iPhone 17: Rumours, leaks and what to expect from Apple's next flagship phones

For most of the past decade, Apple has launched a new flagship iPhone or range of iPhones every year, usually in September, and if rumours are to be believed, the same will happen this year, meaning we are only a month away. Expected to be known as the iPhone 17 series, Apple will likely replace the iPhone 16 range with phones with updates design and specs to tempt people into upgrading their handsets.

According to various leaks and information online, the iPhone 17 could bring more changes than usual. Most prominent is the strong rumour that Apple will debut a wholly new, thinner iPhone model that is marketed on its slimness, potentially to be named the iPhone 17 Air.

This model is said to replace the Plus model of iPhone, which itself replaced the Mini version. Apple can't seem to settle on a fourth iPhone model each year, and this could be its latest plot.

The Air will likely join an iPhone 17 with similar design to the iPhone 16, and an iPhone 17 Pro and 17 Pro Max that leaks suggest will gain a new aluminium and glass design.

Apple has confirmed an event at its headquarters in Cupertino, California on September 9, 2025. It's due to air online for anyone to watch at 6pm UK time, which is 10am PST.

This is almost certainly the iPhone 17 launch event, though Apple never actually says so. But this is the September event where the iPhone has usually been announced in previous years, as you can see:

• iPhone 16 - Monday, September 9
• iPhone 15 - Tuesday, September 12
• iPhone 14 - Wednesday, September 7
• iPhone 13 - Tuesday, September 14
• iPhone 12 - Tuesday, October 13 (Covid year)
• iPhone 11 - Tuesday, September 10

Only Covid disrupted Apple's September cadence.

You could be paying more for the iPhone 17 compared to the iPhone 16, which costs from £799 for the base model.

The Wall Street Journal reported Apple is considering raising iPhone prices across the board, but may not publicly blame the Trump administration's tariffs. Instead, Apple is said to lean on new features and design updates to justify the costs.

Usually, Apple charges the same figure in pounds for its iPhones that it does in US dollars, so expect the UK price to mirror any rises across the pond.

MacRumors reckons the iPhone 17 Air could cost $899 in the US, mirroring the current pricing of the iPhone 16 Plus. It would sit at $100 (or pounds) more than the regular iPhone 17, with the iPhone 17 Pro starting at $999.

Apple appears to be planning to release an iPhone 17, iPhone 17 Air to replace the Plus model from the last three years, an iPhone 17 Pro, and a larger iPhone 17 Pro Max.

There are few solid rumours about the regular iPhone 17, mostly because it seems it will be similar to and resemble the iPhone 16 in most ways. That means you can expect a frosted glass back, matt aluminium sides, dual vertically stacked cameras and the Dynamic Island notch at the top of the screen.

There is a suggestion the display will get slightly larger to 6.3-inches up from the iPhone 16's 6.1-inches, which may result in a larger phone size.

More notably, Apple may finally stop hobbling the base iphone with a 60Hz refresh rate screen and give it a smoother 120Hz ProMotion display.

You can also expect new colour options, with lime green and light purple rumoured.

Here's a post on X, citing Macworld, which claims to break down the design and colour options for the entire iPhone 17 line up:

If Apple follows its tidy numerical pattern (which is not a given after naming the next version of iOS as iOS 26), the iPhone 17 will be powered by a new A19 chipset.

You'll also notice in the above image that it's rumoured Apple will reposition the Apple logo on the back of the Pro iPhones this year, potentially so it aligns centrally (or at least aesthetically) with the repositioned MagSafe charging coil. We'll see.

Instead of an iPhone 17 Plus, Apple is said to be introducing an iPhone 17 Air, a special slimmed-down iPhone 17 with a 6.6-inch screen but only one rear camera. The phone's name is not definitely known, with other suggestions it will be called iPhone 17 Slim.

So, how slim is slim? One report suggests it'll be 2mm thinner than the current iPhone 16 Pro, which if correct would be about 6mm, as the Pro is 8.25mm. This would make the iPhone 17 Air the thinnest iPhone ever, surely a metric Apple would have to achieve to market the device as thin.

But famed Apple analyst Ming-Chi Kuo reckons the phone will be 5.5mm thick at its thinnest point, which would be slimmer than the camera bump. Quite why Apple needs a camera bump if the phone only has one camera lens as rumoured remains to be seen. It might end up with a strip across the top, reminiscent of the Google Pixel 9.

It's not known whether the Air will have the same A19 chip as the regular iPhone 17 or perhaps a more powerful version that is expected to be in the Pro models.

Even though we may be getting an eye-catching iPhone 17 Air, the iPhone 17 Pro and Pro Max are also rumoured to bring quite big changes to the Pro line, at least when it comes to design.

After only two years, Apple is said to be ditching the titanium frame of the 15 Pro and 16 Pro in favour of aluminium, a material the firm has not used on a top-of-the-range iPhone since 2016's iPhone 7 Plus. The iPhone X introduced stainless steel, which was used on every Pro iPhone up to and including the 14 Pro.

Rather than a fully glass back, renders of the iPhone 17 Pro show a part glass back, with aluminium around the edges. This could be for weight or durability reasons, but the glass section is required for wireless charging to work.

The other big visual change is said to be for the camera bump, which might stretch the whole back of the phone rather than only being around the camera lenses, which seem to be remaining in a triangle of three.

Along with more muted tones, Apple might introduce a blue and orange model, according to leaks. An orange would be a surprise given Apple has kept Pro iPhone colours less vibrant than other iPhone models.

The iPhone 17 Pro will supposedly have a 6.3-inch screen while the 17 Pro Max will get a 6.9-inch panel, the same sizes as the current 16 Pro range.

The Pros will likely run an A19 Pro chip that will be more powerful than the other iPhone 17 models.

Analyst Kuo has said he expects the Pros to also have triple 48MP camera sensors, which will see an upgrade to the periscope telephoto lens from the 16 Pro, which is 12MP. Another rumour suggested the 17 Pro could have a variable aperture on its main lens, a feature seen on some Android phones that mimics the lenses of standalone cameras. Most phones have fixed aperture lenses due to cost and size restrictions.

Elsewhere, Bloomberg has reported that Apple plans to market the iPhone 17 Pro and Pro Max on the strength of their video recording capabilities, as well as highlighting key upgrades in hardware and software.

And according to a report from MacRumors, apparently, the telephoto lens on the 17 Pro will be boosted to include an 8x optical zoomn, up from 5x on the iPhone 16 Pro.

The publication also said the new phone will coincide with the introduction of a new pro camera app from Apple that could be separate from the regular camera app.

Perhaps more unlikely, but mentioned in the same report, is the possibility of a second Camera Control button on the top edge of the Pro iPhones that could bring up the camera and the camera settings.

It also looks as though Apple employees or contractors are out in the world testing the iPhone 17 Pro. The below post has been doing the rounds on X and the rest of the internet, with many believing this to be a 17 Pro out in the wild in San Francisco. It's the one in the black case, hiding the new design, which has three cameras on the left and a flash and LIDAR sensor over on the right:

If this is the real deal, it's one of the first times in a while that an unreleased iPhone has been seen out and about. Testing in the 'real world' is crucial to ensure quality control, but Apple usually keeps these instances well under wraps. Well done to this eagle-eyed photographer.

Disruptive accessory maker dbrand has also posted images of what it says are cases for the iPhone 17 Pro, backing up the rumours of a redesign.

If Apple is planning to update any other product lines at the rumoured September event, the firm has done a better job at keeping things under wraps than it has with the iPhone 17.

It's possible Apple will introduce the Apple Watch Series 11 at the event as the 'Series' update to the Watch is usually annual and done at the same time as the iPhone. This is the product most likely to launch alongside new smartphones. It's likely to be a vey iterative update to the Series 10, which slimmed down the design from previous years.

Apple skipped updating the Apple Watch Ultra 2 last year, merely adding a new black version to the line up. It's possible a Watch Ultra 3 could be released, but there are few leaks that point to a new design.

As for AirPods, Apple only released the AirPods 4 in September 2024. It's more likely this September's event will see the AirPods Pro 3, although even that is not certain. AirPods Pro 2 came out in 2022, with a USB-C version replacing the Lightning model in 2023. But Apple has continued to add features to both models via software updates, and there aren't any solid rumours on a new version.

Apple leaker Ming Chi Kuo thinks we won't see an AirPods update until 2026: