iPhones 17 and the Sugar Water Trap

Sure, let's...

>There is a completely new body material and design

Which for most people is irrelevant. They care for functionality, not whether they device got it's nth different material or a slight look adjustment (any smartphone is still a rectangle slab of glass with cameras, not much to change anyway).

>There is a new faster chip, with GPUs actually designed for AI workloads (a reminder that Apple’s neural engine was designed for much more basic machine learning algorithms, not LLMs)

Still not interesting. AI on iOS is nowhere near that usefull atm.

>There is a 50% increase in RAM

Substantive. But who hit limits with the previous 8GB? A tiny handful of ultra-power users. So his point still stands.

>The front camera sensor has 2x the pixels, and is square

So what? A slightly better selfie and videocalls.

>The telephoto lense has 4x the pixels, allowing for 8x hardware zoom

And how often did a regular iPhone user say "I could really use an 8x hardware zoom"?

>There is a much larger battery, thanks to the Pro borrowing the Air’s trick of bundling all of the electronics in a larger yet more aesthetically pleasing plateau There is much better cooling, allowing for better sustained performance There is faster charging

Those 3 are good. The second not that interesting though - regular users didn't have any use for the 16 or even 15 level performance, it's not like the new "better sustained performance" will change their life.

So, basically, to the average smartphone user (not smartphone photography/video afficionado, and no power user running ultra demanding apps or games on their iPhone) it's basically: "slightly better cameras, if you're into that sort of thing, faster charging, and longer battery life".