iPhone 17 could be as thin as the OLED iPad Pro

We've already heard rumours of a new, slimmer iPhone model to potentially replace the iPhone 16 Plus when the iPhone 17 range launches. And now a new report has provided a bit more detail – and a suggestion that this may be a bigger deal than a new Plus. It seems that this super-slim iPhone could sit above the iPhone Pro Max in the line-up.

The report, in trade site The Information, says that Apple is working on a "thinner version" of the iPhone for launch in 2025, presumably in the usual Autumnal iPhone launch window. It follows on from a report by analyst Jeff Pu who suggested that this new iPhone would have a 6.6-inch display and a different design, but where Pu suggested a tweaked design The Information says it's going to be more dramatic than that.

iPhone 17 Slim: what to expect

According to the report, this could be the most significant iPhone redesign since the iPhone X, which came out six years ago. The Information's sources, "three people with direct knowledge and two others familiar with the project", say that this new phone could be priced higher than the iPhone Pro Max.

So far, though, the reported specifications don't appear to justify a premium price tag. The chassis is reportedly aluminium, not the titanium of the iPhone 15 Pro, although the processor may be the same A19 processor as the iPhone 17 Pro models. The front camera will be upgraded and the rear cameras will be moved to the top centre of the phone's back; the display will be somewhere between 6.1 and 6.7 inches, with 6.5 apparently the most likely. The Dynamic Island will be significantly smaller and there will be a different cutout for the camera.

We've heard rumours for a few years now of an iPhone Ultra, most recently in the run-up to the iPhone 15 launch, and this new slim iPhone may be it; it's possible that the rumours predicting a super-slim iPhone Plus replacement were misinformed. But there's still a gap between what the rumoured specifications are saying and what the rumoured price will be: with the iPhone 15 Pro Max currently coming in at a starting price of £1,199, an iPhone that costs even more needs to be more than just thin to justify an even higher price tag. That suggests that something significant about this incoming iPhone hasn't leaked yet.