Apple is planning some big changes for its iPhone 17 lineup. While most rumors have focused on the expected iPhone 17 Air, a new report outlines ‘significant design changes’ coming to the full lineup, especially the iPhone 17 Pro and Pro Max.
What’s coming for the iPhone 17 and 17 Pro
In a new report that focuses largely on the iPhone 17 Air, some new details have been shared regarding what’s coming to the rest of 2025’s iPhone 17 lineup.
Wayne Ma and Qianer Liu write for The Information:
Apple’s other iPhone models will also undergo significant design changes next year. For instance, they’ll all switch to aluminum frames from stainless steel and titanium, one of the people said.
The back of the Pro and Pro Max models will feature a new part-aluminum, part-glass design. The top of the back will comprise a larger rectangular camera bump made of aluminum rather than traditional 3D glass. The bottom half will remain glass to accommodate wireless charging, two people said.
There are several key details here worth noting:
- the full iPhone 17 lineup is moving to an aluminum frame, for unknown reasons
- the iPhone 17 Pro and Pro Max are getting larger ‘rectangular’ camera bumps made of aluminum
- wireless charging may be impacted by the shift away from an all-glass back
Up until this point, we haven’t heard much about Apple’s plans for the iPhone 17 lineup outside of the Air model. These details provide a great starting point heading into the new year.
Questions raised by the iPhone 17 design changes
While today’s report provides some interesting insights, it also raises several questions.
What’s Apple’s reasoning, for example, for moving to all-aluminum for its iPhone frames? The move to titanium wasn’t that long ago, and has so far been branded as a premium differentiator for the Pro models.
How much larger and how ‘rectangular’ are the Pro models’ camera bumps getting? And why the switch to an aluminum enclosure?
Are there other design changes coming that we don’t yet know about? The report seems to hint that there’s more to come.
It seems like in a year where one flagship model, the 17 Air, will be massively scaling back its camera offerings, Apple may be leaning more heavily on camera features with its Pro line.
For many of us who love using the iPhone as a camera, but also are intrigued by the ultra-slim 17 Air, next year’s iPhone decision will be an especially tough one.
What do you think of think of these rumored changes? Let us know in the comments.
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