Other Is the iPhone 17 “Slim” a folding iPhone? How else would you justify it’s highest price in the 17 lineup?

[Hal~9000]

With the rumors of the iPhone 17 “Slim” being more expensive than the Pro Max (albeit with a smaller display, lower specs, and aluminum body), I was curious if the reason was because it would have a brand new folding design?

I mean, how else could they justify pricing it higher than the Pro Max? 🤔 The only other reason I could think of is perhaps Apple is intentionally feeding misinformation to leakers in the company in an effort to weed them out.

Any other reason you could think of as to why the iPhone “Slim” would be the top priced phone outside of a radical new form factor? Also the extremely thin nature of the phone would make sense if it folds together as you wouldn’t want it to be too thick and not be pocketable.

I’d love to hear your thoughts on the matter 🙂

 

[now i see it]

We haven’t heard enough rumors about it to get worried about it yet.
Maybe they’ll pack it in an iPhone 6S Plus chassis and call it “new”. It certainly will be slim if they do.

 

[Sheepish-Lord]

I don’t think Apple is going to waste resources feeding false information to folks. Might not be a foldable but to justify a higher price with supposedly lower specs it would need to be a design different than the current lineup. If not a folding phone then what else?

 

[Pakaku]

Any other reason you could think of as to why the iPhone “Slim” would be the top priced phone outside of a radical new form factor?

Because it's Apple being Apple

Plus I don't see them doing a foldable when glass can't fold

 

[winxmac]

iPhone 17 "Slim" is Apple's answer to Samsung Galaxy Z Fold/Flip

 

[LionTeeth]

I feel like you’ve made several leaps of assumptions to even arrive at your question. Doesn’t make sense.

If you’re asking if Apple will release a folding iPhone: I don’t know.

Hope I’ve helped lol


But seriously, a folding phone just seems so gimmicky. What do you get that you don’t get from a standard bar design? Compactness? Sort of. It doubles in thickness when folded. Kind of useless. It’s so far into gimmick territory it may as well be back in the mid-2000s with all the wacky designs. Phones have matured and that sort of makes them boring to people who love “innovation”, but exciting to people like me who love refinement and materials.

Wristwatches are sort of similar. Nothing crazy aside from Richard Mille et al. But the refinement. Sapphire, domed glass. Shiny steel or what have you. The quality and durability. Materials, design. That’s where it’s at. The pro iPhones are works of art. I highly doubt suddenly they’ll throw in a freakin hinge in the middle of one.

 

[Iwavvns]

With the rumors of the iPhone 17 “Slim” being more expensive than the Pro Max (albeit with a smaller display, lower specs, and aluminum body), I was curious if the reason was because it would have a brand new folding design?

I mean, how else could they justify pricing it higher than the Pro Max? 🤔 The only other reason I could think of is perhaps Apple is intentionally feeding misinformation to leakers in the company in an effort to weed them out.

Any other reason you could think of as to why the iPhone “Slim” would be the top priced phone outside of a radical new form factor? Also the extremely thin nature of the phone would make sense if it folds together as you wouldn’t want it to be too thick and not be pocketable.

I’d love to hear your thoughts on the matter 🙂

Why are you asking us? If everyone in this thread said “yes”, would you believe that the iPhone 17 Slim is, in fact, a folding iPhone? Being that opinion does not equal fact, I fail to understand the point of this thread.

 

[erihp]

Why are you asking us? If everyone in this thread said “yes”, would you believe that the iPhone 17 Slim is, in fact, a folding iPhone? Being that opinion does not equal fact, I fail to understand the point of this thread.

The board -is- called MacRumors.

 

[JPack]

Slim is not a folding phone. Supply chain guys wouldn't get that wrong. Leaks from display suppliers: Samsung, LGD, and BOE would share that if true.

The incorrect info is the Slim will be more expensive than Pro Max. Literally only one source claimed that.

 

[Hal~9000]

Slim is not a folding phone. Supply chain guys wouldn't get that wrong. Leaks from display suppliers: Samsung, LGD, and BOE would share that if true.

The incorrect info is the Slim will be more expensive than Pro Max. Literally only one source claimed that.

Gotcha. You definitely know the supply side rumors more than most. If you say it’s not folding then I believe it. Just was a rumor I saw and figured I’d ask. Thanks for the input 🙂

 

[fw85]

I feel like you’ve made several leaps of assumptions to even arrive at your question. Doesn’t make sense.

If you’re asking if Apple will release a folding iPhone: I don’t know.

Hope I’ve helped lol


But seriously, a folding phone just seems so gimmicky. What do you get that you don’t get from a standard bar design? Compactness? Sort of. It doubles in thickness when folded. Kind of useless. It’s so far into gimmick territory it may as well be back in the mid-2000s with all the wacky designs. Phones have matured and that sort of makes them boring to people who love “innovation”, but exciting to people like me who love refinement and materials.

Wristwatches are sort of similar. Nothing crazy aside from Richard Mille et al. But the refinement. Sapphire, domed glass. Shiny steel or what have you. The quality and durability. Materials, design. That’s where it’s at. The pro iPhones are works of art. I highly doubt suddenly they’ll throw in a freakin hinge in the middle of one.

Folding phones are a gimmick, it's Samsung's attempt to come up with anything even remotely innovative for once.
And when it doesn't work, they flood everyone and everything with ads to create the illusion that it does.

If you count phone units sold per year, the entire foldable phone market is about 1% of global sales.
If you compare the entire foldable phone market to just Apple's unit shipments, it's like 6% of that.
The foldable market is 6 years old already, that's 6 generations of products. If they were the future as the ads seem to suggest, they'd have done much better already. I'd wager that a lot of their sales were motivated purely by the novelty factor, as opposed to actual usefulness.

Now all in all - why would Apple bother with such garbage sales potential? They already killed off product lines that've done similarly or better (mini/plus iPhones)

 

[snipr125]

Slim is not a folding phone. Supply chain guys wouldn't get that wrong. Leaks from display suppliers: Samsung, LGD, and BOE would share that if true.

The incorrect info is the Slim will be more expensive than Pro Max. Literally only one source claimed that.

Jpack, literally in the last few days MR had this article up:

https://forums.macrumors.com/threads/the-macrumors-show-talking-weird-iphone-17-slim-rumors.2432283/?post=33284481#post-33284481

They even state the iPhone Slim will be priced at $1,299. Higher priced than pro max, slimmer and with lower specs, exactly like galaxy flip and ultra. Who on earth would buy this phone if its USP is just being “slimmer”. It’s a flip phone, no other rational explanation.

 

[Iwavvns]

The board -is- called MacRumors.

I’m concerned that you would think I don’t know that. So, are we supposed to start the rumors? Is that what passes for entertainment these days? We could listen to “rumors” all day long and find that they were nothing compared to what is actually released.

Slim is not a folding phone. Supply chain guys wouldn't get that wrong. Leaks from display suppliers: Samsung, LGD, and BOE would share that if true.

The incorrect info is the Slim will be more expensive than Pro Max. Literally only one source claimed that.

Yeah, people usually listen for what they want to hear rather than what is actually said.

 

[DaveS86]

My rumour is that the IPhone 17 will be made solely of transparent glass and project the image holographically in to the air above the device as well as having a battery that never discharges.

 

[TechRunner]

They're creating a status symbol-level fashion accessory. Slap a label like Hermes Edition on it and they're done

 

[JPack]

Jpack, literally in the last few days MR had this article up:

https://forums.macrumors.com/threads/the-macrumors-show-talking-weird-iphone-17-slim-rumors.2432283/?post=33284481#post-33284481

They even state the iPhone Slim will be priced at $1,299. Higher priced than pro max, slimmer and with lower specs, exactly like galaxy flip and ultra. Who on earth would buy this phone if its USP is just being “slimmer”. It’s a flip phone, no other rational explanation.

Who said $1,299? Trace the source back. Where did MacRumors get that number from? You’ll find it comes from one single source called The Information. No one else made that $1,299 claim.

That same source literally wrote Apple won’t have a foldable until at least 2026. So, no. The 17 Slim is certainly not a foldable. The same source says Slim will be made from aluminum and have a regular non-Pro A19.

You add all of this up and it’s clear the price is wrong. The product is probably right.

 

[Iwavvns]

Folding phones are a gimmick, it's Samsung's attempt to come up with anything even remotely innovative for once.
And when it doesn't work, they flood everyone and everything with ads to create the illusion that it does.

It works because Samsung knows that some people are willing to put more faith in their own desires than in common sense and research.

 

[klasma]

Who on earth would buy this phone if its USP is just being “slimmer”.

I would be inclined, if it was really light-weight and had no camera bump. That would certainly be more interesting than any of the existing models. But I also bought the mini. 🤷‍♂️

It's much more likely that the price projection is wrong than a flip model already coming in 2025, but I can also see Apple pulling the "premium exclusive design" card.

 

[Ctrlos]

Justifying the costs whilst pushing hardware forward?

- Full Thunderbolt support
- Stage Manager mode when plugged into external display a la Dex
- 18-120mm, f1.8-f4 single lens light-field camera system. Sony have done optical zoom periscopes and Samsung did variable aperture. Combining them into a single lens camera on a phone would be an expensive piece of engineering. Light-field technology would allow after-the-fact focus and spatial video with only a single lens.
- 5mm chassis with full-width Nexus 6P/Pixel-style camera bar so it sits flat on a table
- M4 Processor variant
- Smaller FaceID punchhole
- Slightly narrower aspect ratio making it easier to hold with one hand
- Magnetic power button that doubles as the charger for a smaller Pencil that clunks on the side
- Reverse magsafe to charge a flat-bottomed Apple Watch variant and/or Airpods

 

[TracerAnalog]

With the rumors of the iPhone 17 “Slim” being more expensive than the Pro Max (albeit with a smaller display, lower specs, and aluminum body), I was curious if the reason was because it would have a brand new folding design?

I mean, how else could they justify pricing it higher than the Pro Max? 🤔 The only other reason I could think of is perhaps Apple is intentionally feeding misinformation to leakers in the company in an effort to weed them out.

Any other reason you could think of as to why the iPhone “Slim” would be the top priced phone outside of a radical new form factor? Also the extremely thin nature of the phone would make sense if it folds together as you wouldn’t want it to be too thick and not be pocketable.

I’d love to hear your thoughts on the matter 🙂

Nice idea! It would indeed explain this weird rumour...

 

[TracerAnalog]

I’m concerned that you would think I don’t know that. So, are we supposed to start the rumors? Is that what passes for entertainment these days? We could listen to “rumors” all day long and find that they were nothing compared to what is actually released.


Yeah, people usually listen for what they want to hear rather than what is actually said.

So much grump here. This is a lighthearted speculation thread on Macrumors, no need to get so serious. I for one thought this was a fun speculation. Nothing more.

 

[DrWojtek]

Makes sense to me. Either a flip phone or rebrand to Apple Phone, where iPhone is scrapped next year and Apple Phone Pro arrives along with better specs. Or both - Apple Phone is a flip phone.

 

[The Game 161]

folding phone is the only way it makes sense with one camera for the highest price

 

[ninecows]

It’s called slim because they broke the laws of physics and it’s only 2 dimensional.

If it could fold it would be called iPhone Fold, iPhone Fat and Short or iPhone Horizontal Wrinkle

 

[Lounge vibes 05]

Keep in mind that final design decisions for the 17 series are still months away from being made.
None of the “17 Slim” rumors are even close to final.
Remember as late as January 2023 they were saying the iPhone 15 series would have an additional “Ultra” option and all of the buttons would be hectic feedback and… neither of those things happened.

To me, if Apple is truly killing off the “plus” line, it would make sense that this new “Slim” model could just be the regular 17.
Make the iPhone lineup look just like the MacBook lineup.
The thinnest lightest model (iPhone Air?) and the thicker heavier model (iPhone Pro).

The rumor about an aluminum built iPhone with only one camera on the back for $1300 sounds like someone got confused.
I also don’t think Apple would remove one of the cameras from the standard iPhone, or in this case the iPhone air, but… There is precedent for it since they did that exact thing with the latest iPad Pro.