As Apple prepares to launch its iPhone 16 and iPhone 16 Pro in September, new reports around its plans for iPhone 17 again seem to indicate a seismic shift in the iPhone lineup.
Apple has offered four iPhone models in two sizes since the introduction of the iPhone 14 in 2022, an iPhone, iPhone “Plus”, a Pro, and a Pro Max. Starting next year, however, multiple new reports indicate that Apple will ditch the “Plus” variant from its iPhone lineup in favor of an all-new slim model.
That phone will have a new screen size not seen before in an iPhone, but there are some other changes rumored for the device, not all of which make sense.
iPhone 17 slim?
Top analyst and insider Ming-Chi Kuo, who has a staunch track record of predicting Apple’s future product plans, says the company is planning to ditch the “redundant” Plus model and instead roll with three mainstream flagship picks, the iPhone 17 and two Pro models.
“The new ultra-slim model is not positioned to replace the Plus. Instead, Apple is exploring new design trends beyond the existing iPhone lineup,” he wrote on Medium this week. Kuo says the new model “will emphasize innovative form factor design rather than competing on hardware specifications.”
Specifically, he notes the new model will have a 6.6-inch display and a screen resolution of 2,740 x 1,260, making it larger than the current 6.1-inch iPhone and ever-so-slightly smaller than the Plus and Pro Max offerings.
It will also reportedly feature an A19 chip, with an A19 Pro reserved for its best iPhone, the iPhone 17 Pro models, and feature a Dynamic Island “similar to current models.”
To save weight, Apple is allegedly going to adopt a titanium-aluminum alloy, a halfway house between the all-aluminum and all-titanium offerings Apple currently sells. As already reported this week, the iPhone 17 slim will also reportedly be one of two 2025 iPhones that adopt Apple’s own in-house 5G chip at the expense of Qualcomm. The strangest rumor about this iPhone, however, is the report that Apple will adopt a single rear wide camera, rather than the dual or triple lens configurations we’ve grown accustomed to.
The shift, still more than a year away, would mark the most seismic shift in the iPhone lineup since the advent of the “mini” iPhone in 2020. Kuo notes that like the mini, the Plus of recent years has failed to make an impression in the market and accounts for less than 10% of new iPhone shipments. As such, he believes the other three models “already adequately cover the high-end market segments, making the Plus model redundant.”
With OLED likely on the cards as a display, it’s possible Apple could leverage the new technology from the M4 iPad Pro to make the display a lot thinner. Apple unveiled its new best iPad in May, touting it as the thinnest product the company has ever created.
