A render of the front of the iPhone 17, which isn’t expected to change so dramatically
The latest in a series of leaks about the physical chassis design of the iPhone 17 range says that it will be a significant departure from previous models.
With Apple rumors, there is quite often smoke without any fire, but a new leak backs up sporadic previous claims about the design of the iPhone 17 range. Previous rumors have said, for instance, that at least the iPhone 17 Pro will feature a new camera bar layout.
Now according to leaker “Digital Chat Station” on Chinese social media site Weibo, the design changes will be significant. Depending on which machine translation is used, the poster describes the change as varying from greatly, to significant, and even dramatic.
Specifically, this leak claims that the expected slimmer model, here called the iPhone 17 Air, will have its cameras arranged in a horizontal bar. The iPhone 17 Pro models will use a larger but still horizontal bar.
This does fit with a pair of previous rumors, but one of those was from the same “Digital Chat Station” source. The other showed a supposed frame for the iPhone 17 chassis that featured a horizontal opening for the camera layout.
Separately, rumors in November 2024 also claimed that there would be a design change, but it was initially to do with materials. It was claimed that the iPhone 17 Pro would move away from titanium to a “part-aluminum, part-glass design,” although that rumor was later contradicted by another leaker.
That particular rumor did then go on to say that there would be a larger rectangular camera bump, but with no further details.
This November 2024 rumor came via the sources of The Information and it’s not clear how reliable or accurate those are. “Digital Chat Station,” though, has been accurate about camera details before.
There have been other leaks that are similar to this latest one regarding the camera bump. In each case if the claims haven’t been contradictory, the sources have tended to be ones that have poor track records.
Nonetheless, with a mounting number of such leaks, it is starting to look possible that the design of the iPhone 17 range will be much more of a significant one than was seen between the iPhone 15 and the iPhone 16 ranges. As well as a new camera layout, it’s been reported that the iPhone 17 Pro will return to having curved sides.
