It’s no secret that the iPhone 17 Pro redesign didn’t get the best reception online, with many consumers now saying that the base model iPhone 17 seems to be the best one. But the redesign — an extra large rear camera module — seems like it’s here to stay: at least, if Samsung and other phone manufacturers are to be believed.
I, personally, think that the iPhone 17 Pro looks great. While that may be controversial, other companies are already following suit. In the renewed race for the slimmest phone in the world, it looks like a large rear camera module may be the evolutionary culmination of basically every smartphone series around the globe.
Sony, Samsung, and others are joining in
After weeks of consumers bashing on the leaked iPhone 17 Pro’s looks, reports started to come in about the Galaxy S26 redesign. Aside from the Galaxy S26 Ultra redesign, which I think looks pretty bad, it turns out that the Galaxy S26 Edge will look awfully familiar to Apple’s newest flagship entry.
The S26 Edge, according to previous reports, will basically be as slim as you can get with a Li-ion battery of this capacity, which seems to be around 4,200 mAh. It will reportedly be 5.5 mm thick, just 0.1 mm thinner than the new iPhone Air.
Samsung has likely done the same thing that Apple did with the iPhone Air, and housed a lot of the components in the large camera module so that the rest of the phone can be as slim as it is. Unlike the iPhone Air, however, the S26 Edge has an even larger camera module, like the one found on the iPhone 17 Pro models.
Similarly, Sony’s new Xperia has a large camera module as well. There are other phones currently in development, or that have been launched already, that also use this same design, like the Tecno Slim.
A redesign revolution seems to be brewing, and it’s all about super slim phones with large camera modules to house most of the internals.
I’m here for it
Originally, what now feels like a very long time ago, I said that Apple was making a mistake with the iPhone 17 Pro redesign. I argued that the company was potentially going to give up its enviable iconic look, and risk getting its phones mistaken as Google’s Pixel phones.
That…is not going to happen anymore. With its biggest smartphone rival, Samsung, hot on it heels, this is hardly going to remain a unique look for long. And, with all of the other phones also adopting this design, the iPhone will now look just as similar as every other phone on the market.
Furthermore, much like the iPhone 17 Pro, I’m up for this becoming an industrywide trend. I don’t know why, but I actually really like this design overall. Ideally, every smartphone would offer something unique, but I’m perfectly happy with manufacturers experimenting with this look.
The absolute perfect phone, for me at least, would be something like the RedMagic 10 Pro. A slimmer version of that phone would be amazing, and Apple is apparently working on something like that.
Apple is reportedly working on a 20th anniversary iPhone Pro model for 2027, keeping in line with its three-year plan for the iPhone. This phone sounds like the best trend that Apple could potentially popularize, making up for its sins of removing the headphone jack and bringing attention to display notches.
But, this does come with the caveat of unavoidably more expensive iPhone models in the future. Especially now that a $2,000 iPhone 17 Pro Max exists, and a foldable iPhone of probably around the same price is launching next year.
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Rediscover some of the most unique and memorable phones of the last two decades! “Iconic Phones” is a beautifully illustrated book that we’ve been working on for over a year – and it’s coming out in just a couple short month!
