The upcoming ‘iPhone 17 Air’ has been rumored for a while, and it seems to be the most exciting iPhone that several people are looking forward to in about a year. This time, The Information has revealed even more details regarding the smartphone via its in-depth report.
The report indicates that the ‘iPhone 17 Air’ will be between 5mm and 6mm thick, which was previously reported last week. This would be just as thin as the latest iPad Pro, and it would be thinner than the thinnest iPhone on record, which is the iPhone 6 at 6.9mm thick, released in September 2014. However, similar to how Apple designed the original MacBook Air back in January 2008, several compromises will have to be made. First, the ‘iPhone 17 Air’ will lack the physical SIM tray slot for switching cellular plans, relying entirely on nano-SIM moving forward. Currently, all iPhone 14, iPhone 15, and iPhone 16 models sold in the United States omit the physical SIM slot, and so are the cellular iPad models introduced this year. However, other iPhone models sold in other countries still retain the physical SIM slot, but we are expecting Apple to phase out that slot for future iPhone models in more countries.
Second, the smartphone is expected to feature a single speaker; this will be the first-ever iPhone model since the iPhone 7 to not feature stereo speakers, but rather a mono speaker located in the earpiece as Apple will not be able to fit a second speaker into that smartphone given its ultra-thin profile apparently. Furthermore, the smartphone will feature a smaller battery that will be less in capacity compared to those of the current iPhones. While the battery life remains to be seen, the potential power efficiencies of the upcoming A19 chip may help the battery life a bit. The device is also said to include Apple’s custom-built 5G model chip, which is expected to make its debut on the iPhone SE 4 next spring. Finally, it will also have just a single camera on the back, large and centered, unlike the current iPhone 16 and 16 Pro models that have two or three cameras, respectively.
The ‘iPhone 17 Air’ is currently in the early trials of production, and since we don’t expect this smartphone to come out until next September, tech specs and details for this device are subject to change. Make sure to follow us on X for more news related to this elusive iPhone model.
