iPhone 17 Back Panel Design Leaked Again; Shows Pixel-Like Rear Camera Module

The iPhone 17 series is expected to arrive later this year as a successor to the iPhone 16 lineup, which was introduced in September 2024. Leaked details about the purported iPhone 17 handsets have surfaced online over the past few weeks. This time, the lineup could include a slim variant alongside the usual base, Plus, Pro and Pro Max options. An older leak suggested the series could see a redesigned rear camera module. Now, a new leak corroborates that claim and shows a visor-like camera unit instead of the square camera island that's been seen in recent iPhones.

iPhone 17 Leaked Back Panel Design

Tipster Majin Bu (@MajinBuOfficial) shared leaked live images of back panels of phones claimed to be iPhone 17 in an X post on Tuesday. The tipster did not specify the iPhone variant in the post, but it could be the base iPhone 17 model. The image showed a visor-like horizontal pill-shaped module towards the top of the panel. It appeared to have a single camera cutout in the left corner.

This visor-like design seen in the leaked iPhone 17 image is similar to that of Google Pixel smartphones. Notably, the iPhone 16 and iPhone 16 Plus have vertical elliptical rear camera units, while the Pro models sport square islands seen on Apple's smartphones since the iPhone 11. An earlier leak claimed that the rumoured redesign is expected to make room for the “front structure light," which is likely a reference for Face ID.

iPhone 17 Series Features (Expected)

An earlier report suggested that Apple could include 48-megapixel telephoto cameras with 5x optical zoom in the purported iPhone 17 Pro and iPhone 17 Pro Max. If true, it will be a considerable upgrade over the 12-megapixel shooters on the iPhone 16 Pro models. Both iPhone 16 Pro and iPhone 16 Pro Max phones carry 12-megapixel TrueDepth selfie shooters. The iPhone 17 Pro models, on the other hand, are expected to get 24-megapixel front camera sensors.

Apple is expected to unveil an iPhone 17 Air model to compete with the rumoured Galaxy S25 Slim from Samsung. Previous leaks claimed that the iPhone 17 Air variant could measure 5.5mm in thickness and support eSIM connectivity. It will likely be equipped with A18 or A19 chipsets paired with 8GB of RAM and Apple Intelligence features.