For all the criticisms leveled at smartphone manufacturers in 2025, the fact remains that the very best phones are exceptionally good products.
We have to call out Samsung for its ropey One UI 7 rollout because the Galaxy S25 Ultra is a near-perfect phone. We have to find fault with Apple Intelligence because the iPhone 16 Pro is a powerhouse in all the ways that actually matter.
My job as TechRadar’s Phones Editor has, in some ways, never been easier (everything is good now!). But it’s also harder than ever to find meaningful faults in products that are the product (sorry) of multi-generational innovation.
By all accounts, the iPhone 17 Pro will be another home run from Apple. But as someone who’s already totally happy with the performance of my iPhone 16 Pro, I’m struggling to buy into the September 9 Apple event hype.
To be clear: if you’re currently rocking an iPhone 13 or iPhone 14, I can absolutely appreciate that the iPhone 17 series sounds like a major step-up. And it will be.
But a lot of the rumors we’ve been reporting on over the past few weeks refer to upgrades over the iPhone 16 series, specifically. You’ve read about new telephoto cameras, smoother displays, and the minor redesign of the iPhone’s rear panel. This is how Apple will present its 2025 lineup on September 9 – as a year-on-year improvement over its suite of current best iPhones.
In certain contexts, these upgrades will prove meaningful (I’ve already written about why a 120Hz screen for the base model is a major win for entry-level iPhone buyers). But as an iPhone 16 Pro user, I’m not expecting to see anything next week that’ll justify a $999 / £999 / AU$1,799 outlay on the iPhone 17 Pro.
Apple, of course, is aware of this dilemma.
10 years ago, the iPhone 6 felt like a major upgrade over the iPhone 5s because it was bigger, faster, longer-lasting, and looked totally different from its predecessor. But these days, Apple just can’t make the same combination of improvements to every new iPhone generation.
Let me rephrase: Apple could make the iPhone 17 Pro bigger, faster, and longer-lasting than the iPhone 16 Pro – in fact, it probably will do – but these improvements would be nigh-on intangible to the average user (can you tell the difference between the A17 Pro chipset and A18 Pro?). My iPhone 16 Pro is the perfect size, it’s plenty fast, and I’m rarely let down by its battery life; if I weren’t TechRadar’s Phones Editor, I’d probably hold onto it for another three years.
Which begs the question: how does Apple convince its current-gen Pro users to upgrade? And should it even try to?
It’s true that, for some people, early-upgrade programs like those offered by Verizon and AT&T can make switching iPhones every year a genuinely feasible prospect. To sell a lot of iPhone 17 Pros, Apple doesn’t necessarily have to convince someone who dropped $999 / £999 / AU$1,799 on the iPhone 16 Pro to do the same on its shiny new model.
My iPhone 16 Pro is the perfect size, it’s plenty fast, and I’m rarely let down by its battery life.
But this whole train of thought has got me hoping that Apple pitches this year’s iPhones to those who really would benefit from an upgrade. When the company debuts new MacBooks, it rightly makes spec comparisons with products from a few generations ago – not with whatever MacBook immediately preceded the new model in question.
Granted, laptops have never been ‘upgrade every year’ products, but smartphones also no longer fall into that category. If Apple can acknowledge that fact at next week’s product showcase, it'll make the iPhone 17 Pro look like an exciting, meaningful upgrade as a result.
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