657: Ears Are Weird

September 16, 2025

113 min episode · 2 min read

Episode

113 min

Read time

2 min

AI-Generated Summary

Published Jan 7, 2026

Key Takeaways

✓iPhone Air thermal limitations: The Air concentrates all logic boards and processors into the camera plateau area, leaving only battery in the thin body section. This design lacks vapor chamber cooling present in Pro models, resulting in significant thermal throttling during sustained workloads compared to Pro variants with full aluminum heat dissipation.
✓USB connectivity disparity: iPhone 17 and Air models remain limited to USB 2.0 transfer speeds of 480 megabits per second, a 25-year-old standard introduced in April 2000. Pro models support 10 gigabits per second USB 3 speeds, creating a 20x performance gap that becomes increasingly embarrassing for thousand-dollar devices.
✓Speaker configuration compromise: The iPhone Air eliminates the bottom speaker entirely, relying solely on the earpiece speaker for audio output. This represents a significant downgrade from the two-speaker stereo system in other models, particularly affecting users who frequently play media through built-in speakers rather than external audio devices.
✓PWM accessibility feature: iOS 26 introduces a display pulse smoothing toggle in accessibility settings that disables pulse width modulation on OLED screens. This addresses complaints from PWM-sensitive users who experience eye strain and headaches from rapid pixel on-off cycling, though disabling may impact low brightness display performance and battery efficiency.
✓A19 Pro performance metrics: Geekbench results show the A19 Pro delivers 8% faster single-core, 13% faster multi-core, and 40% faster Metal compute scores versus A18 Pro. The chip now matches or exceeds 2019 Mac Pro 12-core Xeon performance in single and multi-core tests while consuming a fraction of the power.

What It Covers

ATP 657 covers iPhone 17 Pro and Air hardware analysis, including unibody titanium construction, camera plateau design compromises, USB-C speed limitations, new PWM display toggle, and Saint Jude Children's Research Hospital fundraising campaign updates.

Key Questions Answered

•iPhone Air thermal limitations: The Air concentrates all logic boards and processors into the camera plateau area, leaving only battery in the thin body section. This design lacks vapor chamber cooling present in Pro models, resulting in significant thermal throttling during sustained workloads compared to Pro variants with full aluminum heat dissipation.
•USB connectivity disparity: iPhone 17 and Air models remain limited to USB 2.0 transfer speeds of 480 megabits per second, a 25-year-old standard introduced in April 2000. Pro models support 10 gigabits per second USB 3 speeds, creating a 20x performance gap that becomes increasingly embarrassing for thousand-dollar devices.
•Speaker configuration compromise: The iPhone Air eliminates the bottom speaker entirely, relying solely on the earpiece speaker for audio output. This represents a significant downgrade from the two-speaker stereo system in other models, particularly affecting users who frequently play media through built-in speakers rather than external audio devices.
•PWM accessibility feature: iOS 26 introduces a display pulse smoothing toggle in accessibility settings that disables pulse width modulation on OLED screens. This addresses complaints from PWM-sensitive users who experience eye strain and headaches from rapid pixel on-off cycling, though disabling may impact low brightness display performance and battery efficiency.
•A19 Pro performance metrics: Geekbench results show the A19 Pro delivers 8% faster single-core, 13% faster multi-core, and 40% faster Metal compute scores versus A18 Pro. The chip now matches or exceeds 2019 Mac Pro 12-core Xeon performance in single and multi-core tests while consuming a fraction of the power.

Notable Moment

Jony Ternus demonstrated confidence in iPhone Air durability during a press interview by throwing the device across the room to a journalist who failed to catch it, letting it clatter onto a table. He then challenged them to bend the phone, knowing they would not apply full force to break glass in their bare hands.

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