Like many of you, I watched the Apple Event on September 9 to hear all about the company's new iPhone 17 and iPhone 17 Pro releases, as well as the iPhone 17 Air. And while the phones seem impressive — I'm curious to see how well the triple-camera setup on the Pro and Pro Max perform — the chances that I’m going to upgrade my phone for Apple’s latest model are as slim as the Air. And, it’s not because I have an iPhone 16.
Granted, I’m not one who upgrades their phone very often. My previous phone was the iPhone Xs. And my current iPhone 14 Pro is still humming along nicely. Yes, battery life isn’t what it used to be, but I can still get a full day out of the phone, and I have one of the best portable chargers if I run out of juice. I don’t play games on the phone, so I don’t really care about the screen’s refresh rate.
The only major thing that would convince me to upgrade my phone is something that doesn’t look like it’s coming to iPhones any time soon: more AI photo-editing tools. As someone who takes a ton of photos, I’m always interested to see what the best smartphone cameras can do, and the rumors point to the iPhone 17 Pro having an upgraded 48MP telephoto camera.
But megapixels aren’t everything. My iPhone 14 Pro might not have the latest and greatest cameras, but it still takes pretty great shots. That said, I want to be able to do more with my pictures after I take them.
Android's AI editing tools put Apple's to shame
Thanks to my job, I’ve been able to test out a lot of the AI features on both Samsung and Google Pixel phones, and I’ve been eyeing with envy the things that Android users have been able to do for several years now.
Back in 2022, when the iPhone 14 Pro launched, Google introduced Magic Eraser on the Pixel 6 and Pixel 6 Pro, which let you remove unwanted objects from the background of your photos. When Apple Intelligence finally debuted in 2024, it included a Clean Up tool for its Photos app, but that feature — along with Apple’s other AI tools — is only available for the iPhone 15 and later. And it doesn't work as well as Google's and Samsung's feature.
Google didn’t stop with Magic Eraser: With 2023’s Pixel 8, it launched additional AI photo-editing features: Magic Editor and Best Take, the latter of which made group photos less of a nightmare. As someone with a 6-year-old who’s not the most cooperative when taking family portraits, I desperately would love this feature on my iPhone.
The Pixel 9 brought us Reimagine, while the more recent Pixel 10 introduced one of the most powerful AI editing tools yet: Ask Photos. Now, you can simply tell the phone how you want to edit your pictures, and it’ll do the work for you — no messing around with sliders for exposure or contrast. The Pixel 10 Pro also has a Pro Res Zoom feature, which essentially gives you a 100x telephoto lens. While not perfect, it’s pretty amazing.
Apple Intelligence, where are you?
For decades, Apple grasped more than any other company that great hardware design had to work in concert with great software. However, its more cautious approach to AI — not to mention the troubles it’s had with the new Siri — has led to Apple falling behind its rivals. The gap between its and Android’s AI-powered photo editing tools is just one example.
In fact, Apple Intelligence's absence was pretty conspicuous at yesterday's event. Aside from a few passing mentions, there were no big features or reveals. Hopefully, Apple is saving it all up for another event.
There are rumors that Apple may be partnering with Google to have Gemini help power Siri. But it's not clear when that might happen, and there's no telling whether Apple would embrace Google's photo editing tools. I’m a bit too invested into the Apple ecosystem to switch to a new platform, but Samsung and Google’s offerings are starting to look mighty tempting.
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