iPhone 17 Slim rumored to be the successor to the iPhone 16 Plus
While Apple's iPhone 16 family is still many months away from launch at this time, we're already getting another rumor about the iPhone 17 series, due to arrive in the fall of next year.
According to an investor note by Haitong International Securities analyst Jeff Pu, the iPhone 17 line will come with a refreshed design, as well as a smaller Dynamic Island.
The iPhone 17 will allegedly have a 6.1-inch screen, the iPhone 17 Pro will go with a 6.3" panel, and the Pro Max will be 6.9". Interestingly, the iPhone 17 Plus won't be called that - according to Pu, it will go by the name iPhone 17 Slim and will have a 6.6" screen.
That obviously implies it could be the thinnest of the four, which would be an interesting unique selling point for this model. Pu says the iPhone 17, 17 Slim, and 17 Pro will have aluminum frames, while only the Pro Max will go with titanium. The design of all four will apparently be "more complex" somehow.
The same source claims the iPhone 17 and iPhone 17 Slim will come with the A18 or A19 chip and 8GB of RAM, while the Pro and Pro Max will employ the A19 Pro and 12GB of RAM. For comparison's sake, note that the iPhone 15 and 15 Plus have 6GB of RAM, while the iPhone 15 Pro and Pro Max have 8GB. The iPhone 16 family is expected to standardize 8GB across the range, before the iPhone 17 Pros will make the jump to 12GB.
All four iPhone 17 models are said to sport 24 MP front-facing cameras, compared to 12 MP used currently.
The iPhone 17 Pro Max is also rumored to get a narrowed Dynamic Island, while the other three will have to make do with the current design of that feature. So it looks like the Pro Max will be positioned as Apple's hyper-premium offering next year.
The smaller Dynamic Island will be made possible by a new "metalens" technology which will help Apple dramatically reduce the size of the Face ID sensor.