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Gurman: iPhone 18 Pro Could Be Underwhelming

What's left to do in terms of hardware? We have great performance, nice design (a personal love the fell of my 17+ max), a overall good camera system (considering the physical limitations), an overall great screen (more nits don't make any substantial difference), good speakers (ok, its not a hifi system). What else is needed?
 
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DBZmusicboy01 said:
it can’t be nowhere near as bad as the jump from the X to XS?
To be honest I think the 20th anniversary edition iPhone XX will be more underwhelming if you ignore the bezel free rumors. Take that away and what would be better over the 18 Pros that will mostly have variable aperture?
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This will be exactly like the X to XS generation: same phone with a worse modem inside.
 
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mikethebigo said:
I wonder if they’ll do any external design tweaks, like maybe rounding the edges more on the camera plateau to prevent scuffing. Otherwise, totally expected for it to be an “S” year after a big design change with the 17 Pro.

Would love to have a black model this year.
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Big design? Crating a plateau arund the cameras with essentially nothing else new is a big design year? I have a 15 pro max and the 17 Pro is just a minor incremental change over it. slightly faster, which you wouldn't notice in real life, slightly better battery life, which doesn't make a real difference for most people and slightly better camera, which again is just a minor advance over previous ones. And it seems the iphone 18 will be more of the same.
 
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maszaikasza said:
Not my words, but forcing annual updates makes engineers spend time on stuff that doesn’t really matter, and that time could be used for more significant changes.
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Engineers work on features that could enter iphones in 5-10 years from now. When these features are introduced in the new phones is decided based on availability, profitability, scalability, etc. They do not work on the iphone 18 until it is pretty clear what is going to be inside iphone 18 and have to tune the final version. And they have different teams.
 
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xxray said:
I never understand why people say this. How does technology getting upgraded more often affect you negatively? If you don’t need/want a phone, don’t buy it.

When you do unexpectedly need a phone, I’m sure you’ll be glad it’s 3 month old tech instead of 15 months old.
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wisest tech words on the internets today.
 
Mac Fly (film) said:
add a third consumer and Pro iPhone size (5.7 inches)
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Not sure about the rest of your suggestions (among others, they might as well just rebrand Watch Ultra to Watch Pro), but if they actually offered a 5.7/5.8" version of the phones that would make it not underwhelming for me (and I'd probably buy a Pro).
 
This has been standard since the very beginning. Right since iPhone then iPhone 3G then 3GS, 4, 4S, 5, 5S, etc etc etc.

The year after a physical redesign is always a spec bump update.
 
ThomasJL said:
iPhones have been underwhelming for years, thanks to Tim Cook. The iPhone 18 Pro will likely have practically the same design as the iPhone 11 Pro, which has already been used for seven generations now. So a more honest name for the iPhone 18 Pro would be iPhone 11sssssss Pro.
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You people still don't get that we're not in the first years of smartphones anymore, when every year some cool new tech was out and we still didn't know how it would evolve.
Phones won't change in any substantial way for a while. And there's no reason why Apple should change something that works and sells very well.
It's been the same with cars. The most successful companies have always been the ones who found buyers who want a pretty boring and consistent experience. Maybe we remember better the crazy, cool models. But they are very often surrounded by disastrous stories of failure, bankruptcy, delays and buy-outs. Making something very different is always a risk that big companies leave to the small fish.

Also... same design as 11? You took the last model with very rounded borders as an example? It's already a stretch to say that the 17 has the same design as the 16 with that huge bump. What do you want to change more than that? Arms and legs?
 
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As opposed to the overwhelming difference between the titanium iPhone 15 Pro and 16 Pro? Jesus man…

Next cycle is all about the fold. The 18 Pro line won’t offer anything that might steal any of the fold’s thunder - because Apple doesn’t need it to. Any Pro upgraders will remain Pro upgraders. The fold will not be positioned as a Pro replacement.
 
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schneeland said:
Not sure about the rest of your suggestions (among others, they might as well just rebrand Watch Ultra to Watch Pro), but if they actually offered a 5.7/5.8" version of the phones that would make it not underwhelming for me (and I'd probably buy a Pro).
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I would be interested in a Pro Mini, especially if they incorporate a desktop mode when connected to a large display, or ability to extend (not just mirror) to an iPad or other Airplay device. Sadly the iPhone is quite crippled in this regard. Android has desktop mode natively now after the lead of Samsung Dex. I guess one of the benefits of Foldables on the Android side, is it made more universal applications that can scale up or down depending on screen size.

Via cable my Pixel 8 pro does desktop mode amazingly with a far inferior processor than even iPhones 3 years ago. I can take video / photos with a real camera, offload them to the phone, but the Pixel will let me switch to a desktop mode where I can continue my work on a larger screen and multi-task other windowed applications at the same time.

It is sad that Apple makes you get an iPad Pro to extend displays, where every iPhone and iPad possess plenty of CPU / GPU power to do so. Especially since an older Pixel 8 Pro with far inferior processor can do this now!
 
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What Gurman said was not unexpected. We all already have known that the yearly update is an incremental update for yearly upgrade customers. So, the iPhone 18 pro lines will not be a super star for the 50th Apple anniversary. The super star title will belong to the iFold as it is the only iPhone with innovation, evolution and user experience transformation. iFold will be the mark of the Apple 50th golden anniversary milestone. Potential customers should not need be worried about first generation because of the high quality the product will be as Apple always does best for their products and the best support they will get as Apple has the best customer service support for their customers. These are the key success of Apple. Apple folding phone will be the super star product this year, the iPhone icon of the 50th golden anniversary and will have the great success!
 
I'm on a 15 Pro and could easily see myself waiting for the 19 at this point. In the past I've never gone more than 2 years between phones.
 
schneeland said:
Not sure about the rest of your suggestions (among others, they might as well just rebrand Watch Ultra to Watch Pro), but if they actually offered a 5.7/5.8" version of the phones that would make it not underwhelming for me (and I'd probably buy a Pro).
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I'd say a 5.7 inch Pro could be reasonably popular. I also think it important to offer the non-Pro in this smaller size to make the decision of iPhone display size not be financially penalising, but a legit customer choice. The Ultra name I feel suits better than Pro for iPhone for some reason. Make em fat and call em Ultra. On laptops Pro feels more appropriate for professionals. Phones even Pro ones feel more consumer orientated than big powerful laptops with advanced features you'd only see used by genuine professionals.

For that reason I disagree with your thinking for Watch Ultra to Watch Pro rebrand—it's a watch. I happen to think Apple should also streamline Watch two models (currently at least five): Apple Watch, Apple Watch Ultra—getting rid of the SE model entirely and moving sports and luxe models to an Apple Watch Band Made-For-Watch program, where third party bands made in partnership with Apple would contain custom NFC chips Apple Watch software talks to to unlock the associated watch face when both bands are physically attached and the user accepts the on-screen notification for the new face, so they understand.

This would be especially nice for staff to demonstrate in-store. Customers would like this a lot. "Wow, that's very cool." Sell your strap to someone else and after a period of time, say 72 hours, or perhaps 7 days, your swanky watch face dissolves. You read and accept a notification to that effect when the time has elapsed. Ephemeral—as if your luxe watch faces follows your luxe watch band.

This gives all major sports and fashion brands the ability to build bands to work with Apple Watch to turn any newer Apple Watch or Apple Watch Ultra into their own. Streamlining watch models concurrent with iPhone. Yet still enabling the customer to have a verity of branded experience with a single Apple Watch.
 
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maszaikasza said:
Not my words, but forcing annual updates makes engineers spend time on stuff that doesn’t really matter, and that time could be used for more significant changes.
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I’d guess it’s just pre planned iterations of the 17 pro.

Where Apple can’t walk and chew gum at the same time is adding loads of software feature at one time.
 
“I have insider information!”
“What do you say about the iPhone 18?”
“It COULD be underwhelming.”
“That’s… that’s what insider information gets you?”
“Yup, and, by Apple not REFUTING me saying it COULD be underwhelming, that pretty much means they think I’m right!”
…
“Yeah, sure, guy.”
 
So iPhone 18 could be 'underwhelming'? In comparison to all the recent OVERwhelming iPhone offerings from Apple in recent years??? That's like taking my wife to McDonald's every year for our romantic Valentine's dinner and then saying, "Sorry, dear, next year's meal may be a bit underwhelming because we're going to go to Burger King."

mathews_cry_laughing.gif
 
I understand you have a commercial partnership with Gurman but come on, these nothing burgers from him give me a laugh 😂
 
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