The iPhone 17 could inherit the Pixel 9’s most distinctive design feature

by wadminw / Tuesday, 04 February 2025 / Published in 1

Two leakers suggest the iPhone 17 series could have a Pixel-like design with a large camera block running across the back of the phones
This lines up with an earlier leak, which stated that this new design would be limited to the Pro and Pro Max
Such a move would be a big change, and one that could leave the iPhone 17 series looking too similar to Google’s Pixel phones

Apple could be planning some huge and surprising design changes for the iPhone 17 line, with the latest leak suggesting that the camera housing could be a completely different shape to that of the iPhone 16 series, and very similar to the Pixel 9’s camera layout.

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Leaker @Jukanlosreve has shared an image of what’s supposedly the iPhone 17’s frame, citing the “Chinese supply chain” as the source, while another leaker – Digital Chat Station via NotebookCheck – has shared similar imagery, also citing the supply chain.

You can see in these images that the cameras are likely to be housed in a large horizontal strip running across the back of the phone, which is very reminiscent of the Pixel 9 series’ design.

(Image credit: @Jukanlosreve)

This would make for a massive iPhone design change, so we’d take this tip with a pinch of salt, especially this far out from the iPhone 17’s launch, but the two sources above have good track records.

Lining up with an earlier leak

This leak also largely lines up with an earlier report, which stated that the iPhone 17 Pro and iPhone 17 Pro Max would have an aluminum panel on the top half of their backs, housing a larger, rectangular camera island. That leak added that the bottom half would be glass, which is presumably what the larger cut-out in the image above is for.

So, if this earlier leak is right, it might just be the iPhone 17 Pro and iPhone 17 Pro Max that have this design. That would make sense, as it would help differentiate these devices from the iPhone 17 and the rumored iPhone 17 Air.

Those latter two phones also probably wouldn’t need such a large camera island, as they’re unlikely to have as many lenses.

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On the other hand, if the finished phone is as Pixel-like as these images suggest, Apple could be accused of copying Google, which doesn’t seem like a situation it would want to be in. So, we’ll be interested to see whether this design actually emerges when the iPhone 17 lands next year, likely in September.

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James Rogerson
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James is a freelance phones, tablets and wearables writer and sub-editor at TechRadar. He has a love for everything ‘smart’, from watches to lights, and can often be found arguing with AI assistants or drowning in the latest apps. James also contributes to 3G.co.uk, 4G.co.uk and 5G.co.uk and has written for T3, Digital Camera World, Clarity Media and others, with work on the web, in print and on TV.

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