This fall’s iPhone range already looks like it will break the mold by adding an iPhone 17 Air. But could 2025 be the year of the iPhone 17 Ultra as well? A new report suggests that it’s on the cards.
Well, 2025 has seen a big name change in just the last few weeks when what was predicted to be the iPhone SE actually turned out to be something quite different: the iPhone 16e. So, as MacRumors points out, another name change could be in prospect.
“You may remember reading reports that Apple flirted with the idea of introducing a super high-end “Ultra” model that would either replace its Pro Max device or sit above it in Apple’s smartphone hirearchy. These reports appeared in the pre-launch iPhone 15 and iPhone 16 rumor cycles, but ultimately came to nothing. Now though, the rumor is back,” the report says, citing the Korean news aggregator account “yeux1122” on the Naver blog.
To be clear, if we see the iPhone 17 Ultra, I absolutely don’t believe it will be another phone that sits above the iPhone 17 Pro Max—that would mean five new iPhones and it’s just too many, I’d say.
Instead, it would be a renaming of the iPhone 17 Pro Max as part of a recognition that it wasn’t just a bigger version of the iPhone 17 Pro. This fits with the iPhone 16e naming policy: there were so many design and component differences introduced in the 16e that naming it SE fourth-generation seemed impossible, in retrospect.
The blog report points out that the largest iPhone this fall is already predicted to have a smaller Dynamic Island than the Pro, as well as a vapor chamber cooling system and a larger battery.
The battery is not the germane difference here: reports say a bigger battery will mean an iPhone thicker than ever, which is a key design change.
So, what would this mean? Theoretically, September would bring four new iPhones as usual but they would be called iPhone 17, iPhone 17 Air (or some other sobriquet suggesting thinness), iPhone 17 Pro and iPhone 17 Ultra.
I like it, though I’d note that it can only happen if it’s the beginning of a trend: if there’s an Ultra, it needs to offer distinct upgrades from the Pro, more than just a different camera, battery size or price tag.
More as we have it.