First hands-on images emerge of the iPhone 17 Pro

We're fast approaching the likely September launch window for the iPhone 17 series, and now a leak on Chinese social media site Weibo claims to have the first hands-on photos of the upcoming iPhone 17 Pro. The design of the camera island is consistent with previous rumors, showing the camera island elongated to cover the whole width of the phone.

This marks the first substantial change to the camera island's shape since the triple camera array within a square island debuted with the iPhone 11 Pro and Pro Max. However, it's not obviously clear whether there's any practical reason for enlarging the camera island in this way, since there are still only three camera lenses, all of which appear to be in the same physical position as they've been for several years. Only the LiDAR scanner and flash have been moved to the opposite side of the camera island, though we can't see why.

As for the specification of the iPhone 17's cameras: it's claimed that the iPhone 17 will get a 48MP primary (wide-angle) camera, while the Pro Max could have wide, ultrawide and telephoto modules all with a 48MP resolution. Speculation also hints at possible 8K video recording capability for the Pro Max, which would be an iPhone first. There have also been reports that Apple may move to a 24MP selfie camera, which would be a significant upgrade from the iPhone 16's 12MP front-facing module.

We also now have new information suggesting the possible colors for the new iPhone 17 range. A Tweet from Sonny Dickson on Twitter/X shows the camera rings that will supposedly surround each lens on the new iPhones, and crucially, these small inserts look to be color-coded to the rest of the phone. This therefore implies that the iPhone 17 series would be available in the following color options:

iPhone 17:

Black, gray, silver, light blue, light green, light purple

iPhone 17 Air:

Black, silver, blue gray, light gold

iPhone 17 Pro / Pro Max:

Black, gray, silver, dark blue, orange

If an orange finish for the iPhone 17 Pro / Pro Max does turn out to be real, this would be a welcome return to a really vibrant iPhone color since Apple discontinued its Product (RED) color option, last available for the iPhone 14 and 14 Plus.