News / iPhone 17 price cut

iPhone 17 Prices Just Dropped in the UK — and This May Be the Cheapest iPhones Get for a While

By Sarah Jenkins • Senior News Editor • 4 September 2026

Photo: Ka Kit Pang / Wikimedia Commons, CC BY-SA 4.0

UK retailers have started clearing iPhone 17 stock ahead of Apple’s September event, and the discounts are larger than the usual pre-launch trim. Amazon UK and John Lewis have cut prices across almost the entire iPhone 17 line — with the iPhone 17 Air taking the biggest hit at £200 off.

The budget iPhone 17e is the one model left out of the cuts.

Why now?

The obvious answer is stock clearance — retailers always thin inventory before a new generation lands, and the iPhone 18 Pro is expected on 8 or 9 September. But there is a second factor this year, and it is the reason we would treat these prices as more than a routine seasonal dip.

The industry is in the middle of a memory pricing crisis. Rising RAM and flash costs already pushed Apple to raise prices across other product lines earlier this summer, and reporting suggests the iPhone 18 Pro will carry a substantial increase. Apple has also been quietly raising trade-in values.

Put those together and the picture is unusual: the outgoing generation is being discounted at retail while the incoming generation is expected to cost noticeably more. That is not the normal pattern.

Should you buy now or wait?

Buy the iPhone 17 Pro or Pro Max now if you were already planning a flagship purchase this year. A £100 cut on a phone one generation from current, combined with a likely price rise on its successor, makes the gap between last year’s flagship and this year’s wider in pounds than it is in performance.

Wait if you specifically want the iPhone 18 Pro’s headline upgrades — the A20 Pro chip on a 2nm process, a smaller Dynamic Island, and a variable-aperture main camera. None of those arrive on the iPhone 17, and if they matter to you, £100 will not compensate.

Look hard at the iPhone 17 Air if the £200 cut catches your eye, but go in clear-eyed: the Air trades battery capacity and camera hardware for thinness. It is the biggest discount on this list partly because it has been the slowest seller.

One more consideration: the standard iPhone 18 has reportedly been pushed to spring 2027, so September is expected to be a Pro-only launch. If you want a non-Pro iPhone this year, the discounted iPhone 17 at £749 may be the newest non-Pro option available for months.

Where to buy

Amazon UK and John Lewis are driving these cuts. Prices at this point in the cycle move daily and often revert quietly once stock clears, so check the live price before committing.

Read next: what Apple is expected to announce this month, or see whether the older iPhone 15 is still worth buying.