As usual, Apple is expected to launch four new iPhone models this fall. What’s unusual is how much these models are likely to differ from one another in design terms, if the steady stream of leaks from credible sources is to be believed.
The latest of these comes from Sonny Dickson, a respected albeit inconsistent leaker in the Apple rumorsphere. Dickson posted “your first look at the iPhone 17 dummies” to his Twitter/X account Sunday, and the images corroborate the theory that Apple will unveil an unprecedented three entirely different designs across the four handsets in late 2025.
The images purportedly show metal dummies of the four iPhone 17 models coming this fall. One is larger than the rest and has three rear camera lenses, and is obviously the iPhone 17 Pro Max (or possibly the Ultra); another is smaller and also has three lenses, and is obviously the 17 Pro. Yet another unit has two lenses and looks to be roughly the same size as the 17 Pro, and we can be fairly sure that’s the standard iPhone 17.
The remaining model, third from left in most of the images, we can assume is the so-called iPhone 17 Air or Slim. It’s thinner than the rest, unsurprisingly, but also looks to be taller than the 17 and 17 Pro. (It’s expected to have a 6.6-inch screen, sitting between the 6.1 and 6.9 inches of the smaller and larger iPhones respectively.) And it has only one camera lens on the rear, much like the iPhone 16e.
Apple has never launched iPhones with one, two, and three lenses all at the same time, and this unusual variety is reflected in the devices’ chassis designs. The Pro models with their three lenses have these mounted in a large raised module that spans very nearly the full width of the phone, while the iPhone 17 has its two lenses in a slim vertical module that matches the look of the iPhone 16. Yet the 17 Air, unlike the iPhone 16e which has no camera module at all, has its single lens embedded in a long horizontal bar. It will be very obvious to the passer-by which of the new phones you’ve bought.
This is all very interesting, but it’s important to be clear that this is additional evidence backing an existing theory rather than anything groundbreaking. Last month the YouTuber and leaker Jon Prosser proposed the idea of the 17 Pro and 17 Pro Max having their cameras in an expanded module with little apparent purpose other than signaling ownership of the latest and greatest iPhones. Ten days later that appeared to be confirmed by the leak of CAD images showing the same pattern of module designs across the range that we’re looking at now.
So while not new, it’s valuable nonetheless because it helps us to home in on the truth. You will hear a great many theories across the rumor cycle of an iPhone launch, and many will prove incorrect, either because the sources were bad or because Apple changed its mind. The longer a rumor is around, and the more sources corroborate, the more we can believe it. And with six months to go until we see the iPhone 17 in the flesh, this one is starting to look like the real thing.
