2025 was a big year for iPhones - but it wasn't without some Apple missteps

2025 in iPhones: the good, the bad, and the Cosmic Orange Opinion (Image credit: Future/Lance Ulanoff) (Image credit: Future/Lance Ulanoff) (Image credit: Lance Ulanoff / Future) Roland Moore-Colyer published The iPhone 17 could be the low-key star of 2025, while Apple Intelligence is still bottom of the AI class At a quick glance, you might think it’s been business as usual for iPhones this year, given that we’ve once again seen more evolution in Apple ’s smartphones than revolution; plus, there’s still no foldable iPhone . But look a little deeper, and you'll realize that Cupertino has made some big strides with its ubiquitous smartphone in 2025. And that’s exactly what I’ve done in this article; I've analyzed what’s been good, bad, and downright ugly with iPhones over the past 12 months. So, let's get into it, and if you have any thoughts, please head to the comments below after you’ve read my take. The good: solid upgrades, iPhone 17 hardware on par with Android While there’s not been a shake-up in general iPhone features and overall offering, both the iPhone 17 and iPhone 17 Pro got a neat suite of upgrades that make them well worth considering if you’re due an upgrade. The iPhone 17 Pro Max and its smaller sibling got a new rear camera module that now holds the A19 Pro chip, making room for a vapor chamber below that not only offers more cooling and thus sustained performance, but also shifts hot components further away from a user's fingers - unless you hold the phone in a strange way. Again, not a revolution for iPhones, but a solid change. The iPhone 17 arguably did even better on the upgrades front. It got a larger, brighter display, with slimmed-down bezels that allow a 6.3-inch display to be fitted into the same footprint where a 6.1-inch screen once sat. Sign up for breaking news, reviews, opinion, top tech deals, and more. That display is now a 120Hz Pro Motion one, too, with Apple finally no longer saddling non-Pro phones with a sluggish 60Hz display (which even the best cheap phones had moved on from a long time ago). That upgrade alone has made it rather easy for me to transition from an iPhone 16 Pro Max to an iPhone 17. Furthermore, all four new iPhones got Apple's latest 48MP Fusion main camera, which uses a lot of sensor cropping to deliver better zoom range without upping the rear camera count. It’s early days, but in my short time with the iPhone 17, I've found this Fusion camera (which was previously exclusive to the iPhone 16 Pro and Pro Max) to work rather well. The bad: iPhone Air is kinda meh, not so smart Apple Intelligence While it grabbed headlines, the iPhone Air is arguably a bit of a swing and a miss for Apple. In our iPhone Air review , Jacob Krol praised the svelte design of the phone, but it’s not like the main iPhones are particularly...

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