iPhone 17 Pro, iPhone 17 Pro Max Glass-Aluminium Rear Panel Design Spotted on New Dummy Units

Apple's iPhone 17 series of smartphones is expected to arrive with certain changes to the rear panel, and these purported design changes been spotted in a fresh set of images showing dummy units of the handsets. The successors to the iPhone 16 Pro and iPhone 16 Pro Max are said to arrive with larger camera modules, and feature a rear panel made of glass and aluminium. Previous reports suggest that the regular iPhone 17 will arrive without any major design changes, while the iPhone 16 Plus will make way for a new iPhone 17 Air model.

iPhone 17 Pro, iPhone 17 Pro Max Design (Expected)

A new image showing dummy units of the purported iPhone 17, iPhone 17 Pro, iPhone 17 Air, and iPhone 17 Pro Max was leaked by X (formerly Twitter) user Sonny Dickson. Unlike the pictures of metal iPhone 17 series dummies that were previously posted by the same user, this image gives us a good look at the design changes on the Pro models.

The iPhone 17 Pro and iPhone 17 Pro Max dummy units seen in the leaked image have an enlarged rear camera island, unlike their predecessors. While the company's current flagship smartphones are equipped with a rear panel made of glass, recent reports suggest that the iPhone 17 Pro and iPhone 17 Pro Max will sport a rear panel made of glass and metal.

The leaked image corroborates previous claims that the iPhone 17 Pro and iPhone 17 Pro Max will feature a rear panel made of glass and aluminium. The image shared by Dickson suggests that the glass are will cover the lower half of the handset, which includes the MagSafe area. The aluminium portion could surround this area and the raised camera module, which now stretches across the top part of the rear panel.

Earlier this week, the user shared another set of images showing metal dummies of the iPhone 17 series. These pictures indicated that the iPhone 17 and iPhone 17 Pro could arrive with the same 6.3-inch display. The iPhone 17 Air and the iPhone 17 Pro Max appear to be larger, and the latter is expected to be the biggest in the lineup.

Both sets of images indicate that the regular iPhone 17 won't arrive with noticeable design changes compared with the current iPhone 16 model. It could be the only handset in the iPhone 17 series with a vertical camera layout. The iPhone 17 Air, which is expected to take the place of the iPhone 16 Plus as Apple's slimmest phone to date, is seen with a single rear camera.