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iPhone 17 Pro Max Seriously, Apple, you put a MacBook chip in this thing… what, to open Notes faster?

M

MoustaffQC

macrumors newbie
Original poster
Oct 24, 2024
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So why put a MacBook chip in an iPhone if iOS is still so limited? Just for the longevity of the phone?

Because right now, we have a rocket… but it’s stuck on the ground.

What would you have wanted to do with all this power?

Apple could open the door to real “pro” apps — Final Cut, Logic, Xcode… — but for now, nothing is happening.

Maybe they could focus now on pro-only apps to unlock more features and actually make the most of the smartphone’s power.

Extra camera features are nice, sure, but we’re still just circling around the same stuff
 
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I’m not asking for desktop software. I understand your point, but iOS still doesn’t have any apps that can fully utilize all this power. For now, it’s just wasted performance, in my opinion.

Year after year, I don’t really see any difference in iOS fluidity compared to the 14 Pro Max…
 
MoustaffQC said:
I’m not asking for desktop software. I understand your point, but iOS still doesn’t have any apps that can fully utilize all this power. For now, it’s just wasted performance, in my opinion.

Year after year, I don’t really see any difference in iOS fluidity compared to the 14 Pro Max…
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That's because it's not a speed/power of the SOC issue, but a software optimization issue. It's been this way off and on since iOS 7, TBH.
 
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Any of the local AI meeting assistants like Slipbox. Transcription latency is far improved with A19.
 
The A19 Pro is thermally designed to work efficiently with the iPhone, but it’s good enough to power an entry level macbook or midrange/pro iPad. Thats just how Apple silicon can scale upwards/downwards and why it’s so good.
 
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Bigwaff said:
Why would you buy the Pro Max if you think it’s over powered for your needs? If you’re asking the question, you’re obviously not the target pro-sumer.
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I use the Pro Max’s camera regularly.

It’s a question about the phone’s power.
 
FeliApple said:
I told you people. Faster chipset means that ridiculous people will ridiculously want desktop apps on a phone.

Here we go...

They have severely affected iPads as tablets. Now they’re coming for the iPhone. Because Apple, stupidly, listens to this ridiculous minority.
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There’s no such thing as too fast/powerful phones and tablets; an on-the-go powerful pocket computer—what all smartphones, tablets, and eventually glasse ultimately are—will always be invaluable the more capable they are for productive computer users.

For example such horsepower is immediately applicable and invaluable for a foldable iPhone which essentially is a much more useful iPad mini immediately.

Even for pure entertainment such horsepower is useful. Overkill for you? Buy a lesser phone.

Apple is not obligated to solely serve the median or the computer needs of the “average” person—especially when most of society have tech illiteracy problems despite the demand for much more sophisticated computer users is at an all-time high even with AI across several high-paying industries in their primary counties of operation (i.e. US).

That’s low ambition and being overly narrowminded specific to your needs about a global tech business with a meaningful amount of the most talented computer users bottlenecked by what portables can do vs desktops.
 
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Yes, extra power is always welcome in theory, but it only matters if the software, ecosystem, and actual use cases keep up. Apple tends to focus on control, stability, and refinement — but not necessarily on cutting-edge innovation.

They deliver incredible hardware, yet the iOS experience remains highly controlled and limited compared to what that hardware could truly do. And right now, their lag in generative AI is quite obvious. While Google, Microsoft, and even Samsung are already integrating genuinely useful AI tools, Apple still seems to be in observation mode.

So yeah — saying an iPhone is “too powerful” might be wrong from a hardware standpoint, but if that power doesn’t translate into real value for the user, it’s just performance marketing.
 
None of the companies you mentioned have on device AI in any meaningful way. They are all cloud based for most part. If anything it’s other way for Apple, these iPhone chips were put in a computer.
 
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FeliApple said:
I told you people. Faster chipset means that ridiculous people will ridiculously want desktop apps on a phone.
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So what is wrong with having a portable computer that is a phone when not docked but a full computer when docked?

How does an A19 compare to the G5 Quad core from 2005? I have a 2002 Quicksilver dual processor and it's still fast enough for most routine things other than video editing. It used to be fast enough for web browsing to, but bloat has expanded out of control there and the internet is really no better for it.

Remember the Powerbook Duo and matching dock? Same idea, very portable laptop that connected to a docking station to become a full size desktop. It's a very old notion.
 
MoustaffQC said:
So why put a MacBook chip in an iPhone if iOS is still so limited? Just for the longevity of the phone?

Because right now, we have a rocket… but it’s stuck on the ground.

What would you have wanted to do with all this power?

Apple could open the door to real “pro” apps — Final Cut, Logic, Xcode… — but for now, nothing is happening.

Maybe they could focus now on pro-only apps to unlock more features and actually make the most of the smartphone’s power.

Extra camera features are nice, sure, but we’re still just circling around the same stuff
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It would be great for the MacBook Pro to have an OLED ture ,touchscreen HDR display (3,840 x 2,160),similar to the iPad Pro’s successful design. We also need a true 4K UHD OLED (LG) display with a 240Hz refresh rate, screen brightness (brightness 1000 nits),100% sRGB color accuracy, HDMI 2.2 or 2.3 , alteast 2 usb port 5 or 6 port ,2 Thurnderbolt 4 or 5 port or 2 USB C port and Wi-Fi 7 support with a 4k camera. Additionally, Microsoft should release a refreshed version of Microsoft Office for Mac in 2026, including Publisher.
 
In the world of HIFI, there is a saying that goes, "there is no such thing as too much (amplifier) power."

In this particular scenario, more power affords smoother interfacing, silky response, snappy motion.
 
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When there’s nothing else left to complain about, people start complaining that the iPhone chip is too powerful. But hey, no worries, it’s not. iOS 26, with its liquid crap and dumb animations, will definitely suck all that power right out.
 
If Apple didn't put a fast chip in their phone, people would complain that they aren't keeping up with Samsung. So they make absolutely sure there's no question as to who has the fast processor and people complain that the chip is too fast.

People now understand why Jobs never gave a damn about user feedback, right? If I have one complaint about Apple under Cook, it's that they listen to user feedback...
 
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MoustaffQC said:
So why put a MacBook chip in an iPhone if iOS is still so limited? Just for the longevity of the phone?
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It's a phone. Did you want it to be less powerful? These chips also get much more efficient. The more powerful they get, the less hard they have to work to do regular stuff = less heat.

The real answer is these chips are part of the whole Apple Silicon stack. The power is baked in on the phone level and the most powerful Mac level. The architecture has to be such that it makes sense in a phone as well as a Mac.
 
Do you expect such complex, desktop-oriented apps with tiny UI elements on something as compact as an iPhone?

How exactly are you gonna navigate the GUI?
 
MacBook chip? I think maybe you are forgetting how close they are to an actual MacBook. It would easily surpasses a M3 8GB MacBook Pro. And if you haven’t noticed, they are dead set on making things more graphically complex.

They are too greedy to make it feature equal with an external display connected.
 
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