Week 462 was posted by Charanjit Chana on 2026-09-02.
I last put an iPhone wish list together for the iPhone 14 Pro back in 2022. It was the last time I bought a new iPhone and while I don't intend to upgrade this year, I thought it would be worth a revisit to see what Apple has ticked off and what my wish list for the next generation of iPhones is.
iPhone 14 Pro – iPhone 17 Pro
Over the last 4 generations, Apple delivered fully on 3 of my 4 wishes.
- The may or may not be smaller, but it's now a dynamic island becoming a feature rather than a obstruction.
- I missed out on USB-C by one year. From the iPhone 15 onwards, the iPhone now has USB-C in various flavours depending on how Pro you go.
- The telephoto lenses now have periscope lenses, and they did eventually move to a 5x periscope lens for the iPhone 15 Pro Max only (then both Pros for the 16). The iPhone 17 Pro now gets 4x and 8x zoom!
So not bad at all, I'm not desperate to get a USB-C device, but I am keen to get a device that manages battery health better. I'm down to 76% battery health which puts me in a tough spot. Do I rectify that or just make do for another year? I think I'll do the later. I'd considered fixing it last year, but didn't so I intend to just wait it out now.
Battery life is definitely better on the newer devices. Battery health management appears to be in a great place. But my iPhone 14 Pro is flagging and can not last a day anymore. Two-thirds, maybe. But that's more dependent on me just not using the phone much.
iPhone 18
The iPhone Air is impossibly thin. It is lovely to hold but looks so fragile. If we get an update, it should be simplified and tied to the number schema.
The regular iPhone is fine, probably the right phone for most people and should get the usual trickle down of features.
iPhone 18 Pro
The iPhone 18 Pro though. What is my wish list?
- Reintroduce the mini!
- A smaller Dynamic Island
- Bring prices down, but the very least keep them the same!
That's really all I can think of. A lot of what I would want is software based and iOS 27 is already very close and performance wise it promises to tick a lot of boxes. Pricing is going to be a hot topic I'm sure, the crisis in RAM pricing has already impact computer prices at Apple and it's surely going to have an impact on the iPhone line up too.
The iPhone line up is in a great spot, feature wise it already has a dedicated shutter button for photography and has done for years now.
iPhone Fold / Ultra?
I'm interested to see how Apple tackle this problem, a folding iPhone has long been rumoured. Is the first generation the one to go for? Not for me, but if I hold out another year, but maybe I'll consider it.
I see folding phones in the wild quite often now, but they are chunky and that is the problem Apple need to solve most. I don't want a thicker phone unless battery life rivals Nokia's from the 90s and 2000s!
Update
Worth noting, the orange iPhone 17 Pro was one that I really wanted for the colour alone. It won't be an option next week and who knows if we'll ever see one again. I hope so, I've seen more orange iPhone 17 Pros in the wild than any other colour.