9 ms·

Compare the New iPhone Models

43 points by skadamat 1y ago

ceejayoz 1y ago
The color choices seem… odd. I can't get a lavender/green/blue Pro Max? The premium option has the least color options, 1/3 of which is... garish?
- jerlam 1y ago
  Apple used to reserve the "mature" muted colors for the Pro, and the colorful ones for the base model. Not only did they switch the schemes this year, the Pros also have one less option which suggests... something.
  - layer8 1y ago
    Margins on the Air are probably higher than on the Pro, at least for the base storage models, so they may be trying to nudge people to the Air.
  - hbn 1y ago
    I'm pretty sure at least in the last 2 years they were kinda limited in colors they could do because titanium is difficult to inject with color. Before that they used stainless steel, I think they wanted to differentiate the frame from the non-Pro lineup to seem more "premium" But this year I guess they finally gave in and just use aluminum on the Pros and now they're free to color however they want.
- conception 1y ago
  It's the same way with cars. The fancier you go, the less options for "fun" apparently "poor people" colors.
  - fudgy73 1y ago
    Not exactly. Most upper end car manufacturers have been offering PTS (paint-to-sample) for quite some time. You can choose any color you can think of.
- _diyar 1y ago
  They offer a blue Pro Max.
  - ceejayoz 1y ago
    Eh, that's nearly black. (Which, if I want real black, I can't have. Same for white! Or either of the lighter blues!)
ortusdux 1y ago
Apple math - https://www.youtube.com/shorts/NiNYOZZLOyg https://www.youtube.com/shorts/NiNYOZZLOyg
awestroke 1y ago
Hilarious how they refuse to list memory (RAM) capacity of their phones. Probably because they are way behind other phones in that regard. Which is weird, since they focus so much on on-device AI. I guess the very very slightly lower profit margin from including more RAM is incredible unpalatable.
- whalesalad 1y ago
  It's because since the invention of the iPhone ram has never been a concern of the customer. I've never considered it, or felt the need to.
  - minimaxir 1y ago
    It was an issue with earlier iPhones with the frequency it killed background apps/tabs. The main incentive causing Apple to finally increase RAM is AI, with everything else being a good side effect.
  - az226 1y ago
    Your apps constantly refresh despite only tabbing out to other apps for seconds. Super duper annoying and frustrating.
    - saagarjha 1y ago
      Mine don't.
    - McAtNite 1y ago
      This is demonstrably false to anyone with one of these devices. I can page over to my podcast app that I used days ago and find it is exactly where I left it.
  - pgm8705 1y ago
    Not sure why the downvotes, it's largely true. Almost every non-techie I encounter in real life incorrectly uses the term "memory" to mean storage space.
paxys 1y ago
The biggest enhancement this year seems to be the across-the-board increase in prices. Just don't say the "tariff" word...
- mjamesaustin 1y ago
  Both the iPhone and the Pro remained the same price, and the iPhone also increased its storage capacity for the same price...
  - jama211 1y ago
    The first comments on anything apple does are always just angry people taking a swipe. There are legitimate criticisms of apple to be had but you can be assured they’ll be drowned out by the unreasonable ones on any internet forum.
  - jjulius 1y ago
    >Both the iPhone and the Pro remained the same price... According to the CNBC live page, the iPhone 16 Pro started at $999, and the iPhone 17 Pro will start at $1099. https://www.cnbc.com/2025/09/09/live-updates-apple-event-iphone17-airpods-ios26.html https://www.cnbc.com/2025/09/09/live-updates-apple-event-iph...
    - hbn 1y ago
      The 16 Pro started at 128GB and the 17 Pro starts at 256GB. They essentially kept the pricing but bumped the lowest storage tier.
- thebruce87m 1y ago
  Just looking at the AirPods now and they seem to have new features such as heart rate sensing and live translation at the same price. > The company has refined the design, added heart rate sensing, improved active noise cancellation (ANC), delivered live translation and more. And most importantly, it did so without increasing the price. https://www.engadget.com/audio/headphones/apple-airpods-pro-3-hands-on-new-design-and-improved-anc-are-impressive-183246429.html https://www.engadget.com/audio/headphones/apple-airpods-pro-...
politelemon 1y ago
Please could the apple announcements be merged together this year. I'd argue they are of little interest to a hacker spirit but they are certainly promotional... If they are going to be tolerated could they at least be tolerated in one place.
- minimaxir 1y ago
  Aren't most tech product announcements promotional?
- xattt 1y ago
  “Could have been a memo”
- lenerdenator 1y ago
  > I'd argue they are of little interest to a hacker spirit but they are certainly promotional I mean, kind of? It's good to know what you might be building against going forward if you're a mobile app dev. It's not irrelevant.
pupppet 1y ago
Dynamic Island as a product feature - chef's kiss. Never has a dead area on your screen been marketed so perfectly.
- 10729287 1y ago
  Apple always been the best at selling “it’s a feature, not a bug”. Remember iPod shuffle ?
  - reaperducer 1y ago
    Remember it? I'm listening to one now. World's best unitasker.
- OJFord 1y ago
  What is it? It's the fourth listed feature, and even the 'learn more' page doesn't say wtf 'dynamic island' means. It's a bizarre page really, the entire top section is: > 6.5" / 6.9" [Makes sense so far.] > Super Retina XDR display1 They're proud of the resolution, whatever it actually is, though only know that because they've used 'retina' for years, and Super & XDR sound high tech and better. > ProMotion technology Maybe something to do with motion blur of videos? > Always-On display That sounds... Undesirable? But presumably it must just mean it's faster to wake up or something? > Dynamic Island Absolutely no idea.
  - odo1242 1y ago
    Dynamic Island is Apple’s version of the notch. Instead of being attached to the top of the screen, it’s a pill-shaped cutout (actually, two pill-shaped cutouts) and a bunch of software to make those two pill-shaped cutouts act like one cutout that can display contextual information while hiding the fact that there’s a cutout. You can tell what I’m talking about if you look at a photo. As for the others: > Always-on Display: The display will show the current time when the phone is sleeping - it uses less power than it would on an LCD phone because of OLED. > ProMotion: 120 Hz refresh rate, but only when Low Power Mode is off and the app requests it (e.g. games). So basically VRR (in fact, it is actually VRR under the hood)
akmarinov 1y ago
So EU people can’t buy the e-SIM only version and thus get more battery? Wtf??
lvl155 1y ago
They’ve been doing this for, what, 14 years now since Jobs passed. I fail to see anything substantially new since then. They’re quite literally milking the cash cow at this point. They became the company the old Apple fans despised.
- ceejayoz 1y ago
  > I fail to see anything substantially new since then. I'm inclined to see Apple's M series chips as pretty substantial. I don't know that phones need massive innovation right now.
  - eagerpace 1y ago
    Faster horse situation. I'd take one that was slightly larger that could plug into a monitor and replace my desktop/laptop. But then that would be 1 or 2 less devices I would buy. I don't understand the Air model. It's cool, but just a different price point. The thickness of a device means nothing to me anymore, they're all close enough.
    - spicybbq 1y ago
      233g for pro max, 206g for pro, 165g for the Air. That's a big difference. I figure the Air will be a more compelling in person. It also replaces the worst selling model of the four. The 15 plus and 16 plus models did not sell very well. The pro max is the top seller. https://9to5mac.com/2025/01/22/this-iphone-16-model-got-sales-boost-but-one-slipped/ https://9to5mac.com/2025/01/22/this-iphone-16-model-got-sale... Previously, the fourth iphone was the mini, which did not sell well in the 13 series: https://www.macrumors.com/2022/04/21/iphone-13-mini-unpopular-march-quarter/ https://www.macrumors.com/2022/04/21/iphone-13-mini-unpopula...
- elorant 1y ago
  So what would you expect them to do, create a new market every ten years?
- hbn 1y ago
  Their phones are so good they don't have much they can do at this point to make them better. You can have a 5 year old iPhone right now and it's probably still a very good device, assuming you swapped the battery since purchase. It's a pretty good problem to have.
Havoc 1y ago
Not looking promising on upgrade 14 ProMax -> 17 Pro (roughly same size) have remarkably few tangible diffs. Stronger CPU/GPU -> wouldn't notice. It's not a computing device for me 3x to 8x optical zoom and nice camera yeah would notice
jama211 1y ago
Feels like the air is the “consumer” pro iphone and the actual pro really is a proper product aimed at pros, just took them a while to feel out these lanes. The real question is next year if they release the rumoured folding iphone if they’ll still keep all 4 of these existing categories…
jus3sixty 1y ago
It's surprising to see the iPhone 17 Pro Max specs compared to those of the Galaxy S25 Ultra. Comparisons show the S25 Ultra leading in several areas, especially the cameras. The difference in megapixel count is significant. For years, Apple's flagships were considered superior, but Samsung appears to be pushing boundaries with the S25 Ultra. Is Apple truly behind, or does their optimization and ecosystem integration make up for it?
- ghusto 1y ago
  Their cameras have been terrible for a long time (comparatively speaking). I switched from a Pixel 6a to an iPhone 16 and was shocked at how bad my pictures are now. I get the feeling that iPhone users just don't know any better because they've always had an iPhone.
  - DiggyJohnson 1y ago
    Seems like it just has to do with what you're expecting from a smartphone camera. I feel like Google Pixel is doing even more photo edit magic than iPhone.
    - hbn 1y ago
      They're straight up using generative AI on zoomed photos now to turn details into AI slop artifacts https://whatever.scalzi.com/2025/08/29/pictures-not-photos-whats-going-on-with-the-pixel-10-pro-pro-res-zoom/ https://whatever.scalzi.com/2025/08/29/pictures-not-photos-w...
      - dmayle 1y ago
        Which is literally what Apple announced in this video: "and the 2x telephoto has an updated photonic engine, which now uses machine learning to capture the lifelike details of her hair and the vibrant color of her jacket" "like the 2x telephoto, the 8x also utilizes the updated photonic engine, which integrates machine learning into even more parts of the image pipeline. we apply deep learning models for demosaicing"
mrweasel 1y ago
The cheapest of the new phones is 7500DKK ~ 1175USD. That is just insane. I get that I can get an older models and that Apple is a "luxury" brand, but at $1000+ I don't get who buys new iPhones anymore. Apple seems stuck in a mentality of subsidized phones, which might still be how the US does it, but it makes their product unreasonably expensive in other parts of the world. I can accept that Apple can't do a $200 phone, but that this point I'd be happy with a $500 phone.
- shuckles 1y ago
  The entry price for iPhone 17 matches the entry price for Pixel 10 and other flagships in the United States. Does it not in Denmark?
  - mrweasel 1y ago
    Checking a price comparison site I say that's about right. With Android I can just pick a different phone that does the few things I need and save thousands. Apple doesn't provide me with that option anymore.
    - ceejayoz 1y ago
      Did Apple ever provide that option?
    - shuckles 1y ago
      The entry price of the iPhone lineup is lower than ever. Their strategy is to reduce it by selling older phones at lower prices. The entry point of the newest iPhone is, inflation adjust, basically the same since iPhone was first introduced. As a result, I don't really understand your complaint.
      - mrweasel 1y ago
        I think my complaint boils down to the fact that my usage can't justify a $1000+ phone. Rather than stuffing ever more features and processing power into the iPhone, I'd like the progress to be spend on making the phones cheaper and have more battery life. For people like me the iPhone hasn't improved in 10 years, the last feature I sort of cared about was TouchID. So given that I'm stuck in a 2015 use case, seeing no progress, why shouldn't I expect prices to come down significantly?
derac 1y ago
Why does the air have usb 2? lmao
- dmayle 1y ago
  I am truly shocked by this. I looked it up, and it turns out you're right. Both the iPhone 17 and the iPhone Air use USB2. USB3 was introduced in 2008 (!!!). That is 17 years ago. I already wasn't interested in this tech, to be fair, but I've had to support family phones synchronizing/backing up over the cable, and even at full theoretical speed for the transfer, we're talking over an hour vs just under 7 minutes. Which, considering the flash most likely suppports the read in under a minute, is crazy.
crinkly 1y ago
No point in buying a Pro now. Will get a 17 to replace my 15 Pro, give that to my eldest kid and be done with it.
- SilverElfin 1y ago
  The Pro has a much larger sensor size for the camera than the previous generation Pro, and also now 8x optical zoom instead of 5x. Big upgrades on the camera front may be a reason for people to stick with the higher price.
  - crinkly 1y ago
    Looks like it has the same primary/wide cameras as the base model. You just gain the telephoto. It's fine for casual photography. I have a mirrorless camera if I want to shoot telephoto. That has 375mm reach at the long end on proper glass with no ML crap.
    - SilverElfin 1y ago
      Yea but most people don’t want to carry a camera. It’s just too easy and convenient to pull out a phone. I respect it but I just found myself not using cameras in practice anymore.
atonse 1y ago
In past years, part of the new iPhone's hardware was usually coupled with a huge new software feature that was made possible by the new hardware (think of FaceTime for example that came with the front facing camera, or Dynamic Island that came from the full display). Was there anything like that this year? It felt like the iPhone 17 Pro talk lasted 2 mins, and they spend 99% of their time just talking about the cameras. Although I only started watching parts of the event 52 mins in. I understand that hardware has mainly reached a steady state, but have we also hit peaks of creativity from the software side, given that we have these amazing machines in our pockets? Of course, no mention of anything AI, so Apple is either truly restraining themselves until they have something amazing, or they continue to slide into irrelevance and are missing the whole AI shift.
- vostrocity 1y ago
  There was only one such feature that caught my eye. The new front camera sensor is now square. If you have more people in your selfie, the software will detect this and pick a wider aspect ratio for the cropped shot. Not sure if Android has already been doing this, but this seems like a clever way to use the new hardware. 38:27 in the Apple Event video (https://www.apple.com/apple-events/ https://www.apple.com/apple-events/).
  - metadat 1y ago
    Samsung camera app has had this for years.
lenerdenator 1y ago
My first thought to this was, "Oh, that was today?" Is the iPhone 17 supposed to be the bottom-of-the-line now, or the 16e?
- vostrocity 1y ago
  Apple has been selling multiple generations for many years now. So 16e looks like the cheapest iPhone for this upcoming year.
yurys 1y ago
Have high expectations of their own modem in the new iPhone. Hopefully it makes a difference in terms of connection quality and improves battery life, especially with the cellular coverage in the US.
- bix6 1y ago
  My friends Google phone was getting service when I wasn’t. We both have the same carrier. What gives?
ortusdux 1y ago
Another rung in the Apple price ladder - https://medium.com/entrepreneur-s-handbook/if-you-cant-buy-it-twice-don-t-buy-it-7925c97ca5a3 https://medium.com/entrepreneur-s-handbook/if-you-cant-buy-i...
- saagarjha 1y ago
  Not really? They're similarly priced as the outgoing models.
pkoiralap 1y ago
I was thinking about what all is new in this version, or in fact in any other versions after iPhone 10/X (I don't know)? They all look same to me. I personally think that Apple and other smartphone companies need to do a minor and major version release like you do with software. Every 3-5 year, do a major release. This way you create significant hardware/software features every major version, a hype that is well backed up, and at the same time keeps you working and improving and still making money out of it through minor versions. Plus, you also don't have to rely on planned obsolescence as people are gravitated towards the major version release naturally.
- hbn 1y ago
  >I personally think that Apple and other smartphone companies need to do a minor and major version release like you do with software. Every 3-5 year, do a major release. That's basically what they've been doing. That's why people whine when they aren't blown away every year now. You don't have to buy a new phone every year, and indeed most people don't. The changes are incremental, but if you buy a new phone after 3+ years, the new one will probably noticeably better enough compared to your old to make a difference to you. The late 2000s - early 2010s were exciting cause there was a lot of room for improvement. It's not so easy now and that's fine, because if you buy a new iPhone, it'll last longer and be overall better than what you got a decade+ ago.
ChrisArchitect 1y ago
Related: iPhone 17 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=45186023 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=45186023 iPhone Air https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=45186015 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=45186015 iPhone 17 Pro and iPhone 17 Pro Max https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=45186044 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=45186044
deleted 1y ago
[deleted]
dang 1y ago
Related ongoing threads: iPhone 17 Pro and iPhone 17 Pro Max - https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=45186044 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=45186044 - Sept 2025 (42 comments) Apple Debuts iPhone 17 - https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=45186023 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=45186023 - Sept 2025 (104 comments) iPhone Air - https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=45186015 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=45186015 - Sept 2025 (431 comments)
daft_pink 1y ago
Esim vs Physical Sim Card Analysis: By using Apple’s cellular specifications page (https://www.apple.com/iphone/cellular/ https://www.apple.com/iphone/cellular/) to identify model numbers and supported bands, and then checking SIM card options in the comparison tool (https://www.apple.com/iphone/compare/ https://www.apple.com/iphone/compare/) for each iPhone 17 model number within a single regional Apple store, you can see which versions still include physical SIM trays and which bands they support. Pulling this information into ChatGPT makes the conclusion clear: unlike the iPhone 16, where the Canadian model number was the best choice for users who needed a SIM tray and broad U.S. band support (covering everything except mmWave), the iPhone 17 lineup in Canada is now eSIM-only. That means Canada no longer offers a model number with both a SIM tray and full U.S. carrier compatibility. The only remaining options with physical SIM trays are the non-air European and Chinese model numbers. These versions do support Verizon fully (aside from mmWave which is mostly useless anyways), but they omit key bands needed for AT&T and T-Mobile in the U.S. Becoming harder and harder to travel as China is adding esim, but will only allow phones actually purchased in China on a non tourist plan and any Chinese esim will not work the moment you leave the country while a physical sim will.

43 points by skadamat 1y ago

The color choices seem… odd. I can't get a lavender/green/blue Pro Max? The premium option has the least color options, 1/3 of which is... garish?

jerlam 1y ago
Apple used to reserve the "mature" muted colors for the Pro, and the colorful ones for the base model. Not only did they switch the schemes this year, the Pros also have one less option which suggests... something.
- layer8 1y ago
  Margins on the Air are probably higher than on the Pro, at least for the base storage models, so they may be trying to nudge people to the Air.
- hbn 1y ago
  I'm pretty sure at least in the last 2 years they were kinda limited in colors they could do because titanium is difficult to inject with color. Before that they used stainless steel, I think they wanted to differentiate the frame from the non-Pro lineup to seem more "premium" But this year I guess they finally gave in and just use aluminum on the Pros and now they're free to color however they want.
conception 1y ago
It's the same way with cars. The fancier you go, the less options for "fun" apparently "poor people" colors.
- fudgy73 1y ago
  Not exactly. Most upper end car manufacturers have been offering PTS (paint-to-sample) for quite some time. You can choose any color you can think of.
_diyar 1y ago
They offer a blue Pro Max.
- ceejayoz 1y ago
  Eh, that's nearly black. (Which, if I want real black, I can't have. Same for white! Or either of the lighter blues!)

ortusdux 1y ago

Apple math - https://www.youtube.com/shorts/NiNYOZZLOyg https://www.youtube.com/shorts/NiNYOZZLOyg

awestroke 1y ago

Hilarious how they refuse to list memory (RAM) capacity of their phones. Probably because they are way behind other phones in that regard. Which is weird, since they focus so much on on-device AI. I guess the very very slightly lower profit margin from including more RAM is incredible unpalatable.

whalesalad 1y ago
It's because since the invention of the iPhone ram has never been a concern of the customer. I've never considered it, or felt the need to.
- minimaxir 1y ago
  It was an issue with earlier iPhones with the frequency it killed background apps/tabs. The main incentive causing Apple to finally increase RAM is AI, with everything else being a good side effect.
- az226 1y ago
  Your apps constantly refresh despite only tabbing out to other apps for seconds. Super duper annoying and frustrating.
  - saagarjha 1y ago
    Mine don't.
  - McAtNite 1y ago
    This is demonstrably false to anyone with one of these devices. I can page over to my podcast app that I used days ago and find it is exactly where I left it.
- pgm8705 1y ago
  Not sure why the downvotes, it's largely true. Almost every non-techie I encounter in real life incorrectly uses the term "memory" to mean storage space.

paxys 1y ago

The biggest enhancement this year seems to be the across-the-board increase in prices. Just don't say the "tariff" word...

mjamesaustin 1y ago
Both the iPhone and the Pro remained the same price, and the iPhone also increased its storage capacity for the same price...
- jama211 1y ago
  The first comments on anything apple does are always just angry people taking a swipe. There are legitimate criticisms of apple to be had but you can be assured they’ll be drowned out by the unreasonable ones on any internet forum.
- jjulius 1y ago
  >Both the iPhone and the Pro remained the same price... According to the CNBC live page, the iPhone 16 Pro started at $999, and the iPhone 17 Pro will start at $1099. https://www.cnbc.com/2025/09/09/live-updates-apple-event-iphone17-airpods-ios26.html https://www.cnbc.com/2025/09/09/live-updates-apple-event-iph...
  - hbn 1y ago
    The 16 Pro started at 128GB and the 17 Pro starts at 256GB. They essentially kept the pricing but bumped the lowest storage tier.
thebruce87m 1y ago
Just looking at the AirPods now and they seem to have new features such as heart rate sensing and live translation at the same price. > The company has refined the design, added heart rate sensing, improved active noise cancellation (ANC), delivered live translation and more. And most importantly, it did so without increasing the price. https://www.engadget.com/audio/headphones/apple-airpods-pro-3-hands-on-new-design-and-improved-anc-are-impressive-183246429.html https://www.engadget.com/audio/headphones/apple-airpods-pro-...

politelemon 1y ago

Please could the apple announcements be merged together this year. I'd argue they are of little interest to a hacker spirit but they are certainly promotional... If they are going to be tolerated could they at least be tolerated in one place.

minimaxir 1y ago
Aren't most tech product announcements promotional?
xattt 1y ago
“Could have been a memo”
lenerdenator 1y ago
> I'd argue they are of little interest to a hacker spirit but they are certainly promotional I mean, kind of? It's good to know what you might be building against going forward if you're a mobile app dev. It's not irrelevant.

pupppet 1y ago

Dynamic Island as a product feature - chef's kiss. Never has a dead area on your screen been marketed so perfectly.

10729287 1y ago
Apple always been the best at selling “it’s a feature, not a bug”. Remember iPod shuffle ?
- reaperducer 1y ago
  Remember it? I'm listening to one now. World's best unitasker.
OJFord 1y ago
What is it? It's the fourth listed feature, and even the 'learn more' page doesn't say wtf 'dynamic island' means. It's a bizarre page really, the entire top section is: > 6.5" / 6.9" [Makes sense so far.] > Super Retina XDR display1 They're proud of the resolution, whatever it actually is, though only know that because they've used 'retina' for years, and Super & XDR sound high tech and better. > ProMotion technology Maybe something to do with motion blur of videos? > Always-On display That sounds... Undesirable? But presumably it must just mean it's faster to wake up or something? > Dynamic Island Absolutely no idea.
- odo1242 1y ago
  Dynamic Island is Apple’s version of the notch. Instead of being attached to the top of the screen, it’s a pill-shaped cutout (actually, two pill-shaped cutouts) and a bunch of software to make those two pill-shaped cutouts act like one cutout that can display contextual information while hiding the fact that there’s a cutout. You can tell what I’m talking about if you look at a photo. As for the others: > Always-on Display: The display will show the current time when the phone is sleeping - it uses less power than it would on an LCD phone because of OLED. > ProMotion: 120 Hz refresh rate, but only when Low Power Mode is off and the app requests it (e.g. games). So basically VRR (in fact, it is actually VRR under the hood)

akmarinov 1y ago

So EU people can’t buy the e-SIM only version and thus get more battery? Wtf??

lvl155 1y ago

They’ve been doing this for, what, 14 years now since Jobs passed. I fail to see anything substantially new since then. They’re quite literally milking the cash cow at this point. They became the company the old Apple fans despised.

ceejayoz 1y ago
> I fail to see anything substantially new since then. I'm inclined to see Apple's M series chips as pretty substantial. I don't know that phones need massive innovation right now.
- eagerpace 1y ago
  Faster horse situation. I'd take one that was slightly larger that could plug into a monitor and replace my desktop/laptop. But then that would be 1 or 2 less devices I would buy. I don't understand the Air model. It's cool, but just a different price point. The thickness of a device means nothing to me anymore, they're all close enough.
  - spicybbq 1y ago
    233g for pro max, 206g for pro, 165g for the Air. That's a big difference. I figure the Air will be a more compelling in person. It also replaces the worst selling model of the four. The 15 plus and 16 plus models did not sell very well. The pro max is the top seller. https://9to5mac.com/2025/01/22/this-iphone-16-model-got-sales-boost-but-one-slipped/ https://9to5mac.com/2025/01/22/this-iphone-16-model-got-sale... Previously, the fourth iphone was the mini, which did not sell well in the 13 series: https://www.macrumors.com/2022/04/21/iphone-13-mini-unpopular-march-quarter/ https://www.macrumors.com/2022/04/21/iphone-13-mini-unpopula...
elorant 1y ago
So what would you expect them to do, create a new market every ten years?
hbn 1y ago
Their phones are so good they don't have much they can do at this point to make them better. You can have a 5 year old iPhone right now and it's probably still a very good device, assuming you swapped the battery since purchase. It's a pretty good problem to have.

Havoc 1y ago

Not looking promising on upgrade 14 ProMax -> 17 Pro (roughly same size) have remarkably few tangible diffs. Stronger CPU/GPU -> wouldn't notice. It's not a computing device for me 3x to 8x optical zoom and nice camera yeah would notice

jama211 1y ago

Feels like the air is the “consumer” pro iphone and the actual pro really is a proper product aimed at pros, just took them a while to feel out these lanes. The real question is next year if they release the rumoured folding iphone if they’ll still keep all 4 of these existing categories…

jus3sixty 1y ago

It's surprising to see the iPhone 17 Pro Max specs compared to those of the Galaxy S25 Ultra. Comparisons show the S25 Ultra leading in several areas, especially the cameras. The difference in megapixel count is significant. For years, Apple's flagships were considered superior, but Samsung appears to be pushing boundaries with the S25 Ultra. Is Apple truly behind, or does their optimization and ecosystem integration make up for it?

ghusto 1y ago
Their cameras have been terrible for a long time (comparatively speaking). I switched from a Pixel 6a to an iPhone 16 and was shocked at how bad my pictures are now. I get the feeling that iPhone users just don't know any better because they've always had an iPhone.
- DiggyJohnson 1y ago
  Seems like it just has to do with what you're expecting from a smartphone camera. I feel like Google Pixel is doing even more photo edit magic than iPhone.
  - hbn 1y ago
    They're straight up using generative AI on zoomed photos now to turn details into AI slop artifacts https://whatever.scalzi.com/2025/08/29/pictures-not-photos-whats-going-on-with-the-pixel-10-pro-pro-res-zoom/ https://whatever.scalzi.com/2025/08/29/pictures-not-photos-w...
    - dmayle 1y ago
      Which is literally what Apple announced in this video: "and the 2x telephoto has an updated photonic engine, which now uses machine learning to capture the lifelike details of her hair and the vibrant color of her jacket" "like the 2x telephoto, the 8x also utilizes the updated photonic engine, which integrates machine learning into even more parts of the image pipeline. we apply deep learning models for demosaicing"

mrweasel 1y ago

The cheapest of the new phones is 7500DKK ~ 1175USD. That is just insane. I get that I can get an older models and that Apple is a "luxury" brand, but at $1000+ I don't get who buys new iPhones anymore. Apple seems stuck in a mentality of subsidized phones, which might still be how the US does it, but it makes their product unreasonably expensive in other parts of the world. I can accept that Apple can't do a $200 phone, but that this point I'd be happy with a $500 phone.

shuckles 1y ago
The entry price for iPhone 17 matches the entry price for Pixel 10 and other flagships in the United States. Does it not in Denmark?
- mrweasel 1y ago
  Checking a price comparison site I say that's about right. With Android I can just pick a different phone that does the few things I need and save thousands. Apple doesn't provide me with that option anymore.
  - ceejayoz 1y ago
    Did Apple ever provide that option?
  - shuckles 1y ago
    The entry price of the iPhone lineup is lower than ever. Their strategy is to reduce it by selling older phones at lower prices. The entry point of the newest iPhone is, inflation adjust, basically the same since iPhone was first introduced. As a result, I don't really understand your complaint.
    - mrweasel 1y ago
      I think my complaint boils down to the fact that my usage can't justify a $1000+ phone. Rather than stuffing ever more features and processing power into the iPhone, I'd like the progress to be spend on making the phones cheaper and have more battery life. For people like me the iPhone hasn't improved in 10 years, the last feature I sort of cared about was TouchID. So given that I'm stuck in a 2015 use case, seeing no progress, why shouldn't I expect prices to come down significantly?

derac 1y ago

Why does the air have usb 2? lmao

dmayle 1y ago
I am truly shocked by this. I looked it up, and it turns out you're right. Both the iPhone 17 and the iPhone Air use USB2. USB3 was introduced in 2008 (!!!). That is 17 years ago. I already wasn't interested in this tech, to be fair, but I've had to support family phones synchronizing/backing up over the cable, and even at full theoretical speed for the transfer, we're talking over an hour vs just under 7 minutes. Which, considering the flash most likely suppports the read in under a minute, is crazy.

crinkly 1y ago

No point in buying a Pro now. Will get a 17 to replace my 15 Pro, give that to my eldest kid and be done with it.

SilverElfin 1y ago
The Pro has a much larger sensor size for the camera than the previous generation Pro, and also now 8x optical zoom instead of 5x. Big upgrades on the camera front may be a reason for people to stick with the higher price.
- crinkly 1y ago
  Looks like it has the same primary/wide cameras as the base model. You just gain the telephoto. It's fine for casual photography. I have a mirrorless camera if I want to shoot telephoto. That has 375mm reach at the long end on proper glass with no ML crap.
  - SilverElfin 1y ago
    Yea but most people don’t want to carry a camera. It’s just too easy and convenient to pull out a phone. I respect it but I just found myself not using cameras in practice anymore.

atonse 1y ago

In past years, part of the new iPhone's hardware was usually coupled with a huge new software feature that was made possible by the new hardware (think of FaceTime for example that came with the front facing camera, or Dynamic Island that came from the full display). Was there anything like that this year? It felt like the iPhone 17 Pro talk lasted 2 mins, and they spend 99% of their time just talking about the cameras. Although I only started watching parts of the event 52 mins in. I understand that hardware has mainly reached a steady state, but have we also hit peaks of creativity from the software side, given that we have these amazing machines in our pockets? Of course, no mention of anything AI, so Apple is either truly restraining themselves until they have something amazing, or they continue to slide into irrelevance and are missing the whole AI shift.

vostrocity 1y ago
There was only one such feature that caught my eye. The new front camera sensor is now square. If you have more people in your selfie, the software will detect this and pick a wider aspect ratio for the cropped shot. Not sure if Android has already been doing this, but this seems like a clever way to use the new hardware. 38:27 in the Apple Event video (https://www.apple.com/apple-events/ https://www.apple.com/apple-events/).
- metadat 1y ago
  Samsung camera app has had this for years.

lenerdenator 1y ago

My first thought to this was, "Oh, that was today?" Is the iPhone 17 supposed to be the bottom-of-the-line now, or the 16e?

vostrocity 1y ago
Apple has been selling multiple generations for many years now. So 16e looks like the cheapest iPhone for this upcoming year.

yurys 1y ago

Have high expectations of their own modem in the new iPhone. Hopefully it makes a difference in terms of connection quality and improves battery life, especially with the cellular coverage in the US.

bix6 1y ago
My friends Google phone was getting service when I wasn’t. We both have the same carrier. What gives?

ortusdux 1y ago

Another rung in the Apple price ladder - https://medium.com/entrepreneur-s-handbook/if-you-cant-buy-it-twice-don-t-buy-it-7925c97ca5a3 https://medium.com/entrepreneur-s-handbook/if-you-cant-buy-i...

saagarjha 1y ago
Not really? They're similarly priced as the outgoing models.

pkoiralap 1y ago

I was thinking about what all is new in this version, or in fact in any other versions after iPhone 10/X (I don't know)? They all look same to me. I personally think that Apple and other smartphone companies need to do a minor and major version release like you do with software. Every 3-5 year, do a major release. This way you create significant hardware/software features every major version, a hype that is well backed up, and at the same time keeps you working and improving and still making money out of it through minor versions. Plus, you also don't have to rely on planned obsolescence as people are gravitated towards the major version release naturally.

hbn 1y ago
>I personally think that Apple and other smartphone companies need to do a minor and major version release like you do with software. Every 3-5 year, do a major release. That's basically what they've been doing. That's why people whine when they aren't blown away every year now. You don't have to buy a new phone every year, and indeed most people don't. The changes are incremental, but if you buy a new phone after 3+ years, the new one will probably noticeably better enough compared to your old to make a difference to you. The late 2000s - early 2010s were exciting cause there was a lot of room for improvement. It's not so easy now and that's fine, because if you buy a new iPhone, it'll last longer and be overall better than what you got a decade+ ago.

ChrisArchitect 1y ago

Related: iPhone 17 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=45186023 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=45186023 iPhone Air https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=45186015 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=45186015 iPhone 17 Pro and iPhone 17 Pro Max https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=45186044 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=45186044

deleted 1y ago

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dang 1y ago

Related ongoing threads: iPhone 17 Pro and iPhone 17 Pro Max - https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=45186044 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=45186044 - Sept 2025 (42 comments) Apple Debuts iPhone 17 - https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=45186023 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=45186023 - Sept 2025 (104 comments) iPhone Air - https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=45186015 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=45186015 - Sept 2025 (431 comments)

daft_pink 1y ago

Esim vs Physical Sim Card Analysis: By using Apple’s cellular specifications page (https://www.apple.com/iphone/cellular/ https://www.apple.com/iphone/cellular/) to identify model numbers and supported bands, and then checking SIM card options in the comparison tool (https://www.apple.com/iphone/compare/ https://www.apple.com/iphone/compare/) for each iPhone 17 model number within a single regional Apple store, you can see which versions still include physical SIM trays and which bands they support. Pulling this information into ChatGPT makes the conclusion clear: unlike the iPhone 16, where the Canadian model number was the best choice for users who needed a SIM tray and broad U.S. band support (covering everything except mmWave), the iPhone 17 lineup in Canada is now eSIM-only. That means Canada no longer offers a model number with both a SIM tray and full U.S. carrier compatibility. The only remaining options with physical SIM trays are the non-air European and Chinese model numbers. These versions do support Verizon fully (aside from mmWave which is mostly useless anyways), but they omit key bands needed for AT&T and T-Mobile in the U.S. Becoming harder and harder to travel as China is adding esim, but will only allow phones actually purchased in China on a non tourist plan and any Chinese esim will not work the moment you leave the country while a physical sim will.