It's great to see these phones getting slimmer again. Things had been going downhill ever since that bald clown vaulted to YT-fame bending the iPhone 6 and Apple over-reacted by making its phones ponderous bricks.
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iPhone 17 Air Design, Specs, and More: All the Rumors So Far
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It’s easy to forget how vibrant and colourful Apple products used to be before everything became so bland.
Bendgate was nonsense. In that regard a new extra-thin iPhone will no doubt have the idiot clickbait UTubers out in droves breaking iPhones again; anyone can bend an iPhone to failure <yawn>. The kiddies who watch such clickbait will be entertained and Apple will get lots of allegedly negative PR, but still PR.
The iPhone Air will prove to be a strong enough phone despite the clickbaiters and life will go on. Apple will have another successful product in its $4T stable of devices.
Note also that there are aluminum alloys that are extraordinarily rigid. Usage of aluminum alloys in phone engineering does not necessarily imply bendability. Folks need to realize alloys make available a huge range of performance characteristics not simply defined as the pure metal (Al, Ti, etc.). E.g. it would be very unlikely to ever see pure aluminum used as "an aluminium chassis."
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Perhaps buyers of pricey tech devices [me for one] want grays/blacks/silvers rather than "vibrant and colourful" like a new pair of Crocs or a party dress. Also note that vibrant and colourful distorts one's color perception, just in case one might care about how images' colors are perceived.
Also note that in my experience since day one Apple's devices have mostly not been "vibrant and colourful."
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Not a concept that excites me at all, what I would like to see is a phone with no bump and a much better battery.
This year, Apple is expected to discontinue the iPhone "Plus" device in its iPhone 17 lineup to make way for an iPhone "Air," so-called because of its ultra-thin profile.
Below is a compilation of every rumor and leak we have registered from reputable sources thus far about Apple's new entry in its flagship smartphone lineup.
iPhone 17 "Air"?
About the Name
There has been some uncertainty about Apple's strategy for the new slimmer iPhone model and its position in the lineup. YouTuber Jon Prosser was first to suggest that the device could be positioned as an "iPhone Air." Bloomberg's Mark Gurman has since come out in agreement about the naming, which Apple could use to boost sales.
Replacing the iPhone "Plus," which, like the "mini" models before it, has not sold well, the iPhone 17 Air will represent a new approach in Apple's iPhone lineup, offering a device with a substantially thinner design that sits between the iPhone 17 and iPhone 17 Pro.
Gurman believes that the design of the iPhone 17 Air will "just be a step toward something better" since Apple will eventually want to "squeeze the power of a Pro model into this smaller design." However, he does not expect this to occur before 2027 at the earliest.
Device Thickness Rumors
Thinner Than iPhone 6
According to The Information, Apple's all-new iPhone 17 model will have a "significantly thinner" design with an aluminum chassis, rather than a titanium casing like Apple's Pro models.
There have been mixed rumors on just how thin Apple will be able to make it. Rumors have hovered around 6mm, however in a recent report, reliable Apple analyst Ming-Chi Kuo said that he expects the iPhone to measure in at about 5.5mm at its thinnest point. At 5.5mm, the iPhone 17 Air would be the thinnest iPhone to date – thinner than the 6.9mm iPhone 6 that came out in 2014. 5.5mm would be approximately 30% thinner than the iPhone 16, which measures in at 7.8mm thick, and 33% thinner than the iPhone 16 Pro models, which are 8.25mm thick.
The device is said to have only a single speaker, in the earpiece, as there is apparently not enough room for a second speaker on the bottom edge. The Information also claims that the device will feature a narrower Dynamic Island, though this specific claim has since been contested. Internally code-named D23, the device's redesign has been described as a major one equivalent to the iPhone X.
Display Size
Smaller Than Plus Model
The first details about the size of the device's display arrived courtesy of Haitong International Securities analyst Jeff Pu, who said it would be 6.6 inches. Apple analyst Ming-Chi Kuo has since corroborated Pu's claim.
Display Supply Chain Consultants (DSCC) analyst Ross Young says the device will feature a 6.55-inch display, which could be rounded up to 6.6 inches. Complicating matters, YouTuber Jon Prosser more recently claimed that the iPhone 17 Air will be equipped with a 6.7-inch display, rather than a 6.6-inch display as previously rumored. For context, the existing iPhone 16 Plus has a 6.7-inch display. However, in response to Prosser's prediction, Young reiterated his 6.55-inch display size claim for the iPhone 17 Air.
Always-On Display
ProMotion Support
Apple intends to expand ProMotion to the entire lineup in 2025, including the iPhone 17 "Air," allowing all iPhone 17 models to ramp up to a 120Hz refresh rate for smoother scrolling and video content when necessary. This will be enabled by Apple's use of Samsung's high performance "M14" OLED display panel.
Previously, only "Pro" models in Apple's iPhone lineup used the M1 OLED panel, which is why they have exclusively supported ProMotion. Notably, ProMotion would also enable the display on the iPhone 17 "Air" to ramp down to a more power-efficient refresh rate as low as 1Hz, allowing for an always-on display that can show the Lock Screen's clock, widgets, notifications, and wallpaper even when the device is locked.
Camera Redesign
Relocated Lens
The Information claimed that the iPhone 17 Air will have cameras in locations we haven't seen before on an iPhone. According to a May report, the rear cameras could be moved to the "top center" of the... Click here to read rest of article
Article Link: iPhone 17 Air Design, Specs, and More: All the Rumors So Far
Agreed. The iPhone Air has a huge potential, and if Apple makes a foldable anything like the Oppo Find N5 reviewed here: MR Review then I will probably buy one. Oppo did a beautiful job of innovating.
That would be easy enough for Apple to build just by making a really thick heavy phone full of battery. But yech; the world prefers thinner and lighter. Folks with your phone preferences can add battery cases to their iPhones.
No one uses the ultra-wide camera. Very very very rarely do people use the telephoto camera.
A thinner phone that weighs far less? Now that is immediately tangible. Literally.
The bottom of the phone only has 1 speaker by the way. The other side is the barometer and a microphone.
As for battery, that part is true, it will have less battery, but it should be on-par with the slightly smaller iPhone 17 Pro because this phone is going to be 1.5mm wider and 3mm taller than the 17 Pro, which helps expand the battery in those dimensions while it gets smaller in depth.
The 17 Air has recently become astronomically more enticing. After the ungodly-hideous CAD leaks of the 17-series phones, it is the only one that looks good.
If Apple made the 17 Pro models have that distinctive less glass on the back and added aluminum or titanium then the 17 Air looks astronomically superior with a solid-uniform back glass.
Imagine Apple designers being that stupid. Those CADs depict what a monumentally hideous device the 17 Pros will be with that glass cutout.
SORRY APPLE THE BACK SHOULD BE ALL GLASS FOREVER. Morons.
If Apple made the 17 Pro models have that distinctive less glass on the back and added aluminum or titanium then the 17 Air looks astronomically superior with a solid-uniform back glass.
Imagine Apple designers being that stupid. Those CADs depict what a monumentally hideous device the 17 Pros will be with that glass cutout.
SORRY APPLE THE BACK SHOULD BE ALL GLASS FOREVER. Morons.
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I use all three cameras on my 15 Pro. While I might not use the tele as much as the other two, I use it enough to where I wouldn't consider an iPhone without one.
I disagree. I use all the cameras constantly; wide angle is essential as the first pic of photo-documenting, and anyone shooting a headshot best gets 6 feet away and uses the tele lens. Another poster recently said his young nieces did not want any phone w/o wide angle lens, my guess is for selfies.
N3X is supposed to be the higher power process, which seems counterintuitive to use in a smartphone...?
N3X would seem a better fit for the rumored Hidra desktop/workstation chips intended for the high-end Mac Studio and Mac Pro products...
I want to see an all-new Mac Pro Cube with a N3X chip that pairs a Hidra CPU/NPU/etc. package with an ASi GPU package...! ;^p
With all due respect, the Plus isn't special. Most phones are in that size range, and between the Air and the pro-max you have options available from Apple.
People that want a mini don't have such options. Our hands and pockets aren't changing sizes, so expect this community to be vocal until there is an option, even if it never arrives. That's still going to be what we want.
Just wait for the foldables! Those will change all the game again, as the first iPhone did after the Blackberry and physical Qwerty keyboard smartphones age.
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Excuse me but, who is “no one”? You??
I use them all the time. If you don’t use those cameras, just limit yourself to speak just by yourself and please don’t extrapolate your experience to other people.
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Im getting Apples first foldable iPhone for sure (day 1), but its not coming until Sept 2026 so what to use until then. I like my 15 Pro its nice and compact but i get FOMO so the 17 Air looks interesting though depending on price, and would be my last ever slab phone.
No citation needed. Anyone with an average intelligence would use reasoning to come to that obvious conclusion.
P.S. no one has done research on that. It’s just obvious.