The controversial new design for iPhone 17 Pro and Pro Max appears to be real. With every passing day, we find more and more reports about the design change. A few sources even provided some high-quality renders, hinting at the new appearance. Today, a new leak appears on the internet, proving once and for all that a new iPhone 17 Pro Max design is imminent.
The leak source pointed out that the new horizontal camera bar design will be coming to at least three iPhone models. There’s the iPhone 17 Pro and Pro Max duo, and the other is the iPhone 17 Air with a single camera unit on the back. It might be inspired by Google’s Pixel lineup, but with a few tweaks.
The X leaker @LusiRoy8 shared the picture of a dummy iPhone 17 Pro Max unit on his profile, which seems to be enveloped in a plastic case with Apple’s usual MagSafe connection layer at the bottom. This is a regular transparent iPhone case, but you will notice the huge camera cutout on top.
Previous renders and the leaked dummy units revealed the same thing. The Apple iPhone new model design is indeed changing, and today’s TPU case image further proves that it’s true. Even though the camera cluster remains untouched, Apple could push the LIDAR, Flash, and Mic to the other edge.
Case makers are experimenting with different prototypes to cover the enormous camera bump on the iPhone 17 Pro Max, as you can see in the images. One of the cases has two cutouts along the camera bar: one that leaves space for the cameras, and the other is for LIDAR and Flash.
There is an explanation for why Apple might change the iPhone 17 Pro and Pro Max’s design this year. According to new reports, the company plans to upgrade the telephoto with a bigger and higher resolution 48MP sensor, which leaves no space for the LIDAR unit on the left side, hence the switch.
Therefore, the LIDAR sensor was moved to the other side along with the flash, and it resulted in a massive horizontal camera island. Since the case makers are stepping in to prove the legitimacy of early renders, it would be fair to assume they are real. Still, we advise everyone to wait for Apple’s confirmation about the new design and stay tuned for all future updates regarding the subject.