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iPhone 16 Pro How much does ProMotion cost?

Rogifan

Rogifan

macrumors Penryn
Original poster
Nov 14, 2011
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On the recent Connected podcast Federico Viticci was discussing how he wasn’t sure if he needed the Pro iPhone anymore, that the non-Pro might be good enough. So he did a test where he turned off ProMotion on his current Pro to see if he could live without it and he quickly discovered he couldn’t. So his next phone will be a Pro again. This made me wonder, is ProMotion only on the Pro phones just arbitrary product segmentation from Apple or would it actually end up increasing the price of the non-Pro phones? I wonder how many buy the Pro phones mostly because they have ProMotion? Are there other features Pro phones could get that would be more legitimate ‘pro’ features worthy of product segmentation? How would you differentiate Pro and non-Pro phones outside of the camera?
 
I imagine the cost of "ProMotion" is relatively low and it's just another feature they use to distinguish between Pro and non-Pro models along with Always-On display, the better Pro chip, better camera setup, LiDAR scanner, USB 3 support, larger size, larger top end storage option, etc.

Are these "Pro" features worth $170 over the price of a non-Pro? Many seem to think they are. Different color choices may sway people as well.
 
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webkit said:
I imagine the cost of "ProMotion" is relatively low and it's just another feature they use to distinguish between Pro and non-Pro models along with Always-On display, the better Pro chip, better camera setup, LiDAR scanner, USB 3 support, larger size, larger top end storage option, etc.

Are these "Pro" features worth $170 over the price of a non-Pro? Many seem to think they are. Different color choices may sway people as well.
Click to expand...
I feel like Apple thinks ProMotion is the biggest upsell card they have. I don’t think of it as a ‘pro’ feature like a lot of the camera stuff in the new Pro iPhones. Federico Viticci said if the non-pro 16 had ProMotion that’s what he would be buying. Apple must have data that shows it’s enough of a draw to get people to spend more $$ for it. I also wonder if leaving the non-pro at 60hz is more arbitrary product segmentation to push the upsell. The Pixel 9 and 9 Pro both have 120Hz refresh rates. As does the Galaxy S24 and S24 Ultra. If Apple brought 120hz to the non-pro iPhone (and the iPad Air) would they have to bring ProMotion with it?
 
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Well the non pro iPhone 17 will be getting full Promotion according to articles posted on MR. In line with this that would mean the next iPad Air will also be getting it, so it will be interesting to see what Apple do to differentiate their Pro lines. Maybe the iPhone Pro models will move to a new design or something, and with the iPads the Air will be a normal LCD screen with the Pro models having Tandem OLED.
 
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snipr125 said:
Well the non pro iPhone 17 will be getting full Promotion according to articles posted on MR. In line with this that would mean the next iPad Air will also be getting it, so it will be interesting to see what Apple do to differentiate their Pro lines. Maybe the iPhone Pro models will move to a new design or something, and with the iPads the Air will be a normal LCD screen with the Pro models having Tandem OLED.
Click to expand...
Maybe they'll go back to only giving the newest soc to the Pro's and give the regular phones the previous version soc
 
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Rogifan said:
I feel like Apple thinks ProMotion is the biggest upsell card they have. I don’t think of it as a ‘pro’ feature like a lot of the camera stuff in the new Pro iPhones. Federico Viticci said if the non-pro 16 had ProMotion that’s what he would be buying. Apple must have data that shows it’s enough of a draw to get people to spend more $$ for it. I also wonder if leaving the non-pro at 60hz is more arbitrary product segmentation to push the upsell. The Pixel 9 and 9 Pro both have 120Hz refresh rates. As does the Galaxy S24 and S24 Ultra.
Click to expand...

I think the various Pro level cameras/features are the bigger "upsell card" than ProMotion for typical buyers.


Rogifan said:
If Apple brought 120hz to the non-pro iPhone (and the iPad Air) would they have to bring ProMotion with it?
Click to expand...

ProMotion seems to be little more than 120Hz refresh rate with adaptive refresh rate capabilities. My guess is that when Apple does make 120Hz available on non-Pro phones, it may just become an unbranded feature. Apple could also introduce 144Hz or higher refresh rates on Pro models and make that the new "ProMotion."
 
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webkit said:
I think the various Pro level cameras/features are the bigger "upsell card" than ProMotion for typical buyers.
Click to expand...
Maybe but I mentioned two flagship phones from Google and Samsung that have 120hz refresh rates on the cheaper model. What reason would Apple have for keeping iPhone 16 at 60hz other than it’s a way to upsell or keep people buying the Pro model?
 
Rogifan said:
Maybe but I mentioned two flagship phones from Google and Samsung that have 120hz refresh rates on the cheaper model. What reason would Apple have for keeping iPhone 16 at 60hz other than it’s a way to upsell or keep people buying the Pro model?
Click to expand...

I wasn't disagreeing about it being a potential "upsell" item. I was disagreeing with your comment that it was the "BIGGEST upsell card they have."
 
webkit said:
I imagine the cost of "ProMotion" is relatively low and it's just another feature they use to distinguish between Pro and non-Pro models along with Always-On display, the better Pro chip, better camera setup, LiDAR scanner, USB 3 support, larger size, larger top end storage option, etc.

Are these "Pro" features worth $170 over the price of a non-Pro? Many seem to think they are. Different color choices may sway people as well.
Click to expand...
This is the most annoying thing to me. The new colors on the regular phones are gorgeous. We just can't have them on the Pro phones which are so boring. I know people who buy the phone for the color alone (like my wife or coworkers). She didn't want a Pro phone because it wasn't "pretty" (yes, I'm serious and she isn't vain or dumb, just a normal woman). Apple is really limiting themselves with their color choices.
 
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Promotion costs as much as pro and pro max models. Every company has a marketing strategy and feature matrix. If you don’t care about pro motion, others may care about better cameras and other features in pro or PM. Personally I like pro motion, I can’t go back to one with out. But there are far more reasons on why I use PM.
 
Even bumping non-pro models to 90Hz would be enough to push me over. I'm considering moving from 15 Pro to 16 Plus due to poor battery life and overheating issues.

Edit: I did snag a 16 Plus and I'm perfectly fine with 60Hz.
 
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I notice promotion the most when scrolling on websites. Smooth as silk at 120hz. At 60hz, a janky experience trying to read the text as it scrolls.
As such, Apple have me over a barrel. That alone would push me to the pros I think. I doubt it costs them much , and expect they have larger margins on the pros.
The other big sell of the pros is that telephoto lens, although at least the regular 16 has an inner 12MP crop of the main 48MP camera as a kind of pseudo zoom. Let’s face it.. the 16 Pro doesn’t have a 48MP camera for that telephoto lens (it’s still 12 MP) so I’m not entirely sure they will be that different! Marketing probably makes us believe it to be sooo much better.
 
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I would assume an extremely minimal amount. It is a feature that they gimp the normal phones to lack so people buy the pro. If the regular phone had pro motion, the Pro would be an insanely hard sell.
 
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About $5 according to teardown analyses. This was back in 2021 when teardowns compared 12 Pro Max to 13 Pro Max, which added ProMotion.
 
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