Will the iPhone 17 be a Huge Departure from Recent Models?
From the moment that the original iPhone launched in 2007, the Apple mobile device completely changed the game. It was the first phone in the history of the industry to use multi-touch technology, resulting in countless Android devices in the years since trying desperately to catch up.
Ever since, the iPhone has grown and developed and remains industry-leading nearly two decades later.
The next one to launch will be the iPhone 17, with rumours swirling that it might well offer something that takes the phone in a new direction.
The iPhone 17 Lineup
Apple as a company is well-run, to the point where the only leaks that tend to emerge from it are ones that Apple wants out there in the conversation. There can be plenty of reasons for that, with the most obvious being that they like to either test the waters of public opinion or else lay the groundwork ahead of a major shift.
In the case of the iPhone 17, it seems like the latter is much more likely to be the reasoning behind the leaks that have hit the blogosphere. The likelihood is that we will see the new line of phones in September 2025.
iPhone 17 Lineup
Which iPhone will you buy? pic.twitter.com/1Gq4lk9JxT
— Apple Club (@applesclubs) March 22, 2025
We say ‘new line of phones’ because Apple has made a habit of releasing numerous different phones under the same model number. That is to say, there won’t just be an iPhone 17 but also an iPhone 17 Pro, iPhone 17 Pro Max, and so on.
The big change for 2025 looks as though it’s going to be the launch of the iPhone 17 Air, following in the footsteps of the likes of the iPad Air and the MacBook Air in terms of offering a thinner, more lightweight model than you are going to get from the Pro and Pro Max variants.
Getting a New Look
The iPhone 17 lineup is likely to be the first since the launch of the iPhone X to look radically different from the previous generations, depending on which of the models you choose to opt for.
Although the iPhone 17 itself is unlikely to look vastly different from the iPhone 16, the other iterations of the iPhone 17 look to be promising a departure from that mould. It appears as if the iPhone Air and the iPhone Pro models will have a horizontal camera bump, rather than the square in the top left corner of the phone’s rear.
@aliasghar37231 iPhone 17 is looking pretty good iPhone 17 Slim: What To Expect #technology #apple #techtoktips #iphonetricks #iphone #apple #iphone #rumors #apple #iphone #rumors #foruyou ♬ Black Star – Lustmord
If you like your phone to be small and relatively unobtrusive, then the iPhone 17 Air will be the one for you.
If the rumours are to be believed, then we could be looking at the thinnest iPhone ever, coming in even thinner than the current models. Whether it comes in at 5mm thick or 6mm depends on which rumours you’ve been listening to, but given the 12.9-inch iPad Pro with the M4 chip was down to 5.1mm, it seems likely that the former is what we’ll be looking at.
Regardless, it is a major departure from previous iPhone looks.
At 8.72mm thick, iPhone 17 Pro Max will be thicker than:
Galaxy S25 Ultra (8.2mm)
iPhone 16 Pro Max (8.25mm)
Pixel 10 Pro XL (8.5mm)
Vivo X200 Pro (8.5mm)
Oneplus 13 (8.5mm)It’ll be the thickest Max model ever
— Anthony (@thegalox.bsky.social) 17 March 2025 at 22:02
On the flip side of that is the iPhone 17 Pro Max, which looks as though it will be the thickest Max model that Apple has ever released.
Whatever else you might say about the company, you can’t say that they don’t know how to cater to as wide an audience as possible. The Pro phones are also reportedly going back to the aluminium frame instead of the titanium that has been used on recent models, whilst the back of the phones could be part-aluminium and part-glass.
It will be the camera bump that is likely to cause the most upset, though.
Changes Will be A Hop Rather Than a Leap
The truth is that the iPhone 17 range is likely to represent a hop in a different direction rather than an all-out leap. Apple knows what it is that their customers like, so they aren’t going to be in a rush to offer something so completely different that it will turn people off.
That being said, the company also knows that they are expected to push boundaries, which is why we live in a world where touchscreen phones and tablets are ubiquitous.
Of course, even when Apple only makes an incremental change, it is still something that will make a difference to consumers. The rumours suggest, for example, that all of the new range of phones will boast Apple ProMotion with 120Hz, making them much smoother phones to use when scrolling and looking at websites.
Add in the likelihood that they will all get a Dynamic Island, and the likelihood is that this might be the iPhone where you choose what you need and go from there.