Now that we have a confirmed Sept. 9 date for when Apple will introduce the next fleet of iPhone models, it’s time to get serious about about preparing for a phone switch. Do I hold onto my current iPhone Pro or jump to the latest iPhone 17 Pro based on what I’m hearing from the rumor mill? And just as important: If I do get a new iPhone, do I go for the larger iPhone 17 Pro Max model? 

Here’s a rundown of some of the features rumored for the iPhone 17 Pro Max that I’m most curious about.

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Making the case to go larger

The iPhone Pro Max models are tanks compared with the rest of the line — well, they’re not on the toughness level of the Samsung Galaxy XCover 7 Pro, so maybe they’re more like solid midsize SUVs. But they’re notable for their larger screens, bigger bodies and especially for having room for more of everything in an iPhone.

And that includes a larger battery. The Max models already have more battery space than other models, but the iPhone 17 Pro Max could end up being almost half a millimeter thicker, at 8.725mm, according to a May post by 9to5Mac. Has anyone ever asked for a more bulky iPhone? Actually, yes, yes and yes.

Add the new Adaptive Power feature in iOS 26, which uses AI to distribute power more efficiently when demand is high, and we could see a boost in daily use before reaching for a charger. (Then again, Adaptive Power could be a software workaround that could mean longer life using the same physical battery size.)

If you’re already committed to carrying a larger iPhone, a tad more thickness and heft isn’t too much more to shoulder.

The back of the iPhone 17 Pro case is also rumored to shift the Apple logo down from its current perch. That doesn’t seem like a big functional change, but it should help soothe folks who choose to add a clear MagSafe case, since the logo will be centered within the MagSafe area. You can’t say Apple doesn’t sweat the design details.

A leak on X from Majin Bu purports to show an iPhone 17 Pro case, though it’s not clear whether that’s something assembled by hand to match rumored specs or is some iPhone knockoff.

Top up accessories with reverse wireless charging

This rumor could solve a problem I run into far too often: If I forget to charge my Apple Watch at home or my AirPods Pro are running low, there isn’t much I can do unless I’ve packed a portable charger. Even though power banks are affordable and often compact, it’s still one more thing to bring along.

But consider the iPhone that is always with me. When you look at its innards, most of what takes up space is battery. What if I could use the iPhone’s battery as a power source for recharging my accessories, without the hassle of a cable? 9to5Mac surfaced a rumor that the iPhone 17 Pro and iPhone 17 Pro Max models might incorporate reverse wireless charging. In addition to being able to charge the iPhone’s battery using MagSafe on the back, I could put my watch or AirPods case, which both charge wirelessly already, on the iPhone to share some of the juice from its larger battery.

The Samsung S-series phones already implement this feature, so it’s certainly doable. The Apple Watch still uses a proprietary charger shape, so perhaps it wouldn’t work flush with the iPhone’s back, but I could see case makers offer designs with a subtle indentation that would fit the watch.

Bring on all the camera upgrades

We can’t talk about the case without mentioning the camera bump, which could become a more expansive camera island (or maybe on the larger iPhone 17 Pro Max, it will be more like a camera continent) that stretches across the width of the iPhone back, according to CAD renders by Majin Bu. We even got a glimpse of a possible test iPhone 17 Pro in the wild when someone snapped a picture of what looks to be an Apple employee using a phone with a design that matches many rumors (via Foxy Pupy on X).

That expanse may include an upgraded 48-megapixel telephoto camera, which feels overdue for a top-tier camera system. Granted, it will probably take extra steps to capture photos in the full 48-megapixel resolution, as is the case with the current main Fusion camera in the iPhone 16 Pro models, where images are «pixel-binned» with multiple pixels grouped together to enhance light gathering ability. But given the great results we’ve seen from the 48-megapixel camera in the current models — the iPhone 16E leans heavily on that resolution using its sole rear-facing camera — extending it to the telephoto camera would definitely be a win for photographers.

Speaking of resolution, a 24-megapixel front-facing camera is expected, up from 12 megapixels, so perhaps my selfies will look better. More likely, it’s to boost the next rumored feature.

Check Out the iPhone 16 Pro Max’s Cameras, Display and Colors

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See all photos

A movable camera lens

I’m breaking out this camera rumor separately because it would mark a huge change in the iPhone camera system. According to a post at MacRumors, the iPhone 17 Pro could have an 8x optical zoom. Not only that, it’s said to be able to move, so perhaps there could be a range of zoom between 5x and 8x that is all optical (versus relying on digital zoom to crop and enlarge the image to fit the same field of view). The 5x zoom in the current iPhone 15 Pro Max, iPhone 16 and iPhone 16 Pro Max uses a «tetraprism» design to achieve its telephoto range while still keeping the camera bump modest.

Video recording makes a leap

Cameras on both sides will reportedly work together with dual video recording using the built-in Camera app, a boon for conducting interviews or making reaction videos where you want to see both sides of a conversation. Third-party apps have been able to tap into this capability for some time, but haven’t been available as a default option.

Not as important for everyday use, but interesting in terms of advancing the state of the art, the iPhone 17 Pro Max could support 8K video recording, as speculated by MacRumors after reports that 8K was tested for the iPhone 16 Pro. The iPhone is swiftly turning into a production video camera, from features such as 28 Years Later to custom cameras built from iPhone tech in the F1 movie.

An improved cooling system

Recording video in 4K resolution, much less 8K, is a demanding, power-hungry task that leads to heat build up. In already warm environments, it can even overheat the iPhone and temporarily shut it down. So the prospect of a new internal cooling architecture, while being invisible to iPhone owners, has me nerding out just a little.

According to Majin Bu and others, the iPhone 17 Pro models will feature a «vapor chamber» cooling system. As the processor heats up, a small amount of liquid in the chamber evaporates and condenses in cooler areas and is then passed back to the hot areas.

Wi-Fi 7 and fast cellular via a new Apple modem

This is more geeky and less obvious to everyday phone owners, but that’s also kind of the point. The iPhone 16E shipped with Apple’s C1 cellular modem, Apple’s first homebrew cellular hardware it has been trying to build in order to wean its dependence on Qualcomm, which has provided the modem hardware in previous iPhone models.

However, the C1 lacks a faster millimeter wave cellular network and doesn’t support Wi-Fi 7, even though it’s more conservative about power usage (and still performs well), an acceptable trade-off for the budget phone in Apple’s lineup.

But for the iPhone 17 Pro Max, we’re talking about the next professional models, and an iPhone Pro in 2025 can’t ship without the latest, fastest wireless technology. It would be more realistic to see Apple stick with Qualcomm for the Pro line than include the C1 — but I suspect a C2 is coming.

According to MacRumors, the Wi-Fi 7 compatibility could be provided by a separate dedicated chip designed by Apple.

An orange iPhone 17 Pro Max

You don’t have to be an ardent fan of the Netherlands national football team to appreciate the color orange. Leaker Majin Bu posted renders of the new color lineup for iPhone 17 Pro models, and one of them is gloriously ginger. Not only is this interesting because orange is orange, but because it would be a departure from Apple’s recent line of cool, muted colors for the pro lineup. (There are also rumors that the iPhone lineup will include a new sky blue color, about which I have opinions.) I don’t hide my iPhone in a case, so being able to show off a bold color sounds like a fun idea.

These aren’t the only iPhone 17 Pro rumors we’re tracking, but right now they’re the ones that have me looking at my calendar and wishing September could arrive just a little faster.

Nobody is shaking this off: Pop superstar Taylor Swift and Kansas City Chiefs tight end Travis Kelce announced their engagement on Instagram on Tuesday, and the likes exploded like pyrotechnics at a concert. The post broke Instagram’s record for reposts, even though, to be fair, reposting just started on Instagram in August. Still, the post hit 1 million reposts in less than 6 hours and earned 14 million likes in just the first hour. By Tuesday evening, it had topped 21.2 million likes.

«Your English teacher and your gym teacher are getting married,» Swift and Kelce wrote on an Instagram post showing multiple photos of the proposal. In the first photo, Kelce is kneeling in front of Swift in a breathtaking floral garden. The second photo shows them standing and holding one another. The next is her hand with an enormous diamond engagement ring, followed by two more of the couple embracing.

The post also features a dynamite emoji and the audio of Swift’s 2024 song So High School. The snippet cuts off with the lyrics, «Are you gonna marry, kiss, or kill me?» (Let’s hope it’s the first or second option.)

Instagram post is already climbing into the millions 

As you might expect, the Instagram post delivering the engagement news shot into the stratosphere as soon as it was posted on Tuesday. A representative for Instagram confirmed to CNET that Swift and Kelce’s engagement announcement earned over 14 million likes and 452,000 reposts in just over an hour, reaching 21.2 million by 5 p.m. PT Tuesday.

That’s a huge audience, but it will be interesting to see how high up Swift and Kelce’s engagement news post lands on Instagram’s all-time most popular list.

Right now, the most popular post ever on Instagram is from 2022, when soccer star Lionel Messi posted an image of himself hoisting the just-won World Cup. That post has more than 74 million likes. (Swifties, keep it going if you want to send that post to the top.) 

The Instagram representative didn’t immediately comment on whether Swift and Kelce’s post is climbing at the same pace as Messi’s. Messi also has the third-most popular post, again showing him and the World Cup trophy, this time snuggled up in bed together.

But it’s not just soccer photos that top the Instagram most-viewed-ever list. The second most-liked post of all time is a photo of a plain, ordinary egg, posted to the social network back in 2019 as part of someone’s experiment to see if such a mundane image could go hugely viral. I interviewed the person behind Eugene the Egg back in 2019 and am shocked to see it’s still in the No. 2 spot six years later, with more than 60 million likes.

As of Tuesday evening, the post’s 21.2 million likes put it just outside the top 20 list of most-liked, non-soccer posts, just behind post No. 20, singer Billie Eilish’s 2021 reveal of her then-new blond hair. Eilish’s post is at 21.9 million likes and could easily fall off the list and be replaced by Swift and Kelce.

Details on the ring and outfits

According to The New York Post, Swift is wearing a blue silk-blend Polo Ralph Lauren dress in the photo, and Kelce is wearing a navy cable-knit Polo Ralph Lauren sweater. The Post also reports that Swift’s new engagement ring is «an old mine brilliant-cut diamond in a gold bezel setting, which was designed by Kelce himself with the help of Kindred Lubeck of Artifex Fine Jewelry.»

Old mine refers to a historic diamond cut popular from the early 18th century to the late 19th century. Such diamonds are square with rounded corners and have 58 facets, making them anything but a «paper ring.»

The Post delved into everything else Swift had on, including her cognac-colored Louis Vuitton sandals, $18,000 diamond-studded Cartier Santos Demoiselle watch and her «TNT» friendship bracelet by Wove, which was a Christmas gift from her new fiancé.

To no one’s shock, the $400 dress Swift is wearing is selling out fast. Just imagine the excitement when the wedding details start trickling out, and Swift begins to «pick out a white dress,» as Juliet does in Swift’s hit song Love Story.

Memeing the marriage proposal

Until we have more information about the upcoming wedding, fans will have to content themselves by creating and sharing memes because, well, it’s 2025, and that’s part of how we communicate these days.

The Instagram account belonging to the Prince and Princess of Wales even liked the post. (No surprise, really, they hung out when Swift played London.)

Even coffee giant Starbucks got into the act, making a joke about pumpkin spice lattes and posting, «Are we supposed to keep posting about PSL like nothing happened?» The company also noted in the post’s comments that «the long list of Starbucks lovers just got a +1.» («Starbucks lovers» is a sly reference to a lyric in Swift’s 2014 song Blank Space. Swift actually sings, «got a long list of ex-lovers,» but almost anyone with working ears mishears it as something like, «all the lonely Starbucks lovers.»

One meme post on X showed Paul Revere’s famed ride, captioned «me telling everyone I know that Taylor Swift got engaged.»

One Bluesky user wrote, «Very interesting that Taylor Swift got engaged mere months after I did. Get your own thing.»

Another joked, «Can’t believe that on July 8th, 2023, @likethe309, Travis Kelce and I all walked into Arrowhead Stadium to attend the Eras Tour and now one of us is marrying Taylor Swift.»

Matt Ufford warned the billionaire bride-to-be and her NFL star husband to count their pennies, writing, «a word of warning to Taylor Swift and Travis Kelce: weddings can get EXPENSIVE, fast, be sure to leave enough in the account for your monthly expenses.»

There were football jokes, of course.

The Detroit Free Press sought a local connection, using the headline, «Tight end for Detroit Lions’ Week 6 opponent gets engaged to Taylor Swift.»

One person questioned the caption about an English teacher marrying a gym teacher, asking, «Why does Taylor Swift think she’s an English teacher and not a music teacher?»

We’re pretty sure this person really does know who Swift is, but their post was funny anyway. It reads, «Okay, I’ll bite: who’s Taylor Swift? What’s so great about him?»

The two 35-year-old celebrities have been dating for two years. It’s a love story, and Taylor just said yes.

Looking for the most recent Mini Crossword answer? Click here for today’s Mini Crossword hints, as well as our daily answers and hints for The New York Times Wordle, Strands, Connections and Connections: Sports Edition puzzles.

Today’s Mini Crossword might be the toughest one I’ve ever done! Hint: There’s a trick to it. Not all the words are spelled quite as they seem. Try solving the Down clues first if you get stuck on the Across ones. Need answers? Read on. And if you could use some hints and guidance for daily solving, check out our Mini Crossword tips.

If you’re looking for today’s Wordle, Connections, Connections: Sports Edition and Strands answers, you can visit CNET’s NYT puzzle hints page.

Read more: Tips and Tricks for Solving The New York Times Mini Crossword

Let’s get to those Mini Crossword clues and answers.

Mini across clues and answers

1A clue: How many roads lead to Rome, it’s said
Answer: ALL

4A clue: Total laughfest
Answer: RIOT

6A clue: Flip phone?
Answer: ENOHP

8A clue: Reverse dunk?
Answer: KNUD

9A clue: Ass-backwards?
Answer: SSA

Mini down clues and answers

1D clue: «Where the Wild Things ___»
Answer: ARE

2D clue: Need for accessing an online meeting
Answer: LINK

3D clue: Birds that swim underwater to catch fish
Answer: LOONS

5D clue: «And so, as a result …»
Answer: THUS

7D clue: Park bench kissing and such, for short
Answer: PDA