audience-first content strategies for modern tech consumers.

He began his career in 2018 as a fashion cinematographer before turning his lifelong passion for technology into a profession. From spending his childhood immersed in tech magazines, video games, and the latest gadgets to covering the global consumer tech industry today, technology has remained a constant throughout his journey.

Over the years, Shaurya has worked with some of India’s leading media organisations, including CNN-News18, Sportskeeda, and Guiding Tech, where he led video initiatives that combined strong editorial storytelling with engaging visual and social-first execution.

A graduate in Journalism and Mass Communication from Manipal University, Shaurya has reviewed hundreds of products across categories including smartphones, laptops, gaming consoles, cameras, and wearables. Beyond work, he is passionate about animal welfare, environmental causes, and automobiles, particularly turbo-petrol cars

Read moreRead less

Now, that could be concerning if you plan on selling it in the near future. With the overall average sitting at 44.3%, this is much worse than the rest of the iPhone 17 models, such as the iPhone 17, which retains 9.7% more value compared to the Air, and the iPhone 17 Pro Max 256GB, which sits at just 26.1% depreciation.

Here are the best and the worst performing iPhone 17 series models in terms of resale

SellCell says the iPhone 17 Pro Max 256GB has the lowest depreciation at 26.1% over a 10-week period. This is followed by the iPhone 17 Pro Max 512GB at 30.3%, and then the iPhone 17 Pro 256GB at 31.9%. Several models fall in between, but the iPhone Air 256GB sits at 40.3%, which is much worse than both the base iPhone 17 Pro and the base iPhone 17 Pro Max. At the top end, the iPhone Air 1TB has seen depreciation of 47.7%.

What we found

By these claims, we independently carried out our own research in the used smartphone market. We checked the rates of the iPhone Air at multiple offline dealers, including some of the most popular second-hand mobile dealers in Jaipur. They were selling the iPhone Air for much less compared to the iPhone 17 Pro. For instance, we spotted a listing for the iPhone Air at a popular offline dealer, where it was being offered for about ₹90,000 in an “open-box condition” with full warranty and 100% battery health. That works out to about a 25% price drop from its MRP in India. Notably, if the phone is in worse condition, the price drop could be much steeper.

Similarly, when we compare it to the iPhone 17 Pro, the latter is available for around ₹1,20,000 for the base model, which works out to around an 11% price drop compared to the ₹1,35,000 MRP.

This correlates with previous reports suggesting that demand for the iPhone Air is not particularly strong. Earlier this year, The Information reported that Apple may delay the launch of the next-generation iPhone Air due to the poor sales of the current model, and may revise its launch strategy. Typically, the iPhone Air is expected to launch alongside the iPhone 18 Pro models in September 2026.