Nearly two decades after the iPhone's debut and Netflix's first streaming plans, Engadget published a pair of pricing retrospectives on Sunday comparing what both cost in 2007 versus 2026.

The original iPhone launched at $499 in 2007. According to Engadget's analysis, once inflation, storage capacity and feature sets are taken into account, the gap between that launch price and today's models is smaller than many assume. A $499 phone in 2007 dollars buys considerably less than it did then, while modern iPhones pack storage and capabilities that would have been unthinkable at any price in the pre-App Store era.

The companion piece tracks Netflix's streaming pricing over the same stretch. The service introduced its first streaming media plans almost 20 years ago, and Engadget notes the plans have shifted meaningfully since — in structure as well as price — as the company moved from a DVD-by-mail add-on to a standalone streaming business with multiple tiers.

Taken together, the two pieces land on a familiar theme for long-time tech consumers: sticker prices have climbed, but the inflation-adjusted picture is murkier, and what you get per dollar has changed as much as the dollar figure itself.