Here’s What’s in the iPhone 17

By Douglas A. McIntyre Published Sep 4, 9:15AM EDT

Quick Read

Will the iPhone 17 have enough new bells and whistles to get people to upgrade to the latest model?
When it comes to foldable phones and AI, Apple Inc. (NASDAQ: AAPL) is late to the game.

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Here’s What’s in the iPhone 17 — © Justin Sullivan / Getty Images News via Getty Images

Apple Inc. (NASDAQ: AAPL | AAPL Price Prediction) will launch the iPhone 17 in a few days. The concern about the new generation is the same as for the iPhone 16 and 15. Will the iPhone 17 have enough new bells and whistles to get people to upgrade to the latest model? This is particularly true because Samsung has released a set of foldable smartphones, and Apple does not have a major artificial intelligence (AI) upgrade. That upgrade is planned for next year.

Research firm TrendForce says it knows what the new iPhone will have, and what it will not. There will be an upgraded chip, which is a normal new feature. The iPhone 17 and iPhone 17 Air will have an A19 processor. The Pro will have an A19 Pro processor that will be more powerful. The challenge is that most customers do not use their phone in ways in which a more powerful chip is valuable.

The iPhone 17 will be thinner and lighter than its predecessors. “The Air model will use a silicon anode battery and eSIM configuration to balance slimness with endurance,” TrendForce reports. Once again, how many potential iPhone 17 buyers care about an alteration that does not change the phone’s most used features?

One of Apple’s biggest pushes for new iPhones is camera quality and ease of use. Its camera will have 24 megapixels compared to the current 12. That is in the front camera. The rear camera will have 48 megapixels. These and other camera upgrades make image resolution better. Once again, how many possible customers will care about what amateur photographers can barely notice when they take pictures of friends or their new cars?

The base iPhone 17 will probably be priced the same as the prior version. The price for the Air, Pro, and Pro Max will rise between $50 and $100. That pushes what people will pay for a smartphone. The iPhone 16 Pro has a price of $1,199 today.

TrendForce forecasts Apple will have a foldable smartphone, but not until next year

Once again, the key to future iPhone sales is almost certainly an advanced AI product to compete with OpenAI and Perplexity AI. Apple will integrate this into the next iOS. However, when people can already download the apps of every major AI company, Apple is late to the game.

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About the Author Douglas A. McIntyre →

Douglas A. McIntyre is the co-founder, chief executive officer and editor in chief of 24/7 Wall St. and 24/7 Tempo. He has held these jobs since 2006.

McIntyre has written thousands of articles for 24/7 Wall St. He is an expert on corporate finance, the automotive industry, media companies and international finance. He has edited articles on national demographics, sports, personal income and travel.

His work has been quoted or mentioned in The New York Times, The Wall Street Journal, Los Angeles Times, The Washington Post, NBC News, Time, The New Yorker, HuffPost USA Today, Business Insider, Yahoo, AOL, MarketWatch, The Atlantic, Bloomberg, New York Post, Chicago Tribune, Forbes, The Guardian and many other major publications. McIntyre has been a guest on CNBC, the BBC and television and radio stations across the country.

A magna cum laude graduate of Harvard College, McIntyre also was president of The Harvard Advocate. Founded in 1866, the Advocate is the oldest college publication in the United States.

TheStreet.com, Comps.com and Edgar Online are some of the public companies for which McIntyre served on the board of directors. He was a Vicinity Corporation board member when the company was sold to Microsoft in 2002. He served on the audit committees of some of these companies.

McIntyre has been the CEO of FutureSource, a provider of trading terminals and news to commodities and futures traders. He was president of Switchboard, the online phone directory company. He served as chairman and CEO of On2 Technologies, the video compression company that provided video compression software for Adobe’s Flash. Google bought On2 in 2009.