Here's how the first iPhone's price stacks up against Apple's latest once inflation is factored in.
Understandably, it can feel like iPhone prices are out of control these days. The iPhone Duo starts at $1,999 and costs as much as $3,199 if you want to max out its storage. An iPhone Air is $1,100, despite having one rear camera and sporting inferior battery life next to the iPhone 17, never mind the iPhone 18 Pro. You can buy a decent laptop for the same price or less.
If you've been alive long enough, you might be pining for the days when iPhones were hundreds of dollars cheaper. For a brief time, mostly during the 3G era, price was part of their appeal. While they were hardly dirt cheap, it was possible to get a revolutionary do-it-all device without bearing the whole cost upfront or absorbing an absurd amount of debt.
In reality, the difference between old and new iPhones isn't as big as you might think. The leading factor is, of course, inflation, but you're also getting far more capable hardware, and some early carrier deals might be messing with your perception.
Let's start with the inflation issue. The original iPhone started at $499 for a 4GB model. There's no exact 2026 equivalent (the vanilla iPhone 18 has yet to be released), but we can get close enough with 2025's iPhone 17, which is currently $899. Superficially, that's a $400 gap. But if you adjust for inflation of the US dollar, the 2007 iPhone jumps to over $800.
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