I’ve been behind on writing about iPhone rumors this season, and Mark Gurman’s Power On newsletter for Bloomberg is on break this week, so here’s Juli Clover’s excellent guide to the current leaks for MacRumors:

The iPhone 17 Pro models will come in the same two sizes as the iPhone 16 Pro models: 6.3 inches and 6.9 inches. While the front will look similar with no visible changes to the display, the rear of the device will be redesigned.

Rather than a titanium frame for the iPhone 17 Pro models, Apple is going back to aluminum, and also doing away with some of the glass. There will be a part-aluminum part-glass design, and the back of the iPhone won’t have an all-glass look.

I think this is one of the more imbecilic changes Apple has made to the iPhone’s design since iPhone 6. Beginning with iPhone X, Apple changed the side rail material on the higher-end iPhone models to a more premium metal. It was stainless steel from 2017 to 2023, and it has been titanium since iPhone 15 Pro. Stainless steel scuffed too easily and made the Pro iPhones way heavier than they should’ve been, so I was happy when Apple ditched it for titanium. iPhone 15 Pro was easily the best-feeling iPhone in years, thanks to the lightweight titanium and semi-rounded edges — a departure from the iPhone 12 series’ blocky design.

In addition, it’s truly bizarre how the general consensus is that Apple will abandon the all-glass aesthetic pioneered by iPhone X. When these rumors first circulated last year, I didn’t believe them just because of how out of left field they sounded, but even reputable sources have begun to converge on this being the new design. Aluminum scratches, scuffs, and dents easily and doesn’t feel nearly as premium as the glass and metal sandwich of the current Pro-model iPhones. The aluminum design is reserved for less-expensive models, whereas the premium ones deserve premium materials. Even if the new camera bump design necessitates less glass, why couldn’t Apple mimic the Pixel 10’s design?

I’ve dropped my titanium iPhones 15 Pro and 16 Pro many times, and both are still immaculate. I could never say that for any of my aluminum or stainless steel iPhones.

iPhone 17 Pro colors could be a little unusual this year. There have been multiple rumors suggesting that Apple is going with an “orange” color, which may actually turn out to be more of a copper shade. It sounds like it will be more bold than Apple’s traditional shades of gold. We’re also expecting a dark blue and the standard black, white, and gray options.

Consider me first in line for the orange iPhone 17 Pro. Pro models have typically given buyers four colors to choose from: grey, dark grey, light grey, and off-white grey. I’m not a huge fan of copper, but I’ve really enjoyed my Desert Titanium iPhone 16 Pro over the past year. One rumor that did stand out to me was a reflective, polychrome white color, but that’s probably not on the table this year. I would’ve bought that color in a heartbeat, though. Anything to get away from the drab, off-white colorway Pro iPhones typically come in. (Also, we should be done with blue. Apple has made way too many blue iPhones.)

There’s a major change to the camera design, and there’s likely some reason behind it. The iPhone 17 Pro models will have an updated 48-megapixel Telephoto lens, which means all three lenses will be 48 megapixels for the first time.

The telephoto lens is easily Apple’s worst camera sensor on the iPhone, and I’m glad it’s being improved. The biggest problem has historically been sensor size, which limits the amount of light that hits the sensor. Current iPhone software detects if a photo is being taken in low-light conditions, and if it is, the phone will capture a telephoto shot by digitally zooming into the main camera as opposed to using the bespoke telephoto lens, just because the telephoto’s smaller sensor results in a worse image when light is limited. You can check this by going into the Info pane in Photos of pictures you think were taken with the telephoto lens. It’ll actually list them as taken with the main sensor.

There could be a price increase, though Apple might limit it to the iPhone 17 Pro. If that’s the case, the iPhone 17 Pro could be $50 more expensive, but it might also come with 256GB of storage as a minimum, up from 128GB.

That’s really not a problem, especially if it comes with a storage increase, but that doesn’t mean the deadbeat mainstream media won’t cause a fuss about it. And honestly, I’m here for it. If it means the median American begins to grok tariffs and basic high school economics, I think any punishment to consumers’ wallets is worth it. I wouldn’t suggest this will constrain iPhone sales, though, especially long-term, though maybe that’s the punishment Apple’s C-suite deserves after its obsequious display of affection for President Trump in the Oval Office.

Also from MacRumors, here’s Joe Rossignol, reporting on some dubious case rumors:

Apple is planning to launch a new “TechWoven” line of cases for the iPhone 17 series, according to a leaker known as “Majin Bu.”

Two years ago, Apple stopped selling leather iPhone cases, as part of the company’s efforts to reduce its carbon emissions. As an alternative, Apple introduced a new “FineWoven” line of fabric iPhone cases made from 68% post-consumer recycled content, but they were prone to scratches and stains and ultimately discontinued. Now, it looks like Apple has gone back to the drawing board and come up with a new-and-improved solution…

In addition to a more durable design, the leaker reiterated that it will be possible to attach a lanyard to the cases, which appear to have tiny holes in the bottom-left and bottom-right corners for this purpose. While the boxes for the cases shown in the photos are said to be replicas, they are apparently representative of what Apple is actually planning.

FineWoven was an unmitigated disaster — “prone to scratches and stains” is understating it. They weren’t very protective, they felt cheap and gritty, and they just aged awfully. Apple would’ve been much better off by engineering some type of faux-leather to replace the (excellent) genuine leather cases from a while ago, but it instead opted to use and sell a bad, presumably inexpensive fabric. Maybe Apple has re-engineered FineWoven to be more durable and scratch-resistant, but cloth cases just seem too unrefined for the iPhone design. Luxury car makers nowadays install faux-leather seats to reduce carbon emissions — they didn’t regress to using cloth seats in $100,000 cars.

Apple’s silicone (not “silicon”; pronounced sill-ih-cone) cases are some of the highest-quality for the iPhone, but they stick to pants pocket liners and make the phone feel too bulky. Before I used AppleCare+ as my iPhone case, I exclusively chose Apple’s leather cases, and it’s sad that Apple hasn’t decided on a truly well-designed alternative for them.

The lanyard rumor is where the whole article begins to fall apart for me. Apple has ventured into lanyard-style cases before, beginning with the short-lived Leather Sleeve, which hardly anyone bought because it covered up the screen. I assume Apple thought the success would be more akin to the iPod lanyards from a simpler time in computing, but people mostly opt for folios and other cases nowadays. The AirPods Pro 2 also have a hook for a lanyard on the side of the case, but Apple doesn’t sell a first-party lanyard, and I’m yet to see anyone purchase and use a third-party one.

“Majin Bu” has been in a sector of the leaking business I call “dubious Twitter (now X) leakers” for a while now, and if my memory serves, they haven’t been very accurate. A few years ago, mainly during the pandemic, a bunch of supply-chain leakers like “Kang,” “CoinX,” and “L0vetodream” popped up on Twitter with stunningly high accuracy rates — the leak tracker AppleTrack had those three at 97 percent, 95 percent, and 88 percent accuracy, respectively. I imagine “Majin Bu” aspires to be like them one day, but they just don’t have the record to prove it. I’d take anything they say with a grain of salt.