TL;DR
- The iPhone 17 Air is anticipated to be a skinny and light-weight iPhone that replaces the Plus mannequin.
- The thinness brings alongside compromises comparable to a singular rear digicam, a single speaker, and worse battery life.
- Apple is aware of the battery life is poor, and the corporate’s resolution to the issue it created is to promote you an non-compulsory battery case.
Apple has been exhausting at work on the iPhone 17 sequence, and the corporate appears intent on shaking issues up in additional methods than one. The iPhone 17 sequence is rumored to characteristic the iPhone 17 Air, a skinny and light-weight iPhone mannequin that can change the Plus mannequin (which in flip changed the Mini mannequin). Sadly, a smaller footprint comes with compromises, and it appears there will probably be a good few on the iPhone 17 Air, together with the apparent hit to battery life.
In response to a report from The Data, the iPhone 17 Air can have compromises comparable to a single speaker as a substitute of two, a single rear digicam as a substitute of the same old three in Professional iPhones, and diminished battery life. The hit to battery life is so extreme, the report states that Apple’s inside checks counsel nearly 60-70% of customers can undergo a single day with out recharging the skinny cellphone, as in comparison with the same old 80-90% for different iPhone fashions.
Apple is alleged to be countering this with an non-compulsory accent: a cellphone case containing a battery pack. There’s no additional info on the case specs.
Apple launched a Sensible Battery Case in 2015 for the iPhone 6, and we are able to think about the corporate revisiting the concept with the iPhone 17 Air. Nevertheless, the Sensible Battery Case of that period was extensively criticized for being cumbersome and unattractive. It got here with a 1,877mAh battery, which nearly normalized the battery life on the iPhone 6. A Sensible Battery Case for the iPhone 17 Air must rethink these cons and the truth that a battery case defeats the very level of a skinny iPhone.
Apple iPhone 17 Air idea renders based mostly on leaked design
The report additionally means that for the reason that iPhone 17 Air doesn’t have a bodily SIM slot, it might face points being bought in sure prime areas like China, the place eSIM-only telephones aren’t allowed to be bought. Observe that Apple sells eSIM-only iPhones within the US, so this limitation isn’t actually of concern to us within the US.
A leak from analyst Ming-Chi Kuo means that Apple does have plans for the Air/Slim lineup. Kuo mentions that Apple is on observe to launch the iPhone 18 Slim within the second half of 2026, adopted by an iPhone 19 Slim within the second half of 2027. The iPhone 19 Slim is alleged to have a bigger show than its predecessors. It stays to be seen what Apple finally ends up calling this skinny iPhone variant.
