iPhone 17 Air: Apple's ultra-thin smartphone is expected to disappoint on one specific point

The upcoming iPhone 17 Air is said to be so thin that Apple will be forced to make some concessions.

While many consumers have their eyes on the new iPhone 17 , it could well be the star of the upcoming Apple keynote. The company is reportedly planning a brand new model for September 2025: the iPhone 17 Air.

The iPhone 17 Air is designed to be an ultra-thin iPhone . Apple's desire to offer a slim smartphone could well compete with Samsung with its Galaxy S25 Edge launched earlier this year. According to the latest information, the iPhone 17 Air's thinness could, however, hinder its performance in certain areas, particularly battery life.

The thinnest iPhone ever

By offering a new, unique version, Apple certainly wants to relaunch the variants of its famous smartphone after the poor sales success of the Mini and Plus models. "The idea is to sort of create a thinner version of the iPhone, something that sits between the iPhone 17 and the iPhone 17 Pro. The most relevant comparison is probably that of the MacBook Air over a decade ago, which sat somewhere between the base MacBook and the MacBook Pro," explains Mark Gurman, a journalist at Bloomberg.

From a design perspective, the iPhone 17 Air (sometimes called "Slim") will be thinner than a standard iPhone. It will have a 6.6" display, larger than the 6.3" iPhone 17 but smaller than the 6.9" iPhone 17 Pro Max. It will share some specs and may have the cameras positioned in the center rather than on one side of the phone .

This new iPhone 17 Air could boost sales for the American company, something the Plus or mini models failed to achieve. According to the latest information, the iPhone 17 Air would be "the thinnest iPhone ever" created by Apple.

The shocking detail in this alleged iPhone 17 design is obviously the camera module. While all the current buttons of the modern iPhone (volume, power, action, and camera control) are still present, the main feature is a new layout for the device's camera unit. Based on these initial designs, some internet users have imagined what the next iPhone 17 would look like with a horizontally extended camera module.

This design will undoubtedly recall the current Google Pixel phones which also have a camera block spread entirely over the edge of their casing.

Of course, all of this information is just rumors, and it's impossible to 100% confirm whether the iPhone 17 will actually change its design compared to previous generations. However, Apple's smartphones have been relatively unchanged in design for a while now, and this change could mark a slight breath of fresh air.

A chip exclusive to the iPhone 17 Air

According to the latest information available, the iPhone 17 Air would be equipped with an A19 chip entirely designed by Apple. The ultra-thin smartphone would even be the only one in the range to have this chip, since the company would choose to equip its base iPhone 17 with a processor already found on the iPhone 16 and 16e: the A18 chip.

But the A19 chip wouldn't be the only exclusive feature of the iPhone 17 Air. Indeed, the latter would benefit from a modem chip for communications entirely developed by Apple: the C1 chip. The latter was tested for the first time in the iPhone 16th with great success.

If our current smartphones all have, more or less, the same dimensions, this is mainly explained by the size of the components used. The battery is a component in particular that is quite difficult to manage since its size directly impacts its capacity and the battery life of the phone.

As more and more manufacturers enter the ultra-thin smartphone market, one conclusion quickly becomes clear: it's very difficult to fit a sufficient battery into these phones. This observation was confirmed by Samsung in early 2025 with the release of the Samsung Galaxy S25 Edge. While it is indeed one of the thinnest smartphones in the world, most tests point to its battery life, due to a battery deemed far too small to withstand the demands of a high-end smartphone in such a small body.

The latest rumors about the iPhone 17 Air also point in this direction. There's a good chance that this new Apple smartphone will suffer from the same issues as the S25 Edge, with significantly reduced battery life compared to other versions of the iPhone 17.

What price will the iPhone 17 Air cost?

Many consumers might expect the iPhone 17 Air to be less expensive than other smartphones in the range. After all, this ultra-thin iPhone isn't expected to deliver performance as good as other smartphones in the range, especially when it comes to battery life.

Unfortunately, miniaturizing components is generally more expensive than enlarging them. So, it's a safe bet that the iPhone 17 Air will be more expensive than the base iPhone 17. It's therefore likely that the iPhone 17 Air will start at €1,119 in France.

Every year, Apple typically holds its big back-to-school keynote at the beginning of September to announce its new iPhones. It's a safe bet that the company will use this event to exclusively unveil its new iPhone 17 Air, with a short pre-order week following. Following this pattern, the iPhone 17 Air will be available around mid- to late-September 2025.