iPhone 17 may give you one solid reason to pick iPhone 16 over it

iPhone 17

Apple’s iPhone 17 series is still a few months away from its expected September launch, but early leaks have already sparked a debate among fans. And surprisingly, one of the leaks might actually make you consider the iPhone 16 instead.

According to a new research note cited by MacRumors, analyst Jeff Pu claims that the standard iPhone 17 will be powered by the same A18 chip as the iPhone 16. That means no big leap in processing power or performance, at least for the base model. So if you're eyeing the regular iPhone 17 and already have the iPhone 16, you might not notice much of a difference and that could be a good reason to skip the upgrade.

To be clear, this applies only to the standard iPhone 17. The other models — iPhone 17 Air, iPhone 17 Pro, and iPhone 17 Pro Max — are tipped to get newer A19 and A19 Pro chips, reportedly built on a more advanced chipmaking process. They’re also expected to pack more RAM  12GB, compared to the 8GB on the iPhone 17 and iPhone 16.

But it’s not all about chips. Apple is reportedly introducing a new "metalens" technology in the iPhone 17 series. This upgrade will shrink the size of the Face ID sensor, allowing Apple to reduce the size of the Dynamic Island — the pill-shaped cutout at the top of the display that houses Face ID and the front camera. This means a sleeker look and more screen space across all four iPhone 17 models.

Still, for those not chasing cutting-edge specs or design tweaks, the lack of a performance upgrade in the standard iPhone 17 could make the iPhone 16 a smarter and possibly cheaper pick. So if you’ve been holding off on upgrading, this might be the year when last year’s model makes the most sense.