Have you ever just walked down the street and seen someone using the newest iPhone before its official launch? Probably not, but it seems that happened to a user on X recently, who posted about seeing a “test development iPhone” in the wild.

The user, known as Skyfops on X, shared two photos of someone holding an iPhone that suspiciously looks like the one seen in leaks over the past few months. Although the phone has a case, the giveaway is the LiDAR sensor and the flash being much farther away from the phone’s cameras, which has led many to believe this could be the iPhone 17 Pro with its new camera bar design.

You can check out the original post on X below.

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With the expected launch of the iPhone 17 series only two months away, the idea of an Apple employee or representative testing one of the new devices in public this close to its release doesn’t seem unlikely.

In a follow-up post on X, Skyfops said that the man testing the iPhone had security, and they were trying to “go in front of the iPhone to hide it.” They state that the photos were taken in Union Square, San Francisco, which isn’t far from Apple Park in Cupertino.

Bloomberg’s Mark Gurman shared his thoughts on the post on X, saying he thinks “This looks legit.”

While the two photos shared on X that could depict the iPhone 17 Pro don’t reveal anything new that we haven’t already seen from the leaks, it’s still exciting to see a device potentially spotted in the wild before its official release. These photos also support all the leaks about the iPhone 17 Pro’s design. Whether all this is true or not, we’ll find out soon enough.

This story reminds me of the Google Pixel 10, which was first seen in public a couple of months ago. A film crew in Vancouver, Canada, was caught shooting what seemed to be a commercial for the Pixel 10, supported by photos of a storyboard featuring the device. Google has since officially revealed the design of the Pixel 10 ahead of its August 20 Made by Google event. Following Google’s event in August, the next major smartphone launch is expected to be the new iPhone in September.

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