Welcome to 7 Things at 7, a weekly newsletter with seven stories about technology. Be the techie in your group without needing to follow the industry closely. This week is about Apple, folding phones, the PC revolution, and more.
Every year, there are a few months of the year that are particularly manic in the tech industry. This past week is probably the craziest I’ve experienced recently: a later-than-normal start to IFA in Berlin brought it into Apple Event territory, and the result was absolute mania.
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Some journalists skipped Berlin, others left early, and I decided to do it all. A day at the show floor in Berlin with an early finish to dash back to the hotel to cover the iPhone 16 launch remotely. It was stressful, busy, and fabulous, but I’m not sure I want to do that again.
It was worth it, though, as I’ll cover below!
As you’ll notice, I’ve simplified the format below so it’s easier to read!
🔥 Hot Tech
The top tech that we’re talking about. You'll find it here if it matters, and you should know about it!
1️⃣ Apple’s big (delayed) bet on AI
Apple’s Glowtime event dominated the headlines this past week and will continue for several weeks. Considering the launch calendar changes this year, it makes sense that all companies decided to change the timing of their product launches; it’s hard to compete with the news cycles around an iPhone launch, and it helps ensure they can say they did it “first.”
Talking of doing it first, Apple’s bet on AI could parlay into billions. The word ‘could’ is doing the heavy lifting here, because Apple Intelligence isn’t coming until later this year. It didn’t make it into the iOS 18 beta — although it’s available in the 18.1 beta — and every iPhone 16 series sales page comes with the disclaimer that Apple Intelligence won’t launch until December.
As Mark Gurman points out, the full suite of Apple Intelligence features revealed at WWDC will only be fully available early next year. I won’t reiterate everything about Apple Intelligence; just read this excellent explainer on Digital Trends.
2️⃣ The iPhone 16 series is here
Back to the phones: Apple is all-in on getting people to switch from Android to iOS. There’s a dedicated Switch page, iOS 18 offers much more customization, and adopting RCS means better cross-platform messaging. It’s the most Android-like iPhone ever, and time will tell whether this strategy pays off in persuading people to make the jump.
The big change this year is the gap between the Pro and non-Pro phones has been dramatically reduced. The base iPhone 16 could be ideal for most people, but each phone has distinct benefits:
- iPhone 16: the best bang for your buck iPhone. It offers a new 48MP main camera, gains the Action Button and Dynamic Island from last year’s Pros, and comes in gorgeous new colors. It also adds the Camera Control button, which is prevalent across all four new iPhone 16s and is used to add new camera controls. Read more in this detailed iPhone 16 guide I wrote.
- iPhone 16 Plus: the same as the iPhone 16, but with a bigger display (6.7-inch versus 6.1-inch) and bigger battery. Both base models are powered by the current-gen A18 processor, a two-generation jump over last year.
- iPhone 16 Pro: a little bigger (0.2 inches increase to 6.3-inch). It adds a 5x telephoto lens (exclusive to the iPhone 15 Pro Max last year), upgrades the wide-angle to 48MP, and is powered by the A18 Pro chipset.
- iPhone 16 Pro Max: 0.2 inches bigger than last year, now measures 6.9 inches. Otherwise, it has the same feature set as the iPhone 16 Pro.
I’ve written a detailed comparison of the iPhone 16 series vs the iPhone 16 Pro series over at Digital Trends, and that’s the best way to learn the subtle differences. This year, you can get some outstanding deals on the new iPhone, including getting it for free with some carriers. This excellent video from Stetson explains it all.
3️⃣ Forget the iPhone, it’s all about Apple Health
Ask anyone about Apple's most impactful product, and you'll probably be told about the iPhone. I'm here to tell you that's wrong: I firmly believe that Apple Health will be the Apple product that changes the world, and even Tim Cook agrees.
The Apple Event this past week saw the launch of the tenth-generation Apple Watch. Dubbed the Series 10, it's bigger, thinner, and lighter and charges much faster. It follows the Galaxy Watch Ultra and features Sleep Apnea detection, although Apple still hasn't settled the lawsuit with Masimo, so there's no blood oxygen detection. For many, the Series 10 will offer everything you'd want the Apple Watch Ultra for, but at half the cost. I've got one coming, and it's in gorgeous Jet Black, so stay tuned for much more in a few days!
Beyond the Apple Watch is another Apple Health feature that could be revolutionary: the AirPods Pro 2 is now FDA-approved to conduct hearing tests and to act as an over-the-counter hearing aid. Consider that they cost $249, while OTC Hearing Aids cost $300-$2,000 and aren't covered by insurance, and you'll see why this could be revolutionary. All those people who don't want to take a hearing test? Now they need to pop a pair of AirPods Pro 2 in their ears, and they'll find out if they have hearing problems.
Expect to hear much more about Apple Health in the coming months, as I think Apple will focus more on telling this story. That much was evident from the start of the Glowtime event: a series of customers talking about how Apple Health features have saved their lives. Considering it's also saved my life, this ran deep with me.
4️⃣ IFA delivered a true celebration
Eight busy days spent roaming around 27 halls packed with the latest and greatest that almost 1,800 companies had to show ended. I was meant to leave on Sunday (technically day three, but day five for media) but then decided to stay the entire show. It was worth it!
This year’s IFA was a true celebration that honored the 100th anniversary of this storied show. For years, it’s been unclear whether this show would continue to be a staple of the industry, but this year, it put those fears to rest.
Ultimately, 21 products stood out, between the PCs you can buy now and the concepts that could change your life in the future. Check out our Best of IFA 2024 to find out more!
5️⃣ PCs got MUCH better in Berlin
Enough about Apple. This week was the second half of IFA, and it was fabulous. If there's one thing this year's show will be known for, it is the revolution of PCs. I've been a Mac user for years, and while the Snapdragon X Elite changed that this year, the announcements at IFA completely shook up the PC market.
The Snapdragon X Elite is great for high-end devices, but what about the affordable PC market? That's where the 8-core Snapdragon X Plus comes in. Simply put, it brings all the benefits of ARM computing—excellent performance without efficiency trade-offs—to the sub $1,000 PC market. We've already seen some of these at IFA and will see many more of these in the coming months.
While Qualcomm was ripping up the rulebook for the affordable PC segment, many choice companies did the same for the high-end. Both Intel and AMD unveiled new chipsets at IFA that promise the same benefits and provide credible competition for the Snapdragon X Elite in the race to be the CoPilot PC AI chip of choice. In particular, Intel's Lunar Lake is designed to bring the benefits of the ARM architecture to devices running the x86 architecture. This means all the benefits with no compatibility issues as long as Intel delivers.
This is one of the biggest PC revolutions I can remember, and it's exciting. I can't wait to see what companies do. I already know that the Asus ZenBook S16 and ProArt PZ13 are two laptops I plan to spend much more time with! I also really hope the Lenovo AI concept PC becomes a reality, as it has the potential to make a huge impact!
6️⃣ Samsung and Google have strong foldable competition
While I was in Berlin, my Pixel 9 Pro Fold was waiting for me. I fired it up a couple of days ago, and as I said on Twitter last night, something has changed since last month. That something was a few weeks spent with the Honor Magic V3.
I saw Honor's latest foldable just a week after I held the Pixel 9 Pro Fold, and I'd forgotten just how different these devices were. Google's latest foldable is a major improvement over last year's Pixel Fold, but the Honor Magic V3 is a major improvement over ALL foldables that are widely available.
Simply put, I love this thing. Many others who review tech also feel the same way, as you’ll see by the replies to this tweet.
Stay tuned for a full review (hopefully this coming week), but it's safe to say that this is my foldable of choice.
Also coming soon is the $1,100 Tecno Phantom V Fold 2, which was just announced, and I'm excited to try it. Why? It's $1,100, which makes it much cheaper than anything else on the market. Do you need to spend almost double to get a great foldable experience? We'll find out soon enough!
7️⃣ The world’s first tri-fold is here, and it is GORGEOUS
Ultimately, none of these foldable phones may matter: Huawei stole the headlines with the Mate XT, the world's first tri-folding foldable phone. It looks phenomenal but costs well over $2,000,
That said, it does offer two hinges and three screens that form a 10-inch display when unfolded. Before IFA, Tecno showed off a concept, but we did not expect to see the first commercially available product so quickly. It shows what could have happened had things gone differently for Huawei.
I'm very excited to try this out at some point, even though Android still only displays things in a two-column array, even with the bigger display. At this point, it's a real concern over whether Android will be able to keep up with foldable innovations or whether companies will have to start tinkering heavily to take advantage of these new form factors.
Regardless, continuing the previous point, these new foldables spell trouble for Samsung and, to an extent, Google. The latter doesn't need to worry as much, but Samsung is being backed into a corner. The company has staked a lot in the success of the foldable industry, and having been a key reason why the form factor is so renowned, it is facing serious competition. Can the Galaxy Z Fold Special Edition deliver? Will the Galaxy Z Fold 7 be able to next year? Only time will tell.
Words and pictures don’t do it justice: just watch this hands-on from Ben Sin:
📆 Upcoming Calendar
What’s upcoming in the tech world that you need to know about? We usually look ahead to launches from Google, OnePlus, and others now. However, this year has uprooted all the normal expectations.
Google launched its entire Pixel 9 lineup last month, so there will be no traditional Google launch next month. OnePlus and OPPO are not expected to return with new foldable or flagship phones until early next year.
That said, there are a few particularly noteworthy things to watch out for:
- If the rumors that the Vivo X200 will launch next month are correct, MediaTek's new chipset will launch soon. Vivo’s new lineup will be powered by the Dimensity 9400, and we can’t wait to learn more!
- Qualcomm will unveil the Oryon-based Snapdragon 8 Gen 4 next month at the Snapdragon Summit in Hawaii. This will be a big deal for smartphones, as this chipset will power many of the best flagships over the next year.
- Xiaomi is presumably launching the Xiaomi 14 T at an event at the end of this month. The 14 Ultra has arguably the best camera on any smartphone—stay tuned for a detailed look at this—so it’ll be fascinating to see how the 14T series stacks up!
👀 One MAJOR carve out!
What about beyond tech? Here are a few bonus things that may interest you!
- There are some fairly large changes afoot on Impact! As I’ve explored Substack and its competitors further, it’s become clear that Substack isn’t well suited to a few of our future plans.
- In the coming weeks, we’ll be shifting off Substack and almost certainly onto Ghost, which can best be described as the ideal mix of WordPress and Substack.
- I’m excited to build this as Ghost supports many custom integrations and design features that I’ve missed from my years as a WordPress developer.
- It also supports multiple newsletters, so expect this newsletter to bifurcate properly between the latest tech, niche newsletters focused on health, and ongoing newsletter communications related to the broader House of Tech events portfolio!
- Oh, and Ghost supports some beautiful themes, and automatic dark mode will make this newsletter more Impactful!
- I expect this change to happen very rapidly. I’ve already migrated all of the content here. Some design tweaks still need to be made, but these should be done in the next couple of weeks. Once it’s done, I’ll add all of you to Ghost and flip the switch on the new site!
That’s all for this week, see you next week!
Impact by House of Tech is a reader-supported publication. We’re reader-supported and don’t run ads; if this helped you, why not become a paid subscriber to help us further?
