The standard 17 and Pro seems very much the great product they always are. Incremental refinement. Don't like it? Get one 1-2 generations older. My iPhone 11 still feels very much good enough (which I imagine must be terrible for Apple). Perhaps their idea is that you can't just refine the 15-16-17 every year. You need to try _something_ else, or eventually people will stop paying attention?
Also, as long as we retain an actual Pro version that is willing to be a bit chunkier, I don't see any issue in having an Air line for casual users, maybe that will be the way mainstream devices go with future efficiency gains, similar to the MacBook Air now being "good enough" for most people. Silicon-carbon batteries will likely enable some of that pretty soon, suspect that like with GaN, the supply chain cannot handle Apple level demands yet. Remember, the original three MacBook Airs were beyond compromised too.
Just don't fall into the trap of making the Pro thinner, akin to the 2016 MacBook Pro disaster. Keep the iPhone Pros like the current MacBook Pros chunky for those who actually use these devices and we are golden in my book.
To add to this, it's often said that research can only take you so far, at some point you have to ship something to get the opinions and hands on from a wider audience of users to make further discoveries and improvements.
I think Apple has come to terms with the fact that people are no longer upgrading their phones every 1-2 years. They are probably happy just to keep you in the Apple ecosystem where they can sell you apps, services, accessories, other compatible apple products - and hopefully get your repeat business when you do one day feel the need to upgrade.
Thinness has not been an issue in the last 10-15 years.
A thin phone is also very hard to hold, it kind of flips in your hand.
It's the difference between stated and revealed preference. Phones kept getting larger and larger because larger phones sold better.
Though apparently we have hit the sweet spot a while ago, as phone size is stable now.
So while I didn’t say “I wish my phone was thinner”, I did say many times “this should weigh about half of what it actually weighs”.
Pixel 1 (143g)
Pixel 3 (148g)
Pixel 5 (151g)
Pixel 8 (187g)
Pixel 9 Pro (198g)
Of course the displays of these models get bigger which presumably contributes to the weight increase. But still, you'd think parts get lighter over time, not heavier.
I'm just guessing, but I would assume that parts get _smaller_ (so, maybe lighter but not in a "less dense" way) but any space gained is taken up by new parts for new functionality or extra battery
It is the best iPhone I owned (3, 6s).
But yeah, spotlight is slow and the phone constantly runs out of storage, so apps need to be deleted before installing updates and least used apps are constantly removed. Additionally the screens are way better now and you do see the difference with photos made on an iPhone 16. I guess I'll upgrade late this year when I am sure the 17 (pro?) is a reliable piece of hardware, like my iPhone XS is.
Just going to keep this one until they make something similar again.
I'll stick to my almost-4-years-old 13 mini as long as I can. Probably will change battery before original batteries are too hard to get hold of
