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iPhone 17 Pro Launching Later This Year With These 8 New Features
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Pretty much. I think there's still some room for innovation in the smartphone market, but I think that people are silly to expect something big and exciting every year.
My 13 Pro Max has been a real trooper. Before that I bought a new iPhone every year. I was tempted by the 14, 15, & 16, but I wasn’t motivated to purchase these. I’m looking forward to buying the iPhone 17 Pro Max for 3 48 megapixel cameras, spatial video, & satellite texting for emergency use, etc. That will be a nice upgrade for me later this year. A small dynamic island sounds fun, I’d like to try that before it goes away… An aluminum body would be lighter, but it’s a softer metal than titanium, both are recyclable but I wonder if Apple will try to sell the aluminum as more recyclable. (Apple is recycling a hell of a lot more aluminum than titanium) 😉
Nonsense. The iPhone camera is capable of great captures, easily; nothing mediocre about it. Basic photography 101: just set to RAW and hold the iPhone still.
?? If you hate a button simply don't use it. I find it very useful.
You claim "I'm not saying the iPhone is bad at photography" but in your previous post you stated "picture quality is mediocre right now." iPhone Pro image quality is excellent.
IF those are true, I guess I won't be taking advantage of the Apple Upgrade program. Everything listed there is a negative, except the 12GB of RAM, and the front camera, which is Meh, since I don't really use it for much. 12GB seems like an odd value though, since it's not a multiple of 8, and memory sizes usually are due to alignment with word sizes on processors -- that's why my m4 iPad Pro has 16Gb, and I probably wouldn't upgrade if it's only 12.
While the iPhone 17 Pro and iPhone 17 Pro Max are not expected to launch until September, there are already plenty of rumors about the devices.
iPhone 17 Pro concept based on rumors
Below, we recap key changes rumored for the iPhone 17 Pro models as of January 2025:
Bookmark our iPhone 17 roundup to stay up to date with more rumors over the coming months.
- More aluminum: iPhone 17 Pro models are rumored to have an aluminum frame, whereas the iPhone 15 Pro and iPhone 16 Pro models have a titanium frame, and the iPhone X through iPhone 14 Pro have a stainless steel frame. The back of the devices will supposedly have a new "part-aluminum, part-glass" design. The frame could end up using a combination of both aluminimum and titanium.
- Rectangular camera bump: On a related note, the devices are expected to have a "larger rectangular camera bump" made of aluminum. There are conflicting rumors about the camera lenses sticking with a triangular arrangement or being repositioned horizontally or vertically.
- A19 Pro chip: iPhone 17 Pro models are expected to use Apple's next-generation A19 Pro chip, which will reportedly be manufactured with TSMC's newer third-generation 3nm process. Like usual, expect modest year-over-year performance gains and power efficiency improvements compared to the current iPhones.
- Apple-designed Wi-Fi 7 chip: At least one iPhone 17 model is rumored to get a Wi-Fi 7 chip designed by Apple rather than Broadcom. However, another report said the chip will support Wi-Fi 6E like iPhone 16 models.
- 24-megapixel front camera: All four iPhone 17 models are said to feature an upgraded 24-megapixel front-facing camera, whereas all iPhone 16 models are equipped with a 12-megapixel front-facing camera.
- 48-megapixel rear Telephoto camera: An upgraded 48-megapixel Telephoto camera is rumored for the iPhone 17 Pro models, up from the 12-megapixel Telephoto camera on iPhone 16 Pro models.
- 12GB of RAM: An increased 12GB of RAM was initially rumored exclusively for the iPhone 17 Pro Max, but later the iPhone 17 Pro as well. This upgrade should help to improve the performance of Apple Intelligence and multitasking. All four iPhone 16 models have 8GB of RAM.
- A smaller Dynamic Island for iPhone 17 Pro Max: A change rumored exclusively for the iPhone 17 Pro Max is a "much narrowed Dynamic Island," as a result of Apple adopting a "metalens" for the Face ID system.
Article Link: iPhone 17 Pro Launching Later This Year With These 8 New Features
Memory chips come in 3, 6, and 12 GB sizes too. Some of the MacBook Pros come with 18 GB RAM for example.
12 GB on an iPhone would be great. That’s actually 50% more than my M4 iPad Pro.*
*Actually, (at least some of) the 8 GB M4 iPad Pros are in fact 12 GB (2 x 6 GB), but with 4 GB disabled.
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Eagerly waiting to hear more about the 17 series especially the Pro Max. Want to know what new color will be available this year. Don't think Titanium will be removed. It should have aluminum camera island/bump and glass for the remaining section at the back.
Upgrade to the front selfie camera will be very nice. The 48 megapixel telephoto lens might allow for optical quality like 10x zoom this year.
Upgrade to the front selfie camera will be very nice. The 48 megapixel telephoto lens might allow for optical quality like 10x zoom this year.
I don’t know if you noticed, but you are practically inferring that a new color is a really substantial step forward….
Some 7000 series alloys of aluminum, minus titanium, like Apple has been using for some time in iPhones prior to the 15 and 16 Pro/Pro Max models, can rival the performance of some aluminum-titanium alloys, though of course not being quite as tough as a good aluminum-titanium alloy, but smartphones may not need aluminum-titanium alloys to be strong enough, as has been shown by their successful use in the non-Pro iPhone 15 and 16, and many prior models, both Pro and non-Pro. Apple used 6063 aluminum in the iPhone 6, leading to Bendgate (in addition to that iPhone's thinness), which is why they switched to a 7000 series aluminum with the iPhone 6s, something like a 7075, which is alloyed with zinc (primary alloying element), magnesium, and copper.
The article claims the iPhone 15 and 16 Pro and Pro Max models have a titanium frame, but in fact they're a titanium-aluminum alloy, according to sources I've read, specifically Grade 5 titanium (Ti-6Al-4V), which consists of 90% titanium, 6% aluminum, and 4% vanadium. Apple calls it just "titanium" for branding purposes. The aluminum in this alloy didn't weaken it, since some alloys of aluminum and titanium are tougher than either by themselves.
So we probably have nothing to worry about if Apple switches back to using something like 7075 aluminum for the iPhone 17 frame. Or even aluminium for that matter, though that's harder to find and might lead to some supply chain issues.
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Good luck then. In my experience I never encountered something in eternal beta like a Pixel.
I think the best idea is to wait and see, because “more Al” could mean less weight. Or maybe the “more Al” means less glass (back plate) which could improve durability even more.
I think the bigger issue with camera control is people not accustomed to it. It is not a bad idea overall, but people is used to make photos in a different way on iPhone, so it will take time.
I wouldn’t go that far calling it excellent, but several pro photographers tested it and found it good for a smartphone.
I don’t want to offend anyone, but the biggest problem in taking photos is… the photographer. A lot of people expect excellent results without really knowing the basis.
We are speaking about low light photography… they don’t know the are lenses for low light photography that costs as an iPhone… without the camera !
Well, having an alloy which is made of 90% Ti and calling it “Titanium” is not a big lie, I would say 😅
I said a lens is bad and another one is OK but the other two are great. It doesn't make the entire iPhone bad at photography.
Quoting from GSMArena review (and they mostly are Android fanboys):
Moving on to the actual zoom camera, we're getting some great 5x shots. Detail is excellent and global parameters are predictably well matched to the main camera's output.
The telephoto camera is great for portraits too, the 120mm focal length letting you get some tighter framing or shoot from afar.
Nothing MEDIOCRE according to their review
You see ? It could be improved, especially in low lights, but it is far from being mediocre.
You do realize there's several types of aluminum? If not, research it up. It only makes the phone better for many reasons and costs less. Not to mention, 95 percent of iPhone ...no change that of all cell phone users purchase a case. So who cares?
That’s so typical of this forum: people complain about Apple choices, even when the choice is not yet made. The question is: why this isn’t happening on Samsung’s forums? Ah yes… a Samsung forum doesn’t exist 😅
Yes, I do realize this. It is still a lame 'new feature'. I'm part of the 5% that never puts a case on their phones, so I would care.
They’ll have to market / justify it somehow because I’m not thrilled about paying a premium for a phone without premium materials. Be nice if they finally gave us Liquid Metal….
They're going for aluminum again just to do something different, to make the next iPhone stand out from the others. This has been happening in various product segments (like switching from leather to FineWoven, which is a massive downgrade), and as for the iPhone, we always have some visual changes so that you can recognize a new iPhone out in the wild. Different camera layout, additional camera, glass back, stainless steel, rectangular sides, bigger camera bump, Dynamic Island, titanium... Now I guess they ran out of all of these variations so they're going back to aluminum.
Changing things just to change them. The upside is that when I get around to upgrading my iPhone somewhere in 2029-2030, I'll be upgrading to a stainless steel model again.
Changing things just to change them. The upside is that when I get around to upgrading my iPhone somewhere in 2029-2030, I'll be upgrading to a stainless steel model again.
Yeah, not easy since it's in the worst place. So when you go to pick up your phone you activated by accident. If you're recording, you hit the button by accident, it stops recording.