Incredibly sketchy rumor says Apple will make 'Liquid Silicone' iPhone 17 cases
Leaker Majin Bu has combined his mixed track record of iPhone 17 rumors with his mixed track record of case rumors, to produce a questionable report about Apple's forthcoming iPhone case designs.
Purported Apple iPhone 17 cases. Note the Camera Control cutouts -- image credit: Majin Bu
It's not as if this is the first rumor about iPhone 17 cases, though usually their focus has been about the camera cutouts. But now regular leaker Majin Bu has released new claims -- and this time, he is not even trying to sell his own ones.
Instead, Bu claims to have details of the cases that Apple itself has designed. As ever, he's careful to say that he has details and to not explicitly say he has the cases, but he is showing photographs that may or may not be his.
The key part to his leak is that the cases will be made of what he says Apple will call Liquid Silicone. There are already silicone liquid cases made by third parties, but Apple is giving its ones a "liquid glass effect".
That is further described as "providing an opaque and satin texture," that comes in a couple of variants. Curiously, if not dubiously, Bu says that the official samples attract dust, show grease marks with use, and wear at the edges.
This sounds more like what users found with Apple's failed leather replacement, the Finewoven material, in 2023. Finewoven's problems were so immediately apparent that it was surmised that Apple was too far down the line of manufacturing to pull the launch.
Yet if Bu is correct, Apple's back in that same position even after a couple of years of attempts to improve it.
Purported backs of the new cases for the iPhone 17 range -- image credit: Majin Bu
Perhaps the single most unlikely aspect of Bu's leak, though, is that the photographs show iPhone cases with a cutout for the Camera Control button. Unquestionably, Apple knew before anyone that it was going to introduce this control with the iPhone 16 range, yet it didn't put a cutout on its own cases.
An actual Apple case for the iPhone 16 Pro -- note no cutout for the Camera Control
Maybe Apple now thinks that was a mistake. Maybe Apple has produced these Liquid Silicone cases, and also made them rather more bulky than the present models.
It's possible, and Bu has multiple photographs. But then he had photographs of what he claimed was the iPhone 17 Air battery and had to retract that.
Overall, Majin Bu leaks in volume rather than in accuracy. But he has been accurate before, possibly in the way that if you buy enough tickets, you're bound to win the lottery.
One of his recent -- and common sense, more than an actual leak -- claims was that the iPhone 17 Pro camera protrusion enlargement may cause Apple to shift its logo. That's since been backed up by many other rumors and leaks.
Rumor Score: B#$&(*it
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Comments
I hope this isn’t a harbinger of horrible aesthetic taste to come.