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Latest iPhone 17 Series CAD Images in Line With Redesign Rumors

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Apple is expected to embrace a new camera system design for some models in its upcoming iPhone 17 series, and the latest purported CAD images don't deviate from what we have been hearing lately about Apple's new lineup. If you do not like the sound of an iPhone with a Google Pixel-style camera bar, look away now.

Generic-iPhone-17-Feature-With-Full-Width-Dynamic-Island.jpg

Seasoned leaker Sonny Dickson shared the following images in a post on X (Twitter), commenting: "Everyone seems to be sharing the same iPhone 17 CAD, so I thought I'd share the ones I've seen."

The first image below is said to show the design of Apple's all-new ultra-thin iPhone 17 Air, a thinner and lighter device that is expected to replace the Plus model in the lineup. Consistent with rumors and previous CAD images, the render depicts Apple's embrace of an elongated horizontal camera module along the top of the device's rear.

sonny-dickson-iphone-17-air.jpeg

With limited internal space due to the slimmed down design, the iPhone 17 Air is believed to sport a single-lens rear camera. If that's the case, the device will not be capable of capturing spatial video or spatial photos unless Apple has a new technique in mind for capturing this kind of content. Rumors suggest it will use the same 48-megapixel Wide camera that's in the iPhone 16 models.

At least some iPhone 17 models will allegedly feature a smoother transition between the edges of the camera bump and the back cover, owing to Apple's use of a new glass-and-metal splicing material process. The concave transition between the bump and the chassis shown in the CAD appears to back this claim.

Moving on, the image below is of the iPhone 17 Pro and iPhone 17 Pro Max models. Here is where the alleged redesign is at its most dramatic. Apple's Pro devices are expected to move away from the familiar square camera bump to a distinctive larger aluminum camera bar that spans the device's width.

iphone-17-pro-max-sonny-dickson.jpeg

The typical triangular triple-lens array maintains its location on the left, but the flash, LiDAR sensor, and rear microphone are shunted over to the right of the extended bump in a vertical alignment. Whether Apple has adopted this design purely for cosmetic or practical reasons – or a mix of form/function – remains unknown.

The last image of the standard iPhone 17 model offers a design most readers will be more accustomed to. Apple appears to be sticking to its tried and tested dual iPhone camera system for the base model, which may offer some respite for anyone who can't get behind the new camera bar look.

iphone-17-base-sonny-dickson.jpeg

Multiple sources have now backed rumors about the above camera designs in the forthcoming iPhone 17 series. The lineup is expected to arrive around Apple's usual mid-September time frame, so it's very late in the game for the rumors to be off. For all the details about other changes that are rumored to be coming to individual models, follow the tags at the bottom of this article.

Article Link: Latest iPhone 17 Series CAD Images in Line With Redesign Rumors
 
Article Link
https://www.macrumors.com/2025/02/28/latest-iphone-17-series-cad-images-redesign/
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RealE said:
Why not make the entire phone as thick as the camera bump and use that extra internal space to pack in more battery?
Click to expand...
Because of weight, size, thermal considerations? If building physical products was so easy everyone and their uncle would do it, things don’t exist on a vacuum, you don’t just “add more battery”. And you don’t do things just because a tiny subset of people have all these problems for a purely cosmetic reason that’s also a non issue for the 9l% of users that just use a case (the phone doesn’t wobble, you don’t notice the camera bump). Most people use their phones don’t contemplate them.
 
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First of all, Macrumors writer: No one uses Spacial Video or Spacial Photos because approximately 0.00001% of iPhone owners own a Vision Pro or will own a Vision Pro or future Vision non-Pro to view those. Mentioning them at all is borderline comical. There is no reason to be concerned about those garbage Spacial captures. Kind of like how the capture button is one of the biggest most garbage gimmicks Apple has ever designed.

Anyway, on to this design: the iPhone 17 Pro with the top back looking like it will distinctively show glass and aluminum or other metal separating it at the top is ungodly hideous. If they actually did that I can’t believe it.

Look at the 17 Air with its solid all-glass back like all past models have had for years. It looks astronomically superior.

Finally, for all of you who don’t think much about why Apple is doing something they’re doing: the fact that they made the Pro’s have the camera protrusion extend clear across the back is very obvious for multiple reasons. First of all, guess what rumor from this year’s iPhones we can point directly to in which to have that ‘lightbulb’ moment thinking about Apple’s engineering decision-making? OHHH yeah…….the fact that these will have 24MP front-facing cameras with an additional lens. Guess what that thicker body afforded them? The internal space to fit that new camera which is entirely pointless and useless and definitely not needed because it’s the front-facing camera and everyone uses Snapchat WHICH SPECIFICALLY ADDS BLUR AND GRAIN TO ALL PHOTOS EVEN WITHOUT FILTERS.

Yes, I have to explain all of these things, it’s important. Now, secondarily to the fact that they expanded that across the phone to fit that larger front-facing camera, it also obviously affords more space for other things of which aren’t immediately obvious. However, obviously it is a large amount of space clear across the back of the phone and that is allowing the engineers a lot more internal volume up there to fit more components or move other components up there which will grant more space lower in the phone.
 
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There could be other reasons than the most obvious ones for this big bump. Maybe Apple has foune a way for a FaceID system to be under the display and maybe, because it will be under the display instead of just under the glass it will need more room on the back to house it?
 
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RealE said:
Why not make the entire phone as thick as the camera bump and use that extra internal space to pack in more battery?
Click to expand...
Why do you not think about what a 2-3mm thicker phone would feel like in your hand? do you want to hold a 1990’s cell phone in your hand? Nope, you don’t.

It’s very very very easy for you to think that, but you simply don’t realize how absolutely AWFUL a phone is if it is literally 3mm thicker. It doesn’t sound like a lot but it is. It’s a massive amount, especially when you’re trying to use it with 1 hand. Remember….if using with 1 hand, the thicker the phone, the less distance your thumb can reach across its face.

Moreover, if you were to have a 3mm thicker phone and fill all that volume with a bigger battery and more components, it will be far far far heavier and you’ll want to immediately throw it as hard as you can at the nearest brick wall, and with good reason.

Good day to you.
 
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BelgianChoklit said:
There could be other reasons than the most obvious ones for this big bump. Maybe Apple has foune a way for a FaceID system to be under the display and maybe, because it will be under the display instead of just under the glass it will need more room on the back to house it?
Click to expand...
24MP front-facing camera is the #1 reason. And that is a pathetically awful reason. No one needs it. Period. Snapchat = intentional blur and grain added to all photos with or without filters added.

People want grainy photos cause it hides their imperfections.
 
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In some way it’s limited with modern camera lenses to really avoid such a huge bump but in my feeling it’s just: it could be done better.
We will see how it looks on the final product. Most often it turned out less bad as expected, we will see as closer we’ll get to it’s release in September.
 
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BelgianChoklit said:
There could be other reasons than the most obvious ones for this big bump. Maybe Apple has foune a way for a FaceID system to be under the display and maybe, because it will be under the display instead of just under the glass it will need more room on the back to house it?
Click to expand...
There won’t be a an the display Face ID this year, unfortunately.
 
Let me give you all the order of operations of Apple design and engineering over the past 18 months:

Okay, well we want to try making a really thin iPhone, we think that will sell. Okay, good, hmmm, well, obviously we won’t be able to fit the front-facing camera and Face ID hardware within a 5.5mm body depth. Okay, I got it, we will have to expand the camera bump across the back of the phone, which will give us back the depth to necessitate those hardware components. Alright, that’s settled, great.

Wait, now that we are doing that, we’ll also have to do the exact same thing for the Pro models lest they’ll look different and old in comparison. You’re right, okay, we’ll take the camera protrusion and extend it across the back for the Pro models too. Hey, that will net us the depth to increase the front-facing camera to a 24MP and add another lens to the array. Yes, that’s a good selling point (not really), and we will tout ‘great new vlogging’ abilities via the new camera. We’ll add the ability for the camera to track the user too, by utilizing the full 24MP to dynamically crop in to 12MP such that it can keep the user squarely in the center of the screen for FaceTime calls, photos, and videos. Okay, that’s good, that will convince a lot of idiots to upgrade. Because the camera protrusion is enormous on the Pros we can also jam many other things up there now too, we have a huge amount of additional internal volume up there now. Yes, that’s true, let’s get to work on that.

—The end. Apple engineering
 
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Could apple deliberately design the ‘fugly’ pro version for this year so the upgraders jump onto the Air train. Then next year the flip/fold comes out & everyone jumps onto that train.
End result Apple makes a ton of cash on Air, gains publicity over ‘fugly gate’ & then becomes the messiah when the flip arrives making a ludicrous amount of cash.

Personally I’ll stick with my 13pm hoping for a dinky wee clamshell!
 
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