Two iPhone 17 Pro Max models — render credit AppleInsider
A known and generally reliable leaker has weighed in on iPhone 17 rumors, and believes that the iPhone 17 Pro Max will be a bit thicker, perhaps to accommodate a larger battery.
The new leak on Friday morning claims that the iPhone 17 Pro Max has increased in depth to 8.725 millimeters, versus 8.25 millimeters on the iPhone Pro Max. For scale, this is most commonly the thickness of lead in a mechanical pencil, or about the thickness of a fine grain of sand.
Not discussed in the leak is why the device may be thicker than the iPhone 16 Pro Max. The most likely reason is to increase the battery volume.
That growth of less than 0.5 millimeters doesn’t provide a lot of room for more battery, but even a small increase in volume can be significant. That 0.5 millimeter increase, assuming it all goes to battery, could provide as much as another 400 mAh, or about 8% more capacity than the battery in the iPhone 16 Pro Max.
The leak, posted on Weibo, doesn’t really address the iPhone 17 Pro, and instead just discusses the Pro Max. It also doesn’t mean that the device will have a longer operational life, as it’s not yet clear if the model will have greater or lesser demands on the battery.
The leaker, Ice Universe, has a decent — but not perfect — track record for accuracy. They accurately claimed that the iPhone 13 would get a smaller notch, and the iPhone 15 would get thinner bezels. They missed the ball on a reduction in size on the iPhone 15 Pro Max.
They also claim that the entire iPhone 17 lineup will get ProMotion displays.
The iPhone 17 Pro Max is expected to debut in September with the rest of the line. Rumors also peg a much thinner phone, the iPhone 17 Air, to the same timeframe.
