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iPhone 17 Air's Limited Battery Capacity Leaked

This is just a device with higher margins to help Apple balance out tariffs and other inflationary measures. It has fewer cameras, smaller battery, less casing material, and the Apple designed slower modem. I'm sure there will be a few other cost cutting measures as well. Maybe Touch ID instead of Face ID? We'll see. But they'll charge more for it, positioning it as premium and thin, even though it's likely worse than the base iPhone in nearly every way.

It will probably sell reasonably well, and eventually Apple will turn the iPhone SE into the iPhone, and the Air will be the new standard model in the middle, once they are able to get 2nm chips and smaller into it and increase battery life somewhat to cover the 80-90% range. Then suddenly you're paying more for what is now the new standard iPhone with fewer features, or you can get the really cheapo base iPhone which will be even more behind by that point after it takes over the SE's role.
 
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Johnstrass2 said:
“ the iPhone 17 Air should achieve full-day battery life.“
Why is such a low goal the standard for Apple? Why can’t Apple get us a watch with a 5 day battery or an iPhone with 2-3?

Is it really worth shaving off a few mm ( especially since 99% of phones get a thick protective case )?
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Full day in apple's marketing terms isn't an actual full day when using it. This phone is going to be terrible in battery even if they try and claim software will fix the tiny cell.
 
60-70 of people are not glued to their phone, presumably? Yeah right.

I imagine the battery life will be cool for about 30% of people - and even that feels too high an estimate.

I wonder if this is the iPhone that people will admire in the Apple Store and barely any one will buy.
 
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"To mitigate this problem, the report said that Apple is planning to release a battery case as an optional accessory for the iPhone 17 Air." Apple double dipping on the revenue with this model. The shareholders must be happy.
 
ignatius345 said:
I'm so rarely away from charging (office, car, etc) that it's frankly quite rare that my phone is below 50% when I go to bed. On days of travel or whatever, I could see it being an issue but then I'd probably not be averse to this rumored charge case. Devil is in the details, but tbh it's not a dealbreaker for me ¯\_(ツ)_/¯
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Exactly. I have a 30 minute drive to and from work and it either sits on a mounted charger or is plugged into CarPlay the whole way. I’ve never come close to getting through an entire charge. The only thing that is a deal breaker for me though is the screen size. Going from 6.7 to 6.5 doesn’t sound like a lot, but I’m not getting a smaller screen.
 
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Johnstrass2 said:
“ the iPhone 17 Air should achieve full-day battery life.“
Why is such a low goal the standard for Apple? Why can’t Apple get us a watch with a 5 day battery or an iPhone with 2-3?

Is it really worth shaving off a few mm ( especially since 99% of phones get a thick protective case )?
Click to expand...
It’s a waste of time and money for Apple to work on a phone with more than 1 day, the percentage of people who do not charge over night is close to 0. So it only needs to last one day. In fact a two day phone is probably a worse experience for most, as you now have to remember to charge on certain days. The incredible battery life of the M Series laptops has had me opening a dead laptop more than when the battery barely lasted a few hours. I used to keep my laptop plugged in, and charge every night. Now I can use it 3-4 days without charging, so I always for get to charge it and open it dead way more often now.
 
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Premium1 said:
Full day in apple's marketing terms isn't an actual full day when using it. This phone is going to be terrible in battery even if they try and claim software will fix the tiny cell.
Click to expand...
While I don't have need for thin, its battery would last me just fine 90% of days. I charge mine to 80% at night and it's usually around 50% by bedtime. I charge if on a longer drive. I have my MacBook handy most of the time because I prefer it over using my phone. Many need a lot more battery, but many also don't
 
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Johnstrass2 said:
“ the iPhone 17 Air should achieve full-day battery life.“
Why is such a low goal the standard for Apple? Why can’t Apple get us a watch with a 5 day battery or an iPhone with 2-3?

Is it really worth shaving off a few mm ( especially since 99% of phones get a thick protective case )?
Click to expand...
It’s about weight at least as much as about thickness. For three-day battery life, the phone would have to be around twice as heavy.
 
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kkillam said:
Exactly. I have a 30 minute drive to and from work and it either sits on a mounted charger or is plugged into CarPlay the whole way. I’ve never come close to getting through an entire charge. The only thing that is a deal breaker for me though is the screen size. Going from 6.7 to 6.5 doesn’t sound like a lot, but I’m not getting a smaller screen.
Click to expand...
Haha, I'm actually on the fence about screen size in the other direction! My 15 Pro has a 6.1 inch screen and 6.5 sounds big to me. I'll have to pick it up in person and see what it feels like.
 
Paddle1 said:
Oh. That's actually pretty bad. It has less battery capacity than an iPhone 12 which is a much smaller phone with a less demanding screen. The 12 itself was notorious for having a weaker battery life compared to the 11 or 13.
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Both the SoC and the display are more power-efficient, however.
 
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Hairball said:
So Apple sets out to create an ultra thin phone, but then they realize that the battery life is garbage, so they plan on offering an extra thick battery case, at an extra cost of course.

Wouldn’t it just then make sense to buy the iPhone 17 with the bigger stock battery, which will probably be thinner than the iPhone Air with a battery case?
Click to expand...

No, Apple set out to create a foldable phone. They’ve thrown a ton of R and D and it and Tim wants to be getting a return so they’ve released half of it as this iPhone Air.
 
AgentOSX said:
Absolutely no one in the world is asking for this product or thinking "I wish my iPhone was 1 ounce lighter."
Click to expand...
I am. I’m still mourning the lightness of the original SE. The 13 mini is around an ounce heavier (or almost 25%), and the 16e almost two ounces heavier.
 
What's the point of a thin phone if you have to have a battery case to effectively use it?

I guess sometimes when you have nothing better to offer, you've gotta create a problem (thin phone with lack of battery life), so you can create the solution (a case with a battery).
 
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MacRumors said:
In internal testing, Apple determined that the percentage of users who will be able to use the iPhone 17 Air for a full day without needing to recharge the device throughout the day will be between 60% and 70%, according to that report. For other iPhone models, the report said that metric is apparently between 80% and 90%.
Click to expand...

Of course, this is until ios 27 is launched. Then the battery health will instantly drop to 96% or below and you'd have to charge your phone twice a day.
 
Hairball said:
So Apple sets out to create an ultra thin phone, but then they realize that the battery life is garbage, so they plan on offering an extra thick battery case, at an extra cost of course.

Wouldn’t it just then make sense to buy the iPhone 17 with the bigger stock battery, which will probably be thinner than the iPhone Air with a battery case?
Click to expand...
Is it so hard to understand that Apple is designing this phone for people who, most of the time, don't need NOR WANT to carry around that extra battery capacity and weight? I am one of them - I look forward to a phone that is much lighter/thinner than my current iPhone 16 Pro Max and only carry an extra battery for it on those occasions where I know I'll need it (e.g. a trip).
So, no, for those people it wouldn't make sense to buy an iPhone 17 with bigger stock battery.
 
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