- Person likely an Apple employee seen with iPhone 17 Pro in public before launch
- Device wrapped in security case, confirming it is an unreleased model
- New horizontal camera design with LiDAR and flash on the right side confirmed
In a rare event, a person, likely an Apple employee, has been captured with an iPhone 17 Pro in public view. Ahead of the official launch of the iPhone 17 series in September, an X user shared images of what appears to be a likely employee handling the device during a test.
An X user, identified as @Skyfops, posted two images on late Monday. In the image, the employee is seen holding a device believed to be the iPhone 17 Pro.
“I just spotted a test development iPhone in the wild,” the post read.
I just spotted a test development iPhone in the wild 🤩🤩🤩 pic.twitter.com/iS3PtKWqxJ
The device is seen wrapped in a security case, which is a standard practice for unreleased models. However, one key detail has emerged, showing the LiDAR sensor and flash on the right side of the model.
This confirms earlier rumours of Apple introducing a horizontal camera system this time. A report by Zdnet outlined that this is considered one of the most important hardware design changes by Apple in recent times.
Bloomberg's tech expert Mark Gurman has also reacted to the viral post. The images indeed look “legitimate”, according to Gurman.
The main camera setup continues to be aligned to the left like the Apple 16 Pro. However, the flash and sensor have been moved to the extreme right.
The new camera design by Apple appears similar to the Poco M4 Pro, however, they are not identical. Apple is likely to not just enhance design but also improve the overall camera performance in its upcoming iPhone 17 series. All models in the upcoming iPhone 17 lineup are expected to feature an upgraded 24MP front-facing camera.
On the back, iPhone 17 Pro is expected to feature a new telephoto lens with up to 8x optical zoom. Earlier, iPhone 16 Pro carried a 5x zoom. Earlier reports have also indicated that Apple may introduce an additional Camera Control button on the top edge of the device. However, the newly leaked images don't provide a clear view to confirm this.
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