iPhone 17 Pro: A closer look at the new ‘camera bar’ design

Chance Miller | Jun 24 2025 - 3:19 pm PT

While a lot of the focus is on the all-new iPhone 17 Air, Apple is also planning some design changes to the iPhone 17 Pro coming later this year. New images posted to social media today provide us with what could be our best look yet at the redesigned camera bump on the iPhone 17 Pro…

These iPhone 17 Pro dummy unit images were posted to social media by Majin Bu. They show the iPhone 17 Pro in black, with a particular emphasis on the new camera bar design. You can clearly see how Apple has shifted from the classic camera bump design to something that covers the full width of the back of the phone.

Earlier today, my colleague Ryan detailed new camera features coming to the iPhone 17 Pro lineup this fall. We’re expecting an upgraded 48MP telephoto lens, multi-cam video recording, and an upgraded 24MP front-facing camera.

9to5Mac’s Take

Top comment by Electric Dad

Liked by 2 people

Tl;dr Plea for return to innovation.

I’ve had an iPhone for 10 years, and I’m getting tired. Apple product launches used to be exciting, they did things other phones couldn’t, and it seemed important to upgrade every couple years. Apple has long shied away from the bleeding edge, perfecting a feature for amazing user experience over releasing something not quite ready. But gradually this has evolved into lethargy, even complacency, for its cash cow. Now the most exciting changes are a bigger camera bulge and icons that resemble Windows XP? This soup is so thin, some articles are already speculating on possible iPhone 18 features!

I can’t imagine switching to team Android, and market share will hold because of the ecosystem. Apple is happy with this status quo - and that’s how a mature segment stales and is eventually (yet suddenly!) disrupted by an outsider. It’s how iPhone crushed Nokia, BlackBerry, Ericsson, Motorola (each a cool brand in their time, I owned and loved them all!) in the first place.

If I was Apple I’d launch a second device brand on iOS (NeXT? Beats?) that does exciting, edgy stuff. Keep iPhone the stalwart, old reliable for those who demand that. Let NeXT offer all the bleeding edge features of the Chinese upstarts, and more. Even try some devices that risk - gasp! - failure. Newton failed, yet led to great things later. Every market is eventually disrupted. Build your own disrupter now, before somebody else does it and you’re forced into a defensive posture.

View all comments

When the first rumours about this so-called “camera bar” design surfaced for the iPhone 17 Pro, I was skeptical. As we’ve seen the design evolve from early drawings and renderings into these more polished dummy units, however, my opinion has shifted. I think the wider layout creates a more cohesive design and makes the camera array appear less out of place than it does today.

One thing I’m curious about, though, is whether Apple has any surprises in store for new features that the rearranged camera layout could enable. In particular, is the decision to move the flash and LiDAR sensor to the right-hand side purely an aesthetic decision? Or is there something more to the story?

We’ll find out for sure when Apple unveils the iPhone 17 lineup in September. In the meantime, what do you think of this new design? Let us know in the comments.