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In recent years, Apple has narrowed the gap between Pro and regular iPhones. With the iPhone 16, the difference between the models was the smallest ever, with a number of impressive upgrades making the entry-level $899 iPhone a very good buy.

Now a new report from South Korea ETNews suggests that next year iPhone17 could inherit one of the few remaining advantages of the Pro: a 120Hz ProMotion display. The report claims that all four versions of the 2025 iPhone will feature low power consumption. LTPO (low temperature polycrystalline oxide) panelsprovided by Samsung and LG.

Above all, this is not the first time we have heard this rumor. Back in Septemberdisplay analyst Ross Young wrote an article on X saying that non-Pro iPhones would get 120Hz panels for the first time with the 17 series.

120Hz displays have only been part of Apple’s smartphone lineup since 2021 iPhone 13 Pro. Dubbed “ProMotion”, the screens refresh up to 120 times per second, instead of the previous 60, not only visibly smoother, but opening the door to applications at 120 fps. The following year, Apple improved this with LTPO technology which allowed the iPhone 14 Pro go down to 1 Hz for a low-power, always-on display.

It’s unclear if the base and rumored iPhone 17 iPhone 17 Thin (Or maybe “Air”) will go this low for the always-on display, but it’s nonetheless a serious upgrade that makes the base models even more appealing.

Time to downgrade?

Readers of Tom’s Guide with long memories may remember that I returned to iPhone after 13 years on Android in 2022. I’m very happy with my iPhone 14 Pro and have no plans to buy a new one until it slows down – which so far shows no signs of doing so.

But when it does, and assuming I haven’t been tempted to switch back to Android in the months since, I’m not sure I’ll feel the need to go back to Pro. I’m not really a power user, with 90% of my phone time spent on WhatsApp, Safari, Instagram, Reddit and, uh, Café-Golf.

But the one thing I absolutely wouldn’t go back to is a 60Hz screen. I’ll definitely get used to it eventually, but every time I go a long day without a charger, I always put my iPhone in low power modewhich turns off ProMotion and goes back to 60Hz – and I really hate it! Everything seems so much less fluid and uncomfortable to watch, and it’s always a relief to return to full power when I’m safely within range of a charger.

When I bought the Pro model in 2022, I thought I was doing it for the camera rather than the screen, with the 3x telephoto lens making all the difference (and it now goes up to 5x with the Pro model) . iPhone 16 Pro). But very few of my photographs require that kind of distance (cats don’t stray!), and aesthetically, I think phones look much better with fewer lenses than with three to five eyes staring at you when you turn the handset over. on. Plus, since I bought it, Apple has done some smart things with pixel binning on regular handsets. providing a good proxy of a 2x objectivewhich should work just fine for me.

With that in mind, the iPhone 17 Slim is something I’ll be watching very closely – a Thin, big-screen iPhone with a 120 Hz screen and just a camera lens? Looks like it will be perfect for me, assuming the rumor that the exorbitant price is just hearsay.

I doubt I’ll be ready to switch phones by September 2025, but if 120Hz displays are here to stay, then I might be ready for that downgrade when the time inevitably comes.