iPhone 17 could launch soon with these 8 massive changes

Although it is not officially confirmed, it’s very likely that Apple will launch the iPhone 17 and iPhone 17 Pro at some point in September, possibly alongside a thinner model, known to the internet as the iPhone 17 Slim or iPhone 17 Air.

Ever since the iPhone 5s in 2013, Apple has held its main iPhone launch event in September, except in 2020 when the pandemic scuppered the company’s plans. That’s why we’re pretty confident the iPhone 17 will be unveiled in mid- to late-September.

Rumours are gathering pace as to what exactly the new phones will look like and whether Apple is changing anything from the iPhone 16 generation, which was quite similar to the iPhone 15.

If you want change, it looks like you’ll get it. Here are the main things we expect from the iPhone 17 launch when it comes around. If all of these come to pass, we could be looking at a much bigger year for iPhone upgrades than we had in 2024.

Whether it’s called the Air or the Slim or is simply just the design of the iPhone 17, Apple is heavily rumoured to be introducing a slimmed down iPhone this year. It could be why Samsung scrambled to get the Galaxy S25 Edge out recently.

I found that beautifully thin phone had terrible battery life. If Apple brings us its first Air-branded thin phone, I really hope it doesn’t suffer the same fate. It’ll be interesting to see what else gets sacrificed in the name of thinness – the S25 Edge only has two cameras, whereas all the other S25 models have three or four.

Bloomberg’s Mark Gurman reported the Air could cost £899, the same price as the iPhone 16 Plus. If Apple can manage this, it could have a hit on its hands as it would likely undercut the iPhone 17 Pro’s price.

In fact, the Wall Street Journal thinks Apple will raise iPhone prices across the board, and could attribute this to feature updates and all the new design changes, perhaps avoiding blaming the US government’s sweeping tariffs.

All the leaks for all iPhone 17 and 17 Pro models show a new camera module design. The most stark is that of the 17 Pro’s, which is rectangular with rounded corners and stretches across the whole back of the phone rather than just in the corner like it has with three lenses since the iPhone 11 Pro.

Will every new iPhone 17 have a new 24-megapixel selfie camera? This leak says yes, which would double the megapixel count of the current iPhone 16s, which all have a 12MP sensor.

Like every year, Apple is expected to upgrade the chipset for the iPhone 17 Pro with what we presume is called the A19 Pro, if sequential numbering doesn’t let us down. Then again Apple just announced iOS 26, so it could throw a spanner in the works with its silicon too.

The new chip is said to run a newer third-gen 3nm process, which in tech terms is a good thing, and should make the 17 Pro the most powerful iPhone yet.

I always hope Apple improves the iPhone’s battery life, and while some of this is down to software improvements, it doesn’t hurt when the battery capacity also grows. Android phones have pushed the envelope recently with bigger batteries thanks to new silicon-carbon technology.

Apple might not jump to this new tech yet, but the iPhone 17 Pro Max is said to have thicker, larger body – and therefore hopefully battery.

Apple usually updates the colours of its new iPhone models, partly for fun, but mostly so people can feel like they have a new phone and show off to others that they have the new iPhone.

The Pro iPhones unfortunately all have quite boring colours, especially since Apple started using titanium for the build. I think the best Pro iPhone colour was the green iPhone 13 Pro, and there’s a rumour Apple will bring out a Sky Blue iPhone 17 Pro to match the latest MacBook Air.

Speaking of titanium, Apple could be dropping the material after just two years. The regular iPhones are built with aluminium but an Apple supply chain analyst says the Pros could use aluminium again, with the iPhone 17 Air the only titanium model.

Another leak suggests there will be a combination of aluminium and glass on the back of the 17 Pro to improve durability, rather than the whole back of the phone being glass. Some of it would need to be glass for wireless charging to work.