Apple iPhone 17 Air's Rear Camera Bar Exposed In Leaked Photo

In December, alleged prototype renders of Apple's iPhone 17 series were shown sporting a new horizontal camera visor rather like Google's Pixel devices. Well, another leak from a different source shows off what looks like a couple of actual rear covers for the device. Some say that the camera cutout reflects the single camera intended for the skinny iPhone 17 Air.

Leaked in a recent post on X, tipster Majin Bu posted a somewhat unfocused photo showing a couple of rear battery covers supposedly for the iPhone 17. Camera angles can be deceiving—so we're postulating here, but the left cover seems to be slightly shorter than the right one, implying covers for two separate models. Our guess takes into account how both covers are level at the top, Apple logos are differing heights from one another, and the radii at the bottom start sooner on the left than on the right.

Two things standout from this photo. Firstly, the raised horizontal camera bar, if it makes final production, takes Cupertino away from the "traditional" rectangular camera bump to something completely fresh (for Apple, anyway). Secondly, the single camera cutout points to only two 2025 iPhones that are expected to have only one main rear camera, namely the iPhone 17 Air and the fourth-generation iPhone SE. Recent leaks of the latter have shown a different cutout for the 48 MP camera, but you never know.

When launched, the iPhone 17 Air is set to be the thinnest iPhone ever made, coming in at 5.5mm thick at its thinnest point, i.e. pretty much surface below the camera bump. It won't have the best specs, however, unlike the competing Samsung Galaxy S25 Slim. To maintain the form factor and possibly the price, the Air will have a non-Pro A19 chipset, single speaker, smaller battery, and, in some markets, no SIM card slot. 

On the other hand, the iPhone SE 4 will come with a 6.1-inch OLED, finally ditching LCDs of previous generations. As Apple has moved forward with Dynamic Islands, the SE 4 will rock it old-school with an iPhone XR-like front-facing notch featuring a 12MP selfie shooter. As we mentioned earlier, the phone will be getting a 48MP rear camera arranged similarly to the iPhone 14.