Apple Debuts iPhone 17

Well said! I share those two priorities, and am now moving in the inverse direction, but I plan to use GrapheneOS.

It seems you are searching for Librem 5 (my daily driver). It runs PureOS (a Debian derivative) and turns into a desktop when connected to a screen and keyboard.

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As a constrasting comparison data point, a Nokia 8800 cost around USD 900 in 2005 when it launched, which is approximately USD 1450 in the 2025 USD.

The buyer would get a chromium-plated metal case within which a slightly fancier version of a dumb phone was enclosed, and bragging rights as a bonus, and that would be it.

So, today’s USD 1k (or less, for the non-Pro versions) buys the user – depending on one’s point of view – either a commodity appliance or a personal computing contraption whose performance exceeds that of many high-end RISC workstations that once commanded five-digit price tags, and all for a ⅓ less than the launch price of the Nokia 8800.

If you're like me, you buy a brand new one then keep it for 4-5 years.

I could buy two Steam Deck LCD's, but an iPhone has a much higher resolution display and I also use it every day and take it everywhere I go.

Buying one every year, not worth it in my opinion. Buying one and using it for many years is. I still have my 12 and will likely upgrade to the 17.

I agree. I've started thinking about phones like cars. I'd never consider buying a brand new car, and I generally wouldn't buy a brand new phone either (although they're not quite as expensive as cars). I've found that year-old models are typically around half the price of new ones.

I’ve always bought the cheapest model in the range however I’m inclined to spend more next time because I get so much utility from it.

It will be another three or four years yet though as my SE is only three years old.

The first iPhone (2007) was priced at $800 in 2025 dollars, and iPhone 17 has a heck of a lot more in it.

For a phone similar to the feature set of the original iPhone, you can get a Jelly Pro today for $100.

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you're gonna carry those two Steam Decks in your pockets?

I think modern smart phones are pretty remarkably un-fragile compared to 20 years ago before the iPhone ($300-700 for a Symbian with a tiny plastic screens that got scratched super fast) or even 10-ish years ago with much more fragile screen glass and cases. Last phone I did major damage to was my HTC Evo in 2012.

(That Nokia N95 was in 2007 dollars, too!)

but this one can make text messages and calls using the legacy phone system, so it's a totally different product category

Speculative renders of iPhone Fold size, https://forums.macrumors.com/threads/rumoured-iphone-fold-si...

Yeah, are they all large form-factor iPhones now?

The iPhone Air is definitely a testing ground for folding phone technologies.

I've been wondering why they haven't had this before even is using 3rd party modems. Seems like an obvious play unless they feel like that would cannibalize their tablet market??

You just made my heart go pitter-patter

Same here. I’m going to get a new battery soon, so that’ll give me a few more years. I’m hoping something comes along in that time that I want. Otherwise, I may just go to a Japanese eInk phone.

Phones are used to consume content. Bigger screens make consuming content better. Therefore smaller screens do not sell well.

The sales back up my statements.

Yes I romanticize about an iPhone 17 mini pro but in the end I like being able to watch some downloaded content on a plane without having to bring an iPad from time to time and I'm not going to do that on a tiny screen.

When they do release small phones not enough people buy them so they don't see the cost as worth it. Simple market dynamics I assume.

> I'd be curious to understand their rationale for not making a small, reasonably priced phone like the iPhone SE used to be.

People who want cheap iPhones buy older models. You get better specs buying a used or NOS premium model than a new budget model.

It's my thinking too but Android phones are just as big so I really don't know where to go when I won't be able to fix my iphone SE 2016... Maybe a 13 mini...

One reason might be that they have a minimum duration of software support—a low powered device might hold back future software?

The SE didn't sell well. They want people who not only buy the phone but also buy content through the App Store and through the media services like Apple TV/music.

Generally speaking there are more margins on premium goods

The 17 Pro has a much higher resolution camera than the 13 Pro, so even if you center crop of a photo taken with the 2x optical zoom to get you what you'd see with a 3x, it will still be higher resolution than the same photo taken with the 13 Pro.

That said, I too like a 70 mm lens, but I long ago got used to just moving closer to or further away from subjects to take photos with dedicated cameras depending on what lens I had on.

Same. Because zooming from 1x to 3.99x is digital zoom - IMHO too much quality is lost.

The pixel 10 is different trade off. Base pixel is cheaper than base iPhone and has an extra camera, upgrading it to 256 gets you slightly more expensive. And for the pro models it flips with the pixel cheaper even with same storage.