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.

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.