The Information, which also reported several new details regarding the ‘iPhone 17 Air‘, has come out with the first leak on what the upcoming iPhone 17 Pro will look like. If confirmed, this will be the first, significant design change since the iPhone 11 Pro, which marked the delineation of the non-Pro and Pro iPhone models. Since then, the back side of the Pro models have remained largely identical, and only the cameras have grown in size throughout history. The vertical camera layout makes the current standard iPhone 16 models visually different than the previous iPhone 15 models, so it’s really about time for the iPhone Pro model to have a major design revamp.
Even more surprisingly, the upcoming iPhone 17 Pro models will revert to an aluminum frame, which will also be a first for an iPhone Pro model. Starting with the iPhone X, the flagship iPhone models used a stainless steel frame to differentiate from the lower iPhone models that had an aluminum frame. That changed starting with the iPhone 15 Pro when Apple switched from stainless steel to titanium for the frame, and it became a top feature for those models since titanium has a superb strength-to-weight ratio. So reverting back to an aluminum frame for the upcoming iPhone 17 Pro models would be such an unexpected move for Apple.
Additionally, the back side of the iPhone 17 Pro models will feature a radically new design with the top half being made out of aluminum and the bottom half being made out of glass to retain wireless/MagSafe charging. Going back to the top half, the Pro camera layout is expected to be housed in a “larger rectangular camera bump made of aluminum rather than traditional 3D glass”. My take on this is that this new design for the iPhone 17 Pro will take several design cues from the iPad Pro (M4) as the flagship tablet also features an outer shell and camera bump that are both made out of aluminum. More prominently, if anything, this drastic redesign will take the best aspects of Apple’s previous designs from older iPhone models. The original iPhone, iPhone 6, iPhone 6s, and iPhone 7 have an aluminum back. The iPhone 5, iPhone 5S, and original iPhone SE have an aluminum/glass back, and the iPhone 4, 4S, and all other models since the iPhone 8, which introduced wireless charging, have a glass back.
If these design details do come to fruition, the iPhone 17 Pro may be the most exciting update that customers have been waiting for years, next to the ‘iPhone 17 Air.’ We expect Apple to introduce the iPhone 17 lineup next September. Follow us on X for more news regarding the next iPhone.
