Apple iPhone 17 design change promises long-overdue upgrade, new report claims

I know, I know, the iPhone 16 series just launched. You might be thinking about buying one. You can read my review of the iPhone 16 and iPhone 16 Plus here, and my review of the iPhone 16 Pro and iPhone 16 Pro Max here. But a new report says that what some have considered the iPhone 16's Achilles heel – its display – is getting a radical change in the iPhone 17 next September.

When Apple launches the iPhone 17 and its larger cousin, which may not be called Plus but rather Air, both phones will feature ProMotion for the first time, according to Ross Young of Display Supply Chain Consultants in contact with MacRumors.

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If you've never tried ProMotion, here's why it's so important. While the iPhone 16's display is excellent, it's when you compare it to the iPhone 16 Pro that you'll see the difference.

The iPhone 16 has an OLED display with a fixed refresh rate of 60 Hz, the Pro has an OLED with a dynamic refresh rate. This goes up to 120 Hz, which means that when scrolling through the menu list or swiping text on the screen, everything is buttery smooth and stutter-free. The same goes for video playback.

Because of its dynamic nature, the iPhone is smart enough to lower the refresh rate when you're viewing static content, which extends battery life.

And there's another benefit: the Always-On Display on the Pro models. When the iPhone is in standby mode, it can still show the time, any widgets on your lock screen, and a silent version of your lock screen wallpaper. You no longer have to tap your iPhone to see what time it is.

This is achieved without sacrificing much battery power by significantly lowering the refresh rate. The Pro models from the iPhone 14 onwards were able to lower the refresh rate to as low as 1 Hz, while the iPhone 13 Pro before that only went down to 10 Hz.

The iPhone 16 and iPhone 16 Plus displays don't offer this, and the problem is that many Android phones cheaper than the iPhone have displays with a 120Hz refresh rate (though none of them come close to the elegance of Apple's always-on screen).

In other words, Apple's iPhone display is starting to look a little dated. The good news is, if this report is accurate – and Young has an excellent track record – this problem will be fixed on next fall's iPhone, although it's not yet clear what minimum refresh rate we can expect.

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