Apple iPhone 17 Series: Latest Design Leak Reveals Completely New Look

 

Sometimes, Apple is criticized for updating designs gently between generations of products, but the new leak from Majin Bu on X shows three phones with significantly changed designs and one which matches the current model.

 Only the model that claims to be the iPhone 17 appears to be even remotely resembling anything Apple has done in terms of industrial design language. Given Apple's tendency to use designs for more than a year, it seems highly likely that it will be identical to the iPhone 16. Then there is the new iPhone that has been rumored to be coming out, possibly called the iPhone 17 Air. Like the iPhone 16e, it will only have one camera and have a super-thin profile. But where the 16e has a raised area not much bigger than the lens, the 17 Air has a panel the width of the phone, with lens on the left and flash on the right.

 The Pro models have undergone similar radical changes, with the three cameras, LiDAR sensor, and flash taking up the largest raised panels ever seen on an iPhone, if they are accurate. Again, these cover the entire width of the phone, and a different color was chosen for the lower panel. The color doesn’t indicate that there will be a different hue on the final unit.  Rather it may fit with a previous rumor that the top panel wouldn’t be glass.  It's possible that the red areas in Majin Bu's images represent the glass, which allows for wireless charging, while the Pro models' surrounding areas are made of metal. On the other hand, the new images could correlate with Sonny Dickson’s recent images, which would suggest that the raised model is closer to the squarish element we know from the iPhone 16 Pro and Pro Max.

 How likely are these changes?  Because Majin Bu has a solid track record, there is a good chance that some of this will be accurate. Nonetheless, there is ample time between now and September for leaks of additional information.

Update February 24: A leaker has posted an image of all four iPhone 17 models, including the iPhone 17 Air.

 We have our sights set on Apple's next flagship, the iPhone 17 series, now that the iPhone 16e has finally been announced. And though we're still months out from the expected release date, the rumor mill is already chugging along steadily.

 The most recent comes from Sonny Dickson, a well-known Apple leaker, who posted images on Sunday to X (formerly Twitter) of what appears to be an iPhone 17 Pro Max enclosed in a MagSafe case. Word is that Apple plans to overhaul the back of the phone's design, but exactly how remains unclear.  Similar to what was suggested by a leak from Front Page Tech last week, these most recent renders suggest that the camera module could be spread out across the width of the phone. The iPhone 17 Pro Max retains the triangular camera arrangement as before but shoves the LED flash, microphone, and LiDAR scanner off to the opposite side.  The result is a rectangular camera bar similar to that found on Google's Pixel series like the Pixel 9.

 Here’s a first look at how cases might look on the iPhone 17 Pr

 The all-new, ridiculously thin iPhone 17 Air is expected to share this redesigned camera bar with the iPhone 17 Pro. Curiously, word is Apple's decided to stick with the current design on the iPhone 17 and iPhone 17 Plus.  Maybe it's to make its premium handsets more distinctly recognizable compared to their counterparts.

 It's a pretty chunky camera module since it spans the full length of the phone's back, which would certainly set it apart even among the best iPhones.o Max.  What are your thoughts? pic.twitter.com/HzCGkRBIQvFebruary 23, 2025

 Based on these renders, it's hard to tell if Apple has shrunk the Dynamic Island as we've heard in previous rumors, something iPhone owners have longed for since the introduction of Apple's selfie camera spot.

 At least one leaker has said the iPhone 17 Pro Max will get a narrower Dynamic Island thanks to the help of a "metalens" design for Face ID.  This type of flat lens uses metasurfaces to focus light as opposed to the curved lenses traditionally used in phones to bend light toward the image sensor.

 Although we will need to take all of this with a grain of salt for the time being, it has excited us. If history shows, the iPhone 17 will launch right around the five-year anniversary of the iPhone 12, the last major redesign of the iPhone, so the lineup is overdue for an overhaul.

 In addition to the new design, the iPhone 17 series is tipped for several noteworthy upgrades like 24MP selfie cameras, the addition of vapor chamber cooling, and 120Hz displays on all models.  Although we probably won't know anything for sure until Apple's usual September launch window, the leaks are unlikely to stop anytime soon.