Apple’s iPhone 17 is expected to arrive in September, alongside the iPhone 17 Air (or iPhone 17 Slim), iPhone 17 Pro, and iPhone 17 Pro Max models. The company was previously tipped to use a scratch-resistant, anti-reflective display coating on the iPhone 17 Pro and iPhone 17 Pro Max models, but a recent report indicates that this addition has been cancelled due to scaling problems. Apple’s existing iPhone models feature a fingerprint-resistant oleophobic coating.
Citing anonymous sources, MacRumors reports that Apple has cancelled the scratch-resistant anti-reflective display coating that it planned to use for the iPhone 17 Pro and iPhone 17 Pro Max models. The iPhone maker reportedly ran into issues scaling up the display coating process, and it is currently no longer a planned feature for the iPhone 17 Pro models.
Applying the anti-reflective coating to iPhone displays was allegedly time-consuming, given the massive scale of Apple’s production. Although the feature was intended only for the Pro models, it appears that even the limited implementation was not feasible this year.
Apple has used a fingerprint-resistant oleophobic (oil repellent) coating on its smartphones since the iPhone 11 that was introduced in 2019.
Weibo tipster Instant Digital last year claimed that a new display coating was in the works for the iPhone 17 series. Apple is said to have developed equipment that could add a “super-hard” anti-reflective layer to the display of iPhone 17 Pro models. This new anti-reflective display layer was tipped to be more scratch-resistant than the company’s Ceramic Shield technology.
This technology sounded similar to Corning’s Gorilla Glass Armor that debuted with Samsung’s Galaxy S24 Ultra. The screen has anti-reflective properties. It is claimed to be four times more scratch-resistant than competitive aluminosilicate cover glasses.
Apple is expected to take the wraps off the iPhone 17 series in September. The iPhone 17 Pro series is tipped to have an aluminium frame and run on Apple’s A19 Pro chip. They are said to pack 12GB of RAM. The standard iPhone 17 and iPhone 17 Slim or Air models are likely to debut with an A18 or A19 chip with support for 8GB RAM.
