I don't think the next iPhone will be the 17 – here's why
'Why, oh why, dare I make such a daring statement?', you may ask. At WWDC 2025, Apple unveiled its latest software for the iPhone, iPad, Mac, and Apple Watch. Except, instead of calling the next major iPhone update iOS 19 as everyone expected, Apple called in iOS 26. The goal was to get all software versions on the same number, to make things less confusing for users.
And I think Apple's about to do the exact same thing for the iPhone 17. Rather than sticking the number 17 at the end, I expect Apple to drop the numbers from the next iPhone line-up. Instead, I think we'll see the following new models:
iPhone – in place of iPhone 17
iPhone Air – in place of iPhone 17
iPhone Pro (6.3-inch) – in place of iPhone 17 Pro
iPhone Pro (6.9-inch) – in place of iPhone 17 Pro Max
That prediction very closely mirrors the naming scheme for both the MacBook and iPad line-ups, with the screen size differentiating between the smaller and larger Pro models. I suspect Apple will do the same thing with the affordable 'e' model – but in the spring when the next model releases rather than this September.
It wouldn't be the first time Apple deviated from its normal naming system, with the tenth-anniversary iPhone X being my prime example. And on the back of the new software naming system, I think it makes perfect sense. Who knows, we may even see the same thing happen with the next Apple Watch models.
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Stuff.tv
a day ago
- Stuff.tv
I've tested the Honor 400, and it's a lot of the Pro camera experience for a lot less cash
Stuff Verdict A sharp-suited cameraphone with decent budget performance and battery life. The Honor 400 doesn't skimp on AI either – but faces fierce competition at this price. Pros Clean styling belies the plastic build Very capable main and selfie cameras Impressive number of AI-assisted apps for an affordable phone Cons Not a huge year-on-year upgrade Only average performance and battery life Introduction Honor looked to be onto a good thing with its new mid-range 400 series. There was seemingly something for everyone, with a three-camera mid-ranger leading the way, an iPhone-aping Lite chasing cheap phone supremacy, and this, the Honor 400, sitting in the middle. It promised a lot for your £399/€499 (as ever with Honor, there's currently no official way to buy one in the US), including a 200MP lead snapper and more AI-infused software than you'd usually find at this price. It was most of the Honor 400 Pro for half the money. Job done, right? Maybe… until the Poco F7 turned up with its colossal battery and more potent processor. Now it doesn't seem like quite such a slam dunk – but after a few weeks of testing, there are still enough things this wallet-friendly phone does well that it deserves your attention. How we test smartphones Every phone reviewed on Stuff is used as our main device throughout the testing process. We use industry standard benchmarks and tests, as well as our own years of experience, to judge general performance, battery life, display, sound and camera image quality. Manufacturers have no visibility on reviews before they appear online, and we never accept payment to feature products. Find out more about how we test and rate products. Design & build: sharp dresser You can definitely see a family resemblance, but the Honor 400 isn't a carbon copy of the 400 Pro – and happily doesn't stray too far into iPhone pastiche territory like the Honor 400 Lite. That distinctive rear camera island sets this handset out as its own thing, even though the flat mid-frame and faux frosted glass rear panel could quite easily be mistaking for something from the Apple or Samsung stables. The all-plastic build does give away that this is a budget phone, but you'd need to pick it up to tell. From a distance it looks quite flash, even in my review unit's black colour. Honor has played it safe here, with the silver and gold variants looking more subtle than showy. The firm's flair for more distinctive colours hasn't carried down from its flagship models this year. Up close, the materials avoid feeling cheap and the whole thing has a considerable heft to it. Some affordable phones can feel a little hollow, or show some flex in their back panels, but there's none of that here. An IP65 rating should provide some reassurance when it starts to rain, and the hardened front glass should hopefully survive accidental impacts. You don't get the AI camera button seen on the 400 Lite here. It's unusual that the cheapest version would be the one to take the lead on that particular feature, given we'll almost certainly see the iPhone Action button-style functionality on a lot more phones in the future. About the only thing of note around the edges is the IR blaster at the phone's top edge, letting you control older, non-smart gadgets from your phone screen. Biometric security is by an under-display fingerprint sensor, which sits a sensible distance from the phone's bottom edge. It uses capacitive tech, rather than the faster, pricier ultrasonic kind, but I had no problems with it recognising my digits. Screen & sound: from a class above The Honor 400's 6.55in AMOLED screen might be smaller than that of the Pro's, but it's no less capable. Resolution is a close enough match that pixel density is all but identical, and perfectly crisp at arms' length. The glass is flat here, rather than with a 2.5D curve at the edges – which could go down well with anyone that isn't a fan of curved screens, no matter how subtle. It's an OLED, so viewing angles are excellent and contrast is superb. It helps that the panel can boost brightness as high as 5000 nits, and while that figure only applies to a tiny part of the screen at any given time, HDR video content still gets properly punchy. Outdoor visibility was great, shining as brightly as some high-end phones costing several time the price. Given the budget I wasn't surprised to see a 60-120Hz adaptive refresh rate, rather than the more flexible 1-120Hz enabled by LTPO tech. It was quick enough to react to my inputs and onscreen motion that I never felt the need to force 120Hz on all the time, though. Everything felt seriously smooth for the most part. Honor makes a big deal about its eye comfort tech, and you're getting pretty much the lot of it here. High frequency dimming lowers eye fatigue, there are settings to automatically adjust colour temperature and filter out blue light wavelengths that can keep you up at night, and the defocusing mode softens the edges of the screen to give your retinas a rest. I had no complaints about the Honor 400's speakers, which get plenty loud enough and produce decent enough sound. The down-firing main driver and earpiece tweeter combo are tried-and-tested by this point, and while they don't have much in the way of bass, they weren't overly tinny either. Cameras: pixel peeper Missing telephoto lens aside, there's very little to separate the Honor 400 from its Pro big brother here. Both have a 200MP lead snapper, complete with optical image stabilisation, and both have a 12MP ultrawide that can double as a macro camera; a focus distance of 2.5cm is very close indeed. There's also a 50MP sensor behind the punch-hole selfie lens up front. With so many pixels, the lead lens is able to crop in for 2x and even 4x zoom snaps that are surprisingly clean and composed when capturing well-lit subjects or scenes. 4x shots are softer, sure, but hold up well under scrutiny. 2x images are wonderfully sharp and a near-perfect match to 1x shots. It helps that Honor's image processing doesn't go overboard on the image sharpening, while colours and contrast are natural-looking and true-to-life. Dynamic range is great for the most part, only sometimes struggling to expose especially bright highlights as it tried to maintain shadow detail. The ultrawide lens is a noticeable step back in detail, with softness at the edges of the frame and more evidence of strong image processing. I did think colours were a close match to the main camera, though, and its ability to shoot macros adds to the phone's toolbox. You really can get very close to your subject. Low-light shooting isn't class-leading on either camera, but it's the ultrawide that drops off first. The lead lens is better able to preserve detail, cope with bright light sources, and keep noise to a minimum. Google's Leo image and video generation model comes baked into Honor's image gallery now, letting you create some genuinely impressive/eerie short video clips from your still photos. Not every one is convincing, and you have no control over what kinds of camera movement, subject animation or offscreen characters it'll introduce, which can make for some surreal creations. There's a ways for the tech to go before I'd consider paying to use it. This is on top of the now-familiar generative image expansion, smart subject cutouts, and reflection or background object removal tools most phone brands are going big on. Software experience: AI starts here With essentially the same software selection as the 400 Pro, you're getting Honor's full suite of AI-enhanced apps here – not bad at all given the budget pricing. That includes automatic subtitles, voice transcription, live language translation and writing assistance, on top of Google's usual Gemini voice helper and Circle to Search. I wouldn't say anything here is significantly better than what rivals are doing, but the fact you're getting it at all is a big win if that sort of tech is high on your wish list. Magic Portal uses more contextual AI to suggest relevant apps and functions based on what image or text you drag to the side of the screen. While Magic Capsule sounds like it'd be similarly clever, it's really just an Honor spin on Apple's Dynamic Island. The shortcuts it pops over the front-facing camera slot are decent enough, but there aren't that many of them. No third-party support, either. I've tried quite a few Honor phones running MagicOS 9 at this point, but I'm still not a fan of the iOS-inspired layout, with your apps spread across multiple home screens by default. Happily you can enable an app drawer easily enough. It's a shame you've got to spend so much time stripping out the bloatware when you first set up the phone, though. There's quite a lot of it here, but as it's a pretty common sight on other budget models this shouldn't come as a huge surprise. Buy this phone and you could be in for the long haul if you treat it well. Honor has committed to six years of new Android versions and six of security updates. That's an excellent lifespan for such an affordable phone, and almost on par with class-leaders Google and Samsung. Performance & battery life: you get what you pay for With a Snapdragon 7 Gen 3 chipset and either 8 or 12GB of RAM running the show, the Honor 400 puts in a decent performance for a budget smartphone. OK, it won't blitz through performance benchmarks with the ferocity of the Poco F7, so if raw numbers matter most you might be disappointed by its league table placing – and the fact this chip also appeared in the older Honor 200 will disappoint anyone planning a year-on-year upgrade. That said, it's no slouch, scoring similarly to the Motorola Edge 60 Fusion in many tests and hardly left behind by the Samsung Galaxy A56 either. Real-world performance felt perfectly nippy, with apps opening quickly enough and multitasking never grinding things to a halt. It never felt as responsive as a flagship – or even a mid-ranger – but equally wasn't sluggish or frustrating to use at all. As long as you keep your expectations in check, this phone can handle casual 3D gaming just fine. More demanding titles aren't going to be hitting the Honor 400's 120Hz refresh rate cap all that often (if at all), but Call of Duty Mobile didn't throw up any obvious slowdown or stuttering. Thermals are pretty good, too. The phone definitely heats up under prolonged heavy use, but never to the point that performance took a major dive. Honor 400 benchmark scores Geekbench 6 single-core 1136 Geekbench 6 multi-core 3135 Geekbench AI 1460 PCMark Work 3.0 12569 3DMark Wild Life Extreme 1482 I expected the Honor 400 to put in a very respectable showing when it came to battery life, considering it has a sizeable 5300mAh cell to power a mid-tier chipset. While I had no trouble lasting a full day between charges, however, it wasn't quite the longevity champ I'd hoped for. My usual mix of 5G and Wi-Fi connectivity, GPS mapping, video streaming, Bluetooth music listening, social scrolling and camera use saw me dip towards 20% at the end of a long working day. Silicon carbide chemistry has quickly meant that sort of performance is now actually a bit middle of the road, and rivals with 6000mAh cells (or larger) are lasting that bit longer. It's something to think about if you need a phone that can survive a weekend away from mains power. Charging is by cable only, as wireless top-ups just aren't in the budget for a phone this affordable. Provide a sufficiently beefy power brick and the Honor 400 will suck down juice at 66W. That's enough for a full refuel in under an hour. Honor 400 verdict The affordable phone space is a veritable battle royale right now, with lots of brands packing in serious specs for comparatively little cash. While the Honor 400 comes out swinging with its clean looks, high pixel count camera and AI-packed software, it can't quite land its punches in other areas. It's no performance powerhouse, at a point where rivals like Poco are putting chips from the class above in their cut-price handsets, and battery life is more respectable than revolutionary. Spend a little more and you can get proper endurance. There's not a whole lot of breathing room between this and the last-gen Honor 200, either. However, if you're a fan of the looks – or value photography over trips to a power socket – and don't want to raise your budget to a more mid-range alternative, the Honor 400 still holds a certain appeal. Stuff Says… Score: 4/5 A sharp-suited cameraphone with decent budget performance and battery life. The Honor 400 doesn't skimp on AI either – but faces fierce competition at this price. Pros Clean styling belies the plastic build Very capable main and selfie cameras Impressive number of AI-assisted apps for an affordable phone Cons Not a huge year-on-year upgrade Only average performance and battery life Honor 400 technical specifications Screen 6.55in, 2736×1264 AMOLED w/ 60-120Hz CPU Snapdragon 7 Gen 3 Memory 8/12GB RAM Cameras 200MP, f/1.9 w/ PDAF, OIS + 12MP, f/2.2 ultrawide w/ AF rear 50MP, f.2.0 front Storage 256/512GB Operating system Android 15 Battery 5300mAh w/ 66W wired charging Dimensions 157x75x7.3 mm, 184g
Stuff.tv
2 days ago
- Stuff.tv
My favourite iPad is $100 off in this early Prime Day deal
The iPad mini might be small in stature, but the latest model packs a mighty punch. In fact, it's my favourite iPad (and one of the best iPads you can buy) thanks to its portability. Apple's pint-sized powerhouse comes with refreshed internals and a design that makes it as pocketable as it is practical. And its even more of a steal with this Amazon deal ahead of the mega Prime Day sale. During Amazon's Spring Sale, the iPad mini (A17 Pro) is discounted by $100 from $499 to $399 – that's a rather excellent 20% saving on this top-rated tablet. On Amazon UK, there's a much smaller discount of £30 – taking the small tablet down from £499 to £469. I suspect the UK discount will grow when Prime Day actually hits, so British shoppers should hold off for the time being. At its core, the iPad mini 7 now packs the A17 Pro chip – the same powerhouse found in the iPhone 15 Pro. Compared to the A15 chip in the previous model, the jump in performance is substantial. Day-to-day tasks like browsing Safari with dozens of tabs open, switching between apps, and handling emails feel snappier than ever. Design-wise, Apple hasn't messed with the winning formula. The iPad mini 7 retains the sleek, Air-inspired aesthetic – an all-screen front, flat edges, and Touch ID integrated into the power button. At just 293g (Wi-Fi model), it's absurdly light and compact, slipping easily into a jacket pocket or a small bag. It's still the best iPad for one-handed use, whether reading in bed, annotating PDFs on the go, or using it as a high-tech clipboard in meetings. Connectivity has stepped up as well. Wi-Fi 6E ensures blazing-fast browsing and streaming, while the optional 5G model is great for those who need ultra-portable internet. The USB-C port remains, offering fast charging and seamless accessory compatibility, making the iPad mini even more versatile.
Stuff.tv
4 days ago
- Stuff.tv
Is Apple about to make a super affordable MacBook? Here's what you need to know
Apple makes some of the best laptops around. The MacBook Air is the complete package for under $1000/£1000. In fact, I'd go as far as calling it on of the best laptops you can buy. In our review, we said 'the MacBook Air is still the everyday laptop to beat.' It scored a full five stars! And the MacBook Pro devices offer the best power from any laptop I've used. But Apple might be turning its attention to a new super affordable model. According to supply chain analyst Ming-Chi Kuo, Apple is working on a new 13-inch MacBook. Rather than the usual M-series chip designed to chew through Logic Pro and external displays, this one would use the A18 Pro – the same chip powering the iPhone 16 Pro. It seems that Apple might be looking to recapture its sales numbers from lockdown, when we all suddenly needed a laptop to work from home. A cheaper machine might be the ticket to bringing the numbers back up to these levels. According to Kuo, Apple wants this thing to move between 5 and 7 million units in 2026, accounting for up to 28% of all MacBook sales. Apple's M-series chips are known for muscle – think heavy-duty multitasking, tons of memory, and external display support. But the A18 Pro is… well, it's a phone chip. A very good one, mind you, but still designed for phones. Which leads me to wonder: what exactly will this MacBook be for? Students? Web browsing and spreadsheets? A glorified Netflix machine? I'm imagining something more like a Chromebook, but for Apple services. Whatever the case, I'm intrigued. It also seems like Apple might lean more into the 'fun' side of things. The MacBook's expected to come in Silver, Blue, Pink, and Yellow finishes. That's similar to the base-model iPad (or the iBook G3 if you remember it), and honestly, I'm quite glad. Kuo reckons this new MacBook is expected to enter mass production at the tail end of 2025 or early 2026. It's price point is an interesting discussion point. Apple will have to sell this for less than $999/£999 – that's how much the MacBook Air costs. But if it goes too low, there aren't many reasons left to buy an iPad instead. I'm think it'll arrive for somewhere between $599/£599 and $799/£799 – but we'll have to wait and see.
