7 rumored iPhone 17 options Android already has by means of NewsFlicks

The iPhone 17 is coming in only some weeks, and rumors were circulating all summer season. Along the standard fashions just like the iPhone 17 and iPhone 17 Professional fashions, Apple could also be probably bringing a slimmer telephone to the celebration, in addition to a brand new model of its FineWoven equipment. With all of that stated, how most of the iPhone 17’s rumored options are if truth be told new to the marketplace?

It’s a story that dates again neatly over a decade. Android telephones have often crushed the iPhone to new options. I take note being a tender tech blogger speaking about how the iPhone 6 got here with NFC, a characteristic that Android telephones had incorporated for the reason that unlock of the Samsung Nexus S a couple of years previous. 

Since this theme has been provide within the iOS as opposed to Android debate for so long as maximum people can take note, let’s evaluation the rumored options of the iPhone 17 and notice which of them have already been in the marketplace as Android telephones. 

The iPhone 17 Air

Probably the most giant rumors this yr is that Apple will introduce a slimmer iPhone 17 along the remainder of the lineup. Will have to the rumors pan out, the telephone shall be referred to as the iPhone 17 Air, and it’ll be the thinnest iPhone that Apple has ever made. Leaked pictures of the instrument display that it’s about as skinny as its buttons, which is a flip from telephones last thicker to house greater batteries. 

The item is, Samsung already did this, and really not too long ago. The Korean tech massive launched the Galaxy S25 Edge previous this yr, which is largely a Galaxy S25 however made as skinny as imaginable. It’s slightly thicker than its personal buttons as neatly, and when considered aspect by means of aspect, the design is lovely equivalent throughout. Ranking one for Android telephones. 

A much wider digital camera bump

Every other design alternate probably coming is a digital camera bump that spans many of the width of the telephone’s again. It’s a part of a number of design adjustments which might be rumored to occur, together with the iPhone going again to an aluminum body as a substitute of a titanium body (which, because of this, used to be a design borrowed by means of Samsung). That is subsidized up by means of case renders of the iPhone 17.

Credit score: Zain bin Awais/Mashable

Should you squint a bit of, you’ll see that that is one thing already discovered on the Google Pixel 9. In Apple’s protection, the Pixel’s model is extra curved than oblong, just like the iPhone 17’s digital camera bump is rumored to be. Alternatively, the speculation of it spanning many of the again of the instrument has been completed by means of a number of Android telephones previously, with the Pixel 9 being the latest instance. 

Vapor chamber cooling

Every other rumor swirling round is that the iPhone 17 is after all upping its thermal recreation by means of introducing vapor chamber cooling. The basis is lovely easy and leverages the cooling advantages of liquids converting levels. Water heats up, evaporates, strikes to the cooler finish of the chamber, the place it cools down, turns again right into a liquid, and returns to assemble extra warmth. It’s reasonably efficient. 

Android telephones were the usage of vapor chamber cooling for just about a decade. The Razer Telephone 2 is in large part thought to be the primary telephone to do it the entire long ago in 2018. Since then, Samsung and different OEMs have offered the generation, and Samsung nonetheless makes use of it to at the moment. Curiously, the Pixel 10 simply offered it as a part of its lineup, so it beat Apple by means of a month. 

120 Hz presentations on each fashion

In prior years, Apple reserved its 120 Hz refresh charge ProMotion show for the iPhone Professional fashions. This yr, it’s rumored that all the lineup is after all getting prime refresh charge presentations, unifying the lineup, which contains the iPhone 17 Air fashion. It’ll be the primary time that each iPhone in a era has had the similar refresh charge since all the iPhone 12 lineup featured 60 Hz presentations. 

Android telephones beat the iPhone to better answer presentations by means of 4 years (2017’s Razer Telephone as opposed to 2021’s iPhone 13 Professional). Alternatively, Android OEMs were stashing the tech in complete lineups since a minimum of the Galaxy S20 sequence in 2020. Even Google does this with its lower-end Pixel telephones, with the Pixel 9a housing a refresh charge of 120 Hz like its dearer siblings. 

12GB of RAM, after all

Apple won reward for upgrading the iPhone 16 to 8GB of RAM from the 6GB of RAM within the iPhone 15. Rumor has it that the iPhone 17 will include a 50 p.c bump to 12GB of RAM, making it probably the most ever in an iPhone. That is surely due to Apple Intelligence, which calls for extra {hardware} than maximum different belongings you do on a smartphone, so Apple is beefing up its specifications to verify the entire iOS 26 AI options paintings appropriately. 

Android telephones have had 12GB RAM or much more for reasonably a while. Samsung has been doing this for years, even providing 16GB of RAM within the Galaxy S21 Extremely ahead of backing it all the way down to 12GB on long run fashions. Google and different telephone makers have additionally completed with the Pixel, wearing 12GB of RAM since remaining yr’s Pixel 9, and some Chinese language telephones are ramping it as much as 24GB or past. 

A bigger battery capability

Trendy iPhones have turn into a lot more aggressive when it comes to battery lifestyles. The iPhone 16 Professional Max got here with the most important battery ever housed in an iPhone, at 4,685 mAh. Probably the most rumors for 2025’s iPhone 17 is that the Professional Max is being made relatively thicker to house a battery that hits the 5,000 mAh barrier for the primary time in iPhone historical past. 

Right here’s the object: Android telephone makers were doing that for years now. The Samsung Galaxy S20 Extremely used to be a few of the first, launched in 2020. A variety of Android telephones have met or exceeded 5,000 mAh within the years since. It’s great to look Apple bringing its telephones as much as par with the contest, and we are hoping they preserve doing so on this enviornment, so battery lifestyles will get longer. 

A completely refreshed design with iOS 26

Credit score: Zooey Liao; Apple

Apple is notoriously sluggish at overhauling iOS. The remaining time Cupertino had a big visible overhaul used to be when it launched iOS 7 in 2013, which offered a flatter, extra fashionable design. Whilst iOS 26 has its fanatics and detractors, there’s surely that it’s bringing an excessively other glance to the iPhone 17 and prior fashions that may beef up the updates. 

Since 2013, Android has had a couple of primary design overhauls, together with Subject material Design (2014), Subject material You (2021), and Subject material 3 Expressive (2025). This doesn’t subject an excessive amount of, since designs are very subjective usually, however Android fanatics have had much more a laugh with massive new design parts over the past decade and a few alternate than iOS customers have. 

In the long run, it’s ok

Simply because Android has crushed the iPhone to the punch doesn’t imply the iPhone 17 goes to be a nasty telephone. Apple’s optimizations are mythical, and we haven’t any doubt that the iPhone 17 shall be a few of the best smartphones launched all yr and into 2026. Even so, it’s just right to understand that Android telephones nonetheless have a place out there as being the primary to have one thing. So, if you wish to have a bigger battery, extra RAM, or telephones that exceed 120 Hz refresh charges, you’ll wish to store for Android.