iPhone 17: Everything We Know

iPhone 17

This year, Apple is planning for an iPhone 17, an iPhone 17 Air, an iPhone 17 Pro, and an iPhone 17 Pro Max, but there will be no iPhone 17 Plus in the lineup. Apple is nixing the “Plus” iPhone due to subpar sales and limited customer interest in the device.

The standard iPhone 17 will look a lot like the current iPhone 16, with most of the rumor focus on the iPhone 17 Air and the iPhone 17 Pro models. So far, we haven’t heard much about updates that are specific to the iPhone 17, but there is a possibility for a new display size.

The iPhone 17 could measure in at 6.3 inches, up from 6.1 inches, which would make it the same size as the iPhone 16 Pro. Rumors suggest that Apple plans to eliminate the Plus model in 2025, so there may be only a single lower-cost device, and at 6.3 inches, it would be in between the size of the current 6.1-inch iPhone 15 and the 6.7-inch iPhone 15 Plus. That would make the display sizes 6.3 inches, 6.6 inches (slim model), 6.3 inches (Pro) and 6.9 inches (Pro Max).

The iPhone 17 Air and iPhone 17 Pro models are rumored to have a new rectangular camera bar with rounded corners, with the bar spanning the back of the iPhone. The standard iPhone 17 model is not expected to feature the same design change, and it will continue to look like the iPhone 16 with two vertical rear cameras with a pill-shaped camera bump.

CAD renders said to depict the iPhone 17 lineup surfaced in February, showing off the alleged design of the iPhone 17 Air, iPhone 17, iPhone 17 Pro Max, and iPhone 17 Pro. It is not quite clear if the CAD renders are accurate, but they are in line with prior leaks suggesting the iPhone 17 Air and iPhone 17 Pro models will have new horizontal camera bump designs.

There is no change to the design of the iPhone 17 camera, while the iPhone 17 Air has a single lens rear camera with an elongated bump. The iPhone 17 Pro and Pro Max feature a wide bump that houses three lenses in the same arrangement as the current design, but with a horizontal bump that adds more space between the lenses and the LiDAR and flash.

3D printed mockups of the iPhone 17 models demonstrate the difference between the iPhone 17 and the Air and Pro versions.

iPhone 17 ‘Air’

Multiple rumors have suggested that Apple is working on an all-new version of the iPhone for 2025, with the device expected to have a “significantly thinner” design than current iPhone models. It won’t be a direct replacement for the “Plus” iPhone that Apple has released for the last several years, but we aren’t getting an iPhone 17 Plus this year in order to make room for the new iPhone 17 Air.

We’ve heard Apple’s new super thin iPhone referred to as the “iPhone 17 Slim” or the “iPhone 17 Air,” but we don’t know what Apple will actually call the new iPhone when it launches in 2025. iPhone 17 Air seems to make the most sense given that Apple already has a MacBook Air and an iPad Air and uses the name to distinguish those devices from higher-end Pro models.

The placeholder names reference the sleeker, thinner design of the device. Rumors have not exactly agreed on size, and we’ve heard everything from 5mm thick to a bit over 6mm thick. With the 12.9-inch M4 iPad Pro that came out last year, Apple was able to get the size down to 5.1mm and it became the company’s thinnest device to date, but there’s not as much space inside the much smaller iPhone body, so Apple won’t likely be able to hit that level of thinness.

Bloomberg‘s Mark Gurman believes the iPhone 17 Air will be about two millimeters thinner than the current iPhone 16 Pro. The iPhone 16 Pro is 8.25mm thick, so an iPhone 17 that is 2mm thinner would come in at around 6.25mm. Apple analyst Ming-Chi Kuo believes that the iPhone 17 Air will be 5.5mm thick at its thinnest point, and his wording suggests that it would have a thicker rear camera bump area that exceeds the size of the 5.5mm chassis.

Analyst Jeff Pu has also suggested that the upcoming iPhone will be around 6mm thick, but The Information has said it will be between 5mm and 6mm thick. Even if we go with the thickest 6.25mm rumor, the iPhone 17 Air will be the thinnest iPhone to date. The iPhone 6, which measured in at 6.9mm, is the thinnest iPhone Apple has released so far. iPhones actually got thicker with the iPhone X and beyond, as Apple needed more space for the battery, camera lenses, Face ID hardware, and more.

As for overall display size, the iPhone 17 Air is expected to fall somewhere between the iPhone 17 Pro and 17 Pro Max in size. Separate rumors have targeted 6.55 inches, 6.6 inches, and 6.65 inches as the diagonal display size that Apple has settled on, which would make it smaller than the iPhone 17 Pro Max, but larger than the 17 Pro.

The Information claims the rear camera of the device will be relocated from the upper left side of the iPhone to the center of the device. The camera setup was described as a “large, centered camera bump” on the back of the device. Such a design has been seen in an alleged component leak, so it might be accurate. We’ve heard similar rumors about the iPhone 17 Pro.

Leaker Jon Prosser shared renders of the alleged iPhone 17 Air design, with the device featuring a camera bar equipped with a single rear camera on the left and a microphone and LED flash on the right.

A conceptual rendering of the iPhone 17 Air provides some insight into what the device might look like. It features a slim, 5.5mm profile and a thicker rear camera bar with single-lens camera. Apple is said to be planning to use a horizontal bar-like camera for the iPhone 17 Air, with the iPhone 17 Pro expected to adopt a similar design.

The iPhone 17 Air will include MagSafe charging, a Camera Control button, and an Action Button, based on dummy models of the device that have been circulating.

For more information on the upcoming iPhone 17 Air, we have a dedicated iPhone 17 Air roundup.

iPhone 17 Pro and iPhone 17 Pro Max

According to The Information, the iPhone 17 Pro and iPhone 17 Pro Max will have “significant design changes.” Apple is allegedly planning to eliminate the titanium frame, instead going back to aluminum. Apple has not used aluminum for a higher-end iPhone since the stainless steel iPhone X was introduced in 2017.

Along with an aluminum frame, the iPhone 17 Pro models are rumored to include a half-aluminum half-glass backing rather than an all-glass back. The top half of the back will be made from aluminum, while the bottom half will continue to be made from glass to support wireless charging functionality. A partial aluminum back could make the iPhone 17 Pro models more durable to drops.

Apple is planning for a larger “rectangular” camera bump that is made from aluminum rather than glass. Current camera bumps are square, so a rectangular camera bump would be a notable design change. Supply chain leaks have backed up The Information‘s report about a camera design change. Leaks coming out of China suggest that the module is an “elongated oval shape,” rather than a rectangular shape.

While rumors have suggested the iPhone 17 Pro will have a horizontal camera layout with the aforementioned elongated oval shape, leaker Instant Digital claims that the change won’t be major. The iPhone 17 Pro models may have a new camera layout, but it is described as “still triangular” rather than an elongated oval shape.

The possibility of a pill-shaped camera bump with lenses arranged horizontally raises questions about how spatial video would work.
Right now, spatial video uses two vertically aligned lenses, the Wide and Ultra Wide, to capture footage simultaneously. The horizontal separation between the two lenses is important because it mimics the distance between human eyes and creates depth perception.

The horizontal layout that’s rumored would not allow the iPhone 17 Pro lenses to shoot spatial video in landscape orientation. Apple either does not plan to adopt a horizontal layout, or it has some solution for spatial video, such as Gaussian splitting techniques. The difficulty in adapting to a new spatial video method does cast some doubt on the rumors of a camera redesign.

Leaker Jon Prosser shared a render of an iPhone 17 Pro model that features a large, rectangular camera bump on the back. He claims the design is modeled after an iPhone 17 Pro that he saw, but Bloomberg‘s Mark Gurman said that the render is based on a fake CAD drawing.

Prosser’s design shows questionable placement of the flash and the LiDAR sensor, which are typically located close to camera lenses for proper function. It is not clear why Apple would use this design, nor what the extra space would be used for, but it has also been seen in other CAD drawings.

Leaked iPhone 17 Pro cases provide a look at just how large the rear camera bump might be. There is an oversized rectangular cutout that spans the entire back of the case.

Some rumors have said the iPhone 17 Pro Max could include a smaller Dynamic Island due to the use of a “metalens” for Face ID that will take up less space and allow for a narrower construction, but Ming-Chi Kuo says there won’t be changes to Dynamic Island size.

Additional rumors about the iPhone 17 Pro can be found in the iPhone 17 Pro roundup.