The iPhone 16 might still be over a month away from its official release but industry insiders have started tipping us on next year’s iPhone 17! The leaks have already started to arrive.
Although it isn’t too tricky to imagine what the next generation iPhone will bring to the table considering Apple’s conservative approach to generational upgrades, the next few years will be crucial in the iPhone’s evolution that will help its cause against an ever-improving competition from Android-based rivals.
As a result, the iPhone 16 series will be a stepping stone to the big upgrades that Apple has planned with the iPhone 17 series. It will bring a major change in the form factor since 2020’s ‘boxy’ iPhone 12 aesthetics. Other than the performance aspect, a crucial change related to the vanilla iPhone 17 will finally make it a potent rival to the hordes of premium Android smartphones from brands like Samsung, Google, OnePlus and more.
Hence, if you were planning to upgrade to the iPhone 16 later this year, hold on to your horses and read this before you make up your mind.
SPOILER ALERT: This story could alter your purchasing decision regarding the iPhone 16. Hence, read at your own risk.
iPhone 17 leaks: Big upgrades to features and design
Before we proceed, we’d like to remind our readers that Apple hasn’t spilt any beans on the details of the iPhone 16 – let alone the iPhone 17. Hence, everything that we discuss here is largely based on the leaks and rumours obtained via tipsters and industry insiders. There is a chance that Apple completely changes its mind and comes up with a different iPhone 17 by September 2025. Hence, we recommend you take everything discussed here with a pinch of salt.
With that out of the way, let’s begin.
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Design: Will the iPhone FINALLY look different?
We know that Apple sticks to the policy of “if it ain’t broke, don’t fix it”. This year’s iPhone 16 is largely rumoured to look the same as its predecessor, save for the rear camera lens arrangement on the vanilla model. The iPhone 16 and iPhone 16 Plus will ditch the diagonally arranged rear camera lenses in favour of the iPhone 12-styled vertical dual-lens arrangement.
With this being a ‘notable change’ to the iPhone’s design for the foreseeable future, we don’t expect the iPhone 17, iPhone 17 Plus and iPhone 17 Pro to look any different from their predecessors. That’s not necessarily a bad thing considering that it is a practical implementation.
For those desperately seeking a change though, the iPhone 17 Slim/Ultra is supposed to be the ultimate flagship offering in the range with the major change being — you guessed it right – a slim chassis. This ultra-premium variant is supposed to introduce a new design language for the iPhone’s next decade. This design is expected to completely hide the Dynamic Island underneath the display, thereby giving the iPhone a proper fullscreen experience.
Display: Refreshing changes incoming
The modern-day iPhone’s Achilles heel has been its display. While the Pro versions have featured a variable refresh rate OLED panel since the iPhone 13 series, the vanilla models, despite commanding a premium, have stuck to the standard 60Hz OLED panels. The iPhone 16 series seems less likely to bring about a change in that matter. This could change with the iPhone 17 though.
Based on the tip from Ice Universe, the iPhone 17 is now expected to get an LTPO OLED display panel that will enable a variable refresh rate between 1Hz to 120Hz. This should not only help with smoother transitions and animations on the standard iPhones but also some assistance with regard to battery life. The Always On Display (AOD) feature, however, could be limited to Pro variants only.
Performance: Next-gen speed
As with all generational upgrades, the iPhone 17 series is said to rely on Apple’s upcoming A19 family of chipsets. The standard iPhone 17 and iPhone 17 Plus could use the regular flavour of the A19 chip with trimmed-down graphical and neural network performance to keep the price low. The iPhone 17 Pro and iPhone 17 Slim/Ultra could get a beefed-up A19 Pro chip that addresses the performance deficit in terms of graphics and neural processing.
The vanilla iPhone 17 is also said to gain 8GB RAM as standard whereas the iPhone 17 Pro and Ultra variants could get up to 12GB RAM. This should help with multitasking and advanced Gen-AI apps that seek more memory.
Since these phones are expected to appear in late 2025, Apple could debut the public version of iOS 19, the successor to iOS 18, with the iPhone 17 series.
Cameras: Sharper imaging on the cards
At the moment, the iPhone 17 leaks and rumours don’t talk about the vanilla iPhone 17’s camera setup. As a result, Apple could continue the use a 48-megapixel sensor for the main shooter and a 12-megapixel sensor for the ultrawide system.
The Pro variants, on the other hand, are said to obtain sensor upgrades for improved imaging performance. The main camera will utilise a new 48-megapixel sensor and so will the ultrawide as well as the telephoto shooters. A higher resolution sensor for the telephoto camera will allow superior hybrid zoom performance.
Will the iPhone 17 series spawn a foldable variant?
With Google including a foldable model in the mainstream Pixel 9 series and Samsung dominating the foldable phone scene, it makes all the more sense for Apple to finally make the iPhone foldable. However, rumours have projected the possibility of an iPhone with a foldable screen arriving by 2027 at the earliest!
As a result, the iPhone 17 series might not feature a foldable variant.
But this isn’t all. The rumour belt will continue to churn more information related to the iPhone 17 series over the coming months and we will keep adding them here. Hence, bookmark this story to stay updated on all things about the iPhone 17.
iPhone 17 expected release date
It has been a norm at Apple to release the next generation of iPhones in September every year (except for the pandemic-struck year of 2020). The iPhone 16 series is expected to break cover in mid-September 2024 and Apple could repeat the trend of a September release in 2025 with the iPhone 17 series if the development phase goes according to the plan.
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Frequently Asked Questions (FAQs)
The iPhone 17 is expected to be released in September 2025.
The iPhone 17 series will feature a 120Hz refresh rate OLED display as standard, faster A19 series chips, upgraded camera sensors and an all-new iPhone 17 Slim/Ultra variant.
The iPhone 17 is expected to use the A19 chip.
No, the iPhone 17 is not expected to feature a new design.
