Why now might be a good time to upgrade your iPhone

5 days ago 7

With Apple releasing new phones like clockwork yearly, and hailing each one as significantly better than the one it was championing just weeks previously, it can feel like there’s never a good time to upgrade.

But in truth, each release tends to be just a little bit better than the last, or may introduce new options to nudge you into an early upgrade, like this year’s super-thin iPhone Air.

The standard iPhone 17 has caught up to the Pro models, and practically every Android phone, with a high refresh always-on display.

In truth, the right time to upgrade is when your existing phone is no longer doing a suitable job. If you think that may be the case for you in the next year, here’s what you need to know about the current iPhone line-up, including the new ones announced today that will be available on September 19.

The iPhone 17 has a bigger and better screen, improved cameras and longer battery life versus last year’s model.

The new models

The standard iPhone 17 is a reasonable upgrade over last year’s model, thanks to a range of display, camera and power efficiency upgrades. But anyone upgrading from the 2022 iPhone 14 or earlier versions will benefit from a massive leap. The 17 has a bigger screen without an increase in width or thickness, and it has a variable refresh rate between 1Hz and 120Hz. That might sound like jargon, but it means smoother motion, longer battery life and an always-on display. The screen also hits 3000 nits (units of luminance) peak brightness, whereas the iPhone 14 only managed 1200.

All cameras have been thoroughly improved over the past few years too, with the main shooters on the iPhone 17 being a 48 million pixel (MP) pair that can handle 2x optical zoom and macro shots, neither of which were possible on the 14. The selfie camera is new this year, offering a wider field of view to shoot in any orientation without rotating the device. The new phone also benefits from the dynamic island notification area introduced with the iPhone 15, the action button, camera control sensor and Apple Intelligence introduced with the 16, and up to 30 hours of battery life versus the iPhone 14’s 20.

The iPhone Air is a brand-new option this year and defies comparison to an extent. You could say it has everything the iPhone 17 has, plus most of the iPhone 17 Pro features, packaged with a slightly bigger screen and much slimmer frame, except there’s a caveat where battery life and photography are concerned. The Air only has one camera, so there’s no ultra-wide or macro support, and zoom will be limited to 2x before things get blurry. It also has the shortest estimated battery of the new models. On the other hand it is 3mm thinner than the Pro, and Apple will sell you a $160 magnetic battery designed exclusively for the Air, so you can decide when you want a thin phone and when you want one that lasts longer.

What the iPhone Air lacks in cameras and battery life, it makes up for in cutting-edge thinness.

The iPhone Air has the same chip as the new Pro phones and a larger screen than the standard iPhone 17, but is thinner and lighter.

The most powerful and expensive new models are the iPhone 17 Pro and Pro Max. The Pro has the same size as the standard iPhone 17, but it adds an extra camera lens for 4x zoom (Apple says up to 8x in optical quality), professional grade video recording features and newly designed internals to keep performance consistently high. If you were upgrading from a 14 Pro, you’d again notice a significant upgrade to all cameras, the addition of Apple Intelligence, faster charging and data transfer and around eight extra hours of battery (according to Apple).

This year only the price of the Pro phones has gone up, but unless tariffs are lowered on imports from India and China that could extend to all models by next year.

The iPhone 17 Pro has a new design that extends the camera bar and adds a ceramic panel over an aluminium frame.

Pricing

The iPhone 17 starts at $1400, which is the same as last year’s iPhone 16, except the new phone actually has 256GB of storage which is double last year’s starting amount. The iPhone Air starts at $1800, the 17 Pro at $2000 and the Pro Max at $2200, all of them also with 256GB. As always, the price climbs quite steeply if you want more storage, but it does stick to a predictable formula:

Add $400 to the starting price for the 512GB model
Add $800 for the 1TB model (Air, Pro and Pro Max only)
Add $1600 for the 2TB model (Pro Max Only)

As for how much storage you need, there’s no reason 256GB wouldn’t be enough for most people, especially if you have an Apple or Google cloud plan to store all your photos and documents. The highest capacity options are really only useful if you’re creating or working with massive files that need to be local to your phone, like 4K video or 3D renders.

It’s handy to keep in mind that Apple also still sells last year’s models (minus the Pros), and the prices have come down for some of them. The iPhone 16e remains at $1000 for the 128GB model and would be a decent upgrade if you’re on an iPhone 12 or SE, primarily because the modern chip gets you better performance, battery life and Apple Intelligence. The 16 and 16 Plus are down to $1249 and $1399, again for 128GB, though they are a hard sell against the improved iPhone 17.

Buying a new iPhone doesn’t seem likely to get less expensive in the next few years either, given the situation with US tariffs. Technically, Apple only needs to pay those on hardware it’s importing to America, but it will spread the cost out globally to avoid a massive spike for its US customers. This year only the price of the Pro phones has gone up, but unless tariffs are lowered on imports from India and China that could extend to all models by next year.

Options for buying

Apple doesn’t offer financing in Australia, but it does offer trade-in discounts if you have an existing iPhone in working condition. The amount offered varies from decent to ordinary depending on how old your phone is; for example you can get around $800 for a 15 Pro, but only $100 for an iPhone X, at which point you might be better off selling on eBay.

Of course, you don’t need Apple for financing; you can buy from just about any retailer and pay via Afterpay or a similar service to break the cost of the phone into four payments over eight weeks, so between $250 and $950 per fortnight. And the major telcos will give you a phone with a new plan that you pay off monthly; the current line-up of iPhones would be between $28 and $106 per month for three years.

Once you add in the cost of your mobile plan, and any Apple services including cloud storage or TV+, that still means you could be looking at more than $100 per month just for the standard iPhone 17. If you’re able to stomach the full cost of the phone upfront it could end up saving you money, since you can jump around the smaller telcos taking up lower-cost month-to-month plans.

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