iPhone 17 to change an important design element

The iPhone 17 family is now rumored to bring an interesting design change. According to a leaker over on Weibo, Apple has changed the way the frame connects to the back, and it's now "a slope rather than a step" - machine translation from Chinese says.

This makes us think that the frame and glass will curve into each other on the back side, so the straight edges will be gone. That's undoubtedly a boon for in-hand feel.

Unfortunately, the leaker who surfaced this information hasn't shared any more details so it's unclear if the design change will apply to all four iPhone 17 models, only the Pros, or only the non-Pros. Apple has a lot of times differentiated (artificially, some might say and we'd be inclined to agree) its two smartphone lines with such features, so it wouldn't surprise us if it was to go that route again.

The iPhone 17 Pro has been rumored to adopt a camera visor instead of the current island design, but that rumor has since been refuted by another rumor, so we're not sure to what extent Apple plans on revamping its next smartphones' design. We'll keep you posted though and let you know when we find out more.

Source (in Chinese)