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An iPhone 17 Pro has become part of an unusual piece of American history. On July 4, as part of the United States' 250th anniversary celebrations, a cosmic orange iPhone 17 Pro was sealed inside a time capsule alongside items representing all 50 states. The capsule won't be reopened until 2276, when the country marks its 500th anniversary, which means the device is set to stay locked away for exactly 250 years.
The time capsule project is designed to give future generations a snapshot of everyday life and technology in 2026. Alongside objects representing each state, organisers wanted an item that could capture how advanced consumer technology had become by this point in history, and the iPhone 17 Pro is one of Apple's newest and most capable devices. This isn't the phone's only headline-making moment this year either; the same model was previously used during NASA's Artemis 2 mission to relay images from space back to Earth.
It is uncertain whether or not the iPhone 17 Pro would be operational upon opening the capsule. For sure, the phone's battery would definitely not last for such a lengthy period of time since lithium-ion batteries usually degrade within ten to twenty years despite good maintenance.
Even if the hardware physically survives intact, whichever software, charging standards, and data formats exist in 2276 may bear little resemblance to what the iPhone runs on today, meaning the phone is more likely to end up as a preserved historical artifact than a working piece of technology by the time it's unearthed.
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The device sealed in the capsule features a 6.3-inch OLED display with 120Hz ProMotion refresh, always-on display support, and Ceramic Shield 2 protection against drops and scratches. It runs on Apple's A19 Pro chipset, paired with 12GB of RAM and storage configurations going up to 1TB.
According to Apple, the device is capable of providing up to 39 hours of video playback using a 3,998 mAh battery. As far as the camera capabilities go, the device has triple rear cameras with 48MP resolution and a front-facing camera with 18MP resolution. The device is capable of providing 8x optical zooming on the back camera and 8K video recording.
Two and a half centuries from now, this exact spec sheet is what future audiences will likely reference as a benchmark for where smartphone technology stood in 2026.
