iPhone 17 lineup names may be coming into focus
A new rumor claims that Apple will overhaul its naming of the entire iPhone 17 range and see the highest-end model renamed the iPhone 17 Ultra.
Render of possible iPhone 17 Pro models
There have been rumors of an iPhone Ultra for years, with it sometimes being a new model and sometimes a renamed Pro Max edition. This new claim, however, says that Apple will do this in particular to make a greater and perhaps clearer separation between iPhone models.
"It seems that the existing lineup will be differentiated by changing the naming to Ultra, which is more different from the existing Pro and Max," claims leaker Yeux1122 (in translation). "Essentially, Apple is trying to make new changes by making major design changes to existing iPhones + iOS19 changes in terms of marketing and sales."
Alongside the name change for what was expected to be called the iPhone 17 Pro Max, the new iPhone 17 Ultra will have significant differences to the iPhone 17 Pro. Specifically, Yeux1122 claims that it alone will feature:
- Smaller Dynamic Island
- Vapor Chamber for cooling
- Larger battery
The leaker claims that this information comes from the supply chain, via an unspecified US investment report. Yeux1122 says that the presumption that the smaller Dynamic Island will be reserved for the Ultra is based on Apple's order quantities.
This leak also backs up the recent claim that the battery in the top-end iPhone model will be thicker. Vapor chamber cooling has also be rumored before, but it was expected to be in both of the Pro models.
Leaker Yeux1122 also surmises that Apple is more likely to introduce a rename now in order to better distinguish the introduction of an iPhone Slim or iPhone Air. That would make the lineup be:
- iPhone 17 Air or Slim
- iPhone 17
- iPhone 17 Pro
- iPhone 17 Ultra
That slimmer iPhone could be as much as 30% thinner than the iPhone 16. It would also bump the iPhone 16 Plus out of the lineup, and potentially provide a 6.6-inch screen instead of that model's 6.7 inches.
In terms of the lineup, the only new element of this latest leak is the name change. Apple has changed the names of its phones before, such as with the iPhone 6 Plus in 2015 and iPhone 11 Pro in 2019.
So there is a precedent for name changes, plus 2025 is the year that Apple surprised most pundits by renaming the iPhone SE to the iPhone 16e. Plus it is expected to introduce a slimmer iPhone 17, so the lineup is already showing signs of a shakeup.
Plus Apple has used the name Ultra before, specifically with the Apple Watch Ultra, launched in 2022.
Note that leaker yeux1122 has only an average track record for accurate Apple leaks. He or she, for instance, claimed incorrectly that the iPhone 16 Pro would launch with a 2TB storage option.
Rumor Score: Possible
Read on AppleInsider
Comments
Yes, Apple's naming convention has become ridiculous and asinine.
1: iPhone 17e (Spring 2026) $599
2: iPhone 17 (Fall 2025) $799
3: iPhone 17 Air? (Fall 2025) $999 -slimness will increase price from plus size
4: iPhone 17 Pro (Fall 2025) $1099 -increase base storage size plus increased RAM and redesign.
5: iPhone 17 Ultra (Fall 2025) $1299 -Name change tax plus increased RAM, redesign, and better battery and cooling mentioned in article.
iPhone 17
iPhone 17 Pro
That's it. Plus the prior year models.
Agreed. Good-Better-Best that’s it. I’ve mentioned before that Apple’s product lines are starting to remind me of the bad old days of the ‘90s.
Oh ffs.
I have to say the logic for an iPhone Air continues to escape me. The iPhone Plus didn't sell, so we're going to replace it with essentially the same size phone that has a reduced feature set vs the Plus--and maybe, critically, shorter battery life--but sells for an even higher price and people who didn't want to buy the Plus are going to want this because it's maybe 2 millimeters thinner? REALLY? Because I must have missed the "We need a thinner iPhone above all else!" outcry from the mass market. And if they stick a hunchback camera bar on the back of the phone, they will have compromised its one and only advantage, which is the slick appearance of a thinner slab phone. I continue to hope that this phone will turn out to be more interesting than trimming the feature set and a couple of millimeters from a regular iPhone.
I really hope Apple doesn't split its Pro models into Ultra and Pro. I hate the Max form factor, tried it one year but never again, and it would suck if Apple's best phone features became exclusive to the biggest phone.
Why then keep the pro on that line up?
The ultra could be the larger model which is freed up to have better cameras and the air the slimer model of the pro tier. Given the point of the pro and the max were the same hardware wise but seems like they should be able to head in different directions now.