iPhone 17 Pro Max vs IPhone 3 GS perfectly illustrates 16 years of smartphone photography progress

There it was, nestled among our office's pile of aging smartphones, a white iPhone 3GS. I felt like I'd just stumbled on a vintage Furby. Cradling the tiny, 4.5-in phone in my hand, I wondered if it still worked.

I had reason to doubt. After all, the iPhone 3GS shipped 16 years ago, and this one had been sitting in a drawer for I don't know how long. The only way to know was to charge it up. Fortunately, I'm a bit of a hoarder, and I still have quite a few 30-pin charging cables lying around.

After plugging the phone in, I waited. It wasn't long before I saw the classic Apple logo, circa 2009, appear on the 3.5-inch display. I pressed the physical home button, slid the virtual unlock button to the right, and the iPhone ...