Got a tip for us?
Let us know
Become a MacRumors Supporter for $50/year with no ads, ability to filter front page stories, and private forums.
iPhone 17 Air's Thickness and Price Range Revealed in New Report
- Thread starter MacRumors
- Start date
- Sort by reaction score
There has to be some tricks they can use because I don’t see them giving up that easily on creating a new buzz for their products. They tried with AI, but I think a fresh redesign would be much more effective and appealing to consumers.
I'm convinced the key issue is support costs. Still too easy to mess up a folding phone. Grains of sand, dust etc.
I saw it when people had them when they first came out, had a lot of issues with that and had returns. Haven't seen anyone with a folding phone since.
Correct me if I'm wrong, but I'm pretty sure even the latest folding phones have low IP ratings, they are not waterproof. I think people consider that more important. Techies generally aren't, but average people are incredibly rough on their phones.
Granted this is all anecdotal, but I just don't think the tech is there yet. And maybe the search for thinness is a key part of getting there, since it's twice as thick when folded.
It will not.
The pure size of Apple doesn’t really allow for much secrecy when it comes to the products in the pipeline.
We usually know at least a rough estimate of what will be released the following year in the world of Apple, if a foldable were only nine months away we would absolutely know.
For instance, we already knew all of the screen sizes of the entire iPhone 12 lineup, from the mini all the way to the Pro Max, in April 2019, a full 18 months before the phone released.
All of this to say, a foldable is absolutely not happening in 2025.
Now, 2026/27? Absolutely a possibility, we will just have to wait and see
It is possible that the Air eventually becomes a folding phone a year or two after it’s released, but what is certain is that the fourth iPhone in 2025 will not be a folding phone.
If it were, we would absolutely know that folding devices at Apple weregoing into trial production months ago , and we would be hearing exact screen specifications and resolutions by now.
Even the latest reports that do mention a foldable say it won’t arrive until the end of 2026 at the earliest, meanwhile this “iPhone Air” will probably start mass production within months.
Personally, I don’t expect a folding iPhone until 2027 with the 20th anniversary iPhone where they can brag about how the beautiful new iPhone Fold “sets the benchmark for the next 20 years of smart phones” or some ridiculous marketing spin like that.
Then they can proudly announce that it “starts at $1999 for 256 GB and 8 GB of RAM”.
Thing is, even though laptops are kind of "boring" and have been for some time, people still need them and buy them. To a large degree I think the success of the iPhone is that it's not constantly radically changing. A lot of people prefer stability and simplicty. Everyone still needs a phone, and god knows people still can't put the thing down.
I agree with all of that except I'm still skeptical about a folding iPhone at all. Until/unless the tech massively improves, I can envision Apple just skipping it as a fad entirely until they can do something fundamentally better and different with it. That's what I hope, anyway. It's the kind of thing Apple traditionally has done and I hope will continue to do.
Is this the real life? Is this just fantasy?
Caught in a landslide, no escape from reality.
No doubt it will fold more easily than the other models
If the latest is accurate, the Sammy version will basically be the Ultra or Ultra like without the SPen. No price yet.
Several are waterproof to 1-2 meters and 30 minutes or so.
Dustproof is the challenge.
I am using/testing/have-tested a couple and they are pretty useful IMO.
I can see how they'd be useful, and I'd like to think I'd be careful enough with one. I just don't think they're ready for the general "my phone screen is constantly shattered" public. Not to the point where Apple is confident offering AppleCare+ on it, anyway.
According to https://www.macrumors.com/2024/11/21/best-selling-iphone-model-sizes-revealed, the most popular iPhone is the regular/base followed by the Pro Max, Pro, and then Plus
I believe the report is US specific ?
WTH are you guys even taking about? With this new slimmer design, just make the depth the same as the back camera bump so it’s flush. It would still be a thin phone. And why would a flush back change the camera layout?
Check the image I had to make. You three think that’s a BIG disaster?🤦🏻♂️
Attachments
I can't see myself buying a foldable iPhone.
I always have my iPhone in my shirt pocket. It sticks out about an inch which makes it perfect for grabbing to remove it from my pocket to take a call. Or, just pulling out an inch to see who's calling - which is often a junk/telemarketer call, and push it back in.
A foldable iPhone would sink below the top of my pocket, making it frustrating to remove and then unfold and then fold pushing it back into my shirt pocket.
No thanks. I'll stick with a slab iPhone. And a little thinner would be great.
I suspect Apple will be (or has been) doing a ton of market research before going down that path. And will likely not produce a foldable iPhone.
I always have my iPhone in my shirt pocket. It sticks out about an inch which makes it perfect for grabbing to remove it from my pocket to take a call. Or, just pulling out an inch to see who's calling - which is often a junk/telemarketer call, and push it back in.
A foldable iPhone would sink below the top of my pocket, making it frustrating to remove and then unfold and then fold pushing it back into my shirt pocket.
No thanks. I'll stick with a slab iPhone. And a little thinner would be great.
I suspect Apple will be (or has been) doing a ton of market research before going down that path. And will likely not produce a foldable iPhone.
I sincerely hope not! The iPhone 5 was my favourite phone I've had, I still have it now. I only stopped using it this year! The "17 Air" seems to me to be a bit of a modern spin on the 5, so it is quite intriguing to me. If it turned out to be a folding phone then it's not for me.
I'm afraid you might be right. I was planning for the 20th anniversary to be my next upgrade point. My previous phone was an 8 Plus, now I have a 14, and I was hoping to get the nicer 20th anniversary iPhone. But if it's a folding phone I'll definitely be looking at one of the standard models.
Hopefully the Air is still around for that generation!
Didn’t you ever had a Motorola StarTac or Razr? How you managed to handle your Moto that days?
Nope. Though I have occasionally used Moto flip phones from friends in the past.
Not at all interested in owning one. Never. I suspect Apple will never produce one as well.
Look. I'm fine with Apple making a folding phone. There's clearly a market, since this forum is full of people begging for them. You can't make me want one, though. I got a Motorola flip phone back in the day, for something different, and hated it so much I ditched it before the contract was out and went back to Nokias.
Why do you expect that we all have to embrace folding phones?
Spot on. Long ago I could have purchased a Moto flip phone. I instead purchased a small Nokia. Was a great phone and worked well.
Then Apple came out with iPhone and the rest is history. Though many predicted it would flop because it didn't have a mechanical keyboard. Heh!
That's how it went for me. A succession of Nokias, a SonyEricsson or two, a flip phone I hated, and more Nokias until the iPhone changed it all.
Back then, when I worked at a small (10 engineers) chip design company, Nokia was one of my clients. When I visited them in Oulu, Finland for a presentation they were pleased I had a Nokia phone.
