5 rumored iPhone 17 upgrades I’m excited about

From a long-overdue cooling upgrade to a redesigned camera island, rumors indicate the iPhone 17 lineup will deliver meaningful changes. Here are five rumored iPhone 17 features that have me genuinely excited for Apple’s next devices.

5 rumored iPhone 17 upgrades I’m excited about

Every new iPhone comes with the usual yearly upgrades: a faster chip, minor design tweaks and improved cameras. But with the iPhone 17 lineup, rumors indicate Apple plans to make bigger changes than usual.

A bunch of leaks and unconfirmed reports paint a promising picture of what’s to come when Apple unveils the iPhone 17 models this fall. Rumors indicate we might see a redesigned camera island, a vapor cooling chamber and improved video recording prowess.

After last year’s underwhelming iPhone 16, the iPhone 17 upgrade rumors have me quite excited.

Table of contents: 5 rumored iPhone 17 upgrades I’m excited about

• ProMotion comes to non-Pro iPhones
• Vapor cooling chamber
• Improved video recording capability
• Big resolution bump for telephoto and front cameras
• Redesigned camera island
• iPhone 17 may be a bigger update than iPhone 16

ProMotion comes to non-Pro iPhones

Apple took its time bringing 120Hz ProMotion displays to the iPhone Pro. The first arrived with the iPhone 13 Pro in 2021 — four years after the feature debuted on the iPad Pro. Since then, ProMotion displays have remained exclusive to the iPhone Pro models, even as 120Hz displays became standard on $300 Android phones.

That could change this year, with rumors indicating the non-Pro iPhone 17 models will gain a 120Hz ProMotion display. The higher refresh rate would give system animations a smoother feel and make touch interactions snappier and more precise. Plus, it would boost battery life, as the phones can reduce the refresh rate to save power when showing static content.

There have been a lot of conflicting rumors about this, though. Recent leaks suggest the base iPhone 17 will come with a larger 6.3-inch display — the same size as the iPhone 16 Pro — but it won’t be a 120Hz panel.

Apple can always distinguish between the non-Pro and Pro iPhones’ displays using other metrics: higher HDR and peak brightness, Always On Display support, etc.

If not the base iPhone 17 model, Apple should at least use a 120Hz display on the rumored iPhone 17 Air, since the screen tech would help justify its supposedly higher price tag.

Vapor cooling chamber

Although iPhones pack powerful A-series chips, Apple has always skimped on cooling solutions for the devices. The company’s designs rely on graphite sheets and thermal paste to dissipate heat from the SoC. However, this approach shows its limitations under sustained loads, as cooling performance drops sharply.

Flagship Android phones with their power-hungry chips long ago switched to a more sophisticated cooling solution: a vapor chamber.

In this type of system, a tiny chamber holds a small amount of liquid that evaporates when heated. This vapor helps dissipate heat evenly across the chamber, offering a more efficient cooling method for high-performance chips. It also helps avoid hotspots by spreading the heat over a larger area. The vapor eventually cools down again to liquid form and returns to the chamber.

Rumors indicate Apple might equip the iPhone 17 Pro family with a vapor chamber cooling system. This would improve the thermal efficiency of the rumored A19 Pro SoC in the upcoming devices, boosting performance under sustained loads.

Improved video recording capability

iPhones might not contain the best camera systems. Yet, they capture videos with amazing quality, beating even flagship Android phones with larger camera sensors. No wonder filmmakers and advertisers frequently use iPhones for shooting big-budget movies and ads.

With the iPhone 16 Pro, Apple introduced support for recording 4K Dolby Vision videos at 120 frames per second. As if that’s not impressive enough, the company reportedly plans to introduce even bigger upgrades this year.

Bloomberg‘s Mark Gurman reported that the iPhone 17 Pro’s video recording capability “will [get] a significant upgrade.” Apple apparently wants to make the iPhone the go-to camera for video creators and vloggers, enabling them to ditch their current dedicated camera setups.

Given that the iPhone 17 Pro might ship with triple 48MP rear cameras, Apple could add support for 5K or even higher-resolution video recording.

Rumors als0 indicate Apple will improve the iPhone 17 Pro’s audio recording quality, making better use of the device’s onboard microphones. Plus, with iOS 26, Apple will let you use your AirPods as a microphone when shooting videos on iPhone. This should give you cleaner, more focused audio — especially when filming at a distance or in noisy environments.

All in all, the iPhone 17 Pro should come with greatly improved audiovisual recording capabilities.

Big resolution bump for telephoto and front cameras

Among the iPhone 16 Pro’s three rear cameras, only the 5x telephoto still features a lower 12MP resolution. (Apple upgraded the primary and Ultra Wide lenses to 48MP in recent years.) Rumors suggest that will change with the iPhone 17, with Apple giving the zoom camera a resolution bump to 48MP this year.

The higher resolution should allow for pixel binning. Theoretically, this will enable the 5x tetaprism camera to capture images with more detail, especially in low light. More importantly, Apple could use the higher resolution to capture 24MP images by default from the telephoto camera. (Right now, it is the only outlier: Both the primary and Ultra Wide cameras shoot at 24MP by default.)

Leaks indicate even the front FaceTime camera will get a resolution bump, going from 12MP to 24MP on the iPhone 17 Pro models. This should sharpen your selfies (at least the ones taken in daylight).

In both cases, though, you shouldn’t expect a significant jump in image quality unless Apple puts a larger sensor in the iPhone 17 models.

Redesigned camera island

Multiple leaks point to Apple redesigning the camera island on the iPhone 17 Pro. Dummy units suggest a wider camera island that stretches horizontally across the top half of the device, with the flash and LiDAR sensor located on the extreme right.

While it might not seem like a major shift, this would mark the first significant design change Apple has made to its Pro iPhones in recent years. It would make the iPhone 17 Pro lineup stand out from previous models.

Some rumors say the iPhone 17 Pro might come with a two-tone color scheme, helping the revamped camera island pop even more. However, some reports contradict this.

Whatever the case, the iPhone 17 Pro should feature the biggest rear design overhaul since the iPhone 12 in 2020. And that in itself is a good enough reason to get excited about this year’s model.

Rumors indicate iPhone 17 will be a bigger update than iPhone 16

If the leaks and rumors pan out, iPhone 17 will pack significantly more changes than iPhone 16 did. Almost all of these changes will address longstanding problems, with the revamped camera island giving it a new look as well.

If you skipped the iPhone 16 last year, Apple might give you enough reasons to upgrade this year.