This is Rumor Replay, a weekly column at 9to5Mac offering a quick rundown of the most recent Apple product rumors, with analysis and commentary. Today: Apple’s big 2025 product release plans, including iPhone 17 Pro camera upgrades, 17 Air thinness, and more. Here are this week’s Apple rumors.
iPhone 17 Pro camera trio all goes 48MP
Leaker Digital Chat Station shared this past week about camera changes to expect on the iPhone 17 lineup. They confirmed what we’d previously heard about all iPhone 17 models getting 24MP selfie cameras—an upgrade from 12MP.
New, however, was the claim that both the iPhone 17 Pro and Pro Max will have 48MP sensors for all three of their rear cameras. The main camera went 48MP on the iPhone 15 Pro, the Ultra Wide followed suit on the 16 Pro, and now it sounds like the 17 Pro will complete the trio by upgrading the 17 Pro’s Telephoto lens to 48MP too.
My takeaways
It seems like Apple’s plan is to lean hard in two opposite directions with its flagship iPhone 17 models.
iPhone 17 Air will sacrifice the Ultra Wide and Telephoto lenses for the sake of thinness and keeping costs lower.
iPhone 17 Pro and Pro Max, however, will push their camera advantages by boasting Apple’s first ever trio of 48MP lenses. I wouldn’t be surprised to see more key upgrades to the Pro line’s cameras this year to further differentiate them from the Air.
iPhone 17 Air will boast 5.5mm frame
Speaking of the iPhone 17 Air, Ming-Chi Kuo reported this week that the highly anticipated device would have its ‘thinnest part around 5.5mm.’
This is substantially thinner than the 6.25mm we had previously heard, and brings the Air into M4 iPad Pro territory. The phrasing also calls into question what ‘thinnest part’ really means.
My takeaways
Ever since Kuo’s report came to light, I’ve been thinking about the possibility of a tapered design for the iPhone 17 Air.
It would pay homage to the MacBook Air’s classic and beloved look. It would also provide Apple the opportunity to boast about the iPhone’s ultra-thin body while conveniently ignoring the fact that much of the device is a bit thicker.
A tapered design could set the iPhone 17 Air apart even more than expected, putting even more pressure on the 17 Pro to win shoppers over.
Apple’s product release plans for 2025
Over the weekend, Mark Gurman shared a rundown of Apple’s product release plans for the year ahead.
Some of the highlights include:
My takeaways
Gurman has the best Apple sources, so I don’t doubt any of what he shared here. That said, some of his reporting can intentionally be left open for interpretation.
For example, it sounds like the HomePad’s ‘delay’ will be extremely minor. He says it depends on new Siri features and app intents, which are coming in iOS 18.4 this April. But lots of second-hand reporting latched on to Gurman’s mention of iOS 19 to indicate the device had been delayed significantly.
And with Vision Pro 2, the device’s absence doesn’t sound like a certainty. Gurman’s exact words are as follows:
As of now, I don’t believe there will be a new headset from Apple shipping this year, though there theoretically could be an unveiling ahead of a release later.
If Apple ends up shipping a minor Vision Pro update with the M5 chip, as Ming-Chi Kuo previously reported, it wouldn’t necessarily require a lot of effort from the company or its designers. Thus, Apple could ship it in 2025 with minimal leak-worthy rumblings inside the company.
Reading between the lines, I think Gurman may recognize this too, so he’s less definitive on the claim that a new Vision Pro isn’t coming. But I’ll be interested to see if things change, especially if Apple has a big visionOS 3 story at WWDC.
Which Apple 2025 products are most interesting to you? Let us know in the comments.
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