Apple's iPhone 17 is expected to debut next week: Rumors, prices, new features and everything else you need to know

It's true: In just five days, we'll finally get to see the all-new iPhone 17 lineup during Apple's 2025 "Awe dropping" iPhone event. The hardware announcement will take place on Tuesday, September 9 at 1PM ET. The newest phones will come equipped with the latest iOS 26 features preinstalled, along with any new features Apple reveals that day. But until the iPhone event actually happens, we can only speculate what the new devices will look like. As with most unreleased iPhones, rumors and leaks have trickled in about the hardware side ahead of the official introduction. Here's what we're expecting and what we can reasonably assume we'll get from Apple next week.

What are the latest iPhone 17 rumors?

With just days left until the iPhone event, rumors are still coming in about the newest lineup. Here are the latest predictions from market research firm TrendForce, reported by MacRumors.

Since the expected iPhone 17 Air will be so thin, it's expected to have a silicon anode battery for "higher energy density" compared to the graphite batteries found in other iPhone models. The new smartphone also won't have a SIM card slot, the report says, and will instead use eSIM technology (which brings it in line with current iPhone models in many regions).

As for the 17 Pro models, the report says the cameras will deliver better camera resolution through "optimized software algorithms." That could possibly boost zoom levels beyond the present iPhone Pro's 5x optical limit.

The rumors haven't been confirmed by Apple and we won't know what the actual iPhone 17 models will look like until the iPhone event next month. 

How much will the iPhone 17 cost?

Apple's announced plan to expand US-based manufacturing partners seems to give it at least some shielding from the steepest Trump administration tariffs that have already triggered price increases on everything from PlayStations to Switch consoles to high-end cameras to Sonos speakers. But given that President Trump's trade policies can change from week to week, and Apple's continuing reliance on Asia-based supply chains, price shocks remain an ongoing possibility. The bigger question is: Will Apple absorb any higher costs, or pass them on to consumers? 

If prices do creep up, Apple may choose to pair it with an "upgrade." Consider this recent rumor posted by MacRumors from a leaker known as "Instant Digital," suggesting that the default storage of the iPhone 17 line may start at 256GB, doubling the current 128GB baseline. While that could be accompanied by a price increase of $50, Apple could at least pitch it as a "better value." That said, the company doubled the default RAM of its Mac computers from 8GB to 16GB at no extra cost in 2024 — but that was before the current Trump tariff cycle started.

Now, on the eve of the iPhone announcement, a report from JPMorgan mixes and matches the rumors above. As recounted in 9to5Mac, the iPhone line's starting prices will still stretch from $799 to $1,199 — just as they do now — with the Air possibly getting a $50 increase versus the iPhone Plus model it's replacing, and the 17 Pro costing an additional $100, but including more storage. 

Again, these prices are only projections and haven't been confirmed by Apple.

When will the iPhone 17 series be announced?

As noted above, the date has been confirmed for Tuesday, September 9. That lines up with Apple's traditional schedule, and the earlier report from iphone-ticker.de (via MacRumors). 

This generation of Apple smartphones may be the last to be fully released in September, however. There have been hints that the introduction of the iPhone 18 collection in 2026 will be split into a pro-tier announcement in the fall and a standard model announcement the following spring.

What will the new iPhone 17 lineup include?

Design leaks suggest that Apple is building an ultra-thin smartphone, likely to be named the iPhone 17 Air to match Apple's ultralight laptop designation. Bloomberg's Mark Gurman, often a solid source of advanced intel about Apple, reported in January that the iPhone 17 Air will be equipped with a basic A19 chip and will only have a single camera lens. It may also use Apple's new in-house modem, which was introduced in February on the iPhone 16e. More details about this development may leak ahead of September, but that's what we know for now.

As a guest on the latest Engadget Podcast, Gurman told Engadget's Devindra Hardawar and Igor Bonifacic the rumored iPhone Air will be rough around the edges at first. He believes the 17 Air will "lag in both" when it comes to camera and battery performance. "The battery life is going to be subpar compared to a base-level 17 or Pro model," he says. The ultimate goal, he notes, is to get all the functionality of the Pro models into the Air models.

An investor note from Apple analyst Jeff Pu indicated that the Air will have a titanium frame. If his reports are accurate, the lightweight smartphone will be the only entry in the iPhone 17 lineup to use that metal; the iPhone 17, iPhone 17 Pro, and iPhone 17 Pro Max are expected to be made of aluminum, which is oddly a lighter material than titanium. Other speculation had suggested that the Air would use a blend of aluminum and titanium, so the exact materials may not be known until the official announcement.

After the announcement dropped Tuesday for the official iPhone 17 event, MacRumors speculates the Apple logo says a lot about the new iPhones. Apple's logo "hints at two rumored iPhone 17 Pro features." The logo shows bright orange and dark blue colors, rumored to be two of the iPhone 17 Pro colors, so they could be onto something. They also noticed it looks like an infrared heat map, hinting at the vapor chamber cooling system.

Additionally, an August 4 MacRumors report says the internal battery pack of the iPhone Air is just 2.49mm thick — half the thickness of the iPhone 17 Pro battery. The leak was posted on the Korean-language Naver blog, where they show the alleged batteries of the iPhone 17 Air and 17 Pro side by side. The same account claimed the 17 Air's battery capacity was a mere 2,800 mAh, MacRumors notes. (That's below the battery capacity of current iPhone 16 models.)

On a similar topic, an iPhone 17 Pro production leak appears to have revealed an all-aluminum chassis, according to MacRumors. Originally posted by leaker Majin Bu, the image shows a shell that has a large round hole on the back (where the Apple logo typically is) to allow for MagSafe charging. MacRumors says this could just be a molding but notes that the aluminum frame (versus the current titanium in Pro iPhone models) would yield a significantly lower weight.

That same leaker (Majin Bu), whom MacRumors classifies as a "hit-or-miss leaker," suggests the iPhone 17 Pro will have better wireless signal strength thanks to an updated antenna design. The individual posted a render on X that shows a new antenna system that wraps around the iPhone 17 Pro's supposedly wider rear camera bump. Again, this is a render, not a real-world photo. That said, we can't knock the goal of better wireless reception, so we're hoping this one has a degree of truth to it.

Leaker Majin Bu also claims "TechWoven" cases could be introduced, per a MacRumors report. The cases match the rumored design on the iPhone 17 models, with the wide camera bump. The leaker noted there are two lanyard holes for "convenient and secure carrying," so it could be worn around your neck. The colors would come in grey/black, blue, green, purple and orange. Additionally, he says there will be new Liquid Silicone cases in eight colors, including Deep Orange, Pale Orange, Grass Green, Celadon, Fog Purple, Grey Blue, Dark Blue and Midnight Black. He also recently showed a clear iPhone 17 Pro and Pro Max case with the large rear camera bump cutout. The case isn't fully transparent and instead has a white rectangular piece that covers the MagSafe area.  

Each new roster includes a base model, but over the years, Apple has shaken up the variety of phones it offers. Most likely there will be an iPhone 17 and an iPhone 17 Pro. Apple has also committed to the size matters philosophy, and has been building an iPhone Pro Max option with an even bigger screen and better battery life; the 17 roster will almost certainly have one as well. 

The new Pro iPhones are said to have a full-width "camera island" on the rear, which would mark the first time an Apple model opted for that design. This feature can be seen in the purported iPhone 17 "spotted in the wild." The pics, highlighted on MacRumors, show a black cased iPhone (17 Pro?) with the distinct back panel. Is it the real deal? The dual angles lend a degree of credibility in a social media landscape increasingly polluted with AI-enhanced fakes, but your guess is as good as ours.

Additionally, the iPhone 17 Pro‌ models could have the brightest display yet, according to leaker "Instant Digital," MacRumors reports. The goal is to make it "more suitable for use in direct sunlight for prolonged periods." The article points out that existing 16 Pro models can double their maximum brightness while in direct sunlight, making it easier to see what's on the screen.

The iPhone 17 Air seems primed to take the place of a potential iPhone 17 Plus. Since the iPhone 16e was only just introduced in February at a surprisingly high price point, it seems unlikely that there will be a new addition to that lower end of the spectrum, the models that were previously called SE. 

At the very least, it sounds like the iPhone 17 Air won't take away the charging port and rely only on wireless connectivity. Bloomberg said that while Apple had investigated making the iPhone 17 Air without a single port, the company (fortunately) changed plans. He also says that the rumored phone will have a 6.6-inch screen and include the Dynamic Island and Camera Control button. Finally, the price is rumored at $900 — likely more than the standard iPhone 17 but less than the Pro.

We've also gotten what seems to be a reliable look at what the color lineup will be for the new smartphones. Macworld reported that the iPhone 17 will be available in black, white, steel gray, green, purple and light blue. The iPhone 17 Air will reportedly have four color options: black, white, light blue and light gold. While the Air colors will be less saturated, the visuals for the iPhone 17 Pro and iPhone 17 Pro Max will go bold. The options for the Pro models are expected to be black, white, gray, dark blue and orange.

Bloomberg's Mark Gurman believes there actually will be a new orange color offered for the iPhone 17 Pro and Pro Max, as well as a light blue color for the iPhone 17 Air, he confirmed in his weekly Power On newsletter.

On July 30, Tom's Guide highlighted an X post from Sonny Dickson — a longtime and generally reliable leaker of unreleased iPhone information — showing "dummy" iPhone 17 models in the new colors that were the source of the aforementioned Macworld story. While these are literally just mock-ups — not real, leaked iPhones — it's interesting to see how the design and color rumors translate into a real-world look and feel.

To add the the rumors, a Weibo leaker known as Digital Chat Station suggests the iPhone 17e will come equipped with a new design that includes the Dynamic Island, MacRumors reports. According to the post, the new phone will have the A19 chip and could have a 6.1-inch OLED display with a front-facing 12-megapixel camera and a rear-facing 48-megapixel camera. However, it's important to note this report refers to the 17e model that would be expected to launch no earlier than February 2026, if it followed the same release pattern as the iPhone 16e.

What will iOS 26 be like?

Apple upended its numbering conventions with WWDC 2025, and will match the name of each new operating system to the year it's released. So when the next wave of iPhones hits, they'll be running on iOS 26.

On the design side, the smartphone OS introduced during the big developer showcase took a contentious approach dubbed Liquid Glass. Apple has been scaling dow