By Andrew Georgy
FULL DISCLOSURE: These are all predictions/rumors that Apple has not confirmed.
Thin. An additional camera. Did I mention thin? Apple’s new rumoured iPhone 17 is supposed to focus on major renovations and designs, yet how will the phone most likely look? Will the major changes be applied to all the phones? How about the prices for the new lineup?
First of all, let’s pan our attention to probably the most important criterion: the price. With tariffs heavily changing the landscape for tech costs, the iPhone 17 is expected to go up in price by $100, with the suspected “Air” models also anticipated to differ from anywhere between $100-$300 from the base models.
Such steep price hikes should mean massive changes, right? Wrong. Again, Apple sees that if it “ain’t wrong, don’t fix it”, so minimal upgrades will almost certainly be featured yet again on most models. Even the screen design, predicted to be the most substantial change, will feature a Samsung M14 OLED panel for only higher-end models, meaning you’ll have to pay up if you want to see the 120 Hz refresh rate and a 30% brighter screen.
The display will also use LPTO technology rather than the BOE used on the previous iPhones because the supplier had multiple screen failures with lag and Always-On display.
Another “major” improvement should be coming to the selfie camera, with a 24 megapixel (MP) camera expected to be added. It marks the most significant front camera change since 2019, when Apple introduced the first 12 MP lens to its lineup. The new change will see sharper selfies and should retain more quality, even if you need to crop the photo.
Another highly debated suggested increase in storage and RAM may be necessary for Apple to add because of the multitude of AI features expected, along with a minor boost for RAM in all base models. In total, the base models should have 256 GB of storage and 8 GB of RAM, double the previous generations.
If you like your action button to mute your phone or open flashlight, you might be out of luck with this generation because it’s expected to be combined with the volume buttons to decrease the ever-increasing number of buttons on the iPhone.
It’s rumored that there will be a new key that can be slid up or down to adjust volume, but clicking on it will activate the action you assign it, which may be easier for some users but cause problems if the sensor is too sensitive.
So, will it be worth it to buy the new generation with all the rumored upgrades and hinted removals? Well, only time will tell in September when the iPhone is predicted to be released.
