• The iPhone 17 Pro and Pro Max could use a new type of screen technology
• This will supposedly improve display performance, durability, and power efficiency
• The iPhone 17 Pro series might also stick with titanium

The latest iPhone 17 Pro and iPhone 17 Pro Max leaks include two pieces of good news, one relating to the screen and the other to the frame.

First, leaker @Jukanlosreve claims that the iPhone 17 Pro and Pro Max will both use “a new technology called Low-Dielectric TEE”.

According to @Jukanlosreve, this new technology “improves battery efficiency, maximizes display durability, and enhances overall performance compared to existing display technologies.” So it sounds like an all-round upgrade for the screen.

We’d still advise taking this leak with a pinch of salt, mind, especially as this is very early for iPhone 17 series leaks, but the source has a decent track record.

Titanium, not aluminum

In other iPhone 17 Pro and Pro Max news, leaker Brake Number (via GSMArena) claims that Apple will equip these phones with a titanium frame. That might not sound surprising; after all, the iPhone 16 Pro and Pro Max use titanium. But a recent leak suggested Apple would switch to aluminum for the iPhone 17 Pro series. So, this latest leak is basically just refuting that claim.

The idea that the iPhone 17 Pro and iPhone 17 Pro Max would use aluminum always seemed odd, since that’s a less premium material, so could make the phones seem like a downgrade. With that in mind, we’re inclined to believe this latest design-related leak.

That said, there are reasons why Apple might make the switch back to aluminum. For example, @Jukanlosreve recently speculated that President-elect Trump’s potential tariffs and titanium’s high cost could both be reasons for Apple not to use the premium material on the iPhone 17 Pro series.

So, right now, we can’t really be sure whether the iPhone 17 Pro and iPhone 17 Pro Max will use titanium, aluminum, or something else altogether. We probably won’t be sure for quite a while, either, as these phones aren't likely to land until September. We expect to hear plenty more leaks in the meantime, though.

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• The foldable iPhone is rumored to be another step closer to launching
• Leaks around the device have been circulating for years
• The move may mean Samsung accelerates its own foldable plans

Given where we're at with the smartphone market now, it seems inevitable that Apple will eventually launch a foldable iPhone – if only to stop Samsung's jibes – and it appears that the device is now another step closer to launching.

According to well-known tipster Yeux1122 (via @Jukanlosreve), the folding iphone has now entered the "formal development process" with display manufacturers. That's according to a "supply chain source" (and Google Translate).

What does "formal development process" mean? Well, it's not exactly clear, but it sounds as though some kind of commitment has been made to actually get this device designed and manufactured, and put the necessary components on the production line.

In other words: Apple officially wants to make a foldable iPhone, if this leak is to be believed. According to the tipster (and Google Translate, again), Apple had previously been "responding piecemeal to technology and key requirements".

Apple vs Samsung again

There's another interesting tidbit in this leak, which is that Samsung is expected to bring forward the development of its own foldables – including next year's Galaxy Z Fold 7 and Galaxy Z Flip 7 – to counter the threat of a folding iPhone.

We've previously heard Samsung is working on new form factors and different price points to expand its line-up of foldable phones, and it would appear that this expansion may now happen earlier because of Apple's decision to formalize its plans.

As for what we can expect from an iPhone Fold, take your pick from dozens of leaks and rumors down the years. Besides a multitude of launch date predictions, we've also heard the foldable could come with a self-healing screen and a wrap-around design.

If the formal process of making a folding iPhone has only just started, we're unlikely to see it next year. September 2026 is probably a safer bet for a launch window, which would mean the device making its debut alongside the iPhone 18. Although we've also heard rumors that it may not land until 2027.

Either way, it seems that a foldable iPhone – which feels like an obvious win for Apple, if not iPad sales – is taking its first tentative steps towards reality.

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• The iPhone 17 Pro and Pro Max could switch from titanium to aluminum
• The upcoming Pro models might also have a larger camera bump than current models
• The iPhone 17 Air could be too thin for a SIM card slot

Apple might be taking a backwards step when it comes to the design of the iPhone 17 series, as a new report suggests the company will equip all four phones with an aluminum frame.

This report is a subscriber-only article at The Information, but it's been summarized by 9to5Mac, and this is one of many design changes detailed in it.

Apple already uses aluminum for the iPhone 16 and iPhone 16 Plus, but the iPhone 16 Pro and iPhone 16 Pro Max instead have a titanium frame, which is generally considered to be a more premium material, so it seems odd that the company would switch them to aluminum.

According to this report though it’s not just the frames that will be aluminum – in the case of the iPhone 17 Pro and iPhone 17 Pro Max, the top half of the back will also be aluminum, with the bottom half being glass, as wireless charging doesn’t work through a metal back.

That sounds like a huge change from the all-glass rears of the current models, and the report adds that the Pro and Pro Max models will also have a larger rectangular camera bump, and that this too will be aluminum rather than the '3D glass' of current models.

A larger camera bump also doesn’t sound appealing, but it could be a sign that improved cameras are planned for the iPhone 17 Pro and Pro Max. Current leaks suggest a new 48MP telephoto camera could be included, so perhaps that’s the reason.

The rumored move to aluminum is more baffling, especially since this would give the Pro models one less differentiator from the standard ones. But perhaps it’s for cost or environmental reasons.

The iPhone 17 Air could also sport a questionable design

The report also details the rumored iPhone 17 Air, and those details have been summarized by 9to5Mac in a separate article. In any case, the report says that Apple is aiming for this to be between 5mm and 6mm thick, which would make it a lot slimmer than the 7.8mm iPhone 16.

However, Apple is apparently “finding it hard to fit the battery and thermal materials into the device.” That chimes with an earlier leak, though that report stated that as a result, the iPhone 17 Air would be thicker than 6mm. So we’re not sure which leak is right, or if either of them is.

This new report adds that current prototypes have just one earpiece speaker, while other iPhones have two, and that – as other leaks have suggested – the iPhone 17 Air will have just one rear camera. This will apparently be housed in a “large, centered camera bump.”

Interestingly, the report also says that Apple hasn’t found a way to fit a physical SIM card slot into the iPhone 17 Air, so if it is this slim at launch then it might be eSIM-only. Apple has already made that move with other iPhones in the US, but units in some countries such as the UK include both an eSIM and a SIM card slot. The bigger issue would be China, where eSIMs aren’t supported.

Finally, current prototype units of the iPhone 17 Air apparently use Apple’s in-house 5G modem, and this is said to be slower and less reliable than the Qualcomm modems that current iPhones use. It also apparently doesn’t support faster mmWave 5G, though it’s possible that by the time the iPhone 17 Air launches, Apple will have improved its modem.

Still, for now this sounds like it could be an enormously compromised device if this report is accurate. We should find out how accurate it is in September, as that’s when the iPhone 17 series – including the iPhone 17 Air – is likely to launch.

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• Samsung's new ad slams Apple for not innovating with the iPhone
• Both of Samsung's flagship foldables are showcased
• New rumors suggest a foldable iPhone may be arriving in 2027

Samsung has taken aim at Apple in its latest ad, pointing out the lack of any foldable iPhone to complete with the Galaxy Z Fold 6 and Galaxy Z Flip 6, and suggesting the iPhone doesn't offer much in the way of upgrades year-on-year. Meanwhile, separate rumors have given us our first glimpse of when an iPhone foldable could finally land.

"Think different... but not too different," the advert voiceover (below) says, mocking Apple's old marketing motto. Later in the clip the owner of a new iPhone asks "what's new?" – to which a fellow shopper says "who cares?"

The ad shows the Galaxy Z Fold 6 being used to run apps side by side, and the Galaxy Z Flip 6 being used for live translation – the implication being that Samsung phones are much more fresh and innovative than anything coming out of Apple right now. There's also a plug for some of the AI-powered image enhancing tools available on Samsung phones.

Near the end, the tagline "Nobody should wait for innovation" appears on screen. That's perhaps a dig at the staggered rollout of Apple Intelligence on iOS, but you can make your own mind up about where there's most innovation in our lists of the best iPhones and best Samsung phones.

Three years to wait

Whatever you may think about iPhone innovation compared with Samsung's phones, Samsung is clearly ahead when it comes to foldables. We're still waiting for Apple to launch a foldable iPhone (or foldable iPad), although rumors about such a device have been swirling for years.

A new post from well-known tipster @Jukanlosreve shows predictions from the analysts Omdia about when Apple will get into the foldable game. Apparently there's a foldable iPhone on the way in 2027, and a foldable iPad Pro in 2029, and it seems both these devices are going to make use of OLED displays.

We've got screen sizes too: 7.9-8.2 inches for the iPhone, and then 13 inches and 18.8 inches for the iPad Pro. If that last measurement is accurate, it means we'll have an iPad Pro with a screen bigger than any MacBook by the end of the decade.

While previous rumors around a foldable iPhone had suggested it might show up next year, this latest leak suggests we'll be waiting for a while yet – so Samsung can continue to poke fun at its rival for having no foldables for years to come.

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• Reputable analyst Mark Gurman predicts the iPhone 17 Air won't be a big hit
• Leaks support this theory, with major spec compromises and a not especially thin design being tipped
• Gurman suggests a foldable iPhone could prove much more popular

In recent years Apple has tried to expand its iPhone line with new models like the mini and Plus, and so far these models haven’t been especially successful, at least by iPhone standards. Apple’s next attempt at an alternative iPhone could be the rumored iPhone 17 Air, but a reputable analyst predicts this won’t fare any better.

In his latest subscriber-only newsletter for Bloomberg (via Phone Arena) Mark Gurman has predicted that “the 'iPhone Air' will suffer the same fate as the mini and Plus lines.”

Gurman argues that with this rumored slimmed-down phone, Apple is attempting to replicate the success it found with the MacBook Air, with the iPhone Air positioned as “a mid-tier offering at a great price, for people who don’t need the most impressive specifications.”

However, Gurman doesn’t think this strategy will work as well with phones as with laptops, and while he doesn’t say why, there are some obvious potential issues.

Too many compromises for too little gain

For one thing, the iPhone 17 Air's key selling point is expected to be a slimmer and probably also lighter build than current iPhones, but phones – even large ones like the iPhone 16 Pro Max – aren’t massive, heavy things in the first place, so slimming them down will have less impact than it does with a laptop.

And going by leaks, the iPhone 17 Air might not actually be as slim as Apple hoped anyway, while the spec compromises – including rumors of just one camera on the back of the iPhone 17 Air – could be big enough to put people off.

So what can Apple do? Well, in Gurman’s view “the only alternative iPhone that will sell well is a foldable model.” That would make sense – a foldable iPhone is a radically different proposition to any current models, and would probably slot in above even the Pro Max phones, which currently tend to be the most popular.

We might not be waiting too much longer for a foldable iPhone either, as while leakers disagree about if or when such a device will launch, the most recent claim we’ve heard is that the foldable iPhone could land in 2025. In which case, we could soon see whether that or the iPhone 17 Air proves the more popular new kind of iPhone.

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• It seems there'll be no 5x zoom upgrade for the iPhone 17
• The iPhone 18 is tipped to get a LTPO+ display upgrade
• A major chip improvement could land with the iPhone 18 too

We've just seen a flurry of leaks around the iPhone 17 (due September 2025) and the iPhone 18 (due September 2026) – and if the information in them is accurate, you might want to wait until the latter handset is out for your next iPhone upgrade.

First up, a report in respected South Korea outlet The Elec (via 9to5Mac) says that Apple's camera module suppliers are upgrading their production facilities ready to start pushing out cameras ready for the iPhone 17 Pro.

However, there won't be any periscope lenses for the standard iPhone 17 and the iPhone 17 Air (or iPhone 17 Slim), according to the report. That apparently means no 5x optical zoom upgrade to match the Pro and Pro Max next year.

Have a read of our iPhone 16 review and you'll see it comes with a dual-lens 48MP main + 12MP ultrawide camera on the back, like the iPhone 16 Plus, with no optical zoom capabilities. There might be camera upgrades next year, but it doesn't seem as though a 5x optical zoom will be among them.

Displays and chips

Our second little tidbit of information comes from established tipster @Jukanlosreve, who says that an LTPO+ display tech upgrade is in the offing for the iPhone 18 series. LTPO (low-temperature polycrystalline oxide) is the tech that enables dynamic refresh rates and always-on displays that don't destroy battery life.

Although we don't get any information about what the 'plus' variant of LTPO involves, we're assuming it means further performance increases and power efficiency improvements, in order to reduce the demands on the battery even further.

Last but not least, Chinese leaker Fixed Focus Digital (via @Jukanlosreve) says that there won't be major improvements in the A19 chips manufactured for the iPhone 17, but there will be in the A20 chips for the iPhone 18 – which may be made with the help of Intel.

Apple currently partners with TSMC (the Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Company) for its iPhone processors, so a switch to Intel would be significant – and might make the iPhone 18 a more appealing upgrade than next year's iPhone 17.

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• Another leak hints at the iPhone SE 4 launch date
• It could show up in March, three years after its predecessor
• Internal upgrades could include a 5G Apple modem

All the signs are pointing towards a March 2025 arrival for the iPhone SE 4, the latest in Apple's more affordable line of handsets – and another well-respected analyst has weighed in to back up previous predictions about the phone's launch date.

As per MacRumors, Barclays analyst Tom O'Malley and his colleagues have been speaking to supply chain sources in Asia. In the resulting report, it was "confirmed" that the iPhone SE 4 would be making an appearance near the end of the first quarter of 2025.

Add in previous rumors and the launch date of the iPhone SE 3 – which was revealed to the world in March 2022 – and it looks increasingly likely that we can put a big circle around March 2025 on our calendars.

It probably won't be the only product we see then either: the 11th-gen iPad and 7th-gen iPad Air are also rumored to be showing up around the same time. They'll all come rocking Apple Intelligence features too, of course.

Spec rumors

The analyst report had more to say about the iPhone SE 4 too, mentioning that it'll be the first iPhone with an Apple-designed 5G modem (which will presumably speed up data transfer rates a little). Again, that's something we've heard before.

Based on leaks up to this point, the iPhone SE 4 is going to be quite the upgrade – as you would expect after a three-year gap. It's apparently going to be the first iPhone SE to ditch the Touch ID home button and go with the more modern Face ID design.

In fact, it's reportedly going to borrow several components from the iPhone 14. At the same time, the rumors are that the CPU and RAM will match the iPhone 16 – which would be necessary for Apple Intelligence support.

This might all add up to a small price hike as well, but we'll have to wait and see. When it launched in 2022, you could pick up the iPhone SE 3 for $429 / £419 / AU$719, which was slightly more expensive than the iPhone SE that came before it.

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• More Apple iPhones have been labeled as vintage
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• The iPhone XS Max and iPhone 6s Plus are now 'vintage'
• Apple also labels the Apple Watch 2 as obsolete
• These statuses affect whether or not you can get repairs

Apple has just done some reorganizing of its vintage and obsolete products list, and the iPhone XS Max (launched in 2018) and iPhone 6s Plus (launched in 2015) are now both officially labeled as 'vintage' gadgets.

The changes were spotted by MacRumors, and are a normal part of the lifecycle of an Apple product. A device becomes vintage when more than five years have passed since it was last sold as new by Apple.

Before that five years passes, you can always get repairs and replacement parts from Apple and authorized repair stores. Once a product is vintage though, you may or may not be able to get repairs or parts – it depends on stock levels and what the issue is.

Exact timings on vintage status can vary, and it's worth noting that the iPhone 6s Plus with 32GB of storage is already categorized as obsolete (the next stage past vintage). Once Apple updates its lists though, it's official as far as product status goes.

Not just vintage – obsolete

Another update to Apple's list is that the aluminum and stainless steel Apple Watch 2 models are now obsolete. A gadget becomes obsolete when it's been more than seven years since it was last sold as new by Apple.

Past that point, you can't get repairs from Apple or its authorized partners, and new parts can't be ordered. The only exception to the rule is some MacBooks, which are eligible for battery replacements for up to 10 years in certain cases.

You can certainly try and get an obsolete product repaired, but you'll have to go somewhere other than Apple – and once you hit the seven-year mark, it's probably worth thinking about investing in an upgrade anyway.

For now, the Apple Watch 2 with the ceramic casing clings on to its vintage status, so it's not yet obsolete – but if you're still wearing the smartwatch, which launched in 2016, you'd be best getting any necessary repairs sorted sooner rather than later.

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• Satellite features were originally only free for two years
• Another 12 free months were added last November
• Questions remain about long-term access to these features

We've just hit the two-year anniversary of the debut of Emergency SOS via Satellite on the iPhone 14 – and although Apple originally said the service would only be free for two years, it remains free to access, with a year's extension added last November.

The milestone was noted by MacRumors and others, and it's worth highlighting because it raises the question of what Apple plans to do with this in the long term. The official support page for the feature still states that "Emergency SOS via Satellite is free for two years after the activation of an iPhone 14 or later".

Although Apple has apparently always planned to get users to cover the cost of satellite connectivity, the problem with starting to charge money to access it is that it can quite literally save someone's life – so it's not quite the same as forgetting to renew your Netflix or Spotify subscription.

With the Google Pixel 9 series now offering a similar feature and Samsung expected to follow suit next year, it's something all the major phone makers are having to weigh up. Either they absorb the cost themselves, or charge users money for it.

Extra features

The satellite connectivity launched alongside the iPhone 14 in 2022 have been expanded upon since then. The feature has rolled out in more countries, and now includes the option to get roadside assistance via satellite (in addition to contacting the emergency services).

With the introduction of iOS 18, Apple added the ability to message anyone you like via a satellite connection, if you don't have a cell or Wi-Fi signal. Again, the feature was advertised for being free for two years, though Apple has never given any indication of the pricing structure that might eventually be introduced.

It's possible that some of those extra features, such as roadside assistance and satellite messaging, will eventually need a subscription – while the emergency SOS capabilities, which might just save your life one day, remain free. For now though, Apple hasn't gone on the record about what might happen.

In November 2025, the free period for both iPhone 14 and iPhone 15 owners will be coming to an end, so we'll see what happens then – and whether or not satellite options get bundled together with an Apple One subscription.

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