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I think the biggest features the iPhone 17 could have over the iP16 models is the 12 GB RAM and 120 Hz display, both of which are uncertain. Surprised there is even a rumor for 12 GB on the iP17. Going from 6 to 8 to 12 GB in successive years is an incredible pace for Apple. It always comes down to perceived speed or latency and background app killing.

For the vast majority of people, they won't be able to perceive the difference between 8 or 12 GB RAM or 60 to 120 Hz display refresh rate. People just wouldn't be able to tell the difference in a blind test. You really have to know what you are looking for. 5 years down the road, combined with a battery replacement, it will make a huge difference.

Basically at the point of diminishing returns after 120 Hz and 12 GB on a phone. Not many people are complaining about 16 GB RAM on a Mac? You have to be doing something "pro" specific to stress a 16 GB Mac. I don't use Chrome on my M1 Pro MBP16 with 16 GB. Minding that, it's been maybe only a couple times I'd want more after 4 years of usage.

williamlondon said:

Is there anything more ridiculous than getting all bent out of shape over mockups and rumours? Good god, children.

If you are interested in design, it’s not ridiculous. It’s fun to have the conversation. We are having fun discussing it!

If this device is 3% of iPhone sales, it would be an incredible success. The market is technophiles. People who want high end novelty devices. It doesn't have to sell to everyone. Just the top 2, 3, 5% of the market.

A lot of these buyers get the iPhone Pro Max. If Apple converts some of them to the iPhone Fold, that's a gigantic win because ASPs for iPhone Fold will be 2x to 2.5x. I think Apple would have done it two or three years ago except for issues with the crease and the friction of the display cover.

They really should go with a glass display cover with a 0.5" bend diameter, or 0.25" bend radius. Would make for the hinge end to be 0.6, 0.7 inches thick (14 to 16 mm), but I would much prefer no crease with a smooth surface over the existing designs.

Don't expect productivity, multitasking miracles here.

• As others have alluded, you don't really display multiple apps at the same time on an 11" display. It's a little bit better on a 13" display, but not great. Bigger is better for display multiple apps at the same time. Definitely will hopefully be better on a large external display, but at 11", you won't be displaying a lot of apps simultaneously.
• Having background apps continue running is just about 80% of the ask for iPadOS, imo. Like, you are downloading something large over the Internet or copying something large over USB, those types of tasks should be allowed to run until completion at least, whether it takes 1 minute or 100 minutes.
• Backgrounded apps should not be killed. Theoretically, Apple and the developer will save the state of the app, and if it is removed from memory, it will be brought back to exactly the same state when foregrounded. Too many developers ignore this, and Apple hasn't been able to force them to update properly. It's been like 6 years. Developers aren't going to change now. So, either Apple forces the proper saving of an app's state, or solves it in a way that doesn't require developer updates.
• Stage Manager is not a good multitasking UI. Just add a multitasking app icon in the dock. Upon a tap, a pop-up list of apps can be displays, ordered in terms of last touched and or in-memory. App windows would be a submenu in the pop-up list. I suppose you can set a tap on the multitasking app icon to bring up the task manager and other things too. Stage Manager might be better if it allowed unlimited number of open windows, but the current four windows doesn't improve upon Split View, Slide Over much.
• Get rid of gestures as a UI design. Design the UI for direct manipulation. I'd get rid of long press as a UI input even. Add a meta button in a hot corner. You will need to press on that with one finger and tap on the target get the target's pop-up menu. Two finger tap can do the same thing, or a double tap to get a list of the target's menu items to pop up. When dragging and dropping, there needs to be at minimum a UI target or a delay to execute the action. Like a long press on a URL opens up a preview and a slide up of the preview creates a Slide Over app or a Split View app. That slide has to go to a specific target, like the top of the display, and maybe have a delay timer. iPadOS generally is direct manipulation, but there are some frustrating exceptions.
• Terminal.app and Xcode.app needs to be on iPadOS.

Hopefully, everything can be done with touch and doesn’t require a mouse.