A new design is coming to the iPhone 17 series, according to several leaks. And a new report doubles down on the idea that the cameras could be repositioned on the new phone. This would see them placed horizontally, in an arrangement not seen on an Apple device since the iPhone 8. But is it all true?
Will the iPhone 17 change the camera arrangement of the iPhone 16, seen here?
Fellow Forbes Contributor Paul Monckton reported on the details of the leak here, but while the latest report comes from Digital Chat Station, a Weibo user with a decent track record for accurate reports, there is still room for doubt, I’d say.
The report says that the camera arrangement on one or more iPhone 17 models will be different from the current range. Instead of the square-with-round-corners placement of three lenses on the Pro models or the two vertically-placed cameras of the 16 and 16 Plus, we are led to expect a horizontal row of cameras.
As Paul points out, it would mean an iPhone looking strikingly like the Google Pixel series. This has one big advantage: when the phone is on the table and you tap on it, it doesn’t wobble. But there are plenty of concerns with this suggested new look.
First, Apple changed the iPhone design with the iPhone 16, by placing the cameras vertically instead of the previous diagonal arrangement. Apple almost never ditches a design after just one year. Exceptions to this include the very first iPhone, but there are few after that. I’d be surprised if the iPhone 17 changed its styling from the 16, other than for color.
Second, one of the main reasons for the iPhone 16 design change was to allow the regular iPhone to shoot spatial videos for the first time when the phone was held in landscape orientation. It seems strange that Apple would ditch this so quickly—though it could be overcome by software and lens changes, it’s true, if the image was cropped in a different way.
The iPhone 17 Pro and Pro Max also had a gentle redesign this year, though a more striking change may be on the horizon in 2025. Even so, adopting this horizontal arrangement seems far-fetched to me. And if, as the report says, multiple phones are expected to opt for a line of cameras in 2025, Apple may want to avoid running with the pack.
The leaker’s track record makes the topic worthy of analysis, and such a change is not impossible, of course, but it will be useful to wait for more reports that corroborate this. Stay tuned.