From a long-overdue cooling improve to a redesigned digital camera island, rumors point out the iPhone 17 lineup will ship significant modifications. Listed below are 5 rumored iPhone 17 options which have me genuinely excited for Apple’s subsequent units.
5 rumored iPhone 17 upgrades I’m enthusiastic about
Each new iPhone comes with the standard yearly upgrades: a quicker chip, minor design tweaks and improved cameras. However with the iPhone 17 lineup, rumors point out Apple plans to amplify modifications than ordinary.
A bunch of leaks and unconfirmed reviews paint a promising image of what’s to come back when Apple unveils the iPhone 17 fashions this fall. Rumors point out we’d see a redesigned digital camera island, a vapor cooling chamber and improved video recording prowess.
After final 12 months’s underwhelming iPhone 16, the iPhone 17 improve rumors have me fairly excited.
Desk of contents: 5 rumored iPhone 17 upgrades I’m enthusiastic about
ProMotion involves non-Professional iPhones
Picture: Rajesh Pandey/Cult of Mac
Apple took its time bringing 120Hz ProMotion shows to the iPhone Professional. The primary arrived with the iPhone 13 Professional in 2021 — 4 years after the function debuted on the iPad Professional. Since then, ProMotion shows have remained unique to the iPhone Professional fashions, whilst 120Hz shows turned commonplace on $300 Android telephones.
That might change this 12 months, with rumors indicating the non-Professional iPhone 17 fashions will achieve a 120Hz ProMotion show. The upper refresh price would give system animations a smoother really feel and make contact interactions snappier and extra exact. Plus, it will increase battery life, because the telephones can scale back the refresh price to avoid wasting energy when exhibiting static content material.
There have been loads of conflicting rumors about this, although. Latest leaks counsel the base iPhone 17 will include a bigger 6.3-inch show — the identical dimension because the iPhone 16 Professional — however it gained’t be a 120Hz panel.
Apple can all the time distinguish between the non-Professional and Professional iPhones’ shows utilizing different metrics: larger HDR and peak brightness, All the time On Show help, and so forth.
If not the bottom iPhone 17 mannequin, Apple ought to a minimum of use a 120Hz show on the rumored iPhone 17 Air, for the reason that display screen tech would assist justify its supposedly larger price ticket.
Vapor cooling chamber
Though iPhones pack highly effective A-series chips, Apple has all the time skimped on cooling options for the units. The corporate’s designs depend on graphite sheets and thermal paste to dissipate warmth from the SoC. Nonetheless, this strategy reveals its limitations below sustained hundreds, as cooling efficiency drops sharply.
Flagship Android telephones with their power-hungry chips way back switched to a extra subtle cooling answer: a vapor chamber.
In one of these system, a tiny chamber holds a small quantity of liquid that evaporates when heated. This vapor helps dissipate warmth evenly throughout the chamber, providing a extra environment friendly cooling technique for high-performance chips. It additionally helps keep away from hotspots by spreading the warmth over a bigger space. The vapor ultimately cools down once more to liquid kind and returns to the chamber.
Rumors point out Apple may equip the iPhone 17 Professional household with a vapor chamber cooling system. This may enhance the thermal effectivity of the rumored A19 Professional SoC within the upcoming units, boosting efficiency below sustained hundreds.
Improved video recording functionality
iPhones may not include the very best digital camera methods. But, they seize movies with superb high quality, beating even flagship Android telephones with bigger digital camera sensors. No marvel filmmakers and advertisers regularly use iPhones for taking pictures big-budget motion pictures and advertisements.
With the iPhone 16 Professional, Apple launched help for recording 4K Dolby Imaginative and prescient movies at 120 frames per second. As if that’s not spectacular sufficient, the corporate reportedly plans to introduce even greater upgrades this 12 months.
Bloomberg‘s Mark Gurman reported that the iPhone 17 Professional’s video recording functionality “will [get] a major improve.” Apple apparently desires to make the iPhone the go-to digital camera for video creators and vloggers, enabling them to ditch their present devoted digital camera setups.
Provided that the iPhone 17 Professional may ship with triple 48MP rear cameras, Apple might add help for 5K and even higher-resolution video recording.
Rumors als0 point out Apple will enhance the iPhone 17 Professional’s audio recording high quality, making higher use of the system’s onboard microphones. Plus, with iOS 26, Apple will allow you to use your AirPods as a microphone when taking pictures movies on iPhone. This could offer you cleaner, extra centered audio — particularly when filming at a distance or in noisy environments.
All in all, the iPhone 17 Professional ought to include significantly improved audiovisual recording capabilities.
Huge decision bump for telephoto and entrance cameras
Picture: D. Griffin Jones/Cult of Mac
Among the many iPhone 16 Professional’s three rear cameras, solely the 5x telephoto nonetheless contains a decrease 12MP decision. (Apple upgraded the first and Extremely Vast lenses to 48MP in recent times.) Rumors counsel that may change with the iPhone 17, with Apple giving the zoom digital camera a decision bump to 48MP this 12 months.
The upper decision ought to permit for pixel binning. Theoretically, this may allow the 5x tetaprism digital camera to seize photos with extra element, particularly in low mild. Extra importantly, Apple might use the upper decision to seize 24MP photos by default from the telephoto digital camera. (Proper now, it’s the solely outlier: Each the first and Extremely Vast cameras shoot at 24MP by default.)
Leaks point out even the entrance FaceTime digital camera will get a decision bump, going from 12MP to 24MP on the iPhone 17 Professional fashions. This could sharpen your selfies (a minimum of those taken in daylight).
In each instances, although, you shouldn’t count on a major bounce in picture high quality until Apple places a bigger sensor within the iPhone 17 fashions.
Redesigned digital camera island
Picture: Rajesh Pandey/Cult of Mac
A number of leaks level to Apple redesigning the digital camera island on the iPhone 17 Professional. Dummy items counsel a wider digital camera island that stretches horizontally throughout the highest half of the system, with the flash and LiDAR sensor positioned on the acute proper.
Whereas it may not appear to be a serious shift, this may mark the primary important design change Apple has made to its Professional iPhones in recent times. It might make the iPhone 17 Professional lineup stand out from earlier fashions.
Some rumors say the iPhone 17 Professional may include a two-tone colour scheme, serving to the revamped digital camera island pop much more. Nonetheless, some reviews contradict this.
Regardless of the case, the iPhone 17 Professional ought to function the largest rear design overhaul for the reason that iPhone 12 in 2020. And that in itself is an effective sufficient purpose to get enthusiastic about this 12 months’s mannequin.
Rumors point out iPhone 17 will probably be an even bigger replace than iPhone 16
If the leaks and rumors pan out, iPhone 17 will pack considerably extra modifications than iPhone 16 did. Nearly all of those modifications will deal with longstanding issues, with the revamped digital camera island giving it a brand new look as nicely.
For those who skipped the iPhone 16 final 12 months, Apple may offer you sufficient causes to improve this 12 months.
