The iPhone 16e has been released. So the rumour mill has turned its attention to the iPhone 17, which is expected to be announced during September 2025. While it’s still early days, here’s a round up of what people think we can expect.
Updated on 17 March 2025
Range change
For the last few years, Apple has released four new iPhones; two Pro models and two non-Pro models. This year will still see four new iPhones but there will be some further differentiation. There will be a base-level iPhone 17, the ultra-thin iPhone 17 Air and two iPhone 17 Pro options, one with a smaller display and one with a larger display.
There are also rumours that an iPhone 17 Ultra could either replace the larger iPhone 17 Pro or appear as an all-new iPhone. Details are still sketchy and different supply chain pundits aren’t agreeing on the details.
This is similar to Apple’s approach with the iPad with an entry level, the iPad Air in the middle and the iPad Pro for power users (or those who don’t care too much about the cost).
Bye-bye USB-C for the iPhone 17 Air
In order to make the iPhone 17 as thin as possible, Apple will be ditching wired charging completely, making the iPhone 17 Air Apple’s first 100% cable free device.
The heat is on
As system chips become more powerful they also become hotter. A Korean blog (translated to English vi Google Translate) suggests vapor chamber cooling will potentially come to the iPhone 17 as a way of better dissipating heat.
There’s a good explainer on vapor chamber cooling at How To Geek but it’s basically like a more efficient radiator that uses liquid stored in a vacuum sealed unit and relies on convection to move warm water which evaporates to a surface where it can be condensed and reused.
New Wi-Fi chip
Analyst ming-Chi Kuo says the next iPhone will come with an all-new Apple-designed Wi-Fi chip that replaces the chips Apple sources from Broadcomm. This has the potential to boost battery life and reduce costs for Apple as it faces an increasingly volatile manufacturing environment.
No C1 for the full iPhone 17 range
Kuo also adds that only the rumoured iPhone 17 Air will come with Apple’s C1 modems with the rest of the range retaining chips sourced from Qualcomm.
Processor, memory and storage improvements
With the new iPhone SE 4 expected to run the same processor, or a very similar processor, as the iPhone 16, we can expect Apple to give the next iPhone an upgrade if only to differentiator it from the entry-level iPhone.
RAM was boosted to 8GB last year to support Apple Intelligence so we can expect that to either hold steady or, perhaps get a further boost to 12GB or 16GB.
Storage will likely stay at the same range of storage options between 128GB upon to 1TB. Possibly, the 128GB option will disappear but only if Apple can do that without increasing prices drastically.
Charging boost
MacRumors reports that a supply chain analyst has found evidence that the next iPhone will support faster charging over wired connections. While MagSafe can charge at 25W and current wired connections support 30W, it’s rumoured that we’ll get 35W over USB-C assuming you have a charger that can deliver those extra watts.
With the iPhone 16e skimping on MagSafe and only having Qi2 support, which is less efficient and slower that MagSafe, it will be interesting to see if then iPhone 17 Air misses out on MagSafe. That would suggest the agents used in MagSafe may have an effect on the C1 chip.
Something in the air
An ultra-thin version of the iPhone dubbed the iPhone Air is anticipated. This is an interesting rumour as, if 9to5Mac is right, it will only have a single camera.
Camera changes
Every iPhone generation comes with an improvement to the camera tech and the iPhone 17 won’t be an exception.
The iPhone 17 Air will come with a single camera, as per the iPhone 16e. The entry level iPhone 17 will have two cameras with the two iPhone 17 Pro options will each have three camera lenses on the back.
The square camera array we’ve seen for the last few years may be replaced with a rectangular bar across the back of the iPhone. That makes sense, if only so the new model looks different to the previous model to encourage people who care about having the latest phone to be able to show off that they have a new iPhone.
Apple pundit Mark Gurman says [paywalled] this year’s iPhone will shift the focus to video quality rather than solely putting the spotlight on photography.
In past years, Apple has focused more heavily on the camera’s photo-taking abilities. This year it will stress improvements to video recording. One of the goals for 2025’s iPhone line is to get the vlogging community and other video creators to move away from standalone cameras and use the iPhone for even more of their work
Material changes
Last year’s iPhone was all about titanium. It was on billboards, the Apple website and boasted about during the product announcement. While it sounds impressive, titanium is expensive.
MacRumors suggests that Apple will go back to aluminium for most of the new iPhones with the possible exception of the rumoured iPhone Air.
As you’d expect, given we’re about six months away from an actual announcement, there’s plenty of time for Apple to tinker with things and throw the supply chain analysts who track the materials and components Apple uses off on tangents.
What’s certain is that Apple will release a new range of iPhones. WWDC, when Apple announces what we can expect from the next version of iOS, will tell us more as the software code alludes to hardware versions and software features that indicate new of canned hardware.
Anthony is the founder of Australian Apple News. He is a long-time Apple user and former editor of Australian Macworld. He has contributed to many technology magazines and newspapers as well as appearing regularly on radio and occasionally on TV.