Leaked iPhone 17 Pro images

 Leaked iPhone 17 Pro images :  camera rumour shot down by leaker 

Earlier, rendered images purportedly of the iPhone 17 Pro Max shared by a Russian YouTube channel showed what it could look like based on rumours about the next iPhone going with a horizontal camera arrangement. Many compared it to the Google Pixel 9 Pro XL, complete with rounded camera bar. This would be a dramatic facelift for sure, but it appears as though this drastic change might not be happening at all. While the debate continues about whether Apple will keep the stovetop camera design this year or switch to a Pixel-like horizontal island, a new rumour has popped up about an updated front design for the iPhone 17 Pro. In 2022, the iPhone 14 Pro abandoned the notch for a Dynamic Island, and in the two years since, no changes have been made to the shape-shifting cut-out. That's set to change this year, as per a leak from the Chinese outlet My Drivers.

The initial render of this new iPhone 17 redesign was posted first by Weibo user Digital chat station, who claims that the iPhone 17 “has indeed been changed to this design.” The report reiterates a claim first made by analyst Jeff Pu in May, claiming the iPhone 17 Pro will have a smaller Dynamic Island. While Apple is not expected to put the Face ID system behind the screen to shrink the size of the Dynamic Island, it will use metalens for the Face ID system to make the cut-out narrower. That’s because another reliable leaker is putting down this rumour to rest, going on to say that the iPhone 17 Pro (and presumably iPhone 17 Pro Max) will remain with its familiar triangular setup. It’s worth noting that the leaker has previously provided accurate leaks such as the yellow iPhone 14 and how the new iPad Air shifted to a landscape front-facing camera.

As opposed to traditional lenses that smartphone manufacturers currently use, metalens, or metasurface lens, is an optical lens that uses nanostructured materials instead of relying on the curvature of their surface to manipulate light. They are flat and light, allowing companies to free up space by replacing bulky traditional lenses and other optical components with them. You can (maybe) forget about a horizontal camera setup. While the iPhone Pro series is definitely due for a redesign, with the current design language dating as far back as the iPhone 11 Pro, a horizontal camera system on the back of the phone would undoubtedly be a dramatic one. Phone makers are constantly experimenting with different designs, but there’s a reason why the triangular arrangement makes more sense.

The iPhone 17 Pro could feature a smaller Dynamic Island than current models. The report also includes a concept image that depicts what the smaller Dynamic Island may look like. It also says that the phone will have smaller bezels. So even though an all-glass iPhone is not coming anytime soon, the iPhone 17 Pro would be an important step towards it. It could all boil down to spatial video, which others claim makes more sense with a vertical camera arrangement. In the current triangular setup, the iPhone 16 Pro’s main and ultra-wide cameras are positioned horizontally when the phone’s held in landscape, resulting in a spatial video in landscape format.

Reports say that only the iPhone 17 Pro Max would feature a metalens, so the other three models in the line-up may have the same-sized Dynamic Island as current models. In contrast, if the iPhone 17 Pro were to adopt a horizontal camera arrangement as the leaked renders have shown, it might not be able to properly shoot spatial video in landscape format. Meanwhile, conflicting leaks are circulating about whether Apple will adopt a horizontally stacked camera array for its new phones. Either way, it does look like Apple is at least considering refreshing the design, and if we get lucky, at least one of these leaks might materialize.

Furthermore, Apple could be experimenting on different designs to see if they’re feasible to manufacture to begin with, or perhaps just planting seeds to disguise their intentions. We’re still a long ways away from an iPhone 17 release, but we’re now in a period where the design needs to be ironed out for Apple to fetch the necessary components and suppliers to manufacture it. There’s also rumours about Apple introducing another model into the mix, an iPhone 17 Air, which is reportedly going to be the thinnest iPhone ever created.