Jeff Richardson

The 2025 edition of Apple’s highest-end iPhone is the iPhone 17 Pro Max. I’ve been using one since it first went on sale this past Friday morning to put it through its paces. The improvements over last year’s iPhone 16 Pro are few in quantity but important in quality. There is a new design that works better when the iPhone performs complicated tasks, plus it feels great in your hand. The camera system is substantially improved, with the first 8x optical zoom on an iPhone and a clever approach to the front-facing camera. Plus, you get more battery life and more RAM. Moreover, considering that most folks upgrading to this device have been using something even older than last year’s iPhone 16 Pro, they are going to see many more improvements. In short, this device is excellent.

If you can’t stand the heat…

The most noticeable change with this year’s model is the look. No, I’m not talking about the new orange color option, which is the color featured in much of Apple’s advertising. I’m talking about the back and the sides.

Apple used a single sheet of aluminum to create much of the enclosure. Here is what it looks like, using a still frame from a video created by Apple:

This new unibody design results in a number of advantages. Here is an overview, provided by Apple:

The new brushed aluminum unibody design is crafted with a lightweight aerospace-grade 7000-series aluminum alloy to deliver the best-ever thermal performance in an iPhone. On the back, the plateau creates additional space for internal components — making room for a larger battery. The antennas are integrated around the perimeter for the highest-performing antenna system ever in an iPhone.

Let’s break that down. First, the thermal performance. Apple has always used its best processor in the Pro version of the iPhone. This year, it is the A19 Pro chip. John Velasco of Tom’s Guide ran some tests and found that this chip is about 13% faster in single core tasks and almost 20% faster in multicore tasks than the A18 Pro that Apple used one year ago.

Any high-end processor produces heat when it provides maximum performance. For the last few years, I’ve noticed that the iPhone can get rather hot to the touch when this happens. And this also has an impact on performance. There have been times in the past when I have used an iPhone Pro to do something intensive, like record 4K HDR video for a long time in an area with poor cellular service, causing the modem to also push itself to the max, and the heat has caused the iPhone to substantially dim the screen to try to compensate for the overheating. The dimmer screen makes it hard to see what the camera is recording. This year, the single piece of aluminum of the unibody is designed to spread that heat more evenly across the body of the iPhone to help the iPhone cool down more quickly.

And that’s not all. Apple also designed a new vapor chamber. This article by Gwendolyn Rak of IEEE Spectrum provides technical details on how Apple’s vapor chamber works. Better yet, Aldo of Know Art studios released this excellent video a few months ago to show how the vapor chamber in a non-Apple smartphone works and is manufactured, and I’m sure that this is similar to what Apple is doing:

Apple says that the vapor chamber it designed seals deionized water inside the chamber, and then that vapor chamber is laser-welded into the aluminum chassis. The two systems work together to move heat away from the A19 Pro processor and distribute that heat evenly throughout the aluminum unibody. This allows the A19 Pro processor to operate at even higher performance levels while keeping the surface of the iPhone cooler in your hand.

It is easy to notice the difference. When I push this new iPhone to the limit, the body of the iPhone does get warmer, but not nearly as hot as prior models. And I have yet to see this new iPhone get so warm that it needs to dim the screen—although, to be fair, I’ve only been using it for a few days, so perhaps I will see that at some point in the future.

Better battery

The front of the iPhone 17 Pro Max looks the same as last year’s model. In the following picture, the newest model is on the right. I can only tell the difference by seeing at the top that my iPhone 16 Pro Max no longer has cellular service because I moved that service to the iPhone 17 Pro Max, which has two bars of service:

However, the new unibody design changes the shape of the back of the iPhone. Instead of a camera bump on just the top left, the camera plateau on the new model stretches from side to side:

Apple says that this additional space is used to put an even larger battery inside. This contributes to the iPhone 17 Pro Max being slightly heavier than last year’s model—8.22 ounces versus 7.99 ounces—and it provides more battery life. Apple says that video playback on the iPhone 16 Pro Max is up to 33 hours, whereas that increases to up to 39 hours on the iPhone 17 Pro Max. I rarely need more than 33 hours between charges, but of course, other tasks use up the battery much more quickly, so having even more battery life for those tasks is a luxury.

When it is time to recharge, all three new iPhone models introduced by Apple this month can recharge faster when you use a new $39 power adapter from Apple called the 40W Dynamic Power Adapter with 60W Max. Those new iPhone models and that adapter work together to provide a faster charge for a period of time, after which it then charges like other 40W chargers. As a result, you can get to a 50% charge in 20 minutes, which Apple says is about 10 minutes faster than before. I don’t have this new adapter, so I couldn’t test it. I’m curious if third parties, like Anker, will be able to incorporate this feature into their chargers.

Better feel

When Apple designed the shape for this new unibody design, it provided just slightly more curve around the edges. It is a subtle difference that I’m having difficulty photographing, but this still frame from a video created by Apple shows it:

Trust me, you can really feel it when you hold this device in your hand. In my opinion, this is the best feeling iPhone that I can remember using. It is incredibly comfortable to hold, but the slight curve at the corners doesn’t make it too slippery to hold. Considering that this is a device that I will hold in my hand countless times every single day, I’m a big fan of this new design.

More durability

Two years ago, Apple released the iPhone 15 Pro, changing the body from stainless steel to titanium. Apple said that titanium was lighter while remaining very strong. This year, the body is made of aluminum. However, because it is a single unibody, and because Apple has also used its new Ceramic Shield 2 technology to protect both the glass on the front of the iPhone and the back of the iPhone, Apple says that this year’s model is more durable than ever. Apple says that this design is more resistant to scratches and cracks.

More nits, less glare

The screen is improved in two ways. First, peak brightness when outdoors goes from 2000 nits (iPhone 16 Pro Max) to 3000 nits (iPhone 17 Pro Max). That makes the iPhone easier to read on a bright day, and it is a welcome improvement.

Second, the Ceramic Shield 2 on the front of the iPhone uses improved anti-reflection technology to reduce glare. The improvement is noticeable. In the following picture, compare the light fixture reflected on the screen of the iPhone 16 Pro Max (left) and the iPhone 17 Pro Max (right).

Each LED is brighter when reflected on the screen of the iPhone 16 Pro Max. And the rectangle reflected from the lamp around the LEDs is far more pronounced when reflected on the iPhone 16 Pro Max versus the iPhone 17 Pro Max.

8x optical zoom at 200mm

The most noticeable change to the camera system on the back of the iPhone 17 Pro models is the 8x optical zoom, which is equivalent to a 200mm zoom on an SLR camera. A 200mm zoom is a common zoom lens for an SLR camera because it provides quite a bit of magnification, but not so much that you absolutely need to use a tripod to keep the camera perfectly still. First, I want to address how Apple achieved this 8x optical zoom … but I have actually already done that. So allow me to just repeat what I wrote earlier this month when Apple first announced the iPhone 17 Pro:

I like to take pictures and videos, so a major reason that I pay more for a Pro model is the better cameras. Last year, the iPhone 16 Pro and Pro Max featured three cameras on the back: a 48MP (megapixel) Ultra Wide camera (for 0.5x), a 48MP Fusion Main camera (for 1x and 2x), and a 12MP Telephoto camera (for 5x). This year, the main camera stays the same. The Ultra Wide camera now gains “Fusion,” which is the term Apple uses when the camera takes both a 12MP picture (to maximize light capture) and a 48MP picture (to capture fine detail) and then fuses those into a single 24MP image. In other words, photos that you take with the 0.5x lens should be better with this model.

Instead of last year’s 5x camera, this year there is a 4x camera. But that’s not a step down; it’s actually a step up. That’s because the telephoto camera on the iPhone 16 Pro was only a 12MP camera. The new iPhone 17 Pro telephoto camera is a 48MP camera. What this means is that the iPhone can use all 48MP to give you a 4x zoom, or can focus on just the 24MP in the middle to give you an 8x zoom. Yes, it is true that is cropped from the 4x image, but the 8x 24MP photo should be a step up from last year’s 5x 12MP photo. I often find it very useful to have a zoom lens. A zoom lens that is both better quality (48MP or 24MP versus 12MP) and a higher magnification (8x versus 5x) sounds great to me, and I cannot wait to try it out. The range from 0.5x to 8x is 16x, so you get a ton of flexibility on how you want to frame your shot.

Apple says that the 8x mode is equivalent to a 200mm focal length. Before I shifted to the iPhone for virtually all of my photography, I previously used a Nikon DSLR camera, and I really loved Nikon’s Superzoom lens, which went from 18mm to 200mm. When David Pogue was writing for the New York Times, he would frequently praise that lens, such as in this article from 2007. While I enjoy the 5x zoom on my iPhone 16 Pro (120mm equivalent), going up to 8x (200mm equivalent) seems like a substantial improvement. Of course, with that much zoom, it will be even more important to hold the camera very steady, but Apple has always done a great job with image stabilization software, and I’m sure that Apple has incorporated that into the 8x mode.

So how does the 8x lens work? It works great. Here are a series of pictures that I took in my backyard of a folk art sculpture that my wife and I purchased years ago at the art market at the New Orleans Jazz Fest. These images go from a 0.5x (the wide-angle lens) to the new 8x lens. I’ve reduced the size and compressed these images so that they are not too huge on this website, so keep in mind that the quality of the actual images is better than what you are seeing here. But this still gives you a good sense of the image quality. And more importantly, it shows you how you can compose a completely different picture even though you are standing in the same location.

The 0.5x and 1x lenses show the art in the context of the backyard.

At 2x, the focus of the picture is the art itself.

At 4x, the focus is on the upper half of the girl’s body.

At 8x, the focus is on the face.

Each picture tells a different story, and with a 16x range, from 0.5x to 8x, you have lots of choices without using the crop feature to sacrifice image quality.

Here’s one last picture for comparison. To take this picture, I moved my iPhone so close to the face of the art that the Macro feature of the camera was triggered:

It is no surprise that by moving my camera much closer, I can capture more detail than with the 8x zoom. But the 8x lens gets me almost as close to the object as I got with this Macro picture. If you want a close-up picture and you have the ability to get your camera right on top of the object, then of course, use the Macro feature of the 0.5x lens, the lens that Apple calls the Ultra Wide lens. But if you don’t have that ability, the 8x Telephoto lens can get you closer than ever before.

Here is another example. From my office window, I can look down to see the front of the federal court district court building in New Orleans, the Eastern District of Louisiana. There is an area just in front of the entrance where members of the media often congregate to try to interview attorneys as they leave the courthouse and/or to show the attorneys walking out of the courthouse on the news. I’ve handled some high-profile cases over the years where I have gotten quite good at providing no comment as I walked through this area when that was what my client wanted. Using the 1x Main camera on the iPhone, I can see the building but can only barely make out that area. With the 8x lens, I can easily see this area, including the steps and the flagpole. Again, your picture can tell a completely different story when you have this much flexibility in composing your shots.

I know that I will use all of these different cameras and zoom levels on the back of the iPhone 17 Pro Max. It is great to have lots of good options.

Better selfies

Apple has also provided a new camera system on the front of the iPhone. Apple calls this the Front Camera. Everyone else calls this the Selfie camera. Once again, let me start by repeating what I said earlier this month about what is different:

The front-facing camera—the selfie camera—is also better in multiple ways. First, it is an 18 megapixel square camera instead of a 12 megapixel 4×3 camera. I don’t believe that you can actually take square pictures with this new camera. But what you can do is hold your iPhone in portrait orientation, making it easier to hold in your hand, and take a landscape photograph. And this camera really shines when combined with a new software feature: Center Stage. In the past, Apple has had Center Stage on certain Macs and iPads. It means that the camera can essentially “zoom in” on you, unless multiple people are in the frame, in which case it will “zoom out” to show everyone. You may start taking a selfie picture in the traditional portrait orientation mode, but then if others join you in the picture, the Camera app is smart enough to switch to a landscape orientation mode to keep everyone in the picture.

That better front-facing camera has another trick up its sleeve. If you are taking a video with a camera on the back of your iPhone, you can simultaneously take a video with the front-facing camera. Thus, not only can you have a video of your daughter shooting a three-pointer in a high school basketball game, but you can also film your reaction at the same time. (My daughter’s varsity basketball team just started practices for the 2025-26 school year, so you can understand why that is on my mind.) I want to learn more about how this works. Can I take video with both cameras but then choose only to use the video from the back camera, either some of the time or all of the time? We’ll have to see how it works, but it is an interesting idea. Note that this improved front-facing camera on the iPhone 17 is also used on the iPhone Air and the iPhone 17 Pro models.

Although I don’t use the Front Camera on the iPhone very often, these are nice improvements. I especially like that you can take pictures in landscape orientation while still holding the iPhone in portrait orientation—which gives you a much better grip on your iPhone. The Front Camera will automatically switch from portrait to landscape mode when others come next to you, using the Center Stage feature. But you can also just tap a button on the screen to switch from portrait to landscape mode. I like this feature.

As for simultaneously taking video with the front and back cameras, Dual Capture is an interesting feature, but I don’t think it is for me. I would like the idea of capturing the Front Camera as I film an event using the back camera if, for some specific moment where I and others had a fun reaction, I could show it. But that’s not how the feature works. When you take a video using this Dual Capture, you can decide whether the inset showing you is at the top or bottom, left or right. Here is an example from Apple’s website:

However, once the video is saved, that inset is a permanent part of the video. If you film your daughter playing basketball using Dual Capture, every time you watch the video in the future, you will have to see your own face during the entire game. If that doesn’t bother you, then you might like this feature. And perhaps I will even find a specific circumstance when I will use it. But at this point, I don’t know when that would be.

More RAM

Apple has never advertised how much RAM is used by different iPhone models, which is curious because it is better to have more RAM. You can have more browser tabs open, more apps can run in the background before they close, AI works better with more RAM, etc.

Joe Rossignol of MacRumors reports that the iPhone 17 Pro and Pro Max both have 12GB of RAM. The iPhone 15 Pro and iPhone 16 Pro both had 8GB of RAM, so that is 50% more. The iPhone 12 Pro, 13 Pro, and 14 Pro had 6GB of RAM.

To the Max

The iPhone 16 Pro and iPhone 16 Pro Max are identical except for screen size. The only other difference is that if you want a 2TB model, which is available for the first time this year, that is only an option for the iPhone 17 Pro Max.

In 2023, I decided for the first time to try out the “Max” iPhone size when I purchased an iPhone 15 Pro Max. It does take a little time to get used to the larger and heavier iPhone, but I got used to that long ago. And as someone who has always had poor eyesight, I prefer having a larger screen with the Display Zoom set to Larger Text (located in Settings -> Display & Brightness). So I decided to get the Max version again this year, but I understand that many people will prefer the smaller size of the iPhone 17 Pro, especially this year when the two devices are otherwise virtually identical.

Wireless networking

For the first time ever, Apple is making its own wireless networking chip instead of buying one made by another company, such as Broadcom. Apple calls this the N1. It controls Wi-Fi, Bluetooth, and Thread. It supports the latest versions of those standards—Wi-Fi 7 and Bluetooth 6—and Apple says that the N1 chip “improves the overall performance and reliability of features like Personal Hotspot and AirDrop.”

I haven’t had an opportunity to notice these improvements yet, but it makes sense to me that a wireless networking chip designed by Apple specifically for the iPhone is going to be better than something that someone else designs for any smartphone.

Colors

I always prefer getting a black iPhone because I want the device itself to fade away into the background, with all of my focus on the (impressive) iPhone display. For the first time since the original iPhone was released in 2007, that isn’t an option this year. So instead, I opted for the next best thing: the Deep Blue color. It is a very nice color, but I still would have gone for black if that were an option.

The other two color options are Silver and Cosmic Orange. Cosmic Orange has many people excited. It is the first time ever that Apple has offered a vibrant color for a Pro iPhone. I looked at this color when I was in the Apple Store this past Friday, and I understand the appeal. If you like orange, and/or if you like making a statement with the color of your iPhone, you’ll like Cosmic Orange. I applaud Apple for adding Cosmic Orange this year.

But does orange have to be the new black? Dear Apple: next year, please give me the option to select black.

Even more for many folks upgrading

In much of this post, I’ve compared the iPhone 17 Pro Max to the iPhone 16 Pro Max because that is what I had been using. Plus, it makes sense to focus on year-to-year improvements. But I suspect that most folks considering an upgrade this year will be coming from an older iPhone.

If you have an iPhone 15 Pro Max, you’ll see additional improvements, including (1) a smaller bezel and larger display (6.9-inch instead of 6.7-inch), (2) the Camera Control button, (3) better microphones, (4) an ever larger improvement in battery life, and (5) an even more substantial improvement in the processor. If you have an iPhone 14 Pro Max, you’ll see even more improvements, including (1) the Action button, (2) an even bigger telephoto lens improvement, from 3x to 8x, and (3) a USB-C port instead of Lightning.

Cost

The iPhone 17 Pro starts at $1099 for the 256GB model. If you want the Max version with the larger screen, you pay $100 more. Going up to 512GB adds $200; going up to 1TB adds $400. I had been using a 512GB model in the past, but I like the idea of being able to store even more video on my device, so this year, I went for the 1TB model.

If you need the most storage, this year, Apple is offering a 2TB iPhone 17 Pro Max for $1999.

Conclusion

I get a new iPhone every year, and I always appreciate the improvements. This year is no exception. This year’s model feels great in the hand, has the best performance ever, has a great 8x telephoto lens, has a better display, is more durable, has tons of battery life, and has other nice improvements like the new Front camera and more RAM. If you decide that this is a good year for you to upgrade, the iPhone 17 Pro and iPhone 17 Pro Max are excellent devices that I think you will love.

This week’s episode of the In the News podcast is a lot of fun, and I think you will enjoy it. We begin by discussing the process of acquiring our new Apple devices. Brett is traveling, so he needs to wait a little bit before the new devices that arrived at his house are in his hands. But I went to my local Apple Store first thing Friday morning and got an iPhone 17 Pro Max (1TB, Deep Blue) and the AirPods Pro 3. And even though I had only had those two new devices for a few hours before we started recording this episode, I was already very impressed—especially with the much-improved fit of the AirPods Pro 3 and the impressive 8x zoom on the new iPhone. We also discuss the new Live Translation feature for AirPods (which works exceptionally well!), iOS 26 and iPad OS 26, improvements to CarPlay, and much more.

In our In the Know segment, Brett discusses a new feature of the iPhone lock screen that shows you how much time it will take to recharge your iPhone. I discuss the best way to take advantage of the new Widowed Apps mode in iPadOS 26: using it in conjunction with the button in the iPad’s Control Center.

Click here to listen to the audio podcast, or just listen using your podcast player of choice. You can also watch the episode on YouTube:

The new iPhones are here! And the new models of the Apple Watch, and the new AirPods Pro 3. If you ordered one of these new products, hopefully it will be ready for you to pick up today in your local Apple Store or it will be delivered to you. When Apple started taking pre-orders last week, I ordered a new iPhone 17 Pro Max to be delivered to my office. But then I noticed that it wouldn’t be delivered until later next week, so I placed a second order that I would pick up at 9am at my local Apple Store. Days later, Apple updated my original order, saying that it would actually be delivered today. I guess that for a brief period of time, I’ll have two new iPhones in my possession until I return one of them. But one way or the other, I should be able to start checking out the new features just a few hours after I am writing these words. And now, the news of note from the past week:

• For many years now, Apple has given photographer Austin Mann early access to each new iPhone model so that he can test the new cameras. This year, he went to the Dolomites, a mountain range in Italy. In this post, he shares some amazing pictures along with his thoughts on these new cameras.
• Chance Miller of 9to5Mac reviews the iPhone Air.
• Billy Steele of Engadget reviews the iPhone 17.
• Raymond Wong of Gizmodo also reviews the iPhone 17. These two reviews are consistent with what I’ve seen elsewhere: this entry-level model of the new iPhone is a better model than what we saw in previous years, making it an especially good value this year.
• Juli Clover of MacRumors lists 100 new features and changes in iOS 26.
• Felipe Espósito of Macworld identifies some of the more hidden features in iOS 26 that are worth checking out.
• Ben Lovejoy of 9to5Mac shares his favorite features in iOS 26.
• Amalia A of The Mac Observer explains how the new call screening feature works in iOS 26.
• Tim Hardwick of MacRumors identifies the new ringtones in iOS 26.
• Joanthan Reed of MacStories explains what is new in watchOS 26.
• Juli Clover of MacRumors lists 26 new features in watchOS 26.
• If you have an Apple Watch Series 9, Series 10, Ultra 2, or Ultra 3, your Apple Watch can now notify you of possible hypertension. Apple added this page to its website to describe how the feature works.
• If you have AirPods 4, AirPods Pro 2, or AirPods Pro 3, you can now use the AirPods as a remote camera control, but you have to explicitly turn that feature on. Ed Hardy of Cult of Mac explains how it works. I tried it, and it does work, but if you already have an Apple Watch, I think that the Camera Remote app on the Apple Watch works much better. For example, that app gives you a preview of what your iPhone camera is seeing. So after testing this new AirPods feature, I turned it back off again.
• Ryan Christoffel of 9to5Mac notes that if you have the new AirPods Pro 3 and a new iPhone 17 or iPhone Air, the Find My feature is even more precise if you are trying to locate your AirPods.
• Christoffel also describes what is new for CarPlay in iOS 26.
• Christoffel also describes how you can save even more information about your credit cards in the Wallet app in iOS 26.
• Devon Dundee of MacStories reviews visionOS 26.
• Apple had a good night at the Emmys. As Joe Rossignol of MacRumors notes, The Studio and Severance received many awards. In fact, The Studio was the most-winning freshman comedy in history.
• New shows start on Apple TV+ every week for four weeks, starting today. Today, it is Season 4 of The Morning Show. Next weekend, it is Season 5 of Slow Horses and the new limited series crime thriller The Savant starring Jessica Chastain. On October 3, it is the movie The Lost Bus starring Matthew McConaughey and America Ferrera. And on October 10, it is the new crime thriller The Last Frontier starring Jason Clarke. I’m interested in seeing all of those, but I don’t have nearly enough time.
• Dessi Gomez of Deadline lists all of the songs played in the first episode of Season 4 of The Morning Show.
• I’m enjoying the show Chief of War on Apple TV+. Marcus Mendes of 9to5Mac notes that Apple Maps now has a guide so that you can see the locations on a map that are featured in the show.
• Apple released a video to help you decide which of the four iPhone models is right for you. It’s a silly video, but it does show off the key features.
• And finally, here is a video from Apple that shows off the durability of the iPhone 17 Pro and how it can be used to take epic videos:

This is an exciting time in the world of iPhones. New models of the iPhone, Apple Watch, and AirPods Pro are set to be released in two days. And two days ago, we all got access to the newest versions of Apple’s operating systems. While you are riding the wave of good feelings, I encourage you to pay it forward and share the love by making a donation, no matter how big or small, to St. Jude Children’s Research Hospital.

September is Childhood Cancer Awareness Month, and I’m working with other websites and podcasts to raise money for St. Jude. This is such a fantastic organization that works tirelessly to help cure and treat pediatric cancer. We all hate cancer, but cancer that affects kids is especially unwelcome. St. Jude has made a real difference over the decades for kids around the world, and with our donations, they can do even more good work.

Donating is simple. Simply go to the page, click the big green DONATE button, decide if you want to select a reward (that part is optional), then check out and pay. If you donate at least $100, you can choose as your reward a high-quality microfiber cloth with the iPhone J.D. logo, which I have previously given away on rare occasions in the past. These cloths are excellent for cleaning iPhone or iPad screens, and I personally use one daily to clean my eyeglasses. This is a limited-time offer, as I have only a few left, and the manufacturer is no longer in business.

Whether you donate $5 or $500, your donation will make a meaningful difference. A special thank you to those of you who have contributed in the past and will contribute again this year!

Yesterday, Apple updated the operating systems for all of its platforms: iOS, iPadOS, macOS, watchOS, tvOS, and visionOS. Even the HomePod and AirPods received firmware updates. Everything is new.

The new Liquid Glass interface is the most noticeable change, but much more is new. For an overview of the most significant features that are new in iOS 26 and iPadOS 26, check out this article that I wrote three months ago. Want to dig a little deeper? Then I recommend the reviews posted on Six Colors by Jason Snell and Dan Moren of iOS 26, iPadOS 26, watchOS 26, and macOS 26. And if you want to go incredibly deep on iOS 26 and iPadOS 26, the in-depth review by Federico Viticci of MacStories is excellent.

I updated my devices yesterday, and so far, I’m really happy with the updates. I especially like the new windowing system on the iPad, which is now very similar to the way that we have been using windows on a computer for decades. But note that this new mode is not on by default. You need to go to Settings -> Multitasking & Gestures and then tap on “Windowed Apps” to activate this fantastic new mode.

I’ve been spending some time this year bringing some old memories into the present, not only so that my family and I can enjoy them now, but also so that they are preserved for the future. Earlier this year, I discussed using the Kodak Slide N Scan Digital Film Scanner (Amazon link) to scan 35mm slides and negatives. It was great fun to see the old pictures that were in slide carousels and at risk of never being seen again. But of course, there are other forms of old media. I recently came across a treasure trove of 8mm film reels at my parents’ house that were recorded between the 1950s and the 1980s. I wanted to digitize them so that I can watch them on a TV and share the videos with family members.

You can purchase equipment to digitize 8mm film yourself, such as a $419.99 product called KODAK REELS. However, for the reasons I explain below, I decided instead to pay the experts at Legacybox to do it for me. I was very happy with the results.

Why digitize

This part may be obvious, but there are significant reasons to digitize old 8mm films. Even if you still have access to an old projector—there was one in a closet in my parents’ house—is it actually going to work? Moreover, it is cumbersome (albeit nostalgic) to set up a projector and a screen (or a white wall or a white sheet on a wall, all things that I remember doing when I was very young) and have everyone gather around. It is much better to have the film in a digital video format so that it can be watched on a big and bright TV screen or on an iPhone or iPad. Plus, once the film is in a digital format, it is easy to share the video with others.

Also, once the film is in a digital format, you can do more with it. You can combine multiple related film reels into a single video. You can also split a single film roll into different events. For example, I sometimes found both Thanksgiving and Christmas on the same roll. Critically, for some old films, you can use software to restore some of the lost color in the video so that it can look closer to how it originally looked. You can also stabilize parts of the video to correct for the inherent limitations of old camera hardware that was made when people knew nothing about using software to stabilize video—and, for that matter, knew nothing about what “software” is. You can also enhance the video by adding titles, transitions, etc.

Additionally, digitizing film is a way to preserve the video for yourself and future generations. How long does an 8mm film last? According to the U.S. National Archives and Records Administration, they can survive “for decades as long as they are kept in a stable environment that is not too hot, too dry, or too wet.” I’ve seen many people say to expect about 70 years. But for films taken in the 1950s, we are already at that life span, and films from subsequent decades do not have much longer.

Speaking of the years that these films were taken, I expected to find films from the 1970s, when I was a child. I was surprised to find in that closet many videos from the 1950s and 1960s, videos taken by my parents and grandparents that I didn’t know existed. And I was equally surprised to find films from as recently as late 1985; I would have guessed that the move from Super 8 film to VHS-C (with sound) had occurred for my family even earlier in the 1980s.

How Legacybox works

To use Legacybox, you pay in advance for a box (I discuss the cost below), and you put your films in the box. The box sizes are Starter (two items), Family (10 items), Closet (20 items), or Trunk (40 items). Legacybox ships the box to you. You add your items, send the box back, then they scan the items and send the videos to you in the format that you select—such as online, where you can download them. Finally, your original films are returned to you. Here are more details on how everything works.

I used Legacybox for film reels recorded using a home video camera. And I even found one such camera with the reels.

Film reels come in different sizes. Eastman Kodak started selling consumer 8mm spools in the 1930s, and released the higher quality (and easier to use) Super 8 format in 1965. Each roll had 50 feet of film, and a single spool of film is three inches wide. At the standard speed of 18 frames per second for Super 8, a single roll could record around three minutes.

After the film was developed, it was common to splice multiple three-inch reels into a single reel that was five or seven inches (or larger). I remember that when I was a teenager, my mother gave me and my brother a summer project of splicing together multiple film reels from the same event to make single reels. We also sometimes combined multiple events over time, such as a single reel with multiple years of Christmas films.

Each reel, no matter the size, counts as a single item for a Legacybox order. Thus, my work in the early 1980s combining eight three-inch reels into a single seven-inch reel meant that I only needed to pay Legacybox for one item instead of eight items. (Thanks, younger me!)

Legacybox also digitizes other media types, such as VHS video, photo slides, and negatives. A set of 25 photos counts as a single item. But I only used the service for 8mm and Super 8 film.

After you select a box size and pay for it, Legacybox sends you the box along with an instruction booklet and stickers. I purchased a Trunk, so I had 40 stickers. Each sticker had my order number followed by a number, 1 through 40. I placed the stickers directly on each film reel (not the film canister or box).

Pack up all of your items and put them in the items box, add some bubble wrap or something similar to keep everything nice and safe, place that box into the shipping box, and then apply the pre-paid shipping label and send the box to Legacybox (located in Chattanooga, Tennessee) via UPS.

Digitizing your film

When Legacybox receives your films, they scan every frame, compile the footage for each reel, and correct the frame rate so that the film speed looks natural. Unlike old projectors that use hot bulbs and can potentially melt film, Legacybox uses LED lights that run cool. Legacybox also takes some steps to remove flicker, although occasionally, I still saw a little of that in the final product (but nothing obnoxious). Legacybox does not correct the colors, does not stabilize shaky video, and does not perform any other edits. Those are steps that you need to do on your own, if you want them.

Legacybox does a great job of sending you emails to keep you updated on the process. They tell you when they sent you an empty box and when they received your box full of items. They tell you when they have catalogued your order and how many items they found (such as five 7-inch reels, four 5-inch reels, etc.). They tell you when they begin working on your films. And they tell you when the films are posted to the Legacybox cloud service so that you can start to view and download them.

Legancybox told that it can take up to 4-6 weeks to digitize the videos. However, over the past few months, I have ordered two Trunk boxes at different times, and both times, it took only about two weeks to digitize my videos. I did not pay extra for expedited service, nor did I reveal that I would be writing this review.

You can pay extra for Legacybox to create a DVD with your videos, but I don’t see why that is necessary for most people. When you get a link to the website with your videos, simply download the videos to your computer. After 30 days, it costs $4.99/month to keep your videos on that Cloud service, and I don’t see any reason to do so once you have downloaded your videos. Make sure you remember to cancel that Cloud subscription once your videos are safely downloaded to your device.

For my seven-inch reels, the video running time was up to around 30 minutes. The file sizes varied; a 30-minute video could be as much as 1.3GB, but other videos of similar length had smaller files. Videos from the standard three-inch reels varied from around 30MB to almost 100MB.

Note that there are apparently some 8mm film cameras that record sound. All of the 8mm films that my family took were silent films, and Legacybox says that they cannot digitize the sound portion of an 8mm video if there is sound. If you are lucky enough to have 8mm film with sound, you should find another service that handles that.

Legacybox says that your items are kept secure. The website says: “Your orders are processed in our secure, climate controlled, 38,000 square foot processing facility, located right here in the USA. We utilize the latest in barcoding and tracking technology (we even have developers on staff), so we know exactly where your order is at every moment.”

Working with the videos

Of course, you can watch the videos from Legacybox right away. I was having lunch in my office when I learned that my first set of videos was available. I downloaded them to my iPad and started watching some of the videos right away, and they brought tons of smiles to my face. The ones taken before I was born or when I was young were fascinating to watch. The ones taken when I was a little older brought back so many memories. I saw old friends that I haven’t seen in decades, family members who have long since passed away, Christmas morning videos that showed me when I first received items that I subsequently used for many years, and more. Seeing the bedroom that my brother and I shared before we moved to a new house when I was ten years old brought back a wave of memories for every single item on the dresser, bookshelf, and wall.

You could just watch the videos downloaded from Legacybox, but I took the time to improve each video using Final Cut Pro. (You could also use iMovie.) I often found multiple events that were on a single reel, so I broke those up into different videos. Or sometimes, a single event would run across two to three three-inch reels, so I would merge those into a single video.

For some videos, the color was surprisingly good. For others, one or more of the colors had faded over time, so I adjusted the color levels and saturation using Final Cut Pro—the same things that I often do with a scan of an old photograph using the Photos app, Photoshop, and/or Pixelmator Photo. Video taken with a handheld camera that lacked any of the image stabilization that we have on a modern iPhone can be very shaky, so in some cases, I used the Final Cut Pro feature to stabilize the video. But most of the time, I left the shaky video as it was because that is sort of what you expect to see with old videos. I also added titles and dates to the videos—sometimes taking that information from the film reel canister, and other times doing some sleuthing to figure out the date. Some of my videos did not match the film canister, so the contents of the video were a surprise. I ultimately ended up with 72 different videos from the first 40 reels that I sent to Legacybox.

I have an account on SmugMug where I share photos and videos with friends and family members to whom I have given the password, so that is how I have been sharing my final videos from these old film reels. But you could, of course, upload your videos to a service like YouTube and share the videos with others that way.

How does it look?

For most of the videos, I thought that the quality was really good, especially considering that I know my family was using pretty basic consumer equipment to record home movies way back when. For a few others, the quality was just so-so. When I recently showed some of these videos to friends and family members, multiple people remarked that they were surprised that the quality was as good as it was, so I’m not the only one who had that reaction. Most importantly, though, the biggest impact came from seeing the content of the video—the people and places from long ago—so the quality of the transfer was an important but secondary consideration.

One thing to note is that there seems to be some slight cropping on the left and top sides of each video.

I uploaded a video to YouTube with some examples from the 1950s to 1970s, if you want to get a sense of what the quality can look like when you have Legacybox digitize 8mm film reels. I added subtitles so that you can tell when you are looking at the video I downloaded from Legacybox versus when you are looking at video that I improved using Final Cut Pro, such as adjusting the colors or stabilizing shaky video. If you need some help restoring an 8mm film clip using Final Cut Pro, this YouTube video from Kat Tingum has some good tips.

Customer service

I’ve already mentioned that I like how Legacybox communicates with you during every step of the process. I also had a very good experience when I encountered a problem.

One of the reels that I sent to Legacybox was a seven-inch reel. Based on the other reels of similar size that I sent to Legacybox, I expected the video to be between 20 and 30 minutes. But instead, the video that Legacybox sent me for that reel was only about eight minutes long. That just didn’t seem right to me. So I reached out to Legacybox to ask if perhaps they had not digitized it the whole way through. They immediately responded to my inquiry and said that they would address this right away. They gave me a pre-paid shipping label so that I could send that single reel back to Legacybox. And they gave it priority treatment so that as soon as they received it, it was digitized immediately. Sure enough, the second time around, the final video from that reel was 24 minutes long.

Of course, it would have been better if the entire reel had been correctly processed the first time. But the company was so responsive and fast when I alerted them to the potential problem that it left me very satisfied.

The cost

There are a number of services that advertise the ability to digitize old videos, but when I did my research, Legacybox seemed to be the one that most people preferred. Note that there are two other companies that may seem like competitors to Legacybox, but they are actually the same company, and they use the same facility in Chattanooga, Tennessee. Legacybox, Kodak Digitizing, and Southtree are all part of AMB Media, LLC.

What does it cost? There is not a simple answer. The website tells you that there is a “normal” cost, but the website always seems to have a substantial discount of 50% or more. For example, as I am typing this, the website advertises a 55% discount, and the discounted cost is: Starter (2 items) $31.60; Family (10 items) $144.00; Closet (20 items) $288.00; Trunk (40 items) $562.50. Not that long ago, the website was advertising a 50% discount.

I also discovered that if you go to a different page of the Legacybox website, there is a 65% discount, which brings the four prices down to $28.99 / $124.99 / $239.99 / $439.99. That page says that the 65% discount ends in a week, but it said the same thing when I used that same 65% price about a month ago. The way that this particular 65% discount works is that you purchase a coupon code, then you go back and place an order using the 50% discount (or whatever), but then instead of providing a credit card, you provide that code, and that covers the price of the entire order.

I’m not a fan of the practice of constantly claiming that there is a limited sale, urging you to act now when there really is no urgent need to act now. And I don’t like it that different parts of the website advertise different prices. From what I can tell, 65% seems to be the largest discount that has been offered for a while, so I urge you to look for a discount at or near 65% when you use the service.

As I noted above, instead of using Legacybox or one of its competitors, you could purchase something like the $419.99 Kodak REELS and scan the videos yourself. I thought about going this route, but ultimately decided to let a professional do it. First, these devices get pretty bad reviews online, with lots of people saying that they are finicky to use and break easily, especially if you use them to digitize a large number of reels. Second, it takes a lot of time to use them, about 30 minutes for a three-inch reel and many hours for larger reels. I prefer letting Legacybox do all of this work digitizing videos, which lets me spend my time just editing the videos. Third, I have seen mixed reviews about the quality of the scan from a device like the Kodak REELS as compared to Legacybox. To be fair, you can find people online who complain about the quality of Legacybox too, even though I was very satisfied.

Conclusion

Being able to watch family home videos from long ago that otherwise would have been lost to time has been fantastic. Sometimes, it was a video from an event for which I only remember seeing a few photographs in the past. With the video, it was like those old photos came alive. Sometimes, it was a video from an event that I remember, at least a little bit, but the video brought it back to life again. There are even some events from when I was little for which I thought I had a memory of the event, but now that I’ve seen the film, I think that I may just be remembering watching the film years later when I was older. And of course, seeing videos of loved ones who passed away long ago has been really nice.

I have also enjoyed editing what Legacybox sent me to create individual videos for each event—although, of course, you could skip that step if you are not comfortable working with software like Final Cut Pro, iMovie, Adobe Premiere, Camtasia, DaVinci Resolve, or the others.

My only regret is not using Legacybox years ago. I would have loved to have watched many of these videos when my mother and grandparents were still alive, so that they could have answered many of my questions about what I was seeing and shared stories about the events from long ago. Nevertheless, the next best thing is to do it now. Indeed, if I had waited much longer, perhaps some of the films might have deteriorated.

My only complaint about Legacybox is the way that they handle pricing, but if you are a smart shopper and look for the 65% discount, you can get around that.

Overall, I was happy with Legacybox, and I recommend the service. Indeed, a few weeks after I ordered the first Trunk with 40 film reels, I ordered a second Trunk and sent in 40 more reels. They were digitized just a few days ago, and I have just started to edit them. I see that I still have around 40 film reels left in the box that I found in my parents’ house, so I guess I will order one more Trunk from Legacybox when I’m done with this second set.

To the surprise of nobody, the focus of this week’s episode of the In the News podcast is the new products announced by Apple this week. First, we discuss the AirPods Pro 3. They seem to be a fantastic upgrade, improving everything about AirPods that matters and then going beyond that. Second, we discuss the three new models of the Apple Watch, especially the Apple Watch Ultra 3. And finally, we discuss the three new models of the iPhone. That includes a discussion of the impressive iPhone Air and the new features added to the iPhone 17 Pro models.

Instead of a traditional In the Know segment, Brett Burney and I instead discuss which of the new products that we purchased and why we did so. Spoiler alert: we definitely spent some money.

Click here to listen to the audio podcast, or just listen using your podcast player of choice. You can also watch the episode on YouTube:

I’ve already discussed the new iPhone and new Apple Watch models announced by Apple this week. The third announcement from Apple this week was the new AirPods Pro 3. They improve everything that matters about AirPods. As noted by Raymond Wong of Gizmodo and Joe Rossignol of MacRumors, there are numerous changes. First, they are. made to fit your ear better, using foam-infused tips, five different silicone tip sizes, and a more compact size that fits better in your ears. Second, the active noise cancellation is twice as good. Third, the sound is better. Wong said they “sounded very clear with clean and deep bass, and crisp vocals.” Fourth, they can now last eight hours on a single charge (up from six hours). Fifth, there is improved sweat and water resistance with an ingress protection (IP) rating of IP57 (versus IP54 for AirPods Pro 2). Sixth, the new Ultra Wideband U2 chip makes it easier to find lost AirPods using the Find My app. Seventh, when you are working out, if you are not wearing an Apple Watch, you can use the AirPods Pro 3 to monitor your heart rate. And on top of all of that, these new AirPods Pro 3, as well as the current AirPods Pro 2, have a Live Translation feature, so if someone else is speaking in a different language, your AirPods will repeat what they are saying in your ear in English (or whatever your native tongue). These are incredible improvements to a device that many people—like me!—use every day. You can pre-order them now for $249, and they go on sale a week from today. And now, the other news of note from the past week:

• On his Spyglass website, M.G. Siegler compiled a good list of hidden features from Apple’s presentation this week.
• Stephen Hackett of 512 Pixels provides some interesting thoughts on all three new iPhone models announced this week.
• Should you get an iPhone Air or an iPhone 17 Pro? Jason Snell of Six Colors offers some thoughts on how to make that decision. (I went for the iPhone 17 Pro Max with 1TB of storage, the Deep Blue color.)
• Considering how thin the iPhone Air is, is there a danger that it might bend and break, such as when in a back pocket? Lance Ulanoff of TechRadar notes that he tried to bend it, and while it did bow a little, it bounced right back into shape, which is exactly what Apple designed it to do.
• As noted by John Gruber of Daring Fireball, all of the new iPhones announced this week include a feature called Memory Integrity Enforcement, which protects the memory in an iPhone from attack by someone trying to break into an iPhone.
• Andrew Cunningham of Ars Technica discusses the new N1 chip in the iPhone Air. That is the chip that provides Wi-Fi, Bluetooth, and Thread support, and it replaces a chip that Apple would typically purchase from Broadcom for the iPhone. The N1 chip is not used in the iPhone 17 or iPhone 17 Pro models, but I suspect that future versions of the N1 chip will eventually spread to all iPhone models.
• Photographer Tyler Stalman released a great video that explains and shows what is better about the cameras on all of the new iPhone models.
• When Apple released the iPhone 14 in 2022, Apple said that there would be no extra charge to connect to satellites for the first two years. Dan Moren of Six Colors notes that Apple has once again extended that free period for the iPhone 14 and 15 models. In other words, Apple is not yet charging anyone, using any iPhone model, for accessing satellites.
• Why get an iPhone 17 Pro Max instead of an iPhone 17 Pro? Juli Clover of MacRumors notes four differences: (1) the larger display (6.9-inch instead of 6.3-inch), (2) more battery (e.g., 39 hours of video playback instead of 33 hours), and (3) the option to get 2TB of storage, although that brings the cost of the iPhone up to $1999.
• Which new iPhone will Apple CEO Tim Cook use? Sam Schube of the Wall Street Journal reports that Cook said: “It will depend on how I feel.” He will pick up the iPhone Air whenever “I want to float through the air.”
• Apple announced a new iPhone accessory this week: a Crossbody Strap. Ben Lovejoy of 9to5Mac explains why this strap will be quite useful for many people.
• Apple announced another new iPhone accessory this week: the $39 Dynamic Power Adapter. As explained by Ryan Christoffel of 9to5Mac, it is a 40W adapter, but it can go up to 60W to provide a faster charge for the iPhone Air or any of the iPhone 17 models.
• Although AirPods Pro 3 can last even longer on a single charge than AirPods Pro 2, Benjamin Mayo of 9to5Mac notes that the overall battery life is less (24 hours instead of 30 hours) because there seems to be a smaller battery in the battery case.
• Mayo also notes on Threads that a new change coming next week is that when you start a workout on your Apple Watch, your iPhone screen shows a Live Activity that can mirror what you are seeing on your Apple Watch (calories, distance, etc.). I guess this means that if you are on a treadmill, you could share that iPhone screen to a large TV that is in your line of sight to see your statistics while you are running without having to look down at your wrist? Interesting.
• iOS 26, iPad OS 26, and Apple’s other operating system updates will be released on Monday, September 15. Juli Clover of MacRumors explains what to look for in watchOS 26.
• Aaron Ritchie of PC Guide notes that with visionOS 26, your Apple Vision Pro can adjust the Prism value, which may mean that certain people with a vision impairment can use the device without wearing contacts. Note that this does not mean that you no longer need prescription lenses. Prism value (which corrects for eye misalignment) is only one factor of a glasses prescription. Other values include Sphere (which corrects for nearsightedness / farsightedness), Cylinder (which corrects for astigmatism), Axis (also used to correct for astigmatism), Addition (a magnification for reading glasses or bifocals), and Pupillary Distance (how far apart your eyes are). Having said that, it would be neat if, at some point in the future, a Vision device could correct for all of these values so that they could have the right prescription for all users without needing extra lenses. Maybe one day.
• While the tech world is focused on Apple, the entertainment world is focused on the Emmys this Sunday. Lisa Richwine and Dawn Chmielewski of Reuters talked to a number of creative professionals to discuss what they like about working with Apple to create shows.
• Callie Holtermann of the New York Times explains why many students are taking iPods—yes, I said iPods—to school to listen to music.
• And finally, here is a video released by Apple this week (and shown during the Keynote on Tuesday) about how the Apple Watch has saved lives:

In addition to introducing three new iPhone models this week, Apple introduced three new Apple Watch models: the Apple Watch Ultra 3, the Apple Watch Series 11, and the Apple Watch SE 3. There are lots of new features in these new models, so this is a great time to buy a new Apple Watch.

Apple Watch Ultra 3

Apple introduced the Apple Watch Ultra in 2022 as an Apple Watch designed for an extreme active lifestyle, although many people also liked it because it was the Apple Watch with the most features, including the longest battery life. One year later, the Apple Watch Ultra 2 was introduced, and it added some very nice improvements, as I noted in my review. But Apple did not upgrade the Apple Watch Ultra line in 2024, except to add a new color, so fans of this model were eager for an update—especially since there were features in the Apple Watch Series 10 introduced in 2024 that were missing from the Ultra 2 as a result of there being no new Ultra in 2024. This year, Apple has settled all debts, bringing all of the latest features to the Apple Watch Ultra and adding some new features never before seen on an Apple Watch. As has always been the case, the Ultra is a great model for people who are roughing it in the great outdoors, but it is also a great watch to choose if you want an Apple Watch with the most of everything and you don’t mind having a much larger size to make space for all of those features.

The Apple Watch Ultra has always had incredible battery life. That’s why it is the largest Apple Watch model: it has more battery inside. This year, Apple has pushed it even further so that it has 42 hours on a single charge instead of 36 hours. Recharging is also improved. Going from 0% to 80% takes 45 minutes with the Ultra 3 (versus 60 minutes for the Ultra 2). Even more impressively, if you use a fast charger for only 15 minutes, you can get an additional 12 hours. Or if you charge for just five minutes, that is enough for eight hours of sleep tracking. So even if you use up the impressive battery life, it doesn’t take very long to make your Ultra 3 usable again. If lots of battery life is important to you, the Apple Watch Ultra 3 is the best model for you to get.

Apple has also updated the radios in the Ultra, and this means that the Ultra 3 can communicate with satellites, the same feature that Apple added to the iPhone line in 2022 (the iPhone 14 and iPhone 14 Pro). If you are in the middle of nowhere, don’t have a cellphone signal, and don’t have an iPhone, you can call for help just using the Apple Watch Ultra 3. And you can also send text messages even when your cellular service is not working. You can also let someone track your location via satellite using the Find My app. And speaking of new radios, the Ultra 3 can also use 5G cellular.

One of the nice features of the Apple Watch Series 10, introduced last year, is a larger screen, made possible by reducing the size of the bezel. With the 46mm version of the Series 10 (which is the larger model), the screen size was 416 x 496 pixels (versus 396 x 484 pixels for the larger version of the Series 9). This year, Apple did something similar with the Apple Watch Ultra 3. The case size remains 49mm (44mm by 12mm), but the screen size increases from 410 x 502 pixels for the Ultra 2 to 422 x 514 pixels for the Ultra 3. Thus, by any metric, you get more usable screen on an Apple Watch Ultra 3 than any other model. The increase in screen size from the Ultra 2 to the Ultra 3 is not quite as dramatic as the increase in screen size from the Series 9 to the Series 10, but it is still nice to be able to see more on the watch.

Apple says on its website that the new bezel is 24% thinner. I don’t see a page on the Apple website that directly shows the screens on the Ultra 2 and the Ultra 3. However, someone on the MacRumors forums created this using two different images from Apple’s website to show the larger screen size:

Not only is there more screen to see, but it is easier to see. One of the improvements brought to last year’s Apple Watch Series 10 is a LTPO3 wide-angle OLED for the always-on Retina display. This means two things. First, the display is brighter when viewed at an angle. Second, the watch face can update more frequently when in low power mode, so even if the screen is dimmed, you can still see ticking seconds.

Although this is not a new screen feature—it was also present in the Ultra 2—it is notable that the Ultra 3 can get up to 3000 nits in brightness. (The Series 10 and new Series 11 go up to 2000 nits.) I know from when I previously used an Ultra 2 that this additional screen brightness makes a real difference when you are outside on a sunny day.

In 2023, Apple placed an S9 processor in the Apple Watch Ultra 2 and the Apple Watch Series 9. In 2024, the Series 10 got the S10 processor. The S10 is not more powerful than the S9, but the S10 is single-sided, which means it takes up less space in the body of the watch. For the Series 10, it appears that Apple used that extra space to make the watch even thinner (a feature that I appreciate). The Ultra 3 also uses the S10 chip, but the body appears to be the same size as the Ultra 2. My guess is that Apple used the extra space for the radio that can communicate with satellites.

The Apple Watch Ultra 3 includes GPS and cellular, and it costs $799.

Incredible battery life and charging, a bigger display that is brighter and more funcational, and satellite communication—plus all of the great features from past models like the Action button, durable case, the siren, a louder built-in speaker, better microphone, and watch bands designed for outdoor activities—mean that the Apple Watch Ultra 3 has more features than any other Apple Watch. The only feature available on another Apple Watch right now and not the Ultra 3 is a thin design on your wrist.

The Ultra 3 is certainly the model to get if you have an active lifestyle. But I know so many lawyers and other professionals who tell me that they love that the Ultra exists because they just want the best of everything, especially really good battery life. I really liked the Ultra 2 when I tried it last year, and I’m sure that I would like the Ultra 3 even more. But I made the decision last year—it wasn’t an easy decision—that having a thinner and less bulky watch on my wrist was more important to me than the unique advantages of the Ultra. That’s the same decision that you will have to think about if you want to get one of the best versions of the Apple Watch: the Ultra 3 versus the Series 11.

Apple Watch Series 11

The Apple Watch Series 10 introduced last year looked different (and better) from earlier models because it had a larger screen and was the thinnest Apple Watch ever. The Series 11 keeps that same look.

If you compare the features of the new Apple Watch Series 11 to last year’s Apple Watch Series 10, there are only a few improvements. Nevertheless, they are nice ones.

First, the Series 11—like the Ultra 3—has improved battery life. It jumps from up to 18 hours on a single charge to 24 hours. If I start my day with a fully charged Apple Watch Series 10 and I make extensive use of my watch throughout the day—such as doing a workout and using the cellular service when I’m away from my iPhone—I will sometimes run out of power before I am ready to go to bed. It is rare for that to happen, but it does sometimes happen. With the extra six hours of the Series 11, I suspect that would never happen, so the additional up to 6 hours is a nice improvement.

Second, and like the Ultra 3, you can recharge for a small amount of time to get a noticeable result: 15 minutes will give you an additional eight hours, and give minutes will get you up to eight hours of sleep tracking.

Third, if you use the aluminum case version of the Apple Watch Series 11, Apple says that the new Iox-X glass is twice as resistant to scratches as the Series 10. (If you use the titanium case version, you get the same, durable sapphire crystal display as the Series 10.)

Fourth, the new cellular radio in the Series 11 supports 5G. (But not satellite connectivity.)

The Series 10 starts at $399 (GPS) and $499 (GPS + Cellular).

While the battery life and charging improvements are nice advantages over the Series 10, there isn’t much of a compelling reason to upgrade from a Series 10 to a Series 11. But if you are using an earlier Apple Watch model, the calculus changes quite a bit. The Series 10 was a very big update: larger screen, the thinnest Apple Watch ever, the ability to use the built-in speaker to play media, faster charging than prior models, and the option to upgrade to a very nice titanium case. If you are using an Apple Watch Series 9 or earlier, upgrading to the Series 11 gives you all of the new features added in the Series 10 and 11, which adds up to a very nice upgrade.

Apple Watch SE 3

The Apple Watch SE is the budget model. It starts at $249 (GPS) and $299 (GPS + Cellular) for the 40mm model, and $279 / $329 for the 44mm model.

You give up some features, but you pay less money. When the original SE was released is 2020, I considered it a decent alternative to the Series 6 except that you didn’t get an always-on display, which is a very nice feature. In 2022, Apple released the SE 2, and it did a decent job of catching up on some of the most important features, although it still lacked an always-on display.

This year, the Apple Watch SE 3 adds an always-on Retina display, just like what you get with the Series 11. It isn’t as nice a display; you don’t get the better LTPO3 wide-angle OLED, which, as noted above, improves viewing at an angle and allows the screen to display ticking seconds. And it isn’t as bright as the Series 11: 1000 nits instead of 2000 nits. But the display is still much better than what you got with the SE 2.

The SE 3 also gets the same S10 processor that is in the Series 11 and the Ultra 3, a big upgrade from the S3 processor used in the SE 2. For example, it means that this model can support the doube tap gesture (first added to the Series 9 in 2023) and the new wrist flick gesture (more on this below).

Battery life is up to 18 hours, which is the same as the SE 2. However, the SE 3 supports the same fast charging options as the Series 11, including 0% to 80% in only 45 minutes 15 eight hours of additional life after charging for only 15 minutes.

The SE 3 gains some sensors that have been around for a while in more expensive Apple Watch models but which were missing in the SE 2: nightly wrist temperature tracking and sleep apnea notifications. But it still lacks the ability to check your EKG/ECG, lacks the ability to check your blood oxygen level, and it cannot sense water temperature or depth. The SE 3 does have a heart sensor, but it is less sophisticated than what you get in the more expensive models.

The SE 3 also appears to have the same cellular radio as the Series 11, which means that it supports 5G in addition to LTE. And this is also the first SE model that supports media playback using the built-in speaker. However, it lacks the second-generation Ultra Wideband chip of the more expensive models, which makes it easier to find your Apple Watch using Find My.

Notable new features

In addition to the new features mentioned above that require you to purchase the 2025 versions of the Apple Watch, there are some notable new features coming not only to these three new models but also some of the older models. It is always nice to get significant new features without having to purchase new hardware.

• Hypertension Notifications. Hypertension—chronic high blood pressure—is the leading modifiable risk factor for heart attack, stroke, and kidney disease, and impacts approximately 1.3 billion adults around the world. Apple doesn’t have a specific sensor to check for high blood pressure. However, Apple has had an optical heart sensor on the Apple Watch since the original Apple Watch, and that sensor has improved over the years. If you own an Apple Watch, you can use the Research app on an iPhone to participate in various studies that look at data from your Apple Watch and ask you questions about your health. Apple says that by looking at this data from over 100,000 participants, it has figured out a way to correlate data from the optical heart sensor with hypertension. Apple then did a clinical study with 2,000 participants to validate the performance.

As a result, certain models of the Apple Watch will be able to alert you if the watch senses hypertension so that you will know that you should see a doctor. Apple believes that during the first year of this new feature, Apple is going to notify over 1 million people that they have undiagnosed hypertension.

The new hypertension notification feature will be available on the Apple Watch Ultra 2 and 3, and the Apple Watch Series 9, 10, and 11.

• Sleep Score. The Apple Watch already had the ability to track your sleep. In watchOS 26, a new feature called Sleep Score assigns you an overall sleep quality score based on your sleep duration, bedtime consistency, how often you wake up, and how much time is spent in each sleep stage. The hope is that if you analyze your Sleep Score every night, you can figure out what to change in your lifestyle to get the best sleep.

The Sleep Score feature works on all models of the Apple Watch Ultra, the Apple Watch Series 6 through Series 11, and the Apple Watch SE 2 and SE 3.

• Wrist flick. With certain models running watchOS 26, you get a new wrist flick gesture. By just flicking your wrist, you can dismiss notifications, stop a timer, or silence an alarm, all without using your other hand. This will be especially useful if you are holding something or doing something with your other arm. This new wrist flick feature works on the Apple Watch Ultra 3, the Apple Watch Series 10 and 11, and the Apple Watch SE 3.

Conclusion

This is a big year at the high-end and the low-end of the Apple Watch. I know many people who use and love an Apple Watch Ultra or Ultra 2 and who were eager for an upgrade. Now they have that, and it is a great upgrade. On the other extreme, if you want the least expensive Apple Watch, the new SE 3 includes lots of features that used to only come with the more expensive models, like the always-on display.

The Series 11 is only a minor upgrade over the Series 10, but that doesn’t matter because most people wait many generations before they upgrade an Apple Watch. If you use a Series 9 or earlier, you will get a ton of new features if you get a Series 11.

Yesterday, Apple announced the 2025 models of the iPhone. For many years now, in the Fall, Apple has released an entry-level iPhone, a high-end iPhone Pro, and something in between. In 2020 and 2021, that in-between model was a smaller version of the entry-level iPhone: the iPhone 12 mini and the iPhone 13 mini. In 2022 through 2024, that in-between model was a larger version of the entry-level iPhone called the Plus model: the iPhone 14 Plus, iPhone 15 Plus, and iPhone 16 Plus. This year, that in-between model is the iPhone Air. It is the thinnest iPhone ever made, and it is the lightest iPhone since the iPhone 13 mini. Each of these new models has its advantages. If you are a lawyer or other professional and you are ready for an upgrade, the 2025 models of the iPhone look to be excellent.

iPhone 17

Most people opt for the entry-level iPhone because it has a good set of features at a nice price, and that remains true this year. This is not the cheapest iPhone; Apple is still selling the iPhone 16e, which was released earlier this year, starting at $599, and perhaps in early 2026, Apple will release an iPhone 17e. And the iPhone 17 is arguably a little more expensive than last year’s iPhone 16, depending upon how you look at it. The iPhone 16 was $699 for the 128GB model and $799 for the 256GB model; for the iPhone 17, there is no 128GB model, and the cheapest version, the 256GB model, costs the same as last year, $799. But the iPhone 17 is cheaper than the other models released yesterday and still has lots of great features.

Last year, you got a slightly smaller iPhone screen with the iPhone 16, 6.1 inches, whereas the iPhone 16 Pro had a 6.3-inch screen. This year, both the iPhone 17 and the iPhone 17 Pro have a 6.3-inch screen. And it is a nice screen. Advanced features like an always-on display and ProMotion (which makes everything look smoother because the screen refreshes at up to 120Hz instead of 60Hz) now come in the entry-level iPhone 17 as well as the Pro model. And while the iPhone 16 and 16 Pro models could increase the screen brightness to up to 2000 nits when outdoors, the iPhone 17 (and iPhone Air and iPhone 17 Pro) can go up to 3000 nits. This could be very useful when you are outside on a sunny day.

All of the 2025 models, including the iPhone 17, use Apple’s latest A19 chip, so everything can run a little faster and processor-intensive tasks like on-device AI can be even more responsive.

That new chip also helps to improve battery life. When playing back video, the iPhone 16 would last up to 22 hours, whereas the iPhone 17 can last up to 30 hours.

Just like the iPhone 11 through the iPhone 16, you get three camera lenses: the one on the front (the selfie camera) and two on the back (one normal, one Ultra Wide). But two of those cameras are now better. On the back, the Ultra Wide camera used to be 12 megapixels, but now, both of the back cameras are 48 megapixels. You cannot always say that a smartphone camera with more megapixels takes better pictures, but the move from 12 to 48 is substantial, so I have no doubt that this will be a nice improvement.

The front-facing camera—the selfie camera—is also better in multiple ways. First, it is an 18 megapixel square camera instead of a 12 megapixel 4×3 camera. I don’t believe that you can actually take square pictures with this new camera. But what you can do is hold your iPhone in portrait orientation, making it easier to hold in your hand, and take a landscape photograph. And this camera really shines when combined with a new software feature: Center Stage. In the past, Apple has had Center Stage on certain Macs and iPads. It means that the camera can essentially “zoom in” on you, unless multiple people are in the frame, in which case it will “zoom out” to show everyone. You may start taking a selfie picture in the traditional portrait orientation mode, but then if others join you in the picture, the Camera app is smart enough to switch to a landscape orientation mode to keep everyone in the picture.

That better front-facing camera has another trick up its sleeve. If you are taking a video with a camera on the back of your iPhone, you can simultaneously take a video with the front-facing camera. Thus, not only can you have a video of your daughter shooting a three-pointer in a high school basketball game, but you can also film your reaction at the same time. (My daughter’s varsity basketball team just started practices for the 2025-26 school year, so you can understand why that is on my mind.) I want to learn more about how this works. Can I take video with both cameras but then choose only to use the video from the back camera, either some of the time or all of the time? We’ll have to see how it works, but it is an interesting idea. Note that this improved front-facing camera on the iPhone 17 is also used on the iPhone Air and the iPhone 17 Pro models.

The iPhone 17 can also charge even faster than previous models. If you use the right adapter—such as Apple’s new 40W Dynamic Power Adapter with 60W Max—you can charge up to 50% in only 20 minutes. You can also use Qi 2.2 fast charging devices, which is the latest wireless charging standard that is just as fast as the latest version of MagSafe charging.

Just like the iPhone 16, you get an Action button and a Camera Control button.

The iPhone 17 comes in five colors: Lavender, Mist Blue, Black, White, and Sage.

In sum, the iPhone 17 is a very capable model. The nicer screen that used to only come with the Pro model is now available for this entry-level model, plus you get better cameras, better battery life, and other features that make this a better device. If you want a model that does a good job of handling your work tasks, like reading emails and documents (even when it is bright outside), and you just have basic needs for taking pictures, this is likely to be the model that you will want to get.

iPhone Air

If you are willing to pay an extra $200, you can get the iPhone Air instead of the iPhone 17. And the main reason that you would want to do so is to have the thinnest iPhone ever made.

How thin is it? Unlike the iPhone 17 (0.31 inch thick) or the iPhone 17 Pro and Pro Max (0.34 inch thick), the iPhone Air is only 0.22 inches. I look forward to holding one in my own hands to see how it feels, but this seems like a noticeably thinner iPhone.

One of the tricks that Apple used is that this model still has a plateau at the top. That is where the camera is housed, but Apple put a lot of other electronics in that part as well.

The thin size is the primary reason to spend an extra $200 for the iPhone Air over the iPhone 17, but there are other advantages as well. The device is a little bit taller and wider, which means that there is enough space for a 6.5-inch screen, just like the iPhone 17 Pro, whereas the iPhone 17 has a 6.3-inch screen.

You also get more durability: a frame made of titanium instead of aluminum, and it uses Ceramic Shield technology not only on the front of the iPhone (like the iPhone 17) but also on the back, making the back stronger and more resistant to cracks.

You also get a faster device. Like the iPhone 17 Pro, the iPhone Air uses the A19 Pro chip instead of the A19.

With the thin size, I expected far less battery life. Instead, there is only somewhat less battery life: 27 hours of video playback instead of 30 hours. Part of the reason for the surprisingly good battery life is that instead of using a Qualcomm modem (which is more powerful but more power hungry), Apple is using a modem it designed itself, called the C1X, which is more efficient.

Moreover, if there is a specific circumstance in which you want extra battery life, Apple has reintroduced the $99 MagSafe battery pack that I love so much, and this time it has a USB-C connector instead of Lightning. Keep that in your pocket or purse, pop it on when you need a boost, and Apple says that you can get another 65% of charge (so I suppose another 17 hours of video playback). Note that the new iPhone Air MagSafe Battery only works with the iPhone Air (it is too tall to fit below the camera bumps of other iPhone models), so I guess I’ll have to keep using my old model (with its Lightning connector) with my iPhone Pro.

The front camera on the iPhone Air is the same, improved front camera that you get with the iPhone 17. On the back, there is only a single camera, so you don’t get the Ultra Wide camera (which is useful not only when you want to zoom out and see more but also when you want a Macro camera).

The iPhone Air comes in four colors: Sky Blue, Light Gold, Cloud White, and Space Black.

For the past few years, you could pay a little bit more than the entry-level iPhone and get a “Plus” model with a larger screen that was otherwise the same. This year, if you pay more, you get an iPhone that has a somewhat larger screen but also a new, incredibly thin body. Plus, you get a little more power, a little more durability, and a surprisingly good battery that you can easily supplement with the new iPhone Air MagSafe Battery. The only downside, besides the additional $200, is that you don’t get the Ultra Wide camera, but I suspect that if the camera really mattered to you, you would be getting an iPhone Pro.

I’m sure that many people will want the iPhone Air because they want the best iPhone. Based on the early feedback I’ve seen from people who held one on Apple’s campus yesterday, it looks and feels great in your hand. On the other extreme, if you just want an iPhone to get your work done, the iPhone Air may still appeal to you because this thin, light model is less intrusive. I look forward to reading the review from folks who have lived with this model for a while, but I suspect that this model will be popular and have lots of fans.

One last note: I’m surprised that it is called the “iPhone Air” and not the “iPhone 17 Air.” When it is improved in the future, I guess the next model will be called the iPhone Air 2?

iPhone 17 Pro and iPhone 17 Pro Max

The iPhone Air is a substantially new design, but the Pro models also get a new design this year. I think it looks great, and it is very functional. Apple is using a heat-forged aluminum unibody enclosure that is optimized for performance and battery life. And it features a vapor chamber with deionized water sealed inside to move heat away from the A19 Pro chip. My current iPhone 16 Pro can get noticeably hot when it is doing processor-intensive tasks, and when an iPhone gets too hot, it has to throttle down performance. Hopefully, this new design will mean that the iPhone 17 Pro stays cooler in your hand and has sustained performance.

The new unibody design also improves durability. Plus, like the iPhone Air, the iPhone 17 Pro has a Ceramic Shield on the back and the new Ceramic Shield 2 on the front, all of which should be more resistant to cracks and scratches.

The iPhone 17 Pro has a 6.3-inch screen. With the iPhone 17 Pro Max, you get a 6.9-inch screen. Those are the same screen sizes as last year’s iPhone 16 Pro and Pro Max. However, Apple says that these new screens have better anti-reflection.

The processor in the new Pro models is the new A19 Pro, the same chip used in the iPhone Air. But the Pro models are slightly better because they have a 6-core GPU versus the 5-core GPU on the iPhone Air. How much of a difference that makes in real life remains to be seen.

I like to take pictures and videos, so a major reason that I pay more for a Pro model is the better cameras. Last year, the iPhone 16 Pro and Pro Max featured three cameras on the back: a 48MP (megapixel) Ultra Wide camera (for 0.5x), a 48MP Fusion Main camera (for 1x and 2x), and a 12MP Telephoto camera (for 5x). This year, the main camera stays the same. The Ultra Wide camera now gains “Fusion,” which is the term Apple uses when the camera takes both a 12MP picture (to maximize light capture) and a 48MP picture (to capture fine detail) and then fuses those into a single 24MP image. In other words, photos that you take with the 0.5x lens should be better with this model.

Instead of last year’s 5x camera, this year there is a 4x camera. But that’s not a step down; it’s actually a step up. That’s because the telephoto camera on the iPhone 16 Pro was only a 12MP camera. The new iPhone 17 Pro telephoto camera is a 48MP camera. What this means is that the iPhone can use all 48MP to give you a 4x zoom, or can focus on just the 24MP in the middle to give you an 8x zoom. Yes, it is true that is cropped from the 4x image, but the 8x 24MP photo should be a step up from last year’s 5x 12MP photo. I often find it very useful to have a zoom lens. A zoom lens that is both better quality (48MP or 24MP versus 12MP) and a higher magnification (8x versus 5x) sounds great to me, and I cannot wait to try it out. The range from 0.5x to 8x is 16x, so you get a ton of flexibility on how you want to frame your shot.

Apple says that the 8x mode is equivalent to a 200mm focal length. Before I shifted to the iPhone for virtually all of my photography, I previously used a Nikon DSLR camera, and I really loved Nikon’s Superzoom lens, which went from 18mm to 200mm. When David Pogue was writing for the New York Times, he would frequently praise that lens, such as in this article from 2007. While I enjoy the 5x zoom on my iPhone 16 Pro (120mm equivalent), going up to 8x (200mm equivalent) seems like a substantial improvement. Of course, with that much zoom, it will be even more important to hold the camera very steady, but Apple has always done a great job with image stabilization software, and I’m sure that Apple has incorporated that into the 8x mode.

The Pro models also give you the best battery life. For example, video playback on last year’s iPhone 16 Pro was 27 hours, and last year’s iPhone 16 Pro Max was 33 hours. The new iPhone 17 is 30 hours. The new iPhone 17 Pro is 33 hours—just like last year’s Pro Max. And the new iPhone 17 Pro Max is 39 hours. Other tasks will result in different battery life, of course. I know that whenever I take 4K HDR video of my daughter playing basketball and she has multiple games in a single day, it can eat up a lot of my battery on my iPhone 16 Pro Max. With an iPhone 17 Pro Max, I should be able to do more without running out of battery life.

When you do need to recharge, if you use a 40W adapter, you can charge up to 50% in only 20 minutes. (Last year’s iPhone 16 Pro could use a 20W adapter to charge up to 50% in 30 minutes.)

And you get other various advantages with this Pro model. It has more memory than ever before. Just like last year’s model, the iPhone 17 Pro has USB-C that supports USB 3, allowing up to 10 gigabits per second transfer speed (if you use a cable that supports that speed). That can make it much faster to transfer video or other large files to and from the iPhone. And if you need tons of space for those large files, you can get a version of the iPhone 17 Pro Max with 2TB of capacity. That costs $1999, so it is the first iPhone to ever cost (essentially) $2000, but if you need to keep a ton of files on your iPhone, now you can do so. My current iPhone 16 Pro Max is the 512GB model, and I love being able to load it up with anything that I might want—whether it is a very large file associated with a lawsuit or tons of home videos that I might want to view or share with others. But I’m currently getting close to that 512GB limit, so I’m currently weighing whether to spend $1399 for the iPhone 17 Pro Max 512GB model or $1599 for the 1TB model.

As an Apple Vision Pro user, I like that my current iPhone can record spatial video at 1080p and 30fps, but I had hoped for something more in the iPhone 17 Pro, such as spatial video at 4K. But unfortunately, that wasn’t changed this year.

The iPhone 17 Pro models come in three colors: Silver, Cosmic Orange, and Deep Blue. Many people will love the new orange color because it is so different from all prior iPhones. Since 2008, I’ve been purchasing black iPhones, and for the first time, I’ll need to select a different color this year. I think I’m going to get the Deep Blue.

The Phone 17 Pro has 256GB and starts at $1,099. That is $100 more than the cheapest iPhone 16 Pro, but that model had only 128GB, and it is the same price as the 256GB iPhone 16 Pro. The iPhone 17 Pro Max also starts at 256GB, which costs $1,199.

If you want the most performance, the best battery life, and the best cameras, the iPhone 17 Pro or Pro Max is the model to get.

Conclusion

This is the strongest iPhone lineup that I’ve seen in a long time. There is so much to love here: a fantastic entry-level model, a great new thin design with the iPhone Air, and two powerful Pro models. Choice is a good thing, but I’m sure that many will have difficulty choosing between models. Pre-orders start this Friday, September 12, and these models will be available in stores one week later on September 19.