We were already expecting higher iPhone prices this year, but it now seems that one of the four models will get a bump in storage in return.
That’s always welcome, of course, but a move Apple made two years ago already made it irrelevant to me …
iPhone 17 Pro storage bump
With Apple facing import tariffs on iPhones manufactured in China, it had always seemed likely that it was going to pass on at least some of these costs to iPhone buyers. My own guess back in May was a $50 price raise, and an analyst suggested the same thing last month – though said that the base model would escape. Leaker Instant Digital also backed this.
Earlier this week another leaker lent their weight to the $50 price hike but said that at least some iPhone 17 buyers would get something in return. They said that the iPhone 17 Pro would start at 256GB in contrast to the 128GB of the iPhone 16 Pro.
Today this was echoed by another leaker, who added that Apple would not be increasing the 1TB maximum.
The change drops the entry-level 128GB configuration entirely, leaving buyers with 256GB, 512GB, or 1TB options. That’s down from four tiers last year.
The base model and iPhone 17 Air are both expected to still start at 128GB, and the smart money would be on the Pro Max not getting a corresponding bump. The existing model already starts at 256GB.
Photo and video was the main reason to upgrade
To me, the only reason for investing in a higher storage tier had been photo and video. In recent years, Apple’s support for ProRAW photos and ProRes video has been great for photographers and videographers, but that has come at the cost of eating up storage at an alarming rate.
Worse, neither users nor developers get any control over how much of your free storage is made available to photo and video apps. It’s entirely possible to have plenty of free storage while you are still forced to stop shooting because your video app can’t access all of it.
But that changed in 2023
With the iPhone 15 line-up, however, the port switched from Lightning to USB-C, and the two Pro models gained the ability to shoot directly to an external SSD.
You can get small portable SSDs which you either mount to a holder or use in a MagSafe-compatible case to attach directly to the back of your iPhone, then shoot to this. This was one of the best things to happen to iPhone for a long time.
Once you’ve taken advantage of this, there’s no going back. Not only does it end storage anxiety, but it’s also a much more convenient workflow. Simply unplug the SSD from the iPhone, plug it into your Mac, and all the photos or videos are immediately accessible via a high-speed connection.
So for me, I’m never going to buy anything more than the base storage, as I’m now a confirmed SSD shooter for anything beyond casual everyday use.
What about you? Do you see any reason to upgrade to the higher storage tiers? Please let us know in the comments.
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