China Starts Selling iPhone 17
Chinese manufacturers have begun selling counterfeit iPhone 17 Pro models weeks before Apple’s official unveiling, sparking global tech community outrage.
Photo: commons.wikimedia.org by SimonWaldherr, https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0/
iPhone
Well-known IT blogger Sonny Dickson revealed on his X account that fake iPhones, designed to resemble the unreleased iPhone 17 Pro, are already available for purchase in China. He shared photographs of the device, which only vaguely resembles current iPhone models but features a triple camera in a horizontal layout, along with a LiDAR sensor and flash placed to the right. According to early leaks, this is close to how the iPhone 17 Pro is expected to look.
“It’s not a perfect copy, but it looks insane,” wrote Dickson, noting the device runs on an unknown Android version with a skin heavily mimicking iOS 18.
Tech outlet 9to5Mac reacted by saying it was “a head above all” other counterfeit electronics, pointing out that these fakes hit the market about a month before Apple’s planned iPhone 17 lineup announcement. Journalists expressed surprise at how quickly Chinese engineers began copying Apple’s yet-to-be-released designs. They also reminded readers that the genuine iPhone 17 will operate on iOS 26 and is expected to go on sale no earlier than mid-September.
Earlier, Android Authority predicted that by 2026, premium smartphones with only 128 GB of storage will vanish from the market, with brands like Apple and Samsung offering flagships starting at 256 GB.
