iPhone 17 'Air' May Not Be Much Thinner Than iPhone 6

[MacRumors]

Next year's iPhone 17 "Air" model may not be as thin as Apple planned, according to a rumor originating in Korea.

According to the news aggregator account "yeux1122" on Naver, citing industry sources, Apple has run into problems making the new iPhone 17 model sufficiently thin. The device's reduced thickness is apparently dependent on manufacturing a battery with a thinner substrate, but Apple is now facing technical compromises. One of the main problems is cost and Apple is now reportedly falling back on its existing battery technology.

As a result, the iPhone 17 Air's battery will not be able to be as thin as Apple first intended for the device's new design. Now, the iPhone 17 Air battery will purportedly be around 6mm thick, suggesting that the device itself will be thicker than this. Apple's thinnest ever iPhone was the iPhone 6 at 6.9mm, meaning that the iPhone 17 "Slim" is unlikely to be much thinner than the 2014 flagship.

Likewise, the 13-inch iPad Pro and seventh-generation iPod nano could continue to lead as Apple's thinnest ever devices at 5.1mm and 5.4mm thick, respectively. The iPhone 16 Plus, the device that the iPhone 17 Air will apparently replace in the lineup, is 7.8mm thick.

The iPhone 17 Air is expected to launch in the fall of 2025 with the "A19" chip, a single rear camera, a ProMotion display for refresh rates up to 120Hz.

Article Link: iPhone 17 'Air' May Not Be Much Thinner Than iPhone 6

 

[turbineseaplane]

“Air” is just another marketing scheme name now

(Like “Pro”)

Love seeing that 5S though!
From the GOAT 🐐 era

Unmatched in hand feel

(Also, make another Mini please)

 

[abatabia]

I’m struggling to see the point behind making this change. If no one is buying the plus just drop the model entirely.

Can someone enlighten me?

 

[tonmischa]

They should have made a new Mini…

 

[Mac Fly (film)]

It's the SE

 

[Mac Fly (film)]

They should have made a new Mini…

Of course. They misnamed and gimped that product a bit. Both these can be fixed now. And go 5.6" rather than 5.4". Just call it iPhone and offer it in a few sizes.

 

[EugW]

Hmm… How soon before manufacturing must the design be finalized? Cuz it’s almost 2025 already, and thus I would have guessed the main design features like phone thickness and battery dimensions would have been decided upon months ago.

 

[Radin.Y]

Fragmenting the iPhone lineup even more is a big mistake. Too many segments and sizes.

 

[BarrettF77]

And again, the focus for everything in Apple is cost. The battery tech they have is so stale and they know it. Time to adapt and scale which will drive costs. But again, profit reigns supreme and they will adopt after android does.

 

[Heat_Fan89]

If the iPhone Air isn’t as thin as a piece of paper, i’m not interested. We need thin, bring back Jony Ive. 😜

 

[scrapesleon]

Well they don’t want it more bendable like last time

 

[bb9]

I prefer to choose between an iPhone Pro MINI or a iPhone Pro, the max is not for me. The air will give up too much battery life.

 

[arc of the universe]

instant buy if its as thin as this article claims it will be (6.9)

current iPhone SE is 7.3. which is a great, and very thin design.

it doesn't matter to me what they were shooting for in width.
if they can achieve 7.3 or less, it means that enough of the internal components will need to be more compact and probably less total weight.
it should able to be much lighter than the heavy models being released these 3 or 4 years.

 

[canadianreader]

So many models iPhone 17, 17 Pro, 17 Plus, 17 Pro Max, 17 Air like wtf

 

[nerdAFK]

BOO!!!!!!!!!

I thought it was gonna be revolutionary once again!
I was expecting a sheet of paper!

BOO!!!!!!!!

 

[Populus]

Thinner than the iPhone 6? You mean, thinner than the device that become known (among other things) for being easily bendable?

Don’t get me wrong. For me a lightweight and compact device is a strong selling point, but a 6.7” or even 6.5” device doesn’t fall into the compact category. Make it 6” or smaller and I’ll highly consider it.

 

[iZac]

As much as I personally dislike the profile, the rounded shape of the 6-11 will always make it feel slimmer. That and the fact this thing is going to be a slab should make more room for the battery, shouldn't it?

It's all academic though - unless it comes with Applecare+ by default, nearly every user will just slap it in a case anyway.

 

[ID_Field_Blank]

The 13 inch iPad can’t in good conscience be said to be 5.1mm thin - it has a camera bump. Same applies to all recent iPhones…

 

[Aoligei]

I prefer to choose between an iPhone Pro MINI or a iPhone Pro, the max is not for me. The air will give up too much battery life.

There is already iPad Pro. Mini is no starter for Apple. Stop asking for Mini already, it won’t happen.

iPhone 17 Ultra is needed, screen size of 7.2 inch is needed.

 

[EugW]

So many models iPhone 17, 17 Pro, 17 Plus, 17 Pro Max, 17 Air like wtf

5 models in a year isn’t really that much IMO, especially for something with such high shipping volumes.

 

[RealE]

But will this rumored iPhone 17 'Air' have a thick camera bump?

 

[FastLaneJB]

They are going to have to call it the iPhone 17 Argon if it's going to be more dense than Air.

 

[senttoschool]

Why would they run into battery issues if they already make an ultra thin battery for the iPad Pro?

 

[SanderEvers]

I do hope Apple someday makes a phone that is a full cm thick and has better batterylife.

 

[raythompsontn]

Why would they run into battery issues if they already make an ultra thin battery for the iPad Pro?

Capacity. The iPad Pro is much larger and allows a much larger battery in the X and Y direction. The Z direction, the thickness, can be reduced but still have reasonable capacity. There is not a lot of real estate in the phone for a thin battery. People would be complaining about battery life.