Up until now, rumors about the iPhone 17 Air have shared something in common with the device itself — they’ve been pretty thin.
We had some basic ideas about the iPhone 17 Air — that it was likely to be part of the iPhone 17 release in the fall, possibly knocking the Plus model out of Apple’s lineup. We heard rumors that there would only be enough room for one rear camera. And of course, it’s a pretty safe assumption that the phone was going to be a very slender one. The originally rumored name — the iPhone Slim — made that point pretty clear.
But other iPhone 17 Air details have been few and far between. Apart from the promised thin design, it was never really clear what Apple had in mind for this rumored device.
Well, things just cleared up considerably.
Writing for Bloomberg, Mark Gurman offers a pretty detailed look at the iPhone 17 Air in his latest column. Given Gurman’s track record — he’s pretty wired in to what’s happening behind closed doors at Apple — you’d have to consider this to be a pretty reliable report on what we can expect later this year.
And if that’s the case, I’m a lot more excited about the iPhone 17 Air than I was back when it looked like thinness might be its only calling card.
After poring the iPhone news in Bloomberg this week, I came away with five big takeaways about the iPhone 17 Air.
Think MacBook Air… but for phones
Gurman compares the iPhone 17 Air’s forthcoming arrival to the launch of the MacBook Air back in 2008. I’m old enough to have actually attended that event, and I’ll never forget the moment when Steve Jobs removed the MacBook Air from a manilla envelope to demonstrate just how thin the laptop was.
But there was more to the presentation than just that. Apple wanted to make a thin notebook, but it didn’t want to make the same compromises on screen size and performance that other laptop makers were settling for when they produced lightweight designs of their own.
It’s 17 years later and an entirely different product, but you’d expect Apple is approaching the iPhone 17 Air with the same philosophy. There will be compromises — besides that single rear camera lens, Gurman reports that the phone will use a standard A19 chipset instead of a Pro version and that there won’t be a SIM card tray. But you’re still getting a big screen — reports say it will be 6.6 inches — and performance on par with the standard iPhone. For those of us who were at the MacBook Air launch, it will be one of those deja vu moments.
Battery life should be better than you’d think
That list of things Apple’s willing to sacrifice in the name of a thinner phone does not include battery life. In fact, Gurman reports that Apple is aiming to deliver battery life on par with the rest of the iPhone lineup. Considering that the two largest iPhone 16 models make our best phone battery life list of long-lasting handsets, that’s a pretty lofty goal.
You’d also think it would be a very difficult goal for an ultra-thin phone, which is not going to have a lot of room to house a super-sized battery. But Apple hopes to get some help from one of the other components inside the iPhone 17 Air.
Specifically, the phone is tipped to use the Apple-built C1 modem that debuted with the iPhone 16e. Apple’s modem is a lot more power efficient than the Qualcomm modems other iPhones have been using. In our battery testing, the iPhone 16e lasted longer than the iPhone 16, which is said to use a Snapdragon X71 modem.
More importantly, the iPhone 16e lasted nearly 13 hours on our test, in which phones surf the web until they run out of power. That’s more than 2.5 hours better than the average smartphone, which bodes well for the power efficiency of the iPhone 17 Air.
A charging port… for now
After the Lightning port on my last three iPhones stopped working long before the phones themselves did, I have thoroughly embraced the best wireless chargers as my go-to option. I do not care if I ever see a charging port on a phone again.
From Gurman’s reporting, it sounds like Apple agrees with me — the iPhone 17 Air is going to have a USB-C port, but only because Apple didn’t want to court trouble with European regulators who’ve been quite insistent about phones offering universal charging standards.
But it definitely sounds like Apple would like to go portless at some point in the future, having decided that enough people are comfortable with wireless charging to where getting rid of USB-C (or any wired charging interface) won’t kick up much of a fuss. I think that’s the right move, and it will certainly result in sleeker looking phones.
A reasonable price tag
Back when the iPhone 17 Air was just a glimmer in some phone leaker’s eye, we’d hear alarming things about the phone’s potential price. At one point, rumors suggested that the Air would even cost more than the $1,199 iPhone 16 Pro Max. And certainly, Apple upping the price of the iPhone 16e by $170 over the iPhone SE (2022) didn’t calm nerves any.
Apparently, you needn’t worry. Gurman says he’s been told the iPhone 17 Air may cost around $900. It really is the iPhone 16 Plus replacement model. At any rate, turn to the rumored foldable iPhone, if you want to fret about astronomically priced Apple devices.
This isn’t a one-off
In a world of special editions and limited releases, we’re trained to think of phones that usher in new designs as niche models that will stand separate from the rest of a company’s regular lineup of phones. That doesn’t sound like it’s the case with the iPhone 17 Air.
Rather, Gurman writes, the Air model isn’t going to be just another iPhone design — it’s eventually going to become the iPhone design.
The iPhone could certainly use the shake-up. It’s been eight years since the iPhone X introduced a new look to Apple’s lineup by shrinking down bezels and expanding display size. A thinner, lighter phone that still delivers a high level of performance would take things in a welcome new direction that could usher in the next era of Apple phones.
