Sent from my iPhone 13 mini, which is also Too Damn Big.
I’m got above average size human hands, which are too small even for the mini.
We've got about three years left before these things are unsupported. Three years of hope for them to release _something_ a little smaller than "uncomfortably large."
However if Apple released a new iPhone mini model every fourth year, I'd wager these would be like a McRib-style smash hit sales event, compressing the comparatively small mini-enthusiast audience into a time-limited buying window. It would also trigger FOMO at a time when many people are increasingly willing to delay upgrades for 5+ years.
The physical aspect I can’t give up is I can hold the phone with my thumb on the bottom and my middle finger on the top and scroll with my index finger to read. Wish I could buy that capability on a new iPhone, maybe one even slightly smaller.
Time to go find out if there’s even a way to downgrade, oof this is slow.
As someone with small hands, I kind of regret my iPhone 13 mini. I really want something smaller, but if I have to have a phone I can't hold well in one hand, I might as well have a bigger screen.
The Max version may have room for a bigger battery, but it needs to drive a bigger screen so it’s a double-edged sword. I’m not sure if you end up ahead or not.
If battery life is an issue you can turn off some the more gimmicky «pro» features like the always on screen.
I have a «regular» 15 pro and I think battery life is good. I haven’t had a single day where overrun out of battery so far.
The difference in people's opinions about this are interesting. I've got larger than average hands (e.g. XL rubber gloves are a tight fit) and don't understand how normal people can handle large phones. I just moved from a 6.7" to a 6.2" phone and can't overstate how much more comfortable it is to handle the smaller phone.
It is unfortunate that phone manufacturers make the same phones as each other and that there is practically no variability on the market.
>I’m at a point in my life where spending $1100 on a new iPhone every few years isn’t going to break the bank
I hate this statement. I don't care if I can afford an expensive device if it doesn't provide the value over the lifetime of the product. Why do phones that only last 2-3 years cost as much as my laptop that can last longer than that and do so much more?
Hate is a strong word. Why should my opinions on iPhone upgrades provoke feelings of hatred in you?
I also disagree with the premise. My current phone is 4 years old, and as I mentioned I plan to give it to someone who will use it for another 3+ years. Or I could have traded it in or resold it to a someone else who can use it. So I wouldn't say modern phones last 2-3 years, more like 7+ years.
I also disagree that laptops can do more than smartphones. Smartphones have different hardware like GPS, cellular radios, and more advanced cameras. They are also more portable (and miniaturization is expensive). And recently smartphone hardware is just as powerful as can be found in many laptops. Apple is even being rumored to be making a low-cost laptop powered by the same A-series chips that they use in iPhones. A smartphone is no better or worse than a laptop, just a different form factor that excels in different use cases.
> it doesn't provide the value over the lifetime of the product
It does provide value to me. As a photography hobbyist, I'm primarily interested in the camera updates (side note: if you compare iPhone prices to standalone camera prices like the Fujifilm X Half at $849, I think the iPhone 17 Pro is actually a pretty good value when judged solely on its merits as a tool for capturing photos and video). But there are a bunch of other nice-to-have updates (wifi 7, bigger battery, brighter screen, etc). If there were no value to me in upgrading, then I wouldn't upgrade. I'm not saying that people should upgrade every few years even if there is no compelling reason, but rather that the financial burden of upgrading every few years is minimal for lots of people.
I'd also point out that the iPhone Pro line is a premium device, and very few people need one. Apple sells other iPhone models starting at $599 (iPhone 16e) and going up from there. Or you can buy a refurb iPhone 14 on Amazon for $330, and probably still get a few years out of it at least. Or you can go with Samsung or Motorola and get a totally functional smartphone for under $200 (though these budget phones will probably turn into e-waste a lot sooner than a new iPhone). If you don't see any value in shelling out $1100 for the latest and greatest iPhone, there there's no need to. There's probably some other smartphone out there with a price and feature set that makes sense for you.
Value is very subjective depending on personal preferences and needs, and budget. I don't see the point in hating that fact.
The “Air” one is probably a test if they could stop those camera scams and simplify the phone maybe focusing on some other things. It barely even matters, one lens is enough, if you need more you’ll want a proper camera anyway.
This year I’d say the phone itself looks like some joke. From orange colors — probably some “diversity” team though it would be funny, because they don’t like the president — to overall cheap looking design, which looks like some unfinished AI generated, 3D printed prototype. You can tell Ive is gone and nobody replaced him.
At least they still have some engineers who scored big with the M chips back in 2020, but barely anyone cares about the chips anymore, they’re all good enough today and competition somewhat caught up.
For sure, anything orange is obviously a reference to the U.S. president. I’m hearing that liberals are planning a mass protest of carving scary faces into pumpkins in about 6 weeks.
I guess the proper claim would be to say that it has three prime lenses at 13mm, 24mm, and 100mm equivalents. The larger sensors in the 13mm and 100mm cameras, along with improvements in processing, should make for a significant upgrade over my current iPhone.
I agree that Apple's "optical quality" claims are BS. I was actually so confused initially by the claim that I had to do some research to figure out if they are doing anything special to claim "optical quality" zoom on a fixed lens. There is some computational photography going on that may muddy the waters a bit, but I'd definitely still call it a digital zoom.
That being said, the 48MP sensors do provide some latitude for cropping that wasn't available in the older 12 MP sensors. A very charitable reading would be that this "8 pro lenses in one" claim, all of which match the "optical quality" of the previous generation of sensors is the simplest way that Apple's marketing team could describe the increased versality to regular users without resorting to jargon that only photographers would understand. But still... it feels like false advertising to me.
Regarding the design - I actually view the orange color as being a nod to the Apple Watch Ultra and its orange accents. My impression is that they are going with a more rugged, masculine look with the iPhone 17 Pro. The "PRO" lettering almost feels like something you'd see in an ad for a pickup truck. This is in contrast to the more elegant, feminine look for the iPhone Air. I think this differentiation could actually be a successful strategy for Apple, and I also think that one reason that most of the tech reviewers and commenters on HN don't see the point of the Air is because that demographic tends to be largely male.
People arguing about photo quality on phones (and particularly iPhones who always have smaller sensors to begin with) is just proper nonsense. No matter what garbage AI processing they come up for the picture, they still take pretty bad photos that only look good when they are viewed on device with their small size and embellishing displays.
But there are always a bunch of idiots who want to show off instead of shutting up and actually taking worthwhile photos with proper hardware.
To me they are like the housewives who can't stop arguing about their trashy cooking robot that are supposed to do everything but can't do a single thing right. If they could just shut up and just learn the skills, their cooking would be infinitely better.
Then I installed iOS 26.
I think I hate it. It might be the last straw.
I’m seriously considering taking the plunge and switching from iOS, which I’ve used since the iPhone 3G, to GrapheneOS on a Pixel 9 Pro.
It’s not just iOS (which is all three of worse, buggier, and slower) but also the direction of travel for Apple as a whole.
> People who have no use for all these pro video recording features shouldn’t waste their money on it. Unless they want a big chunky iPhone with the best camera array and/or have money to burn.
I feel like people who “want the best camera array and have money to burn” probably describes a significant percentage of HN readers.
I’m honestly pretty excited that they’ve finally put the larger, high res sensor in all three iPhone cameras - which should result in pretty decent image quality across the entire 13 - 200 mm equivalent range. It’s a nice upgrade from my current iPhone which uses smaller 12 MP sensors for the ultra-wide and telephoto cameras - resulting in images that are noticeably soft and noisy.
I personally don’t consider the iPhone 17 Pro to be too big or chunky. I’m generally happy to sacrifice an extra millimeter of thickness for better battery life, and enjoy the usability of larger screen sizes. I know that a lot of people really want smaller phones, though, and I think it’s unfortunate that Apple cancelled the mini (and the smaller SE design). I guess it just wasn’t selling that well.
And finally, I’m at a point in my life where spending $1100 on a new iPhone every few years isn’t going to break the bank. And I also am able to give my current iPhone to family members, who should be able to enjoy it for many more years to come.