Laughing Hyena
  • Home
  • Hyena Games
  • Esports
  • NFT Gaming
  • Crypto Trends
  • Game Reviews
  • Game Updates
  • GameFi Guides
  • Shop
Tag:

iPhone

This iPhone Gimbal Costs Peanuts, Amazon Is Clearing Out DJI’s Budget Model
Game Updates

This iPhone Gimbal Costs Peanuts, Amazon Is Clearing Out DJI’s Budget Model

by admin September 21, 2025


Smartphones are incredible cameras in our pockets with the capability of capturing crisp snaps and 4K video, but there’s a further issue: shaky footage. If you’ve ever tried to film a birthday moment, a journey moment or a TikTok dance, then you’ll know how frustrating shaky video is. So, that’s why gimbals exist.

The DJI Osmo Mobile SE gets rid of that problem and you’re able to turn ordinary recordings into professional-quality videos that look as if they’re shot by pros. And since Amazon has dropped the price to just $58 (down from a previous low of $69) — its lowest price ever — this is the perfect time to pick one up.

See at Amazon

Why This Gimbal Is Worth It

The Osmo Mobile SE is DJI’s lowest-priced stabilizer but cheap doesn’t have to mean bare bones. In real life, it’s the category leader simply because it distills pro-level video stabilization into an accessible package. Its folding design means you can shove it neatly into a backpack but when you unfold it and clip your phone onto the magnetic clamp, you’re getting that liquid-smooth footage artists adore right away. It’s compatible with both iPhones and Androids, so compatibility issues are out of the question.

One of the real game changers in this regard is ActiveTrack 6.0: In essence, this permits the gimbal to automatically follow your subject. If you’re filming your children playing in the park or your dog running around on the beach, the Osmo Mobile SE holds them in frame without you scrambling for controls. It even works well for solo creators: just set the phone up, get in frame and let the gimbal take center stage in your own video. The DJI Mimo app also adds to those capabilities and offers Smart templates and shot ideas that help you get more cinematic with less effort.

Another intelligent aspect is that it allows pairing with an Apple Watch and gives you a remote in your wrist. Tilt, pan, or begin recording without needing to rush back to your phone. For vloggers, that is a real boost for how you record hands‑free. Throw in quick editing using the LightCut app which contains easy-to-use templates and your raw shots start looking like mini-movies to share in minutes.

And then the real magic: 3-axis stabilization. DJI’s algorithm reacts in real time to eliminate jitters and bumps that ruin handheld video. Walking down urban streets, backpacking a path or merely shooting a travel blog at an airport, the video is stable and watchable. You can even switch between landscape shooting for cinematic use or portrait mode for social media updates with a single click of a button. And if you wish to get creative, the gimbal comes with various modes including Follow, Tilt Lock, FPV and Spin Shot which each unlock various artistic possibilities.

For a paltry $58, this deal is hard to hype. Most gimbals with this much stabilization and tracking tech run more, but DJI somehow crammed it all into a lightweight, tiny device for creators. Over 10,000 people bought it last month alone, and over 10,000 reviewers left it an average 4.5‑star rating. That should tell you everything you need to know about how dependable and adaptable it is.

See at Amazon



Source link

September 21, 2025 0 comments
0 FacebookTwitterPinterestEmail
How to Set Up Your New iPhone (2025)
Product Reviews

How to Set Up Your New iPhone (2025)

by admin September 21, 2025



Photograph: Simon Hill

A Quick Word on eSIM

Apple has supported eSIM technology since the iPhone XS. It’s basically an electronic SIM card instead of the tiny, physical chip you insert into your phone for cellular connectivity. The iPhone 14 series was the first to completely get rid of the physical SIM card slot (in the US). That means the only way to set up a cellular connection in the US is with an eSIM.

If you’re unfamiliar with the process, don’t worry, it’s very easy. During setup, you’ll be asked if you want to transfer your number from your old iPhone. Once you agree, it will take a minute or two to activate cellular data on your new iPhone, and you’re good to go. Keep in mind that your old physical SIM card will effectively stop working once you do this.

If you’re coming from an Android phone (with or without eSIM support), you will need to scan a QR code provided by your carrier. This might even be the case with an iPhone if you’re having trouble—just contact your carrier, and they should be able to sort things out quickly. Some Android phones may support the easier eSIM transfer process, like Google’s Pixel 10 series.

Photograph: Simon Hill

Adding Other Accounts and Setting Preferences

Otherwise, it’s just a matter of personalizing your preferences. Want to add an email account? Go to Settings, Apps, Mail, Mail Accounts, and choose Add Account. Want to fine-tune which apps refresh in the background (and drain your battery in the process)? Head to Settings, General, Background App Refresh, and toggle your little heart out. Want to save time on web forms? Go to Settings, Apps, Safari, Autofill, and prefill your contact info. You can also turn on the battery percentage view by going to Settings, Battery, and toggling on Battery Percentage.

Screenshot courtesy of Simon Hill

Your new device will be running iOS 26, which boasts some important new features, but you might consider changing these privacy settings right away.

One last recommendation: Get rid of the clutter. You can delete any of Apple’s many, many stock apps you don’t want (including, of course, Stocks). Do it! It feels great, I promise. We even have tips on the key iPhone settings to change. Oh, and while you’re digging around in Apple’s software, go to Settings and then Focus to take advantage of the Do Not Disturb mode that lets you cut down on the constant stream of alerts.

Hitting these basics should get you started on the right path. When you’re settled, maybe look into Apple Shortcuts. And if you’re done with your old iPhone, read our instructions on how to factory-reset it.

Power up with unlimited access to WIRED. Get best-in-class reporting and exclusive subscriber content that’s too important to ignore. Subscribe Today.



Source link

September 21, 2025 0 comments
0 FacebookTwitterPinterestEmail
Mobile icon
Gaming Gear

Adaptive Power in iOS 26 Could Boost Your iPhone Battery Life, but It’s Not on All Models

by admin September 19, 2025


When Apple announced the iPhone 17, iPhone 17 Pro and iPhone Air earlier this month, it touted improved battery life across the board and “all-day” battery for the iPhone Air, which has a physically smaller battery to fit inside its thin design. Some of that is due to physically larger batteries, but a new feature called Adaptive Power in iOS 26 is also contributing. And it’s available on any iPhone capable of running Apple Intelligence. 

Currently, the iPhone uses as much power as it needs to perform its tasks. You can extend the battery life by doing a number of things, such as decreasing screen brightness and turning off the always-on display. Or, if your battery level is starting to get dire, you can activate Low Power Mode, which reduces background activity like fetching mail and downloading data in addition to those screen adjustments. Low Power Mode also kicks in automatically when the battery level reaches 20%.

Don’t miss any of our unbiased tech content and lab-based reviews. Add CNET as a preferred Google source.

If Low Power Mode is the hammer that knocks down power consumption, Adaptive Power is the scalpel that intelligently trims energy savings here and there as needed. Based on Apple’s description that accompanies the control, the savings will be felt mostly in power-hungry situations such as recording videos, editing photos or perhaps even playing games:

“When your battery usage is higher than usual, iPhone can extend your battery life by making performance adjustments, such as lowering display brightness, allowing some activities to take longer, or turning on Low Power Mode at 20%.”

Apple says Adaptive Power takes about a week to analyze your usage behavior before it begins actively working. It works in the background without needing any management on your part. The iPhone user guide describes it as follows: “It uses on-device intelligence to predict when you’ll need extra battery power based on your recent usage patterns, then makes performance adjustments to help your battery last longer.”

Watch this: I’m Impressed With iOS 26. Apple Just Made iPhones Better

05:40

Which iPhone models can use Adaptive Power?

The feature uses AI to monitor and choose when its power-saving measures should be activated, so that means only phones compatible with Apple Intelligence get the feature. These are the models that have the option:

• iPhone 17
• iPhone 17 Pro and iPhone 17 Pro Max
• iPhone Air
• iPhone 16 and iPhone 16 Plus
• iPhone 16 Pro and iPhone 16 Pro Max
• iPhone 16e
• iPhone 15 Pro and iPhone 15 Pro Max

Although some iPad and Mac models support Apple Intelligence, the feature is only available on iPhones.

How to turn Adaptive Power on

On the iPhone 17, iPhone 17 Pro, iPhone 17 Pro Max and iPhone Air, Adaptive Power is on by default. For other models, you must opt in to use it. In iOS 26, you’ll find the Adaptive Power toggle in Settings > Battery > Power Mode. If you want to be alerted when the feature is active, turn on the Adaptive Power Notifications option.


Enlarge Image

In iOS 26, turn on the Adaptive Power option to help extend battery life.

Screenshots by Jeff Carlson/CNET

Adaptive Power sounds like an outgrowth of Gaming Mode, introduced in iOS 18, which routes all available processing and graphics power to the frontmost app and pauses other processes in order to deliver the best experience possible — at the notable expense of battery life.

When the iPhone is using Adaptive Power, a notification appears.

Screenshot by Jeff Carlson/CNET

What does this mean for your charging habits?

Although we all want as much battery life as possible all the time, judging by the description, it sounds as if Adaptive Power’s optimizations will not always be active, even if you leave the feature on. “When your battery usage is higher than usual” could include a limited number of situations. Still, considering that according to a CNET survey, 61% of people upgrade their phones because of battery life, a feature such as Adaptive Power could extend the longevity of their phones just by updating to iOS 26.

I also wonder whether slightly adjusting display brightness could be disruptive, but in my experience so far, it hasn’t been noticeable. Because the feature also selectively de-prioritizes processing tasks, the outward effects will likely be minimal.

Read more: Adaptive Power in iOS 26 Could Save the iPhone 17 Air From This Major Pitfall

We’ll get a better idea about how well Adaptive Power works as more people adopt iOS 26 and start buying new iPhone models. Also, remember that shortly after installing a major software update, it’s common to experience worse battery life as the system optimizes data in the background; Apple went so far as to remind customers that it’s a temporary side effect.



Source link

September 19, 2025 0 comments
0 FacebookTwitterPinterestEmail
Here’s how to buy the iPhone 17, 17 Pro, 17 Pro Max, and Air
Gaming Gear

Here’s how to buy the iPhone 17, 17 Pro, 17 Pro Max, and Air

by admin September 19, 2025


Apple’s iPhone 17, the 17 Pro, the 17 Pro Max, and the thin iPhone Air are now available in stores and online.

Beyond the Air’s shockingly slim design, Apple’s latest iPhone lineup features a number of notable updates worth upgrading for, especially if you have a phone that’s a few generations old. The standard iPhone 17 — which is a shockingly good value, by the way — now features a larger 6.3-inch display with ProMotion and an adaptive refresh rate of up to 120Hz. Meanwhile, the Pro model has returned to an aluminum build while adding the biggest battery of any iPhone yet. The iPhone Air and Pro models have a lot in common, including having a raised “plateau” bump on the back, which contains not just cameras but some internal components, too, leaving some extra room in the phones for larger batteries.

The iPhone 17, 17 Pro, 17 Pro Max, and Air start at $799, $1,099, $1,199, and $999, respectively, and each model starts with 256GB of storage. Below, you’ll find more information about each new device, along with where you can pick them up.

Where to buy the iPhone Air

The iPhone Air finally made its debut after months of rumors. It’s Apple’s thinnest iPhone ever at 5.6mm thick, and it features a 6.5-inch ProMotion display and a refresh rate of up to 120Hz. Apple says the design is its “most durable” yet, with a ceramic shield that encloses a titanium frame on both sides (also found in the iPhone 17 Pro). The device also sports a single 48-megapixel fusion camera on the back, an 18-megapixel Center Stage selfie cam on its front, along with an A19 Pro processor and Apple’s in-house C1X modem. Despite its thinner design, Apple says the Air features “all-day battery life,” with up to 27 hours of video playback, or 40 hours when the $99 iPhone Air MagSafe battery is attached.

The iPhone Air is available at Apple, Best Buy, and Walmart starting at $999 for 256GB of storage and going up to $1,399 for the 1TB model.

$999

The iPhone Air is Apple’s thinnest iPhone yet at 5.6mm, featuring a 6.5-inch ProMotion display, a 48MP fusion camera, and an 18MP front camera with Center Stage support. But its single rear camera and “meh” battery life mean it’s not for everyone.

Read More

Where to buy the iPhone 17

The iPhone 17 is Apple’s latest entry-level smartphone, and it’s the one to get this year. Notably, it includes a larger 6.3-inch 120Hz ProMotion display — ripped straight from the iPhone 17 Pro. The device also features a new A19 processor, and a dual 48-megapixel fusion camera system that has a main camera and an ultrawide camera. A new 18-megapixel Center Stage front camera features a square sensor, allowing users to take high-quality landscape-mode selfies without having to rotate their phone.

The phone is available in five colors (black, lavender, mist blue, sage, and white) and features a starting storage of 256GB. The iPhone 17 is now available at Apple, Best Buy, and Walmart starting at $799.

$799

The standard iPhone 17 has a 6.3-inch ProMotion display that can reach 3,000 nits of peak brightness, an A19 chip, and a 48MP dual camera system. It also features an 18MP Center Stage selfie camera with a square sensor, allowing users to take landscape selfies while holding the device vertically.

Read More

Where to buy the iPhone 17 Pro and Pro Max

The iPhone 17 Pro and 17 Pro Max look different than previous Pro models. While they keep the same 6.3-inch and 6.9-inch displays, respectively, Apple has made a few tweaks to the design. One of the first things you’ll probably notice is the plateau camera bump on the back, which houses a trio of 48-megapixel fusion cameras. Both devices also boast an upgraded 18-megapixel selfie camera with support for Center Stage, and a more powerful A19 Pro processor inside. The Pro models feature larger batteries than before, too, with the 17 Pro Max delivering the best battery life ever in an iPhone, according to Apple.

The iPhone 17 Pro and 17 Pro Max are now available alongside Apple’s other models. The smaller Pro starts at $1,099 for 256GB of storage, while the 17 Pro Max starts at $1,199 for 256GB of storage. For the first time ever, Apple is offering a 2TB configuration of the 17 Pro Max for $1,999. You can nab the 17 Pro from Apple, Best Buy, and Walmart; the 17 Pro Max is also available at Apple, Best Buy, and Walmart.

$1099

The iPhone 17 Pro features a 6.3-inch OLED panel with a 120Hz refresh rate, and it’s powered by an A19 Pro chip. It features a 48MP triple camera system, plus a new “plateau” bar on the back, which Apple says creates additional space for internal components, including a larger battery.

Read More

$1199

The larger iPhone 17 Pro Max sports a 6.9-inch OLED screen and the best battery life ever in an iPhone. It has most of the same features as the smaller iPhone 17 Pro, though, but offers storage up to 2TB — a first in the iPhone line.

Read More

US carrier deals and incentives

Rather than pay all at once for your phone of choice, several US carriers are offering deals if you purchase or upgrade through them. Just keep in mind that taking advantage of a carrier deal will lock your phone to that network for a period of time, and likely mean you’ll break up the total price into payments that may increase your monthly bill.

  • Verizon is offering new and existing customers who trade-in an eligible device up to $1,099 toward an iPhone 17 Pro with a new or upgraded smartphone line on an Unlimited Ultimate plan (minimum $90 per month with autopay, plus taxes and fees for 36 months); the trade-in / promo credit is applied over 36 months. Meanwhile, Verizon is offering new and existing customers who trade in an eligible device up to $1,100 off the iPhone 17 Pro Max with a new or upgraded smartphone line on an Unlimited Ultimate plan, with the trade-in / promo credit applied over 36 months. For upgrades, phones that are traded in must be active on an account for 60 days prior to purchasing a new device.
  • T-Mobile is offering up to $1,100 off any 2025 iPhone in 24 monthly bill credits with an eligible trade-in and qualifying service ($100+ per month with auto pay, plus taxes and fees). Meanwhile, you can get up to $830 (no trade-in required) via 24 monthly bill credits when you switch to T-Mobile and add a line on one of its Experience plans.
  • AT&T is offering new and existing customers up to $1,100 off an iPhone 17 Pro or 17 Pro Max, and up to $830 off an iPhone 17 or iPhone Air, with the credit being applied over 36 months. The offer is available for new and existing customers with an eligible trade-in in any condition, and activation of a new line or an upgrade of an existing line. For new customers, AT&T says the offer requires a postpaid unlimited voice and data plan starting at $75.99 before the discounts.

Update, September 19th: Updated to note the new 2025 iPhone models are now available in stores and online.

0 CommentsFollow topics and authors from this story to see more like this in your personalized homepage feed and to receive email updates.

  • Brandon RussellClose

    Brandon Russell

    Posts from this author will be added to your daily email digest and your homepage feed.

    PlusFollow

    See All by Brandon Russell

  • AppleClose

    Apple

    Posts from this topic will be added to your daily email digest and your homepage feed.

    PlusFollow

    See All Apple

  • Apple EventClose

    Apple Event

    Posts from this topic will be added to your daily email digest and your homepage feed.

    PlusFollow

    See All Apple Event

  • DealsClose

    Deals

    Posts from this topic will be added to your daily email digest and your homepage feed.

    PlusFollow

    See All Deals

  • iPhoneClose

    iPhone

    Posts from this topic will be added to your daily email digest and your homepage feed.

    PlusFollow

    See All iPhone

  • TechClose

    Tech

    Posts from this topic will be added to your daily email digest and your homepage feed.

    PlusFollow

    See All Tech



Source link

September 19, 2025 0 comments
0 FacebookTwitterPinterestEmail
DAAPrivacyRightIcon
Gaming Gear

Ready to download iOS 26? See if your iPhone is eligible for the free update first

by admin September 19, 2025


Now that iOS 26 is available to download for many iPhone users — here’s how to install it — it’s time to check your phone to see if you’re eligible for the update. The new OS became available on Monday this week, along with iPadOS 26 and Apple’s other operating system updates.

If your phone is compatible with the latest OS, you’ll notice substantial changes when you install the new update. You may have already heard about “Liquid Glass,” which (intentional or not) is sort of like Apple’s take on the old Windows Vista design language. That’s the most notable change, but we spent two weeks test-driving many of the other features included in the update — you can check out our hands-on iOS 26 preview for more impressions.

Not sure if you have an eligible smartphone or tablet but also don’t want to upgrade? No worries, we’ll help you find out if your devices will be able to run iOS 26.

While Apple didn’t nix any iPhones from its eligibility list last year, that’s not the case for 2025, as a few models are getting the axe this time around. All iPhone 8 models and the iPhone X were the last to receive the boot in 2023, and this year, iPhones released in 2018 will be left behind.

You can find a full list of iPhones and iPads that support iOS 26 and iPadOS 26 below. To see everything you get with the latest OS updates, you can check out our big rundown of what to expect from iOS 26. Additionally, here’s everything Apple revealed at the iPhone 17 launch event, including the all-new iPhone Air. (Check out Engadget’s liveblog of the event for full details.)

These three iOS 18 iPhones aren’t compatible with iOS 26

Unlike last year, a trio of iPhones won’t be eligible to download the newest iOS. These three models that were first released in 2018 won’t be coming to the iOS 26 party:

iPhones compatible with iOS 26

Per Apple’s site, the devices listed below will be compatible with iOS 26. In short, if you have an iPhone that was announced in 2019 or later, you’re in the clear:

  • iPhone SE (second generation or later)

iPads compatible with iPadOS 26

Meanwhile, the iPads listed below are eligible to download iPadOS 26:

  • iPad Pro 12.9‑inch (3rd generation and later)

  • iPad Pro 11‑inch (1st generation and later)

  • iPad Air (3rd generation and later, including M2 and M3)

  • iPad (8th generation and later, including A16)

  • iPad mini (5th generation and later, including A17 Pro)

What if I don’t want to buy a new iPhone?

If you want to continue using your older iPhone that isn’t supported by iOS 26, that’s fine. However, you’ll eventually miss out on security updates which could potentially put your phone at risk for malware and other threats. Additionally, some apps may stop working if they require a certain version of iOS or later. And, of course, you won’t be able to access the latest features iOS 26 offers.

Should I upgrade to iOS 18.7 or iOS 26?

When you first open Software Update in Settings, you’ll notice two different upgrade options: iOS 18.7 and iOS 26. Apple released the former to address security issues, so you can at least download that one if you’re unsure about all the big changes on iOS 26. It also gives you more time to wait for Apple to take care of any bugs on the new OS.

However, if you’re excited to finally have the Liquid Glass aesthetic on your phone and use all the new features iOS 26 has to offer, go ahead and install that one. After all, Apple had all summer to weed through the most problematic bugs during its beta phase and usually releases a new update shortly after the initial launch.

iOS 26 features to try out first

Liquid Glass design: Your home screen is getting revamped with new app icons, including dark mode and all-clear options. You’ll also notice buttons with a new floating design. Liquid Glass, in Apple’s terms, was designed to make all of the company’s operating systems more visually cohesive.

Phone app redesign: You can finally scroll through contacts, recent calls and voicemail messages all on one screen. It also comes with a new feature called Hold Assist that’ll notify you when an agent comes to the phone so you can avoid the elevator music.

Live Translate: iOS 26 brings the ability to have a conversation via phone call or text message with someone who speaks another language. Live Translate will translate your conversation in real time.

Polls feature: Coming to group messages in the Messages app, chat members can now create polls. This can help prevent the unwanted 30+ messages when it comes to deciding which restaurant you’re meeting at this weekend.

New lock screen options: More customizable iPhone lock screen options are available with iOS 26, including a cooler clock, 3D wallpaper effects, more widgets and better focus mode options.

Snooze longer (or shorter): Say goodbye to the 9-minute snooze setting in your alarms (if you want). You now have the option to change your snooze time from one to 15 minutes.

Fresh Camera app design: You’ll find the Camera app is simpler to navigate in iOS 26, with all the buttons and menus located in convenient spots. That means less swiping, more photo taking. Plus, there’s a new feature that tells you if your lens is too dirty.

Screenshot revamps: When you take a screenshot, you now have the option to search for the image on Google (maybe you’re looking for a sweater you saw on a celeb) and you can ask ChatGPT questions about the photo — all from the edit screen. It’s like a reverse image search but without all the hard work.



Source link

September 19, 2025 0 comments
0 FacebookTwitterPinterestEmail
The Best iPhone Value in Years
Product Reviews

The Best iPhone Value in Years

by admin September 19, 2025


Next to the ultra-thin iPhone Air and the packed-to-gills iPhone 17 Pro/17 Pro Max, the iPhone 17 looks unremarkable—boring, even. The three new colors other than black and white are less vibrant than the shades the iPhone 16 came in. But peel back a few layers and things become clear: the iPhone 17, starting at $799, is in fact a remarkable value, providing a ton of bang for your buck.

Besides the slight growth of the screen from 6.1 inches to 6.3 inches, the iPhone 17 is cosmetically similar to the iPhone 16. If the iPhone Air is the new premium model and the iPhone 17 Pros are the most powerful, then the iPhone 17 is the everyman’s iPhone. It has more than enough solid upgrades over last year’s model, but not as many as the iPhone 17 Pros.

The iPhone 17 is not going to wow anyone with its industrial design, but underneath it all, it’s a trooper that goes the distance. It’s the iPhone you get if you want the Goldilocks experience.

iPhone 17

The iPhone 17 offers the best bang for buck in an iPhone. It’s a value proposition that’ll last for at least five years.

Pros

  • Finally 120Hz, always-on display
  • Nearly A19 Pro-level performance
  • Great Center Stage camera for selfies
  • 48-megapixel ultrawide camera
  • Excellent battery life

Cons

  • Dull colors
  • Only USB-C 2 speeds

Basic design

© Adriano Contreras / Gizmodo

Take the iPhone 16 design, stretch it a teensy bit up, and you get the iPhone 17. That may sound harsh, but it’s true: the iPhone 17 is 5.89 inches tall versus the 5.81-inch iPhone 16. Somehow it’s 0.01 inches narrower, though. It’s unlikely you’ll feel that it’s 0.24 ounces heavier, either; I didn’t.

If you were hoping for more material change, you’re gonna be disappointed. I don’t think it’s worth fretting over since the iPhone 17 feels great in the hand. Not that most people will care since they’ll slap a case over it.

Apple has stuck with an aluminum frame and gently curved sides that melt into the cover and back glass. The back has a vertically aligned pill-shaped bump for the dual cameras. What you can’t see with the naked eye is the improved scratch resistance for the screen. Apple is using Ceramic Shield 2, its second-gen cover material with increased durability, which Apple claims is 3x more scratch resistant than the iPhone 16’s first-gen Ceramic Shield screen. Apple also says Ceramic Shield 2 cuts down on glare. It doesn’t eliminate reflections from what I could see, and any reduction in glare is minimal at best. Still, I’ll take the increased scratch resistance. I asked Apple if Ceramic Shield 2 now means that keys or sand or pocket lint won’t easily scratch it, but the company clarified that its durability claims are not for a single instance where there’s unfortunate contact with some scratchy objects; it’s over time. Take that for what you will.

Colors are subjective, but if you ask me, I think the iPhone 17 colors are dull. Besides black and white, there’s lavender, sage, and mist blue. Sage looks the best to me, but it’s still a muted green. I think it’s time for Apple to bring back red or coral or pacific blue. Give the regular iPhone some soul to stand out between the iPhone Air and iPhone Pros.

A more “pro” display

© Adriano Contreras / Gizmodo

That 0.08 inches of extra height means Apple was able to squeeze in a slightly larger 6.3-inch screen versus the 6.1-inch display on the iPhone 16. This is the same screen as the iPhone 17 Pro, with the same resolution, same 3,000 nits of peak outdoor brightness, the same 120 Hz “ProMotion” refresh rate, and the same always-on display. At last, Apple’s regular iPhone series isn’t saddled with a 60Hz refresh rate.

To my eyes, there’s no visible difference between the screen on the iPhone 17 and the 17 Pro. Both Super Retina XDR displays look crisp, have excellent and wide viewing angles, and get more than bright enough indoors and outdoors. I neglected to mention this in my iPhone Air and iPhone 17 Pros review, but I really wish Apple would include something akin to the “Aqua Touch 2.0 technology” in the OnePlus 13 that makes the touchscreen more responsive when there’s liquid on it or your fingers are wet. The slightest droplet of water on the iPhone 17 still confuses the screen into thinking you’re touching it when you’re not.

Nearly pro performance

Unlike Android phones, where performance can take a major downturn if the chipset maker (Qualcomm, Samsung, MediaTek, etc.) has architecture or production problems, Apple’s A-series silicon just steadily gets better year after year.

I’ve long stopped putting too much emphasis on synthetic benchmarks like Geekbench 6, but just to see how much less powerful the iPhone 17’s A19 chip is compared to the A19 Pro in the iPhone Air and iPhone 17 Pros, I ran the CPU test. The results truly shocked me. Using the average of three tests taken on the iPhone 17, iPhone Air, and iPhone 17 Pro, the iPhone 17 was 1.6% more powerful than the Air and 1.3% less powerful than the 17 Pro for single-core tasks.

© Adriano Contreras / Gizmodo

The A19 Pro chip pulls ahead of the A19 for multicore applications, but not by much: the Air is 5% more powerful and 17 Pro is 9.48% more powerful than the iPhone 17. I thought for sure with one less GPU core (five instead of six) that the iPhone 17 Pros would be more powerful by a larger margin, but that doesn’t seem to be the case.

That’s great news if you’re worried about getting FOMO from not having the A19 Pro chip in the iPhone 17. But there’s another thing to consider: thermals and sustained performance. Compared to the iPhone 17 Pros, which have a vapor chamber that keeps temperatures down and spreads heat across the phone more uniformly when apps push the GPU hard, the iPhone 17 gets warmer a lot quicker. And if it gets too hot, it takes a little longer to cool down. Generally, my iPhone 17 review unit never got toasty, but if you’re planning to play 3D games like Genshin Impact or shoot a lot of 4K video with the phone or do either under the sun in hot environments, you may run into the infamous “”iPhone needs to cool down” sooner.

The Center Stage camera is legit

© Adriano Contreras / Gizmodo

The iPhone 17 has some solid camera upgrades, too. The dual rear camera is now a “Fusion” camera consisting of a 48-megapixel main camera and now a higher-resolution 48-megapixel ultrawide (up from 12 megapixels on the iPhone 16). Photos look about the same to me compared to the same shots taken with my iPhone 16 Pro. Even the ultrawide shots look nearly identical; okay, they’re slightly brighter, but that’s nothing dialing up the brightness slider in the Photos app couldn’t easily handle. There’s no telephoto lens on the iPhone 17; if you want that, you’ll need to step up to the iPhone 17 Pros, which have a 4x telephoto lens that’s also capable of 8x “optical-quality” shots. You do get the 2x “optical-quality” lens from the main 48-megapixel image sensor, but that was already a feature on the iPhone 16.

As I said in my iPhone Air and iPhone 17 Pros review, the Center Stage camera is the biggest upgrade for photography and video since Apple first added a front-facing camera on the iPhone 4. The 18-megapixel Center Stage camera is a square image sensor, which can capture horizontal selfies even if you’re holding the phone vertically. You can also take vertical photos if you hold the iPhone 17 horizontally. The feature also works for video recording. It’s a very cool feature that everyone is going to appreciate, not just Gen Z TikTokers. The Dual Capture mode that records from the front and rear cameras is also very fun, especially for reaction-type videos.

Since the iPhone 17 is not a “pro” iPhone, it doesn’t have the more advanced recording features found in the iPhone 17 Pros, like ProRAW for stills, ProRes for video, Apple Log 2, or genlock. Slow-motion video recording is also limited to 1080p at 240 fps compared to 4K at 120 fps on the 17 Pros. Lastly, you don’t get the “studio-quality” microphones found in the 17 Pros. I don’t think any of these “missing” features makes the iPhone 17 a dealbreaker, but it does feel like Apple could have included them if it wanted to, other than to feature-lock them to the higher-end iPhones.

And just like I said in my iPhone 17 Pros review, I think Camera Control is still largely wasted. It’s there, but not more useful than as a shortcut to launching the Camera app. I much prefer the camera shortcut on Android, which has been a thing for over a decade: double-clicking the power button.

More battery to doomscroll

© Adriano Contreras / Gizmodo

No amount of battery life is ever going to be enough, but I’ll gladly take more hours gen-over-gen. In the iPhone 17’s case, battery life has increased by 8 hours compared to the iPhone 16—up to 30 hours versus 22 hours (for local video playback, which is how Apple measures battery life). It’s 3 fewer hours than the iPhone 17 Pro, which gets up to 33 hours.

Using the iPhone 17 like a normal human being (because who is insane enough to watch local video for 30 hours straight), I found the iPhone 17 lasted about as long as my iPhone 16 Pro, which Apple says gets up to 27 hours for video playback. Give or take, I was able to go from off the charger at 8 a.m. to 6 p.m. on a single charge with around 20 to 25% left in the tank. That’s great battery life and you can easily go two days with light usage.

More for the same money

© Adriano Contreras / Gizmodo

If all of that doesn’t sound like a good enough value, how about double the storage (256GB versus 128GB) versus the iPhone 16—for the same $799? That’s a good deal. Yeah, inflation and all that, but that’s still a damn good deal for everything that you get.

There’s a $300 difference between the iPhone 17 and the 17 Pro this year, which is $100 more than last year. For most people, the iPhone 17 has more than enough, and the extra $300 can be pocketed or put towards an accessory like the new $250 AirPods Pro 3.

I truly couldn’t find much to complain about on the iPhone 17. iOS is iOS. If you don’t like the “walled” Apple garden, there’s nothing new to report here, since it’s the same deal. Apple Intelligence, unfortunately, is still underwhelming and we’ll have to wait until next year to see the new AI-powered Siri. If there’s anything to really gripe about, I wish the USB 2 transfer speeds for the USB-C port were the faster USB 3 on the iPhone 16 and 17 Pros.

If you’ve reached this far and you’ve been nodding your head at all the new stuff and don’t feel an urge to jump up to the 17 Pros, congrats, maybe the iPhone 17 is for you. If you still have an iPhone from recent years and it’s not having any issues, just update to iOS 26 (unless you really hate Liquid Glass). The best thing about iPhones is that they last a long time and Apple supports them with annual software updates for at least five years, and security updates for a few years after. You get a lot with the new iPhone 17, but you also may not need one if yours works just fine. For people switching from Android—you’re either gonna love Apple’s ecosystem or hate it and crawl back.



Source link

September 19, 2025 0 comments
0 FacebookTwitterPinterestEmail
Apple iPhone 17 Pro and iPhone 17 Pro Max review
Product Reviews

Apple iPhone 17 Pro and iPhone 17 Pro Max review

by admin September 19, 2025


It’s a tricky year to review the iPhone Pro. It’s long been the go-to choice for anyone who wants an iPhone with the nicest screen, longest battery, and great cameras. But the display is no longer unique to the Pro, cameras have largely gotten “good enough” on most phones, and Apple has a new model, the Air, which might be even more compelling.

This is the first time the iPhone Pro feels like it’s truly targeted at creators — people who need the longest battery life and the best cameras to record video and photos. I’m not a creator, but I’ve always bought the Pro Max for its bigger, higher-refresh-rate screen as much as for its beefy battery. But now I don’t have to for the former, and neither do you, because, also for the first time, the regular iPhone 17 has the same bright, smooth, always-on screen as the Pro (and Air). And it starts at $799, compared to the $1,099 starting price of the iPhone 17 Pro and $1,199 for the iPhone 17 Pro Max.

The iPhone 17 is the new iPhone for most people, and the iPhone Air is the most exciting new iPhone, at least given its totally new ultra-thin design. So the iPhone 17 Pro is for people who really want more camera options, even longer battery life, slightly faster charging, and… orange.

$1099

The Good

  • Solid battery life
  • Brighter screen outdoors
  • Center Stage camera
  • Faster charging
  • Doesn’t get blazing hot
  • Orange

The Bad

  • What’s up with Siri?
  • Heavier than last year.

$1199

The Good

  • Solid battery life
  • Brighter screen outdoors
  • Center Stage camera
  • Faster charging
  • Doesn’t get blazing hot
  • Orange

The Bad

  • What’s up with Siri?
  • Heavier than last year.

The iPhone 17 Pro Max in orange really pops.

I like the new look of the iPhone 17 Pro. It has rounded edges again, which we haven’t seen since the iPhone 11 Pro. I prefer them to the sharp sides on the other models. And I dig the contrast between the lighter orange of the ceramic-and-glass square panel and the darker orange of the aluminum body. The color difference is also a bit of a guide. It screams “This is where the accessories go,” as if to tell the user, “Plop the MagSafe charger here.” Or “Stick the magnetic wallet on me.” (The wallet covers the rectangle perfectly on the iPhone 17 Pro.) The orange is bold, arguably more so than any other color Apple has launched on a Pro phone. I love it, but there are navy or white versions for folks who don’t. (Perhaps coincidentally, navy blue and orange are the colors of Auburn University, where Apple CEO Tim Cook went for undergrad.)

The camera bar (or “plateau,” as Apple calls it) replaces the small camera island on the earlier Pro models. It houses the three 48-megapixel cameras: main, wide-angle, and telephoto, the last of which is an upgrade from the 12-megapixel sensor in last year’s phones. The cameras sit above Apple’s new “Ceramic Shield” back, which is more resistant to cracks if you drop the phone. The front glass is also more scratch-resistant.

The Pro and Pro Max are also available in blue, but there isn’t a black option.

Quick anecdote: The iPhone 17 Pro Max fell out of my pocket and face down onto a rocky trail during a camping trip with my son and was fine. My 16 Pro Max probably would have been, too. And not to belabor the orange, but it was easy to spot on the ground. During a hike, I couldn’t see a big difference in the new max peak brightness compared to my iPhone 16 Pro Max. No huge surprise there; we’re quickly approaching the darker days of autumn, and that high brightness is reserved for the brightest of days. Regardless, most phone screens look OK in direct sunlight now, unless the brightness is being throttled from overheating while you’re on the beach.

I don’t like that the Pro Max is slightly heavier, at 8.2 ounces, right between the 8-ounce titanium iPhone 16 Pro Max and the 8.4-ounce steel iPhone 14 Pro Max. After touting titanium’s strength for two years, Apple switched to an aluminum body for the Pro, paired with the new vapor chamber, to help keep it cooler during processor-intensive tasks, like rendering videos or gaming.

That seems to have paid off. The phone was warm when I loaded up Destiny: Rising and when I played about 45 minutes of War Thunder, but didn’t feel sizzly right over the processor, an area that can get uncomfortably hot on my iPhone 16 Pro Max when I’m playing games or running any form of local AI.

Speaking of power-intensive tasks, let’s talk about the battery. Apple hollowed out a block of aluminum to fit the biggest battery possible inside the iPhone 17 Pro and Pro Max — promising up to 39 hours of battery life on the larger model versus 33 for the iPhone 16 Pro Max while watching video. Video playback time is a bizarre battery stat for a phone, but it’s one Apple sticks to.

On my first full day with the 17 Pro Max, the phone went a full day of regular use, not video playback, from 7:23AM to midnight, and still had 16 percent battery left. That was a light day of use, with only five hours and 15 minutes of screen-on time, though it may have still been syncing all of my saved data to the review unit.

The iPhone 17 Pro Max’s screen gets brighter than ever.

Battery life improved by the second full day. I took it off the charger at 7:32AM and hit 50 percent battery at 8:43PM, with five hours and 11 minutes of screen-on time. I’d mainly used it for my regular stuff: Slack, text messages, Safari, browsing Amazon, taking photos, and chatting with friends. I usually charge my iPhone 16 Pro Max around 8PM, but I still had half a battery left on the 17 Pro Max. It seems like a significant improvement so far. Your mileage is going to vary depending on what you do, and it’s too early to render an overall verdict.

The Pro Max has the biggest battery you’re going to get from any iPhone this year. There are also some upgrades to help it charge faster. The Pro models, like the regular, support 40-watt wired charging, which juices the battery to 50 percent in 20 minutes. And MagSafe charging is slightly faster, too. If you have a 30-watt charger, the Pro 17, like the regular iPhone 17, can juice with MagSafe up to 50 percent in 30 minutes versus 35 minutes on last year’s phone (the Air can do the same with a 20-watt charger, but has a smaller battery).

The iPhone 17 Pro and Pro Max are aluminum again this year.

Both phones are a hair thicker but have larger batteries than last year.

The rear panel has a Ceramic Shield that’s more resistant to cracks. It’s that area around the Apple logo.

The cameras are the reason many people buy Apple’s iPhone Pros. They’re the phones that offer telephoto lenses, have better image stabilization, record sharper video, and include ProRes support. This year, Apple added several additional “Pro” features, like Genlock support, which lets videographers sync up timecodes across multiple cameras, and support for ProRes RAW recording — though you’ll need an external drive for that one.

Pro stuff aside, Center Stage is the best new camera feature, and it’s available on all iPhone 17 models. You’ve probably heard of it. On Macs and iPads, it allows the camera to follow your head — or your whole body — as you talk to someone on a video call. That’s on the iPhone now in the 18-megapixel selfie camera, where it goes one step further, thanks to a new square sensor. Center Stage can automatically detect if there are more people inside a frame and expand to a landscape photo to fit everyone in (you can also switch to landscape mode manually). That means you don’t have to juggle your phone and try to turn it sideways for a landscape photo; you can just hold it in portrait mode. It’s awesome, it works well, and it’s a unique solution to a problem I’d never really thought about.

Choose from .5x, 1x, 4x or 8x.

The front-facing cameras on all iPhone 17 models allow you to capture from the front and back cameras at the same time while recording, which is neat if you want to record a video of yourself showing somebody where you are, or how to do something, though it’s not a feature I see myself using.

Now to the main cameras. All three rear sensors are now 48 megapixels, including the telephoto. Apple has said this is like having eight different lenses. My colleague Antonio already took issue with the phrasing. On a purely surface level, though, I dig the options, and it’s one reason why I’d maybe choose this over the iPhone Air or iPhone 17, which don’t give you as many choices. The ultrawide, 1x, and 4x let you shoot in full 48-megapixel resolution with RAW or HEIC, while the others capture 12-megapixel pictures. Antonio did a better breakdown of how this works, but it’s a mixture of marketing, cropping, and computational photography.

The telephoto camera got a resolution bump, but it also downshifted from a 5x zoom on the 16 Pro models to 4x, making it a 100mm-equivalent lens, compared to roughly 120mm on the previous models. The 5x lens often felt slightly too long for head-and-shoulders portraits; 100mm feels just right. And with the higher-resolution sensor, there’s now a 2x crop zoom mode available to the telephoto lens for an 8x zoom (200mm equivalent). That’s just long enough to ensure that your photo of Alcatraz taken from the Marina Green in San Francisco doesn’t look like an unrecognizable speck, and the quality is more than enough for a social media post.

PreviousNext

1/2Taken with iPhone 17 Pro using 4x telephoto setting.

The shift to 48 megapixels also improves digital zoom quality; you can even get slightly more detailed 5x digital zoom photos from the 17 Pro compared to the optical 5x on the 16 Pro, since more pixels will generally do that if all else is equal. Altogether a smart update for this year’s telephoto.

That 2x crop zoom on the main camera remains a reliable option for environmental portraits and just a little extra reach when you need it. This year, Apple updated some of its processing on the 2x mode to bring out better detail in things like fabric; it’s subtle, but you can see the difference in a couple of side-by-side shots viewed at 100 percent. It’s not a big thing, but 2x images are just a little cleaner — kind of a nice bonus feature.

The 2x crop zoom on the iPhone 17 Pro (right) is just a little more detailed than on the 16 Pro (left). You can see the difference in the texture of the microfiber cloth, particularly in the shadows.

There’s one thing I still can’t really get off my mind, though, and that’s just how far behind Apple is in generative AI. Not long ago, when I talked to people about gadgets or tech, everyone wanted to know what was new with Apple. Now, everyone just wants to talk about AI and how I’m using it or how it’s going to replace or not replace jobs. And it’s being baked into every other piece of hardware on the market from every other big player, like Google, Meta, Microsoft, and Amazon.

While Apple has launched some of the Apple Intelligence features it announced last year, we still don’t have a fully upgraded Siri that you can talk to like Google Gemini. And, sure, you can load the Gemini or ChatGPT apps, or make Siri pull from ChatGPT on the iPhone, but that’s not what I’m talking about. I recently bought a Pixel 10 Pro — it’s an excellent phone — and I love the way it integrates AI at a system level. Google’s Magic Cue, which runs on-device, can scan your inbox and calendar and prompt you to insert important dates and places right into your text messages when it sees you talking about a specific topic. Pixel Screenshots, which launched last year, can remind you of music or books you’ve saved when you open Spotify. And Gemini, which you can pull up by voice or by holding the power button, is just infinitely smarter and more useful than Siri.

I don’t think people are buying phones for these features yet, but the industry is moving awfully fast, and millions of people are using AI every day. It should be a highlight feature on the iPhone, front and center, but it is relegated to the background for things like translation and photos, and in other places where Google also uses it. It just feels like a giant void.

The iPhone 17 Pro Max and the iPhone Air. A tough choice.

The iPhone 17 Pro and iPhone 17 Pro Max offer a lot of compelling features. Despite a redesign that might otherwise suggest a considerable upgrade, most of the changes are modest. The iPhone 17 Pro and Pro Max are the best iPhones if you’re after the longest battery life, best cameras, and the most power from Apple’s 2025 lineup. They’re also the top options if you want orange. However, most people should consider the more affordable iPhone 17. It features the same screen and will do everything most people need. Or, check out the Air if, like me, you’re just curious what it’s like to use a very thin iPhone. Worst-case scenario: return it and get the Pro. In orange.

Agree to continue: Apple iPhone 17, 17 Pro, 17 Pro Max, and iPhone Air

Every smart device now requires you to agree to a series of terms and conditions before you can use it — contracts that no one actually reads. It’s impossible for us to read and analyze every single one of these agreements. But we’re going to start counting exactly how many times you have to hit “agree” to use devices when we review them since these are agreements most people don’t read and definitely can’t negotiate.

To use any of the iPhone 17 (and iPhone Air) models, you have to agree to:

  • The iOS terms and conditions, which you can have sent to you by email
  • Apple’s warranty agreement, which you can have sent to you by email

These agreements are nonnegotiable, and you can’t use the phone at all if you don’t agree to them.

The iPhone also prompts you to set up Apple Cash and Apple Pay at setup, which further means you have to agree to:

  • The Apple Cash agreement, which specifies that services are actually provided by Green Dot Bank and Apple Payments Inc. and further consists of the following agreements:
  • The Apple Cash terms and conditions
  • The electronic communications agreement
  • The Green Dot Bank privacy policy
  • Direct payments terms and conditions
  • Direct payments privacy notice
  • Apple Payments Inc. license

If you add a credit card to Apple Pay, you have to agree to:

  • The terms from your credit card provider, which do not have an option to be emailed

Final tally: two mandatory agreements, seven optional agreements for Apple Cash, and one optional agreement for Apple Pay.

Correction: The iPhone 14 Pro had a steel frame, not aluminum. The iPhone 17, not the Air, charges to 50% in 20 minutes.

0 CommentsFollow topics and authors from this story to see more like this in your personalized homepage feed and to receive email updates.

  • Todd HaseltonClose

    Todd Haselton

    Deputy Editor, Reviews and Commerce

    Posts from this author will be added to your daily email digest and your homepage feed.

    PlusFollow

    See All by Todd Haselton

  • Allison JohnsonClose

    Allison Johnson

    Posts from this author will be added to your daily email digest and your homepage feed.

    PlusFollow

    See All by Allison Johnson

  • AppleClose

    Apple

    Posts from this topic will be added to your daily email digest and your homepage feed.

    PlusFollow

    See All Apple

  • iOSClose

    iOS

    Posts from this topic will be added to your daily email digest and your homepage feed.

    PlusFollow

    See All iOS

  • iPhoneClose

    iPhone

    Posts from this topic will be added to your daily email digest and your homepage feed.

    PlusFollow

    See All iPhone

  • MobileClose

    Mobile

    Posts from this topic will be added to your daily email digest and your homepage feed.

    PlusFollow

    See All Mobile

  • Phone ReviewsClose

    Phone Reviews

    Posts from this topic will be added to your daily email digest and your homepage feed.

    PlusFollow

    See All Phone Reviews

  • ReviewsClose

    Reviews

    Posts from this topic will be added to your daily email digest and your homepage feed.

    PlusFollow

    See All Reviews

  • TechClose

    Tech

    Posts from this topic will be added to your daily email digest and your homepage feed.

    PlusFollow

    See All Tech



Source link

September 19, 2025 0 comments
0 FacebookTwitterPinterestEmail
An iPhone with clear app icons.
Gaming Gear

iOS 26 Brings All These New Ringtones to Your iPhone

by admin September 18, 2025


Apple released iOS 26 on Monday, a few months after the company announced it at the June Worldwide Developers Conference. The update brings call screening, new ringtones and lots of hidden feature for your iPhone. It also brings seven new ringtones to your device.

Many of the new ringtones are remixed versions of the Reflection ringtone. One version includes what sounds like woodwind instruments, while another sounds like a synthwave song you’d hear in Cyberpunk 2077.

Here are all the latest ringtones that Apple could bring to your iPhone this year and what they sound like.

Don’t miss any of our unbiased tech content and lab-based reviews. Add CNET as a preferred Google source on Chrome.

All the latest ringtones

You can find all the new ringtones by going to Settings > Sounds & Haptics > Ringtone.

There are seven total new ringtones, but six of them are remixes of Reflections, the default ringtone of iOS 18. If you tap Reflection in the Ringtone menu, a dropdown menu unfurls to reveal these new ringtones.

  • Buoyant
  • Dreamer 
  • Pond
  • Pop
  • Reflected
  • Surge

Watch this: Apple’s New iOS 26 Ringtones Put a New Twist on ‘Reflection’

00:39

The standout ringtone for me is Dreamer. It’s about 45 seconds long and if I picked this as my ringtone I’d listen to it all the way through each time someone called. For a ringtone it’s a fun track and when I first heard it I was waiting for someone like Wiz Khalifa to start singing a few bars.

There’s also a new ringtone called Little Bird. It’s a new option you can find in the ringtone list.

Watch this: Listen to Apple’s new ‘Little Bird’ Ringtone in iOS 26

00:20

For more on iOS 26, here’s my review of the OS, how to reduce the Liquid Glass effects in the update and how to enable call screening on your device. You can also check out our iOS 26 cheat sheet.



Source link

September 18, 2025 0 comments
0 FacebookTwitterPinterestEmail
Apple iPhone 17 review: the one to get
Product Reviews

Apple iPhone 17 review: the one to get

by admin September 18, 2025


For a while now, choosing the standard iPhone has meant missing out. It’s not just that you missed out on classic “pro” features like a more powerful processor or a telephoto lens — it’s that you missed out on core make-your-phone better stuff. Stuff like the Dynamic Island or the Action Button or a screen that gets bright enough to read outdoors. Apple has slowly whittled down that list by bringing the most important features over to its standard phone, but the two biggest exclusions have, until now, remained: the always-on display and high-refresh-rate screen.

This year, they’ve finally arrived. And for the first time in a while, choosing the standard iPhone no longer means missing out.

I’ve been testing the iPhone 17 for the past week, and I can say that the addition of these two features has meaningfully improved the experience of using the base iPhone. The iPhone 17 feels faster, easier to use, and more convenient as a result of these upgrades. They’re upgrades so obvious and essential that my only gripe is how long Apple waited to make them standard.

$799

The Good

  • Always-on-display makes it vastly more useful
  • High-refresh rate makes using the phone smoother
  • The cameras are solid
  • Battery life lasts well through the day
  • The price isn’t going up
  • No redesign, but the green is nice

The Bad

  • Zoom capabilities are weak compared to the Pro
  • Gets hot during heavy gaming sessions
  • Apple Intelligence is still somewhere between useless and MIA

In size, resolution, and specs, the iPhone 17’s display is the same as what you’ll find on this year’s Pro. And the most notable thing about the change is that the iPhone 17 finally has an always-on display. The feature works exactly the same as it does on the Pro phones, too. When you set the iPhone 17 down, the screen dims, showing a faint version of your wallpaper, widgets, clock, and notifications. The whole setup is customizable: you can turn it off, change the blur settings, or hide the wallpaper entirely for a cleaner black-and-white look.

Being able to quickly glance at your phone for information is extremely handy and instantly makes the device a whole lot more useful. It was far easier to understand what notifications I had, and manage them on an ongoing basis, because I was able to regularly look over at the phone on my desk and see what had rolled in. I added a calendar widget to keep an eye on upcoming meetings. Even just being able to peek at the current time is a perpetual help.

The sage green iPhone 17 looks great, even if it doesn’t get a new design like the iPhone 17 Pro.

Leaving the always-on display enabled does use marginally more battery, and Apple allows you to turn it off entirely if you’re worried about that or find it distracting. By default, the wallpaper both blurs and dims enough that I never found the screen unduly drawing my attention. Its battery usage was in the low single-digit percentages throughout my time testing the phone. Not enough for me to care about when a single charge got me through one day of heavy usage and into the next afternoon.

What enabled Apple to add this feature was the switch to a variable-refresh-rate display, which Apple brands as ProMotion. When idle, it dips down to as low as 1Hz to conserve battery, then ramps up to 120Hz — twice the maximum refresh rate of the prior model — to present smoother animations when things start moving. If you’ve never used a high refresh rate display before, the difference may not be immediately apparent. But give it a few days, and you’ll get used to how much more fluid fundamental parts of the phone seem to feel, from opening apps to scrolling through a news story. Once you’re used to it, you’ll never want to go back.

That these screen upgrades dramatically improve the iPhone shouldn’t be a big surprise: they’ve both been present on Pro-series iPhones since 2022 and standard in the Android world — including on much cheaper phones — for just as long. They’re the kind of features that a premium device like the iPhone ought to have, and the iPhone 17 is significantly better for their arrival.

There are a few other less noticeable changes to the screen this year. It’s ever-so-slightly bigger (6.3 inches instead of 6.1 inches), owing partly to slimmed-down bezels and partly to the phone being imperceptibly taller. Apple says the screen is more scratch resistant; I didn’t deliberately try to ding up my review unit, so I can’t say how effective it is in practice. The screen also gets brighter, and it now has an anti-glare coating that cuts back reflections. The coating alone isn’t a game changer in terms of visibility, but combined with the screen’s increased brightness, it was easier to read in harsh lighting conditions.

The iPhone 17’s brighter display and anti-glare coating makes it easier to read outdoors.

The other big changes to this year’s phone are to the cameras. The ultrawide camera has been changed from a 12-megapixel sensor to a 48-megapixel sensor that’s supposed to provide more detail, and the selfie camera has a brand new sensor that allows for an assortment of automatic framing tricks to help get you and your friends all in the same photo.

The photos I took with the iPhone 17’s selfie camera weren’t materially better than ones I took with the iPhone 16’s. But the tech inside the camera has seen a major overhaul that changes how you take those photos.

Apple has given the iPhone 17 the same “Center Stage” front camera that it’s put in the iPhone Air and iPhone 17 Pro. The phones all use a square image sensor instead of a rectangular one, and they all have a higher resolution than Apple’s prior selfie cameras, 18MP instead of 12MP. These changes allow for two things: they give Apple more flexibility when cropping the frame, and they make the camera more suitable for use in portrait orientation — the way most people are going to take selfies.

When you go to take a photo with the front camera on the iPhone 17, it’ll start punched in and ready to frame up a single person. Have a friend join you, and it’ll automatically expand outward. Add even more people than the portrait shot can fit, and it’ll swap to an even-wider landscape framing, all while the phone remains upright. You can control this manually or let the phone automatically take it away. I found that letting the phone do its thing worked just fine. I wouldn’t say this hugely improved my experience taking selfies — turning the phone sideways isn’t that hard — but on a device made for tens of millions of people, many of whom just want to hold their phone out and see everyone around them, this change makes a whole lot of sense.

Keeping up with notifications is much easier when you can always glance at the display.

The quality story is similar on the ultrawide camera, which is also the same as the Pro’s. Despite the resolution bump, this year’s improvements are modest at best. In side-by-side shots with its predecessor, the iPhone 17’s ultrawide appeared slightly sharper and delivered slightly bolder colors. I was able to get some great photos with it. But in most cases, I had to look closely to see the improvements.

Apple didn’t make any hardware changes to the iPhone 17’s main camera, which has a smaller sensor than the main camera on the iPhone 17 Pro but the same 48MP resolution. It takes nice photos, even if they look slightly less rich to me than what you’d get out of the Pro camera. I occasionally got blown-out highlights in bright daylight and blurry motion in low light. But honestly, in a world of over-processed smartphone photos, I didn’t necessarily mind the imperfections.

1/13Taken in 2x on the main camera.

The biggest distinction between the iPhone 17 and 17 Pro’s camera systems — and perhaps the biggest distinction between the phones overall — is their zoom capabilities. The 17 Pro has a dedicated telephoto lens with a 4x optical zoom. But the 17 only has what Apple bills as 2x “optical quality” zoom, which is just a fancy way of cropping a photo. Pictures still look good at 2x, but they start to look flat and noisy in lower light. And photos at its 10x maximum digital zoom lack the kind of detail you’d get from a proper lens and start to get a bit of that blurry watercolor look. If you don’t take a lot of zoomed-in photos, this omission won’t be a huge deal. But if you struggle to get pics of your cat from across the room, that’s still one reason you may need to go pro.

Beyond the cameras, the iPhone 17 has a number of other small improvements. It has the new A19 processor, starts with double the storage — 256 GB — compared to last year, supports faster wired and wireless charging, and has longer quoted battery life. And in a year where prices seem to be going up everywhere, it still starts at the same $829 unlocked price as its predecessor did.

Perhaps the most obvious thing the iPhone 17 doesn’t get is the flashy new camera bar design seen on the iPhone 17 Pro and the iPhone Air. Those higher-end models look nice, but so does the sage green iPhone that I’ve been testing, even if it looks basically the same as every iPhone for the past six years. If you’re worried about your phone not looking brand new, then maybe that’s a reason to consider the other models, but I don’t think you’re missing out anything significant here.

Sage green is one of Apple’s best colors in a while.

This is one of the best years in a long time to be looking at the standard iPhone. For the same price as last year, you get twice as much storage, slightly better cameras, and an immensely better screen that makes the phone immediately more useful. Sure, there are still some features reserved for the Pro: a new design, a faster chip, a telephoto lens and larger main camera sensor. But I think there’s an argument to be made that those are features for power users, meant for those who really want more out of their phone.

If you just want a great iPhone, and you don’t want to miss out on anything major, the iPhone 17 is finally that phone.

Photography by Amelia Holowaty Krales / The Verge

Agree to continue: Apple iPhone 17, 17 Pro, 17 Pro Max, and iPhone Air

Every smart device now requires you to agree to a series of terms and conditions before you can use it — contracts that no one actually reads. It’s impossible for us to read and analyze every single one of these agreements. But we’re going to start counting exactly how many times you have to hit “agree” to use devices when we review them since these are agreements most people don’t read and definitely can’t negotiate.

To use any of the iPhone 17 (and iPhone Air) models, you have to agree to:

  • The iOS terms and conditions, which you can have sent to you by email
  • Apple’s warranty agreement, which you can have sent to you by email

These agreements are nonnegotiable, and you can’t use the phone at all if you don’t agree to them.

The iPhone also prompts you to set up Apple Cash and Apple Pay at setup, which further means you have to agree to:

  • The Apple Cash agreement, which specifies that services are actually provided by Green Dot Bank and Apple Payments Inc. and further consists of the following agreements:
  • The Apple Cash terms and conditions
  • The electronic communications agreement
  • The Green Dot Bank privacy policy
  • Direct payments terms and conditions
  • Direct payments privacy notice
  • Apple Payments Inc. license

If you add a credit card to Apple Pay, you have to agree to:

  • The terms from your credit card provider, which do not have an option to be emailed

Final tally: two mandatory agreements, seven optional agreements for Apple Cash, and one optional agreement for Apple Pay.

0 CommentsFollow topics and authors from this story to see more like this in your personalized homepage feed and to receive email updates.

  • Jacob KastrenakesClose

    Jacob Kastrenakes

    Posts from this author will be added to your daily email digest and your homepage feed.

    PlusFollow

    See All by Jacob Kastrenakes

  • AppleClose

    Apple

    Posts from this topic will be added to your daily email digest and your homepage feed.

    PlusFollow

    See All Apple

  • iPhoneClose

    iPhone

    Posts from this topic will be added to your daily email digest and your homepage feed.

    PlusFollow

    See All iPhone

  • MobileClose

    Mobile

    Posts from this topic will be added to your daily email digest and your homepage feed.

    PlusFollow

    See All Mobile

  • ReviewsClose

    Reviews

    Posts from this topic will be added to your daily email digest and your homepage feed.

    PlusFollow

    See All Reviews

  • TechClose

    Tech

    Posts from this topic will be added to your daily email digest and your homepage feed.

    PlusFollow

    See All Tech



Source link

September 18, 2025 0 comments
0 FacebookTwitterPinterestEmail
The iPhone Air makes a strong statement
Product Reviews

The iPhone Air makes a strong statement

by admin September 17, 2025


The iPhone Air is as much a statement as it is a phone. It says something about the person using it: that they don’t mind giving up a few things for a phone that’s meaningfully thinner and lighter.

That they can give up all those extra cameras on the back and just live with one. That they, well, went out and bought The New iPhone — one that makes everyone go “Whooooaaa” when they hold it for the first time. That’s a hell of a lot of things for a 6.5-inch slab of titanium and glass to say, but then again, the iPhone Air isn’t your average phone.

You’ve already heard this a lot, but I’ll go ahead and say it because it bears repeating: the iPhone Air is shockingly thin and light. On paper, its dimensions might not seem dramatically different from your garden-variety phone. It’s 5.64mm thick compared to the 7.95mm iPhone 17, and it weighs 12 grams less. Isn’t this a lot of fuss over a few millimeters? Maybe, but I challenge you to pick up this phone for yourself and not be at least a little surprised at how much lighter it feels in your hand. When it comes to the device that’s constantly in your hand, pocket, or bag, those millimeters make a big difference.

$999

The Good

  • Easier to carry thanks to its slim profile
  • Remarkably light and more pleasant to use for long periods of time

The Bad

  • Battery drains quicker than a standard phone
  • No ultrawide camera

But you don’t get a dramatically thinner phone without giving up a few things. And those things, boiled down to two categories, are battery life and camera versatility. Neither is a disaster. There’s enough battery power to get most people to the end of a day, and image quality from the single rear camera is good enough to satisfy someone who’s not too picky. But if you ask anyone which two things they’d most want improved on their next phone, they’d probably list those very features. Depending on the phone you’re upgrading from, this might be more of a lateral move.

For those two reasons, the iPhone Air won’t be the right device for most people considering a new iPhone. But for someone who’s not too demanding of their phone, the Air is going to feel pretty special.

That Liquid Glass look.

So we’ve established that picking up and holding the iPhone Air for the first time is pretty cool. How about after that initial reaction wears off? After using the Air for the past week, the effect has been similar to the Samsung Galaxy S25 Edge. I got used to the lightness a day or two in, but the Air kept surprising me in little moments here and there, easily fitting into a pocket or a bag where other phones dare not go. Walking around San Francisco, I kept the Air comfortably (without a case) in my jeans’ front pocket, which is something I can usually only get away with using my iPhone 13 Mini.

My overall impression using the Air is the same as with the S25 Edge: the slim profile might be the headline attraction, but the lighter weight is the real benefit. Putting the Air in my backpack’s slimmest pockets is great; holding the phone and scrolling without having to periodically adjust my grip is awesome. And for the occasion where you might actually hold the phone to your ear and talk to someone that way, it’s just a bit more comfortable than usual. Those little moments are when you’ll really appreciate the Air’s weight as its best feature.

That’s not to say this is a small phone. Like the S25 Edge, it’s a big phone with small phone energy. It’s still a stretch getting my thumb all the way across the 6.5-inch screen. It’s a little smaller than the Edge in every dimension — just a little shorter, slimmer, and less wide. But the edges are also slightly curved compared to the flat sides on Samsung’s phone, making the Air feel a little less secure in my hand. I like the look of the Air’s frosted Ceramic Shield back, but it’s hard to get a secure grip on it. I’m not a case person, but I’d make an exception for this phone.

What’s the point of a thin phone if you’re just going to put a case on it? The weight, for starters. Apple’s own MagSafe case for the Air is so light it hardly feels any heavier than without the case. There’s the bumper case, too, which helps with the grip issue. Both cases make it a little harder to get the Air into the slim pockets it could fit into otherwise. But you don’t totally give up the benefits of a thin and light phone if you want to use it with a case.

The bumper is back, baby.

I’ve heard some concerns that the iPhone Air’s camera bar might make it feel off-balance and top-heavy, but it didn’t feel that way to me as I used it over the past week. The phone still wobbles when you set it down on a flat surface and tap the screen, which isn’t unique to the Air. The long camera bump helps mitigate this a bit, and the clear MagSafe case corrects the problem altogether. One more good reason to add a case.

The Air gets Apple’s latest chip, the A19 Pro, minus one GPU core compared to the version of the chipset in the 17 Pro. There’s no vapor chamber cooling here as there is on the Pro models this time, and you’ll feel exactly where the processor is as soon as it starts heating up. I didn’t encounter any workloads in my day-to-day that caused the Air to stutter or drop the screen brightness. A short Diablo Immortal session warmed up the phone considerably, but not enough to impact performance.

In the no-news-is-good-news department: I haven’t noticed any unusual behavior from Apple’s house-made cellular and networking chips. The C1X cellular modem is an updated version of the chip that debuted in the iPhone 16E that doesn’t offer super-fast but hard-to-find mmWave 5G, but does support the sub-6 GHz 5G I use most frequently. Between this and the N1 networking chip, I haven’t seen any red flags waving on this path Apple is taking away from its reliance on Qualcomm chips for connectivity.

The Air with MagSafe battery pack makes for a thicker phone than the 17 Pro Max.

Now for the less-good news: battery life is just okay. And honestly, that’s a pretty good outcome for the Air; the situation could have been worse. If you’re a light user and you spend most of your time on Wi-Fi, you might never have a problem with the battery.

Personally, it makes me a little too anxious to see that battery indicator drop into the 20s before dinnertime, though in fairness I was going pretty hard on the battery with around five hours of screen-on time. On a much lighter day on my home Wi-Fi, three hours of screen-on time took the battery down to around 40 percent by bedtime. I’d call that within the bounds of acceptable, if a little on the low end for a $1,000 phone.

Decent battery life after week one of using a phone doesn’t really concern me. I worry more about how that battery performance will hold up a year from now. If it’s lackluster now, it’s only going to get worse as the battery naturally degrades. Apple’s recent track record here isn’t stellar, either. That’s something to bear in mind if you’re the kind of person who wants to buy a phone once every five years and not have to think about another purchase in between.

You can buy a little peace of mind in the form of a $99 MagSafe battery pack. Its dimensions are specifically tailored to the Air’s; it doesn’t fit properly on either of the 17 Pro phones. But because the Air’s camera bar is slimmer, there’s more room on the back of the phone for the battery pack. You can put it on a 17 Pro or Pro Max, but it doesn’t align quite right and will hang off the bottom edge of the phone (though it does stay put on a Pixel 10 Pro XL). The battery is itself a lighter, slimmer version of the original MagSafe battery pack, though when you actually put it on the Air you’ll notice that you’re no longer using a super-thin, super-svelte phone. The whole thing is heavy enough that it’s unpleasant to hold and use for too long, but it’s a good enough solution if you’re out and about or want a recharge at home without being tethered to a wall outlet.

You’ll have to make do without an ultrawide.

On the subject of limitations: that camera. I mean, technically there are two of them — the 48-megapixel rear camera and a new 18-megapixel selfie camera that does some cool stuff. But there’s just one sensor and lens on that rear camera bump, even though the Galaxy S25 Edge managed to fit a second one. The single rear camera feels justifiable on the $599 iPhone 16E; on the Air it feels like a real concession.

It’s a tradeoff that a lot of people will be fine with, and the 26mm-equivalent camera includes sensor-shift stabilization to help keep shutter speeds and ISOs lower in dim light. It’s the smaller sensor used by the regular 17 rather than the larger one in the Pros, which is a difference that manifests in edge cases. With the 17 Pro you can manage a decent amount of detail from low light portraits with the 2x crop zoom; on the Air, fine detail gets smoothed away at the 2x setting. Otherwise, portrait mode photos are fine.

In addition to the 2x crop there’s also the 28mm- and 35mm-equivalent settings that use detail from a full-resolution capture to do a kind of digital zoom upscaling without looking too digital zoom-y. But more than the telephoto, I missed the ultrawide — especially in those situations where I couldn’t move back any farther. Some shots just call for the drama of a 13mm-equivalent view, you know?

The loss of the ultrawide bothers me, but the Air gains some selfie camera updates that might matter more to this phone’s target audience. The new front-facing camera on the Air and the 17 series uses a square format sensor that can rotate automatically between portrait and landscape orientations without losing a bunch of resolution in the process. You can rotate or zoom in and out manually, or let Center Stage take the wheel. It’s kind of wild to see it in action, and I think it’s something group selfie-takers will come to rely on without thinking about it.

The other cool new selfie feature is Dual Capture, which records video from the front- and rear-facing cameras at once. You’ve been able to do this in third-party camera apps, but now it’s baked right into the native camera app. The selfie capture is overlaid on the rear-camera video as a picture-in-picture window that you can move to any corner of the frame — but only as you’re recording, not after the fact. Initially I was skeptical that I’d really use this feature, but I can already think of a handful of times in the recent past that I either wish I’d had it or remembered to use it. Mostly, I’m thinking of the videos I take of my kid where I’m just a disembodied voice that he’s talking to. They’re basically the historical record of where we went and what we were doing, so it would be nice to be able to look back on some of them and see that I was actually there too.

Right at home.

There’s one more statement that the iPhone Air makes, and it comes directly from Apple. It’s a declaration of what the company can achieve now, and a hint of what’s to come. After all, if you’ve made one super-slim phone, you can just double that and add a hinge to make a folding phone, right? Even if it’s not that simple, the Air asks us to remember that there’s still innovation going on in mobile hardware, despite the last decade or so of phones looking pretty same-y.

But that’s speculation. In the here and now, I’ve been trying to suss out who exactly the Air is for. And I think this is a device that lends itself to a life of ease. It’s for someone who is unbothered by a short battery and potentially shorter battery lifespan. It’s for someone who can let go of the photos they missed because they couldn’t zoom out. For someone who fits that description, it’s a rewarding device to use. And it sure makes a statement.

Agree to continue: Apple iPhone 17, 17 Pro, 17 Pro Max, and iPhone Air

Every smart device now requires you to agree to a series of terms and conditions before you can use it — contracts that no one actually reads. It’s impossible for us to read and analyze every single one of these agreements. But we’re going to start counting exactly how many times you have to hit “agree” to use devices when we review them since these are agreements most people don’t read and definitely can’t negotiate.

To use any of the iPhone 17 (and iPhone Air) models, you have to agree to:

  • The iOS terms and conditions, which you can have sent to you by email
  • Apple’s warranty agreement, which you can have sent to you by email

These agreements are nonnegotiable, and you can’t use the phone at all if you don’t agree to them.

The iPhone also prompts you to set up Apple Cash and Apple Pay at setup, which further means you have to agree to:

  • The Apple Cash agreement, which specifies that services are actually provided by Green Dot Bank and Apple Payments Inc. and further consists of the following agreements:
  • The Apple Cash terms and conditions
  • The electronic communications agreement
  • The Green Dot Bank privacy policy
  • Direct payments terms and conditions
  • Direct payments privacy notice
  • Apple Payments Inc. license

If you add a credit card to Apple Pay, you have to agree to:

  • The terms from your credit card provider, which do not have an option to be emailed

Final tally: two mandatory agreements, seven optional agreements for Apple Cash, and one optional agreement for Apple Pay.

0 CommentsFollow topics and authors from this story to see more like this in your personalized homepage feed and to receive email updates.

  • Allison JohnsonClose

    Allison Johnson

    Posts from this author will be added to your daily email digest and your homepage feed.

    PlusFollow

    See All by Allison Johnson

  • AppleClose

    Apple

    Posts from this topic will be added to your daily email digest and your homepage feed.

    PlusFollow

    See All Apple

  • Featured VideosClose

    Featured Videos

    Posts from this topic will be added to your daily email digest and your homepage feed.

    PlusFollow

    See All Featured Videos

  • iPhoneClose

    iPhone

    Posts from this topic will be added to your daily email digest and your homepage feed.

    PlusFollow

    See All iPhone

  • Phone ReviewsClose

    Phone Reviews

    Posts from this topic will be added to your daily email digest and your homepage feed.

    PlusFollow

    See All Phone Reviews

  • ReviewsClose

    Reviews

    Posts from this topic will be added to your daily email digest and your homepage feed.

    PlusFollow

    See All Reviews

  • TechClose

    Tech

    Posts from this topic will be added to your daily email digest and your homepage feed.

    PlusFollow

    See All Tech



Source link

September 17, 2025 0 comments
0 FacebookTwitterPinterestEmail
  • 1
  • 2
  • 3
  • 4
  • 5
  • …
  • 8

Categories

  • Crypto Trends (1,098)
  • Esports (800)
  • Game Reviews (772)
  • Game Updates (906)
  • GameFi Guides (1,058)
  • Gaming Gear (960)
  • NFT Gaming (1,079)
  • Product Reviews (960)

Recent Posts

  • This 5-Star Dell Laptop Bundle (64GB RAM, 2TB SSD) Sees 72% Cut, From Above MacBook Pricing to Practically a Steal
  • Blue Protocol: Star Resonance is finally out in the west and off to a strong start on Steam, but was the MMORPG worth the wait?
  • How to Unblock OpenAI’s Sora 2 If You’re Outside the US and Canada
  • Final Fantasy 7 Remake and Rebirth finally available as physical double pack on PS5
  • The 10 Most Valuable Cards

Recent Posts

  • This 5-Star Dell Laptop Bundle (64GB RAM, 2TB SSD) Sees 72% Cut, From Above MacBook Pricing to Practically a Steal

    October 10, 2025
  • Blue Protocol: Star Resonance is finally out in the west and off to a strong start on Steam, but was the MMORPG worth the wait?

    October 10, 2025
  • How to Unblock OpenAI’s Sora 2 If You’re Outside the US and Canada

    October 10, 2025
  • Final Fantasy 7 Remake and Rebirth finally available as physical double pack on PS5

    October 10, 2025
  • The 10 Most Valuable Cards

    October 10, 2025

Newsletter

Subscribe my Newsletter for new blog posts, tips & new photos. Let's stay updated!

About me

Welcome to Laughinghyena.io, your ultimate destination for the latest in blockchain gaming and gaming products. We’re passionate about the future of gaming, where decentralized technology empowers players to own, trade, and thrive in virtual worlds.

Recent Posts

  • This 5-Star Dell Laptop Bundle (64GB RAM, 2TB SSD) Sees 72% Cut, From Above MacBook Pricing to Practically a Steal

    October 10, 2025
  • Blue Protocol: Star Resonance is finally out in the west and off to a strong start on Steam, but was the MMORPG worth the wait?

    October 10, 2025

Newsletter

Subscribe my Newsletter for new blog posts, tips & new photos. Let's stay updated!

@2025 laughinghyena- All Right Reserved. Designed and Developed by Pro


Back To Top
Laughing Hyena
  • Home
  • Hyena Games
  • Esports
  • NFT Gaming
  • Crypto Trends
  • Game Reviews
  • Game Updates
  • GameFi Guides
  • Shop

Shopping Cart

Close

No products in the cart.

Close