A new leak courtesy of well-known leaker Sonny Dickson has revealed clear case designs for the upcoming iPhone 17 Pro series, and the internet can’t stop buzzing about one thing — that massive rear camera bar.
The leaked clear cases confirm what many have been speculating for months — Apple is going with a full-width camera bar on the iPhone 17 Pro and Pro Max models, much like Google’s Pixel phones.
But this isn’t just aesthetic — there might be big hardware reasons behind this shift.
According to a viral theory by tech insider @mia_kacurage, the expanded camera bar may be Apple’s way of making room for a 48MP telephoto lens with 10x optical zoom. Apple may need to rotate the lens, relocate the LiDAR sensor, and rearrange internal hardware to accommodate the expanded camera bar.
The iPhone 17 Air, rumoured to be a thinner, lighter version of the Pro series, may also adopt the same camera bar — a design unification move Apple hasn't taken before across different tiers of iPhones.
The camera bump is so large that the leaked cases leave nearly one-third of the rear exposed — causing some to joke that people may soon need to buy a case for their.
The camera bar's widening may also impact MagSafe users, as the remaining space for MagSafe magnets appears to be getting increasingly limited.
