For the iPhone, 2024 was all about the software, as Apple made its long-awaited — some would say much overdue — push into AI features on board its smartphones. And that’s likely to continue into 2025, as the Apple Intelligence launch is far from over. Apple still has features it promised last summer to deliver, and then there are the new additions to Apple Intelligence currently in the works that will doubtlessly arrive next fall.
However, while software figures to be a key driver of the iPhone’s fortunes in the coming year, 2025 could also bring with it some hardware surprises. We can count on the usual fall iPhone release, of course, and it seems likely an iPhone SE update will get here sooner rather than later. But there also rumblings of an entirely new iPhone that could usher in a new design in what figures to be the most substantial overhaul since 2017’s iPhone X release.
In other words, it looks like another big year is ahead for the iPhone, as Apple works to keep its phone lineup vibrant some 18 years after the original iPhone’s debut. Here’s what the next 12 months could bring, based on rumors surrounding Apple’s software and hardware efforts.
Apple Intelligence
After introducing Apple Intelligence features to the iPhone in October with the iOS 18.1 update and augmenting that suite of AI tools with more capabilities through iOS 18.2, we’re in a bit of a lull period for new AI-powered features. The iOS 18.3 update won’t arrive until early 2025, and based on the currently available public beta, most of the changes appear to be tweaks, bug fixes and aesthetic changes. There’s no indication of significant Apple Intelligence additions coming via iOS 18.3 as of this writing.
But that doesn’t mean the Apple Intelligence rollout is complete. Back when it previewed its AI tools at WWDC 2024, Apple outlined a vision for a revamped Siri, where the digital assistant would be aware of your personal context and be able to take action on whatever happened to be on your iPhone screen at the time of you summoning the assistant. Though Siri has seen some updates courtesy of Apple Intelligence — there’s a new full-screen animation when the assistant is active, you can use a more conversational tone when interacting with Siri and there’s now ChatGPT integration — but that final piece of the puzzle has yet to arrive.
Mark Gurman of Bloomberg has pointed to the iOS 18.4 update — arriving at some point between the start of 2025 and Apple’s annual developer conference at the start of sumer — as the one that will bring more features to Siri. In addition to greater contextual awareness, the Siri revamp promises a more natural-sounding assistant that will boast more in-app controls, including third-party apps.
In addition to delivering the features promised this past summer, Apple will likely bring more Apple Intelligence features to its devices in 2025, though details on what this future round of updates will deliver have yet to emerge. Apple Intelligence figures to be a big focus at the 2025 edition of Apple’s Worldwide Developer Conference, which typically takes place in June. We’d expect a preview of forthcoming Apple Intelligence additions at that time alongside sneak peeks at the rest of Apple’s 2025 software updates, including iOS 19. (More on that iPhone software update in a moment.)
iPhone SE 4
Besides the iOS 18.4 update, the other big iPhone-related event likely to happen in the opening months of 2025 is an iPhone SE launch. After releasing the iPhone SE 2022 two years after the previous SE model, Apple skipped an update in 2024, but most Apple observers think an iPhone SE 4 will be arriving this coming spring.
When it does show up, the iPhone SE figures to look very different from the current model, which still sports the Touch ID button and chunky bezels found on 2017’s iPhone 8 release. The new iPhone SE is tipped to adapt a more modern design — think the iPhone 14 with an edge-to-edge display interrupted only by a notch at the top of the screen to house the front camera and Face ID sensors. That would mean a bigger screen for the iPhone SE with most rumors pointing to a 6.1-inch OLED panel, potentially replacing the LCD screen found on the current iPhone SE.
In fact, you could have a choice of screen sizes with the iPhone SE 4. Some rumors suggest Apple will offer a second model — an iPhone SE Plus — with an even larger 6.7-inch screen. If true, it would recognize that people prefer larger screens on their handsets than the current iPhone SE’s 4.7-inch panel.
Apple could have another big change in store with the iPhone SE 4, assuming it sticks with its usual chipset plans for the rumored phone. Previous iPhone SE models have used the same silicon found in the flagship iPhone models released the previous fall. If that pattern holds this time around, the iPhone SE 4 would turn to the A18 system-on-chip powering the iPhone 16. And that would mean the lower-end iPhone SE would support Apple Intelligence features, broadening the audience for Apple’s AI tools.
The iPhone SE 4 could be in line to usher in a first for Apple, with rumors suggesting this model will introduce the world to Apple-built modems. Qualcomm has supplied modems for Apple’s past phones, but Apple is looking to handle more of its own parts internally.
The bigger screen, more powerful processor and AI capabilities could translate to a bigger price than the $429 cost of the current iPhone SE. So long as Apple keeps the price under $500 — and with the iPhone 14 still available at a discounted price of $599, you’d imagine Apple would want to — the iPhone SE 4 could shape up to be one of the best cheap phones we see in 20225.
iOS 19
The annual WWDC event at the start of summer features previews of Apple’s software plans, so we’re expecting the 2025 developer conference to give us our first look at iOS 19. Early rumors suggest this won’t be a major overhaul for Apple’s iPhone software, as a lot of Apple’s development resources are currently focused on Apple Intelligence.
As a result, Bloomberg’s Gurman has reported that a number of features planned for the iPhone software update may not actually arrive until spring 2026, even if they’re included in the iOS 19 preview at WWDC 2025. Details as to what those features might be haven’t become available at this point.
The current iOS version, iOS 18, supports the same iPhones that were capable of running iOS 17 (though Apple Intelligence is limited to iPhones powered by an A17 Pro chip or later). That’s apparently going to continue with iOS 19, according to a report out of France, which claims that the iPhone XS and iPhone XR models will be included among supported devices even if they first launched back in 2018. Not all features may work on older devices, the report cautions.
iPhone 17
About the safest prediction anyone can make is that Apple will have new iPhones in the fall. The iPhone 17 lineup is expected to keep three of the current models around — the standard iPhone as well as the iPhone 17 Pro and iPhone 17 Pro Max. (More on the iPhone Plus replacement in a moment.)
Even though we’re at least nine months out from a potential iPhone 17 release, some early details have already started to surface about 2025’s big iPhone release. We could finally see the standard iPhone adopt a faster refresh rate after spending years locked at 60Hz. Other flagships in the iPhone’s price range have long since adopted fast-refreshing displays of their own, so this would be a significant step by Apple to close the gap with its rivals.
Analysts think the front camera on all iPhone 17 models will get an upgrade with sharper resolution, though the biggest camera improvements could be set for the Pro lineup. Specifically, the iPhone 17 Pro Max will reportedly use a trio of 48MP sensors for its main, ultrawide and telephoto lenses.
We expect all three iPhone 17 models to feature an A19 system-on-chip of some sort, with the Pro phones likely getting a Pro variant. Initial rumors hinted at the A19 being built on a more efficient 2nm process, but now the expectation is that Apple will use a 3nm process once more. The bigger performance story could be an increase of RAM to 12GB across the iPhone 17 lineup, as Apple looks to make its new phones better able to handle on-device AI features.
After holding pricing steady on its iPhone 16 lineup, the iPhone 17 could see a price increase, though it’s way too early to say anything definitive about that possibility. If true, though, it would be the first price hike since the iPhone 15 Pro Max jumped by $100 over its predecessor in 2023.
iPhone 17 Air
So if there’s no iPhone 17 Plus, what does Apple do instead? Most signs indicate Apple is working on a thinner version of its phone, with rumors originally calling this project the iPhone 17 Slim. It’s now expected to ship as the iPhone 17 Air, though.
As the original name would suggest, the standout feature of the iPhone 17 Air will be how thin it is. Right now, the iPhone 16 is roughly 7.8mm thin, but the rumored phone is expected to shrink down even more, with some floating the possibility that it could be as thin as the current iPad Air (6.1mm) or iPad Pro (5.3mm).
That kind of slimness won’t leave a lot of room for internal components. It’s expected that Apple would include just one camera on the back of the iPhone 17 Air — a 48MP main camera that can do double duty on zooms by cropping in on shots to create 2x zooms at optical quality.
Though it may be knocking the iPhone 16 Plus out of Apple’s lineup, don’t expect a Plus-like price. Early pricing rumors tip the iPhone 17 Air to be Apple’s most expensive iPhone, costing more than even the Pro Max.
Like the rest of the iPhone 17 lineup, the iPhone 17 Air would likely debut in the fall.
iPhone Flip
There’s one other potential Apple phone in the works, though it’s probably unlikely to be part of Apple’s 2025 plans. Still, it’s worth keeping tabs on the rumored iPhone Flip to see if Apple makes any progress toward releasing a foldable phone.
If we’re going to see any foldable products coming out of Cupertino, analysts seem to agree that it will be a tablet first. Specifically, analysts point to a 20.3-inch foldable device joining the iPad lineup at some point. When exactly that will be is the subject of some debate, with one analyst predicting a late 2025 launch followed by a foldable iPhone in 2026. But the consensus seems to be that a foldable Apple tablet may not surface until the middle of 2027 at the earliest, pushing back an iPhone Flip release even further.
Regardless, Apple is apparently working on design prototypes for a foldable phone, with a flip-style device being the likely contender. Still, given all the other iPhone activities on its agenda for the next year or so, we’d imagine that iPhone Flip work will be confined to the background.
