Alleged iPhone 17 Pro pictured being used in seemingly rare Apple slip-up

We often see plenty of leaks on Apple's forthcoming iPhones each year, often sourced from case manufacturers, CAD details, and even manufacturing plants, but it's rare that Apple itself lets anything slip.

There's the famous 2010 incident of course, when an iPhone 4 prototype was left in a bar by an engineer, but little else has accidentally leaked from the firm. Well, until now, that is.

It seems that a prototype or engineering sample of the iPhone 17 Pro has been spotted in use outside, and photographed by an eagle-eyed passer-by.

X user Fox Pupy (via 9to5Mac) managed to take two pics of a man filming what looks to be the iPhone 17 Pro in a thick black case. He's using an iPhone 16 Pro to do so, with the apple logo strangely covered by tape.

What makes it more strange (and possibly genuine) is that the man was seemingly accompanied by security trying to obscure the unknown device from view.

Bloomberg's resident Apple expert, Mark Gurman, even reposted the images stating that they "look legit".

There's a theory that the man in the hat and glasses was filming the test unit for a forthcoming advert. It's also been noticed that the images show something else about the iPhone 17 Pro that's barely been mentioned before.

Also according to 9to5Mac, a strange, second camera control can be seen on the iPhone's top right-hand corner (left when seen from the rear in the first photo).

This complies with another rumour we wrote about yesterday (which originally came from MacRumors). It suggests that the new button will make it even easier for Pro users to access advanced camera tools.

It's hard to know for sure and it just looks like a little white blob in Fox Pupy's pictures, but it could mean the forthcoming iPhone refresh could be even more interesting.

Likely to happen around the first week of September, it's also thought the major launch event will see the debut of the iPhone 17 Air. So, these could be exciting times for Apple fans – although, with this latest leak, maybe not so much for Apple itself.