I find it funny that people want in-display fingerprint readers in place of FaceID. Coming back to iPhone from Android, where my previous phone had an in display reader (which worked fine), FaceID is honestly one of the absolute best things about the iPhone, and I never want to lose it. I simply don't have to think about unlocking the phone. I swipe up, I'm in. Period. If my hands were wet, or overly sweaty, or any number of things, the fingerprint reader suddenly became finicky, etc. Face ID just works.
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Other iPhone 17 - your "killer" hardware feature
- Thread starter drumcat
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The IMX-903 sensor they should have used in the 1x camera this year. Right now we've gotten the same IMX-803 sensor in the 1x camera on the Pro models for three generations now. It can read out a little faster this year, but the sensor and lens are materially the same.
IMX-903 will bring much larger pixels and better performance. It was expected this year, but we got nothing.
48MP in the telephoto too would be nice. They should have done this before they did the UW.
IMX-903 will bring much larger pixels and better performance. It was expected this year, but we got nothing.
48MP in the telephoto too would be nice. They should have done this before they did the UW.
FaceID also works with your banking applications, Apple Pay, authentication for passwords on 3rd party applications, etc...
I never want them to get rid of FaceID.
My ideal iphone 17 would be:
- slimmer body (around 7.4 mm like iphone 12)
- 6.5 inch screen size
- a physical mute switch
- a punch hole instead of dynamic island
- 2x and 3x telephoto zoom
- as light as possible, max 190 grams
I'd never need another phone again.
- slimmer body (around 7.4 mm like iphone 12)
- 6.5 inch screen size
- a physical mute switch
- a punch hole instead of dynamic island
- 2x and 3x telephoto zoom
- as light as possible, max 190 grams
I'd never need another phone again.
Yep, I hope I don't jinx it, but I'm on my 10th iPhone, first being the 3G. I've yet to take one to get fixed or get a screen replaced. They are well built and reliable. I typically now upgrade every 3 years, initially it was every year, then every 2nd year, because the improvements used to be substantial, then less so, now even less so from year to year.
Every year someone is complaining about how it's not good enough for them. I swear people are complaining just to complain.
Is there a good review/link you have comparing photos from iPhone and the top Chinese brands with the largest image sensors? Curious to see the comparison.
Yes there's a few online and I'll show you below. I remember looking at Chinese phone photo examples a couple years back and being unimpressed but they've quickly improved rather dramatically.
I'm going to collapse some photos in a spoiler so I don't clutter the thread with a huge post. Keep in mind some of these are screenshots from a YouTube video so the resolution isn't necessarily captured correctly, watch the original video for more.
Chinese brands are not beating Apple/Google/Samsung in every category (yet) but they're quickly taking a lead in some important ones as you'll see below. If they've surpassed the typical brands in some areas this quickly there's nothing to stop be believing they'll keep overtaking everyone else in more categories.
The first example I saw that completely jogged by brain was the Xiaomi 14 Ultra vs the S24 Ultra. I typically prefer the 15 Pro Max vs S24 but the difference in my experience has not been night and day. So when I saw this comparison I quickly looked into the Xiaomi a little more:
S24 Ultra:
Xiaomi 14 Ultra:
Instantly it was no contest, the 14 Ultra looks so much more like what a regular point and shoot would capture. The biggest thing Xiaomi figured out is you have to let shadows be shadows and highlights be highlights which somehow Apple, Google, and Samsung stopped doing. Nilay from The Verge said the same thing about the iPhone 16 Pro in his review from this morning: everything looks so flat because manufacturers decided to start chasing maximum HDR as the end game
I think it's important to note that one of the reasons Xiaomi can do this is because they're using bigger camera sensors unlike Apple which are tiny in comparison. So they don't need to rely on as much HDR 'computational photography' to make up for poor dynamic range. It seems the more the hardware does the job the more you can retain the subtle aspects of a photograph (such as microcontrast) that make it pop.
So I looked into 15 Pro Max vs the 14 Ultra. For the most part the 14 Ultra basically addresses the majority of my complaints about "the iPhone look" of the past few years by fixing: poor white balance, respecting highlights, respecting shadows, delivering natural skin tone, and pleasant colors that you would come to expect from a regular mirrorless/point-n-shoot.
You can see here the Xiaomi on the right (B) exposes for the face better and the white balance looks better (to my eye). The iPhone on the left (A) does the typical iPhone thing of killing color and casting a greyish-blue tint over everything. The Xiaomi looks like it's targeting a "professional look" rather than a "smartphone look." If I recall correctly, the Xiaomi is not using portrait mode here, that's just the natural bokeh from the huge sensor (1") and fast lens (f1.6).
In this landscape example below the Xiaomi addresses perhaps my biggest complaint about iPhone which is the green tint it applies over everything. It's a white balance/temperature issue and it completely kills the color range between foliage, dirt, and the red rocks in the background. The Xiaomi, in my opinion, does a significantly better job. Pixel is slightly better than iPhone at this but still the Xiaomi edges it out in my opinion.
Finally these Xiaomi portrait shots speak for themselves. I couldn't get pictures like this from my iPhone even if I shot in raw and edited them. Albeit I'm no professional but I think something about the Xiaomi's huge sensor and natural bokeh puts it in a league of its own. These portrait shots are so impressive if I had both phones I would basically never shoot the iPhone for portraits. In fact I considered importing a 14 Ultra or other similarly impressive Chinese smartphone just for taking photos (The Huawei Pura 70 Ultra is apparently even better according to some reviewers).
Chinese phones don't beat Apple at everything, video is still a weak point, but for many shooting scenarios they're now one upping the US, Korean, and Japanese competition massively. It's subjective but to me there's a clear winner. If Chinese phones have improved this much in 2 years I can't imagine where they'll be in another 2 if Apple insists on giving us breadcrumb "improvements" to the cameras every year.
This is why I don't buy the "smartphone tech has stagnated, we're at the peak of smartphone hardware engineering and it's all software now" line anymore. It's cope that we the consumers invented to excuse laziness from Apple, Google, and Samsung. Why we would try to make excuses for an innovation slowdown is completely beyond me.
^ As per this guy's video everyone on Instagram wanted to know what camera he used for this shot because most of the smartphones we're used to don't take pics like this straight out of camera.
And just for fun here's the Huawei Pura 70 Ultra vs 15 Pro Max. 15 Pro Max does the typical iPhone thing of making the guy look sick because of how flat, lifeless, and gray the image is:
And here's the Huawei. It just POPS. It looks 3D because there's shadow detail on his face. His jacket texture looks better, the colors look better, and the detail (look at his hair) is way better. I NEED one of these phones.
S24 Ultra:
Xiaomi 14 Ultra:
Instantly it was no contest, the 14 Ultra looks so much more like what a regular point and shoot would capture. The biggest thing Xiaomi figured out is you have to let shadows be shadows and highlights be highlights which somehow Apple, Google, and Samsung stopped doing. Nilay from The Verge said the same thing about the iPhone 16 Pro in his review from this morning: everything looks so flat because manufacturers decided to start chasing maximum HDR as the end game
I think it's important to note that one of the reasons Xiaomi can do this is because they're using bigger camera sensors unlike Apple which are tiny in comparison. So they don't need to rely on as much HDR 'computational photography' to make up for poor dynamic range. It seems the more the hardware does the job the more you can retain the subtle aspects of a photograph (such as microcontrast) that make it pop.
So I looked into 15 Pro Max vs the 14 Ultra. For the most part the 14 Ultra basically addresses the majority of my complaints about "the iPhone look" of the past few years by fixing: poor white balance, respecting highlights, respecting shadows, delivering natural skin tone, and pleasant colors that you would come to expect from a regular mirrorless/point-n-shoot.
You can see here the Xiaomi on the right (B) exposes for the face better and the white balance looks better (to my eye). The iPhone on the left (A) does the typical iPhone thing of killing color and casting a greyish-blue tint over everything. The Xiaomi looks like it's targeting a "professional look" rather than a "smartphone look." If I recall correctly, the Xiaomi is not using portrait mode here, that's just the natural bokeh from the huge sensor (1") and fast lens (f1.6).
In this landscape example below the Xiaomi addresses perhaps my biggest complaint about iPhone which is the green tint it applies over everything. It's a white balance/temperature issue and it completely kills the color range between foliage, dirt, and the red rocks in the background. The Xiaomi, in my opinion, does a significantly better job. Pixel is slightly better than iPhone at this but still the Xiaomi edges it out in my opinion.
Finally these Xiaomi portrait shots speak for themselves. I couldn't get pictures like this from my iPhone even if I shot in raw and edited them. Albeit I'm no professional but I think something about the Xiaomi's huge sensor and natural bokeh puts it in a league of its own. These portrait shots are so impressive if I had both phones I would basically never shoot the iPhone for portraits. In fact I considered importing a 14 Ultra or other similarly impressive Chinese smartphone just for taking photos (The Huawei Pura 70 Ultra is apparently even better according to some reviewers).
Chinese phones don't beat Apple at everything, video is still a weak point, but for many shooting scenarios they're now one upping the US, Korean, and Japanese competition massively. It's subjective but to me there's a clear winner. If Chinese phones have improved this much in 2 years I can't imagine where they'll be in another 2 if Apple insists on giving us breadcrumb "improvements" to the cameras every year.
This is why I don't buy the "smartphone tech has stagnated, we're at the peak of smartphone hardware engineering and it's all software now" line anymore. It's cope that we the consumers invented to excuse laziness from Apple, Google, and Samsung. Why we would try to make excuses for an innovation slowdown is completely beyond me.
^ As per this guy's video everyone on Instagram wanted to know what camera he used for this shot because most of the smartphones we're used to don't take pics like this straight out of camera.
And just for fun here's the Huawei Pura 70 Ultra vs 15 Pro Max. 15 Pro Max does the typical iPhone thing of making the guy look sick because of how flat, lifeless, and gray the image is:
And here's the Huawei. It just POPS. It looks 3D because there's shadow detail on his face. His jacket texture looks better, the colors look better, and the detail (look at his hair) is way better. I NEED one of these phones.
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I think there is still room to improve, but it’s gonna be hard and it’ll require lots of research to make the envisioned tech actually work properly in practice.
Since I’m just behind a keyboard and don’t have to do it myself I can think of some stuff:
- modular phones:
Want a sleek flat phone? Take 2 out of 3 cameras and half the battery off. Going on a trip? Click it back on.
- haptics:
The iPhone has haptic feedback I like but it’s far from a textured surface.
- displays:
Eventually we’ll use expandable / rollable / foldable / whatever kind of displays
- batteries:
Soon there’ll be another huge jump.
- thermal management:
If phones can dissipate heat better they can be used as a gaming console or an extension of your car’s infotainment for example.
- health stuff:
Glucose monitoring or hydration level monitoring for example should be possible from a handheld device.
- eco-friendly:
Durable materials combined with better recycle processes might not sound sexy but it’s cool and good stuff
7 points in 2 minutes and I haven’t even used the word “AI”. Crap, wait…
Since I’m just behind a keyboard and don’t have to do it myself I can think of some stuff:
- modular phones:
Want a sleek flat phone? Take 2 out of 3 cameras and half the battery off. Going on a trip? Click it back on.
- haptics:
The iPhone has haptic feedback I like but it’s far from a textured surface.
- displays:
Eventually we’ll use expandable / rollable / foldable / whatever kind of displays
- batteries:
Soon there’ll be another huge jump.
- thermal management:
If phones can dissipate heat better they can be used as a gaming console or an extension of your car’s infotainment for example.
- health stuff:
Glucose monitoring or hydration level monitoring for example should be possible from a handheld device.
- eco-friendly:
Durable materials combined with better recycle processes might not sound sexy but it’s cool and good stuff
7 points in 2 minutes and I haven’t even used the word “AI”. Crap, wait…
Realistically? I don't need much anymore TBH.
48MP sensors for all rear cameras.
8k60 fps recording
24MP front camera
Bluetooth 6.0
Touch ID in the power button.
USB C 20Gbps
12GB+RAM
90Hz screen for base models.
Better Battery life.
a sort of DeX mode would be sick. but that likely won't happen.
48MP sensors for all rear cameras.
8k60 fps recording
24MP front camera
Bluetooth 6.0
Touch ID in the power button.
USB C 20Gbps
12GB+RAM
90Hz screen for base models.
Better Battery life.
a sort of DeX mode would be sick. but that likely won't happen.
I’d like to see the 11->12 type upgrade where they take the same size screen but significantly reduce the size And weight while retaining battery life.
11 - 150.9x75.7x8.3 and 194g
12 - 146.7x71.5x7.4 and 164g
Basically been the same since if not heavier and thicker….
15 - 147.6x71.6x7.8 and 171g
16 - 147.6x71.6x7.8 and 170g
As for the Pro line with the using of the screen size to 6.3 and 6.9 I'd like to see them add a ~5.9" size to the lineup. While not "mini", still would satisfy those who want a small(er) Pro iPhone that we really have never had.
11 - 150.9x75.7x8.3 and 194g
12 - 146.7x71.5x7.4 and 164g
Basically been the same since if not heavier and thicker….
15 - 147.6x71.6x7.8 and 171g
16 - 147.6x71.6x7.8 and 170g
As for the Pro line with the using of the screen size to 6.3 and 6.9 I'd like to see them add a ~5.9" size to the lineup. While not "mini", still would satisfy those who want a small(er) Pro iPhone that we really have never had.
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Wow the first image especially shows such a huge difference and I get what you mean by the “iPhone look” where everything’s HDRed all heck.Yes there's a few online and I'll show you below. I remember looking at Chinese phone photo examples a couple years back and being unimpressed but they've quickly improved rather dramatically.
I'm going to collapse some photos in a spoiler so I don't clutter the thread with a huge post. Keep in mind some of these are screenshots from a YouTube video so the resolution isn't necessarily captured correctly, watch the original video for more.
Chinese brands are not beating Apple/Google/Samsung in every category (yet) but they're quickly taking a lead in some important ones as you'll see below. If they've surpassed the typical brands in some areas this quickly there's nothing to stop be believing they'll keep overtaking everyone else in more categories.
The first example I saw that completely jogged by brain was the Xiaomi 14 Ultra vs the S24 Ultra. I typically prefer the 15 Pro Max vs S24 but the difference in my experience has not been night and day. So when I saw this comparison I quickly looked into the Xiaomi a little more:
S24 Ultra:
Xiaomi 14 Ultra:
Instantly it was no contest, the 14 Ultra looks so much more like what a regular point and shoot would capture. The biggest thing Xiaomi figured out is you have to let shadows be shadows and highlights be highlights which somehow Apple, Google, and Samsung stopped doing. Nilay from The Verge said the same thing about the iPhone 16 Pro in his review from this morning: everything looks so flat because manufacturers decided to start chasing maximum HDR as the end game
I think it's important to note that one of the reasons Xiaomi can do this is because they're using bigger camera sensors unlike Apple which are tiny in comparison. So they don't need to rely on as much HDR 'computational photography' to make up for poor dynamic range. It seems the more the hardware does the job the more you can retain the subtle aspects of a photograph (such as microcontrast) that make it pop.
So I looked into 15 Pro Max vs the 14 Ultra. For the most part the 14 Ultra basically addresses the majority of my complaints about "the iPhone look" of the past few years by fixing: poor white balance, respecting highlights, respecting shadows, delivering natural skin tone, and pleasant colors that you would come to expect from a regular mirrorless/point-n-shoot.
You can see here the Xiaomi on the right (B) exposes for the face better and the white balance looks better (to my eye). The iPhone on the left (A) does the typical iPhone thing of killing color and casting a greyish-blue tint over everything. The Xiaomi looks like it's targeting a "professional look" rather than a "smartphone look." If I recall correctly, the Xiaomi is not using portrait mode here, that's just the natural bokeh from the huge sensor (1") and fast lens (f1.6).
View attachment 2421137
In this landscape example below the Xiaomi addresses perhaps my biggest complaint about iPhone which is the green tint it applies over everything. It's a white balance/temperature issue and it completely kills the color range between foliage, dirt, and the red rocks in the background. The Xiaomi, in my opinion, does a significantly better job. Pixel is slightly better than iPhone at this but still the Xiaomi edges it out in my opinion.
View attachment 2421138
Finally these Xiaomi portrait shots speak for themselves. I couldn't get pictures like this from my iPhone even if I shot in raw and edited them. Albeit I'm no professional but I think something about the Xiaomi's huge sensor and natural bokeh puts it in a league of its own. These portrait shots are so impressive if I had both phones I would basically never shoot the iPhone for portraits. In fact I considered importing a 14 Ultra or other similarly impressive Chinese smartphone just for taking photos (The Huawei Pura 70 Ultra is apparently even better according to some reviewers).
Chinese phones don't beat Apple at everything, video is still a weak point, but for many shooting scenarios they're now one upping the US, Korean, and Japanese competition massively. It's subjective but to me there's a clear winner. If Chinese phones have improved this much in 2 years I can't imagine where they'll be in another 2 if Apple insists on giving us breadcrumb "improvements" to the cameras every year.
This is why I don't buy the "smartphone tech has stagnated, we're at the peak of smartphone hardware engineering and it's all software now" line anymore. It's cope that we the consumers invented to excuse laziness from Apple, Google, and Samsung. Why we would try to make excuses for an innovation slowdown is completely beyond me.
View attachment 2421139
^ As per this guy's video everyone on Instagram wanted to know what camera he used for this shot because most of the smartphones we're used to don't take pics like this straight out of camera.
View attachment 2421140
And just for fun here's the Huawei Pura 70 Ultra vs 15 Pro Max. 15 Pro Max does the typical iPhone thing of making the guy look sick because of how flat, lifeless, and gray the image is:
And here's the Huawei. It just POPS. It looks 3D because there's shadow detail on his face. His jacket texture looks better, the colors look better, and the detail (look at his hair) is way better. I NEED one of these phones.
Watched the linked video and seems like he’s touting the computational photography in the 14 Ultra for most of the other pics. But I guess the point stands: the 14 Ultra’s pics do look better. No doubt the sensor/lens helps ever here.
Agreed that we haven’t hit smartphone hardware limits. It’s more that Apple’s choosing to go slower. Why shouldn’t the Pro line offer larger newer sensors and lens?
They rely too much on component/design reuse between base and Pro lines which leads to today’s situation where the 16 Pro is hardly compelling compared to the 16.
I would rather have TouchID in the Display than FaceID or simply both and a headphone jack or 2x TB5-port instead of one. 2x physical SIM, 2x eSIM, much better battery no notch or island.
Privacy-Hardware switches for disabling/enabling:
Maybe hidden behind some "push to open door" together with the SIM-Card Slot(s).
Privacy-Hardware switches for disabling/enabling:
- Front Camera
- Back Camera
- Microphone
- FaceID
- TouchID
- SIM 1
- SIM 2
- SIM 3
- SIM 4
- WiFi 2.4 GHZ
- WiFi 5 GHz
- WiFi 6 Ghz
- Bluetooth
- Bluetooth LE (if that's a separate thing)
- 2G
- 3G
- 4G
- 5G
- (6G)
- NFC
- GPS
- Satellite
- Battery
- Things I forgot
Maybe hidden behind some "push to open door" together with the SIM-Card Slot(s).
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iPhone 17 will probably be when I finally upgrade from my 13 mini (bought 2 years ago) since the battery will prob be approaching 80% by then. At 85% right now around year 2 with a ton of use.
Want but will never get on base model: a physical SIM again, USB4/TB4-5 port on the base model, dual frequency GPS
Want and unsure if we'll get it: More efficient cpu (2nm or below), at least +20% single threaded performance, more affordable 512gb storage option (bought 256gb last time), smaller overall dimensions, or if stays big a long lasting battery.
Don't care about 120hz screen.
At this point I just really want something more moderate sized and a ton of battery life and something that doesn't run hot.
Would be interesting to see if we could ever move off of bluetooth and have better options to connect airpods. Maybe BT 6 solves some of the existing connection issues.
Want but will never get on base model: a physical SIM again, USB4/TB4-5 port on the base model, dual frequency GPS
Want and unsure if we'll get it: More efficient cpu (2nm or below), at least +20% single threaded performance, more affordable 512gb storage option (bought 256gb last time), smaller overall dimensions, or if stays big a long lasting battery.
Don't care about 120hz screen.
At this point I just really want something more moderate sized and a ton of battery life and something that doesn't run hot.
Would be interesting to see if we could ever move off of bluetooth and have better options to connect airpods. Maybe BT 6 solves some of the existing connection issues.
It’s Leaked and my Wife Translated the Chinese text.
#1. 12GB faster LPDDR5X RAM
#2. Tandem-OLED display 7”
#3. iPhone Ultra name
#4. Sapphire Glass
#5. $2,000 because the Sapphire Glass and Tandem-OLED display
#1. 12GB faster LPDDR5X RAM
#2. Tandem-OLED display 7”
#3. iPhone Ultra name
#4. Sapphire Glass
#5. $2,000 because the Sapphire Glass and Tandem-OLED display