World's best unitasker.
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.
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)
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.
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.
iOS doesn't magically need less RAM. It just aggressively kills background apps to stay within memory limits, then makes you wait while it reloads them from scratch (burning battery with CPU cycles and NVMe reads instead).
> RAM uses electricity and costs money so it makes perfect sense to pack less of it
No, it's bullshit. Apple kept RAM low to save money, not battery. They could easily pack 16gb with negligible effect on battery life.
All the Apple iDevices I have contains comical amounts of RAM compared to other devices, yet they still can handle tons of tasks despite their age. While I'm pretty picky about RAM in my computers, I can't care less as long as my other iDevices works as advertised.
RAM is also always consuming battery, so there are reasons to minimize it. I wonder what the RAM usage efficiency is between iOS and Android in real-world, installed-app-usage usecases.
It's rumored the Pro has 12GB RAM vs. 8GB for the other models.
The main incentive causing Apple to finally increase RAM is AI, with everything else being a good side effect.
The real question is next year if they release the rumoured folding iphone if they’ll still keep all 4 of these existing categories…
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.
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.
iPhone 17 Pro and iPhone 17 Pro Max - https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=45186044 - Sept 2025 (42 comments)
Apple Debuts iPhone 17 - https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=45186023 - Sept 2025 (104 comments)
iPhone Air - https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=45186015 - Sept 2025 (431 comments)
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.
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.
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/).
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?
iPhone 17
https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=45186023
iPhone Air
https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=45186015
iPhone 17 Pro and iPhone 17 Pro Max
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.
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
Is the iPhone 17 supposed to be the bottom-of-the-line now, or the 16e?
I'm inclined to see Apple's M series chips as pretty substantial.
I don't know that phones need massive innovation right now.
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.
For me, and a lot of people, we get a new phone every 2 years and hand the old one down to family. I've got 3 kids and 4 iPhones in service that get handed down every 2 years. Equivalent in the UK of about $80 a month to run 4 iphones including phone service contracts is pretty cheap.
It's a pretty good problem to have.
Almost all of them complain about the device getting hot, batteries being short lived (even when replaced) and apps being sluggish.
Figuratively, not literally. Otherwise I agree.
Wtf??
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.
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.
You'd really need to compare to average salary or purchasing power instead.
AT&T most year offers me a free!* iPhone pro every couple years now so it has actually gone way down.
Which is not a $500 phone, but a $600 phone. Take that as you will.
At least here in Poland, the base model is ~20% cheaper than the iPhone 11 at release, inflation-adjusted.
Just don't say the "tariff" word...
> 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-...
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-iph...
