Apple’s iPhone 17 is months away—all the way on the other side of the year, at this point. There’s a rumor taking off that in addition to the iPhone SE, which reports have said will be launched as part of a “shake-up” in the iPhone line, an iPhone 17 Air may be offered as an alternative.
The reports come from a trusted industry insider, Ming-Chi Kuo, who, in a Medium post, tells us to expect “the 2H25 ultra-thin iPhone.” The random number you see is the purported code name of whatever model it represents. The iPhone’s “thinnest part” could measure about 5.5mm, nearly two millimeters thinner than the current iPhone 16. There’s some speculation that it could replace the iPhone Plus model in the lineup.
Chatter about the supposed iPhone Air was also seen on Digital Chat Station on the Chinese social network Weibo. The leak suggests that Samsung’s Galaxy S25 will be the first out this year to be so thin, so we should expect that every other phone debuting this year will follow suit. At the helm of Bloomberg’s Power On newsletter, Mark Gurman mentioned the “iPhone Air” is on the docket for this year, which could serve as “a testing ground for future technologies.” If the iPhone is going to fold any time soon, it needs to be thinner.
I’m perplexed that anyone thought we needed a thinner iPhone. I get it from a gadget-head perspective since we’re always curious about engineering feats and how they make powerful smartphones so thin. However, the thought that Apple would market an iPhone model as Air doesn’t sit right with me. I think it’s because I’m so used to the MacBook Air and what it represents. And because it’s a tablet, essentially one-half of a laptop, the iPad Air fits in with that motif.
I’m sure someone will tell me, “Flo, you complained just a month ago that smartphone design has plateaued. Isn’t this the kind of thing you wanted?” Well, I didn’t think we would start a fad of Ozempic for smartphones. It’s bad enough the way it’s ravaging Hollywood. Besides, when I hear that a phone is thinner, I think it has less battery than something larger, and slower performance since there can’t possibly be enough room for heat dissipation. With all the recent natural disasters and end-of-day feelings, this doesn’t seem like the time to trot out skinny phones with a shorter battery life and diminished capacity.
Not that Apple would do that. A thinner iPhone chassis with the same power as the other regular iPhones is a significant bragging right, which is why all this is believable. However, it might not be very profitable for Apple. The analyst who told us about the thinner iPhone 17 also mentions that the skinny little mini will likely not increase hardware sales for Apple this fall. That’ll be “partly due to downgraded components paired with a high price and a user experience similar to current models.” The iPhone 17 Air may really just be an experiment for Apple’s foldables, after all.
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