Here are some of my thoughts on the alleged iPhone 17 Air leak that shows the back of the upcoming super-thin phone from Apple.
Apple is Ready to Move Forward in Design and Leave a Lot of Things Behind with the iPhone 17
Yesterday, an alleged photo of the iPhone 17 Air’s back shell surfaced online. It was leaked by Majin Bu, who has a solid track record when it comes to such things.
The moment I saw the photo, I had mixed feelings. I picked up my MacBook Air to write about it, then I decided not to do anything at all.
First impressions are always going to be all over the place. I didn’t want that to happen this time.
Now that a full day has passed, I can confidently speak about the leak.
Apple has always been a company that embraces design in bold ways. Instead of hiding the triple-camera system behind some visor or a camera bump that’s black in color, the company put all of the lenses out there for everyone to see.
The moment you see those three lenses from afar, you know it’s an iPhone. You may not know which one, but it is an iPhone.
With iPhone 17 Air, if and only if the leak is legitimate, and I hope it is, Apple is taking a different approach.
This time, there’s a ‘visor’ like bar at the top, and the camera lives on one side of it. But the bump extends from one corner to the other.
I can only assume the cutout on the right is for the flash, if anything else.
It almost feels like Apple is ready to hide the camera lens behind that bar, but instead of doing that, it is doing away with the minimalist approach. It wants people to know the bar is there.
The moment you look at it, it instantly screams ‘iPhone 17.’ Apple wants this phone to be noticed in public.
My point is, Apple wants to make a mark with this new iPhone and pitch it as a transition point into the future.
It is easy to put a single lens at the back and call it a day, and it may just end up looking like an iPhone XR or iPhone SE 4 too, but Apple clearly does not want to take that road again.
I’m suddenly excited for things to come for the iPhone. But the question is: is everyone else going to be with this huge change?
