We’ve already seen CAD renders and dummy units showing off the new iPhone 17 Air design. But what we didn’t expect to see was those dummy units appearing in the real world — let alone a phone store. But that has happened, and there’s video evidence.
Leaker Majin Bu posted a video of these dummy units on X, with particular emphasis on the iPhone 17 Air. You can also see the other three alleged members of the iPhone 17 series in the background — including iPhone 17 Pro Max.
In China, a store is using the CAD models I provided to show people how the various iPhone 17 models differ from older models pic.twitter.com/ZVug7ksAWCApril 21, 2025
I had my doubts that the iPhone 17 Air would be as thin as people claim. But camera bar aside, this dummy model is noticeably thinner than the iPhone 16 Pro in the video. You can’t quite make out exactly how thin the phone measures, but the difference is likely to be one of the iPhone 17 Air’s biggest selling points. That’s assuming this design is representative of the final phone.
It’s not entirely clear where these units have come from. They could be from more official sources, such as accessory makers, or they could have been manufactured elsewhere. All we know is that they’re metal, have the name of the phone engraved in them, and seem to be on display in a phone store for the public to see.
Notebook Check claims that this store is an Apple Store, which would be a serious blunder considering how secretive Apple is about upcoming products. That would have lent some credence to the dummy unit design being legitimate, but this clearly isn’t an official Apple Store.
Another video surfaces
The video from the Chinese store isn’t the only video appearance the iPhone 17 Air has made lately. Unbox Therapy posted a video that shows off an alleged dummy unit of the upcoming phone.
The dummy unit seems to have come from case makers in China who use the device to design accessories for unreleased phones, and the Air model was included with other iPhone 17 dummy units.
The iPhone 17 Air unit featured in the video measures 5.65mm at its thinnest point. That compares to 8.75mm for the included iPhone 17 Pro Max dummy unit. If representative of the actual iPhone 17 Air dimensions, that’s a very noticeable difference.
“If they find a way to make this strong, they are going to sell a boatload of these things,” host Lewis Hilsenteger says in the video upon seeing the iPhone 17 Air mock-up.
Why are these units even on display?
I’d still be skeptical about these designs, even though they keep showing up in various different places. I’m also really unsure as to why the phone store in the first video would do this, regardless of their affiliation with Apple.
We’re still around 5 months out from the iPhone 17 launch, which means there is plenty of time for phone stores to sell the iPhone 16.
Maybe the store manager just decided to put these units out to try and get people excited about the upcoming phone. Or maybe it’s just a staged stunt.
In any case, this certainly isn’t an official reveal, and we’ll still have to wait until the iPhone 17 launch event — which we’re expecting to take place this September. In the meantime, be sure to check out the iPhone 17, iPhone 17 Air and iPhone 17 Pro Max hubs for all the latest news and updates about the phones.
