iPhone 17 Pro case leak just tipped major customization possibilities

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The larger camera bars might allow case makers to get a bit more creative with their designs.

iPhone 17 Pro case renders
(Image credit: Majin Bu/X)

Barring the adoption of Dynamic Island with the iPhone 14 Pro, the last four Apple handsets have seen only incremental design changes. At a glance, most casual observers would struggle to tell the difference between an iPhone 12 Pro and an iPhone 16 Pro when viewed from the back.

But that’s all set to change with the upcoming iPhone 17 family, where Apple is tipped to be adopting a bold new design with the square camera block changing to a horizontal camera bar.

It’s a polarizing look, especially given how different it looks in renders between the single-camera iPhone 17 Air and the triple-lens iPhone 17 Pro.

While Bu originally captions the post “iPhone 16 Pro Cases”, he quickly corrects himself in the replies.

As you can see from the picture above, the four cases all clearly show the rectangular camera bar with the three cameras clustered on the left-hand side, with the flash and LiDAR sensors moved to the opposite end.

Other than the wider gap for the camera array, the cases themselves aren’t too far removed from the kind of generic silicone ones you could pick up today, with fairly standard cream, purple, charcoal green and light blue shades shown.

But the new design opens up some interesting customization options.

Customization potential

Camera cover renders for the iPhone 17 Pro

(Image credit: Majin Bu / X)

In a follow-up post on X, Bu went on to share something far more interesting: customized camera covers to fill the now expansive gap at the top of the handset.

Camera covers are nothing new, and you can buy some for your iPhone 16 Pro today, but the limited space means that the designs are more functional than stylish. For the iPhone 17 Pro, however, even with the five required cut-out gaps for the lenses and sensors, there is a lot more space for intricate, colorful designs, as you can see.

Presumably there’s also nothing to stop you mixing and matching phone cases and camera covers as well, giving you plenty of options for how to dress your iPhone 17 Pro on any given day.

Whether or not these catch on remains to be seen, but it will be interesting to see what kinds of creative options designers come up with for the new-look phone — and whether Apple itself decides to get ahead of the game with some designs of its own.

The iPhone 17 family is expected to arrive in September. It could be worth the wait, however, with rumored upgrades for the iPhone 17 Pro including 4GB more RAM, an improved telephoto lens, faster charging and possibly vapor chamber cooling alongside the usual speed boost from the A19 chip.

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Alan Martin
Alan Martin

Freelance contributor Alan has been writing about tech for over a decade, covering phones, drones and everything in between. Previously Deputy Editor of tech site Alphr, his words are found all over the web and in the occasional magazine too. When not weighing up the pros and cons of the latest smartwatch, you'll probably find him tackling his ever-growing games backlog. He also handles all the Wordle coverage on Tom's Guide and has been playing the addictive NYT game for the last several years in an effort to keep his streak forever intact.

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