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iPhone 18 Might Look a Lot More Like an 'e' Model, Leaker Claims

SpotOnT said:
Welp, this is lame.

This hear I recommended the iPhone 17 to all my friends/family. I guess for the next few years the advice will be “wait another 3-5 years before you upgrade”.

Mist people don’t need a $1200 phone, nor do they want to lug around all the extra weight of a “Pro” phone.
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This all the way. At this point phones are so good you really only need a new one every 4ish years. People buy a 17 now and they will be fine until Apple releases a good non pro model in a few years.

I totally agree, almost nobody needs the Pro models. I believe the "e" and non pro models is more than enough for probably 95%-ish of iphone users. Seriously. Almost everybody that buys a Pro is doing it because they think they are getting status or bragging rights from it.

Lastly I totally agree with the weight issues with the Pro models, I think they are terrible. I'll never buy another phone as heavy as they are ever again if I have the option.
 
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I went for the iPhone 17 Pro Max that has the same pixel density for all three lenses and the 2TB memory option for photo storage. No regrets as it is the "camera I always have with me" as Steve said.

My Leica M-11 camera body with a choice of eight Leica prime lenses is not a daily carry. Also have the Leica M EV1 camera body and Leica Q3 43 fixed 43mm lens camera for specific uses.

I have zero interest in the theoretical "fold" model. It is vapor ware until one is actually sitting on the display table at an Apple Store. I sure would not want the first generation. Apple is clueless about what customers will actually do the the new model. The public has ways of destroying devices that Apple never dreamed about.....
 
rensuchan said:
The likelihood is they will try to funnel users like myself and others that value things like 120Hz ProMotion into the Air line which will probably retain these features while it gets stripped from the base model again (assuming they keep producing the Air after 2027).

I have a feeling I'll be using this 17 for a long time and see where things are in 2029-2030.
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This is the craziest part of all this to me. Never in the history of the iPhone has a series had a major downgrade in a major feature. To give the standard iPhone 120Hz and then take it away the next year would be unprecedented and terrible.

But sadly, plausible at this point. They likely will do it and play the Name Game to hide it.
 
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CarAnalogy said:
This is the craziest part of all this to me. Never in the history of the iPhone has a series had a major downgrade in a major feature. To give the standard iPhone 120Hz and then take it away the next year would be unprecedented and terrible.

But sadly, plausible at this point. They likely will do it and play the Name Game to hide it.
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Let's hope that it's just speculation and they don't pull this move, but with the AInflation of storage / RAM I could see it happening as an excuse to keep the base price the same.
 
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rensuchan said:
Let's hope that it's just speculation and they don't pull this move, but with the AInflation of storage / RAM I could see it happening as an excuse to keep the base price the same.
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I really hope that’s what they mean, that they will have the same compute but the standard model will retain a better display. Even if they don’t change anything about it from the current model.

But then I don’t really see much point in releasing a new one at all. There’s already so little difference.
 
Phineasgage1848 said:
This is such a bogus article / report. They never mention what is actually being "downgraded"
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Sorry... did you miss the part about this being a rumor site, with sources who provide sometimes unverifiable leaked information from various sources purportedly close to Apple's manufacturing process, as much as months or years in advance of any actual product releases?

If you want a finalized, verified report, you're just going to have to wait several months for Apple to announce the details themselves. (Ahem) Mostly reliable rumors (and past historical data) suggest that'll be in mid-September or so.
 
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Sjasam said:
The iPhone 18 and iPhone 18 Pro will launch in September 2026, right. In the article it says 2027....??
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It has been widely rumored for some time now that the iPhone 18 Pro, Pro Max and whatever they call the foldable will release in fall 2026 and the base iPhone 18 will launch later in spring 2027 alongside the iPhone 18e.
 
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This rumor has popped up a couple times now, but I still find it hard to believe that there would be feature downgrades in the iPhone 18 compared to the iPhone 17 (except maybe a simplified camera control button). What I can see them doing is having a larger performance difference between the Pro line and the standard/value line by producing the A20 Pro chip using the (new and expensive) 2 nm process while producing a standard A20 chip using a 3 nm process again (maybe N3C or N3P again) and producing a chip that only has a very modest performance advantage compared to the A19. They could also reduce costs on some other components like choosing slightly slower RAM and sticking with a cheaper/older modem. Perhaps the 18 and 18e could also share the main camera sensor too as most people aren't really aware the the 17e has an inferior main camera to the 17, just that it doesn't have an ultra wide camera. I can't see them reverting the regular iPhone 18 back to a 60 Hz screen though.

Regardless I'm feeling good about upgrading to an iPhone 17 last fall... I feel like I'll just hang onto this one for a while.
 
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Glad I got the 17.

A little thing for us non-Americans…Could Macrumors use months instead of Seasons, as those of us from the southern hemisphere are in the proper timeline & don’t line up with yours.
😏
 
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RAM apocalypse strikes again. Apple is cutting features to minimize price creep due to the ever increasing price of RAM.

And isn't it reported that the base 17 is the best seller in the 17 lineup? Y'all are crazy if you think Apple will axe the base iPhone, or even try to mess with it too much with that knowledge. Apple will de-content with stuff like cheaper glass in the back, binned processors with 8GB of RAM, maybe re-introduce DDR4 RAM, definitely an Apple modem, axe high storage models, etc. Stuff that isn't super obvious to the end user experience but stands to save Apple some money so that they don't have to jack up prices of the models much, if at all.
 
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CarAnalogy said:
This is the craziest part of all this to me. Never in the history of the iPhone has a series had a major downgrade in a major feature. To give the standard iPhone 120Hz and then take it away the next year would be unprecedented and terrible.

But sadly, plausible at this point. They likely will do it and play the Name Game to hide it.
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Why is it plausible? Apple has never had a better value lineup than now, exceeding the value proposition in just about every product. What behavior can you point to as an indication that what this nothingburger article claims would be plausible?
 
CarAnalogy said:
I really hope that’s what they mean, that they will have the same compute but the standard model will retain a better display. Even if they don’t change anything about it from the current model.

But then I don’t really see much point in releasing a new one at all. There’s already so little difference.
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iPhone 14 was basically an iPhone 13.
 
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It would be odd to walk back on some of the key upgrades on the 17 like 120hz and 256gb base storage.

For cost savings, they could just have the 18 and 18e share internal components like motherboard, battery, speakers etc.

With the 18e having a slightly smaller screen (due to larger bezels), 60hz, notch instead of Dynamic Island, single rear camera, no action button, and a more binned SOC.

They can drop mmWave 5G from the 18 and hardly anyone will miss it. They could even drop the camera control button on the 18 and I don’t think most people would care…that would let the 18/18e share the frame/chassis as well.
 
Apple will be hoping to sell more of the Pro/Air/foldable iPhones. Think the base 18 will still be a very good iPhone.
 
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