Joe Maring / Android Authority
Unless you were living under an iPhone 17 Pro Max-sized rock this past week, you probably heard something about Apple’s latest iPhone lineup. Apple’s latest batch of handsets includes the iPhone 17, iPhone 17 Pro, iPhone 17 Pro Max, and the all-new iPhone Air.
While they’re ultimately still iPhones, I think it’s safe to say that there’s plenty to like about the iPhone 17 family. Apple made a surprising number of upgrades this time around, and for iPhone shoppers, this looks like a good lineup.
However, it’s worth pointing out that so many of the features that make the iPhone 17 series so promising are things we’ve previously seen on Android phones.
Google Pixel-inspired camera bars
Apple
The iPhone 17 Pro received a pretty dramatic redesign with its camera bump. Specifically, the small, square camera housing has been replaced by a long camera bar that spans almost the full length of the phone. Apple uses a similar design on the iPhone Air, with its single camera also placed in a long oval that stretches across the phone’s backside.
Although this is a significant new design for the iPhone, the camera bar itself is something we’ve seen before, specifically from Google’s Pixel phones. Google introduced its now-iconic camera bar design on the Pixel 6 series, and it’s continued to be a staple of Pixel phones all the way up to the current Pixel 10.
Even though Apple’s approach isn’t a 1:1 copy of what we’ve seen from Google, it’s hard not to draw comparisons between the two. We haven’t seen another major smartphone brand try to replicate the Pixel’s camera bar up until now, and it’s mighty interesting to see Apple be the first to do so.
The iPhone 17 Pro’s 48MP telephoto camera
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