September 10, 2025 • 11 mins
Apple CEO Tim Cook promised the “biggest leap ever for iPhone” - and yesterday, the tech giant unveiled its new suite of products, including the iPhone 17 and 17 Pro, and its thinnest ever phone, the iPhone Air. So did Tim Cook get it right? And is it worth upgrading?
Michael Thompson speaks to Stephen Fenech, editor of techguide.com.au.
Fear & Greed Q+A: Join Sean Aylmer & Michael Thompson and the team as they answer questions on business, investing, economics, politics and more. If you have your own question, get in touch via our website, LinkedIn, Instagram or Facebook!
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Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
Speaker 1 (00:06):
Welcome to Fear and Greed Q and A where we
ask and answer questions about business, investing, economics, politics and more.
I'm Michael Thompson and today is the new Apple iPhone
worth the investments? Apple CEO Tim Cook promised the biggest
leap ever for iPhone, and yesterday the tech giant unveiled
its new suite of products, including the iPhone seventeen. It's
seventeen pro and it's thinnest ever phone, the iPhone Air.
(00:28):
It's also the new AirPods Pro three and the new
Apple Watches. So did Tim Cook get it right? Is
it worth upgrading? Stephen Fennick is the editor of tech
guide dot com TODAU. Stephen, Welcome back to Fear and Greed.
Speaker 2 (00:40):
Good day, Michael.
Speaker 1 (00:41):
How you doing going well? Is this the biggest leap
ever for iPhone or is it maybe a slight overreach, mate?
Speaker 2 (00:49):
I'd say to be the biggest leap in recent years. Okay,
previous to this year there've been quite incremental upgrades and
very very slight design changes. This year they seemed to
have sort of the architecture of the phones has changed
a little bit and the introduction of the iPhone Air,
which we sort of knew was coming. But also the
(01:10):
redesign of the iPhone seventeen Pro and Promax with that
larger camera plateau, that actually made room to pack more
battery in more other features into the device. So yeah,
I think that was in terms of the change from
sixteen to seventeen in terms of design and architecture. Then
I'd say, yeah, it has been quite a change.
Speaker 1 (01:31):
Okay, let's start then with the iPhone Air because that
is it is quite striking to look at it. How
is it so thin? Where's the trade off here as
a battery?
Speaker 2 (01:41):
Well, yeah, it's five point six millimeters thick, and this
comes on the heels of Samsung's S twenty five Edge,
which was released kind of as a spoiler. They released there,
they announced there's in January, released it a couple of
months ago. There is five point eight inches and there
was virtually no compromise with that. There was a little
the bat the battery was still for the device handled
(02:04):
it fine. The camera systems, You've sort of got three
quarters of the Flagtube camera system, so I'd say that
what Apple's done here, and again that camera plateau is
on the iPhone Air as well, so that allowed them
to sort of put a lot of the camera system
and a lot of the circuitry up into that bump
to create more room for the biggest possible battery they
(02:24):
could fit in, and also more they're calling it the
most durable iPhone as well. It's made of titanium, so
despite it being so thin and light, it's on one
hundred and sixty five grams. They're claiming that it's going
to be pretty strong, so they're promising all day battery life.
It's got wireless charging. I think it's compatible with twenty
five what wireless charging, which means that even when you
(02:46):
do have to charge it wirelessly, you can charge it
I think up to about fifty percent in about half
an hour, so that's not too bad.
Speaker 1 (02:52):
Who's the target for the iPhone air is. It's because
it is a very nice looking phone. But I mean,
if you're going to be using your phone for work,
surely you'd still be looking at the seventeen or the
seventeen Pro, right.
Speaker 2 (03:06):
Absolutely, Yeah. I think the iPhone AW will appeal to younger,
younger customers, customers who who focus on style and design
and want something sort of thin and light and sexy
rather than having a bigger phone. It's a flagship price though,
starts at two thousand dollars, so it's not like it's
a more much more affordable than the Pro. But I think, yeah, main,
(03:30):
I think your younger user who loves photography, but not
to the point where that they require a pro level camera,
So I think your younger, trendier user. Interestingly, there's no
SIM card in this one as well. This is the
first iPhone that Apple has declared worldwide it is no
simcard e SIM only because I don't know whether you're aware,
(03:53):
but in the US, for the last few years, all
iPhones have had no SIM card trays. In the US,
you can only buy iPhones with esim's okay. So for
the first time, Apple is releasing a product that is
eSIM only worldwide. So this could start the move towards
not having to have a little plastic SIM card in
(04:14):
your device, but to go with via the SIM.
Speaker 1 (04:18):
But why then, does the seventeen and seventeen Pro still
have the physical SIM Is there a benefit to still
having it?
Speaker 2 (04:25):
Well, I think a couple of factors here. I think
one they wanted to save on the width of the phone,
sort of having a SIM card train may have added
some size to the device. I know that the Samsung
S twenty five Edge, while it's er point two millimeters thick,
does have a SIM card tray. I think that the
Pro users they didn't want they didn't want to sort
(04:46):
of shake it up too much. They wanted to that
customer to still be able to change SIM cards quite easily,
although eSIM isn't isn't too hard to change. One thing
I find interesting though, with the iPhone Air. They never
put a number to it, so it's you've got the
iPhone seventeen, seventeen Pro, seventeen Pro Max, but the thin
(05:06):
devices is called the iPhone Air. There's no number, So
that leads me to believe perhaps that it might not
be a device that gets updated every year. It might
be every couple of years. It might be not like
the Pro and the entry level devices. It may be
an occasional upgrade rather than a yearly upgrade.
Speaker 1 (05:27):
Okay, moving on to the seventeen and the seventeen Pro,
the big upgrade the what's the selling point for these ones?
Speaker 2 (05:34):
Well? I think power and performance yep. Definitely, it's got
the A nineteen pro chip on board, so it's it's
really like computer laptop level performance. The camera system, of course,
has gone up yet another level. It's basically got three
forty eight megapixel lenses on board and has all these
pro features as well, pro resraw, It's got all you
(05:59):
could use use these devices in a professional production. That's
the quality that you're getting through the cameras, and of
course not only taking great images, but the video is
in the next level power wise, performance wise, again cutting edge.
I think the performance on these is probably faster than
any smartphone you can buy on the market today. And
(06:21):
of course all of the new devices have the new
iOS twenty four software, which itself comes with some new features.
So if at least if you're not buying the new iPhone,
you can still upgrade to iOS twenty six and get
some of these new features. But the hardware features on
the seventeen Pro and the seventeen Pro Max, the processor,
(06:41):
the camera, and the great screens are really the Apple
at its finest.
Speaker 1 (06:48):
How much will I set you back?
Speaker 2 (06:49):
Well, that's the interesting point. There was all this speculation
that the tariffs were going to put a bit of
a tax on them, a bit of a price hike.
They're actually the same price as last would you believe, Well,
there was no iPhone Air last year, so that was
sort of replacing the Plus model because remember last year
there was a sixteen and a sixteen Plus. This year
there's just the seventeen and the iPhone Air, so no
(07:12):
real comparison there. But the seventeen is basically the same
price as last year's sixteen. The seventeen Pro is two
hundred dollars more expensive than the sixteen Pro, but the
only reason for that is because they've now their entry
level data point storage point is now two fifty six meg,
not one twenty eight, so it's basically the same price
(07:34):
as the one the two fifty six sixteen from last year,
and the Promax is the same price as well, So
that's surprising. Pleasantly surprised to see that the pricing didn't
go up as we had speculated.
Speaker 1 (07:46):
Now, there was a lot of talk in the lead
up to the announcement about what was going to happen
with Siri and the idea that there should be an
update soon to Siri to make it more compatible with
Apple Intelligence, but it didn't happen. They need more time.
What's going on there?
Speaker 2 (08:02):
Yeah, they did announce at the Worldwide Developer Conference back
in June that Apple Intelligence, the personalization of Siri wasn't ready,
they said. At the time, they said, we were not
happy with how it is at the moment. It doesn't
meet our standards, and back then they stated it it
probably won't be until next year. So I'd expect probably
(08:23):
a big update in early twenty twenty six to bring
Siri into line with the other AI that we're seeing
in other devices like Galaxy AI and Gemini AI. So yeah,
they are lagging behind in that area.
Speaker 1 (08:36):
Okay. I started out by asking whether it is worth
the upgrade. If you're paying two thousand dollars plus potentially
for a phone, would you be upgrading to one of these?
Speaker 2 (08:49):
If I had the iPhone sixteen, I'd cool my jets.
I wouldn't be upgrading because it's a decent upgrade, but
not big enough for any personally. I wouldn't be upgrading
from the sixteen. I'd say this is probably aimed at
the customer that may have a thirteen or fourteen, perhaps
even at fifteen. That's a couple of years old now,
so that's I think that that's the ideal customer. For years.
(09:13):
We hear people grumbling. Oh, it's only a little increase
and it's not much of an improvement from last year. Well,
it's not aimed at the customer from last year. I
think all people need to understand that not everyone upgrades
their phone every year. In fact that we're taking we're
keeping our phones even longer now, three, four, even five
years before upgrading our devices. So for that customer who
(09:33):
maybe have a thirteen, forteen or fifteen, it's going to
be a big upgrade for them.
Speaker 1 (09:38):
Okay, just very quickly because we only have a minute left.
The other things that were announced updated AirPods, updated Apple Watch,
a lot of focus on health features.
Speaker 2 (09:49):
Yeah, that's always been the case. Apple Watch has always
been at the forefront of the health and wellness features,
and there was even a part of the present Part
of the presentation showed people who owed their live to
the Apple Watch because it gave them different warnings and
notifications and end up saving their lives. So this year
is no different. The phone is slightly thinner, slightly lighter.
(10:10):
It does have now a better sleep tracking so you
can keep a sleep score. There's also a feature that's
going to be in the foot process of being approved
that's going to also detect hypertension, which is sort of
like a side effective high blood pressure all in the watch. Yeah,
all on the watch and on the air pod side.
(10:31):
The obviously better audio, better active noise cancelation. But now
you can even track your heart rate using your AirPods.
So a lot of people like to work out wearing
their air pods, and now when they're in your ears,
it's actually a very accurate place to measure your heart
rate is in your ear, So they're deciding to They've
got a sensor in there now to help with your
heart rate measurement using your AirPods.
Speaker 1 (10:53):
You mentioned before Samsung Apples in a constant battle with Samsung.
Is the market going to like what's been announced?
Speaker 2 (10:58):
Yeah? I think so. Yeah. I think look Samsung had
a massive couple of months the Fold range, who was phenomenal.
They're really the sales are going through the roof. Pre
orders went crazy. I Phone customers. Now, I think we
were waiting for this, we sort of there were no
real surprises. All the rumors were true. So yeah, I
think that there's going to be a lot of people
lining up and pre ordering this device when it's available.
Speaker 1 (11:21):
Ruper Steven thank you for speaking to Fear and Greed.
Speaker 2 (11:24):
My pleasure. Thanks Michael.
Speaker 1 (11:25):
That was Stephen Fanek, editor at tech Guide dot com
at dot au. Now, if you've got something that you'd
like to know, then send me a question on LinkedIn, Instagram, Facebook,
or at Fear and Greed dot com dot au. Oh,
Michael Thompson, and this is Fear and Greed Q and
a
Welcome to Fear and Greed Q and A where we
ask and answer questions about business, investing, economics, politics and more.
I'm Michael Thompson and today is the new Apple iPhone
worth the investments? Apple CEO Tim Cook promised the biggest
leap ever for iPhone, and yesterday the tech giant unveiled
its new suite of products, including the iPhone seventeen. It's
seventeen pro and it's thinnest ever phone, the iPhone Air.
(00:28):
It's also the new AirPods Pro three and the new
Apple Watches. So did Tim Cook get it right? Is
it worth upgrading? Stephen Fennick is the editor of tech
guide dot com TODAU. Stephen, Welcome back to Fear and Greed.
Speaker 2 (00:40):
Good day, Michael.
Speaker 1 (00:41):
How you doing going well? Is this the biggest leap
ever for iPhone or is it maybe a slight overreach, mate?
Speaker 2 (00:49):
I'd say to be the biggest leap in recent years. Okay,
previous to this year there've been quite incremental upgrades and
very very slight design changes. This year they seemed to
have sort of the architecture of the phones has changed
a little bit and the introduction of the iPhone Air,
which we sort of knew was coming. But also the
(01:10):
redesign of the iPhone seventeen Pro and Promax with that
larger camera plateau, that actually made room to pack more
battery in more other features into the device. So yeah,
I think that was in terms of the change from
sixteen to seventeen in terms of design and architecture. Then
I'd say, yeah, it has been quite a change.
Speaker 1 (01:31):
Okay, let's start then with the iPhone Air because that
is it is quite striking to look at it. How
is it so thin? Where's the trade off here as
a battery?
Speaker 2 (01:41):
Well, yeah, it's five point six millimeters thick, and this
comes on the heels of Samsung's S twenty five Edge,
which was released kind of as a spoiler. They released there,
they announced there's in January, released it a couple of
months ago. There is five point eight inches and there
was virtually no compromise with that. There was a little
the bat the battery was still for the device handled
(02:04):
it fine. The camera systems, You've sort of got three
quarters of the Flagtube camera system, so I'd say that
what Apple's done here, and again that camera plateau is
on the iPhone Air as well, so that allowed them
to sort of put a lot of the camera system
and a lot of the circuitry up into that bump
to create more room for the biggest possible battery they
(02:24):
could fit in, and also more they're calling it the
most durable iPhone as well. It's made of titanium, so
despite it being so thin and light, it's on one
hundred and sixty five grams. They're claiming that it's going
to be pretty strong, so they're promising all day battery life.
It's got wireless charging. I think it's compatible with twenty
five what wireless charging, which means that even when you
(02:46):
do have to charge it wirelessly, you can charge it
I think up to about fifty percent in about half
an hour, so that's not too bad.
Speaker 1 (02:52):
Who's the target for the iPhone air is. It's because
it is a very nice looking phone. But I mean,
if you're going to be using your phone for work,
surely you'd still be looking at the seventeen or the
seventeen Pro, right.
Speaker 2 (03:06):
Absolutely, Yeah. I think the iPhone AW will appeal to younger,
younger customers, customers who who focus on style and design
and want something sort of thin and light and sexy
rather than having a bigger phone. It's a flagship price though,
starts at two thousand dollars, so it's not like it's
a more much more affordable than the Pro. But I think, yeah, main,
(03:30):
I think your younger user who loves photography, but not
to the point where that they require a pro level camera,
So I think your younger, trendier user. Interestingly, there's no
SIM card in this one as well. This is the
first iPhone that Apple has declared worldwide it is no
simcard e SIM only because I don't know whether you're aware,
(03:53):
but in the US, for the last few years, all
iPhones have had no SIM card trays. In the US,
you can only buy iPhones with esim's okay. So for
the first time, Apple is releasing a product that is
eSIM only worldwide. So this could start the move towards
not having to have a little plastic SIM card in
(04:14):
your device, but to go with via the SIM.
Speaker 1 (04:18):
But why then, does the seventeen and seventeen Pro still
have the physical SIM Is there a benefit to still
having it?
Speaker 2 (04:25):
Well, I think a couple of factors here. I think
one they wanted to save on the width of the phone,
sort of having a SIM card train may have added
some size to the device. I know that the Samsung
S twenty five Edge, while it's er point two millimeters thick,
does have a SIM card tray. I think that the
Pro users they didn't want they didn't want to sort
(04:46):
of shake it up too much. They wanted to that
customer to still be able to change SIM cards quite easily,
although eSIM isn't isn't too hard to change. One thing
I find interesting though, with the iPhone Air. They never
put a number to it, so it's you've got the
iPhone seventeen, seventeen Pro, seventeen Pro Max, but the thin
(05:06):
devices is called the iPhone Air. There's no number, So
that leads me to believe perhaps that it might not
be a device that gets updated every year. It might
be every couple of years. It might be not like
the Pro and the entry level devices. It may be
an occasional upgrade rather than a yearly upgrade.
Speaker 1 (05:27):
Okay, moving on to the seventeen and the seventeen Pro,
the big upgrade the what's the selling point for these ones?
Speaker 2 (05:34):
Well? I think power and performance yep. Definitely, it's got
the A nineteen pro chip on board, so it's it's
really like computer laptop level performance. The camera system, of course,
has gone up yet another level. It's basically got three
forty eight megapixel lenses on board and has all these
pro features as well, pro resraw, It's got all you
(05:59):
could use use these devices in a professional production. That's
the quality that you're getting through the cameras, and of
course not only taking great images, but the video is
in the next level power wise, performance wise, again cutting edge.
I think the performance on these is probably faster than
any smartphone you can buy on the market today. And
(06:21):
of course all of the new devices have the new
iOS twenty four software, which itself comes with some new features.
So if at least if you're not buying the new iPhone,
you can still upgrade to iOS twenty six and get
some of these new features. But the hardware features on
the seventeen Pro and the seventeen Pro Max, the processor,
(06:41):
the camera, and the great screens are really the Apple
at its finest.
Speaker 1 (06:48):
How much will I set you back?
Speaker 2 (06:49):
Well, that's the interesting point. There was all this speculation
that the tariffs were going to put a bit of
a tax on them, a bit of a price hike.
They're actually the same price as last would you believe, Well,
there was no iPhone Air last year, so that was
sort of replacing the Plus model because remember last year
there was a sixteen and a sixteen Plus. This year
there's just the seventeen and the iPhone Air, so no
(07:12):
real comparison there. But the seventeen is basically the same
price as last year's sixteen. The seventeen Pro is two
hundred dollars more expensive than the sixteen Pro, but the
only reason for that is because they've now their entry
level data point storage point is now two fifty six meg,
not one twenty eight, so it's basically the same price
(07:34):
as the one the two fifty six sixteen from last year,
and the Promax is the same price as well, So
that's surprising. Pleasantly surprised to see that the pricing didn't
go up as we had speculated.
Speaker 1 (07:46):
Now, there was a lot of talk in the lead
up to the announcement about what was going to happen
with Siri and the idea that there should be an
update soon to Siri to make it more compatible with
Apple Intelligence, but it didn't happen. They need more time.
What's going on there?
Speaker 2 (08:02):
Yeah, they did announce at the Worldwide Developer Conference back
in June that Apple Intelligence, the personalization of Siri wasn't ready,
they said. At the time, they said, we were not
happy with how it is at the moment. It doesn't
meet our standards, and back then they stated it it
probably won't be until next year. So I'd expect probably
(08:23):
a big update in early twenty twenty six to bring
Siri into line with the other AI that we're seeing
in other devices like Galaxy AI and Gemini AI. So yeah,
they are lagging behind in that area.
Speaker 1 (08:36):
Okay. I started out by asking whether it is worth
the upgrade. If you're paying two thousand dollars plus potentially
for a phone, would you be upgrading to one of these?
Speaker 2 (08:49):
If I had the iPhone sixteen, I'd cool my jets.
I wouldn't be upgrading because it's a decent upgrade, but
not big enough for any personally. I wouldn't be upgrading
from the sixteen. I'd say this is probably aimed at
the customer that may have a thirteen or fourteen, perhaps
even at fifteen. That's a couple of years old now,
so that's I think that that's the ideal customer. For years.
(09:13):
We hear people grumbling. Oh, it's only a little increase
and it's not much of an improvement from last year. Well,
it's not aimed at the customer from last year. I
think all people need to understand that not everyone upgrades
their phone every year. In fact that we're taking we're
keeping our phones even longer now, three, four, even five
years before upgrading our devices. So for that customer who
(09:33):
maybe have a thirteen, forteen or fifteen, it's going to
be a big upgrade for them.
Speaker 1 (09:38):
Okay, just very quickly because we only have a minute left.
The other things that were announced updated AirPods, updated Apple Watch,
a lot of focus on health features.
Speaker 2 (09:49):
Yeah, that's always been the case. Apple Watch has always
been at the forefront of the health and wellness features,
and there was even a part of the present Part
of the presentation showed people who owed their live to
the Apple Watch because it gave them different warnings and
notifications and end up saving their lives. So this year
is no different. The phone is slightly thinner, slightly lighter.
(10:10):
It does have now a better sleep tracking so you
can keep a sleep score. There's also a feature that's
going to be in the foot process of being approved
that's going to also detect hypertension, which is sort of
like a side effective high blood pressure all in the watch. Yeah,
all on the watch and on the air pod side.
(10:31):
The obviously better audio, better active noise cancelation. But now
you can even track your heart rate using your AirPods.
So a lot of people like to work out wearing
their air pods, and now when they're in your ears,
it's actually a very accurate place to measure your heart
rate is in your ear, So they're deciding to They've
got a sensor in there now to help with your
heart rate measurement using your AirPods.
Speaker 1 (10:53):
You mentioned before Samsung Apples in a constant battle with Samsung.
Is the market going to like what's been announced?
Speaker 2 (10:58):
Yeah? I think so. Yeah. I think look Samsung had
a massive couple of months the Fold range, who was phenomenal.
They're really the sales are going through the roof. Pre
orders went crazy. I Phone customers. Now, I think we
were waiting for this, we sort of there were no
real surprises. All the rumors were true. So yeah, I
think that there's going to be a lot of people
lining up and pre ordering this device when it's available.
Speaker 1 (11:21):
Ruper Steven thank you for speaking to Fear and Greed.
Speaker 2 (11:24):
My pleasure. Thanks Michael.
Speaker 1 (11:25):
That was Stephen Fanek, editor at tech Guide dot com
at dot au. Now, if you've got something that you'd
like to know, then send me a question on LinkedIn, Instagram, Facebook,
or at Fear and Greed dot com dot au. Oh,
Michael Thompson, and this is Fear and Greed Q and
a
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