The iPhone 17 Air could wind up being a huge hit or a monster-sized flop. It really could go either way, but it makes sense for Apple to shake up the new iPhone lineup for 2025.
After all, the iPhone 17 Air will ostensibly replace the iPhone 16 Plus model, which has not been a hot seller for Apple for the last couple generations according to multiple reports.
And I can understand why. It’s nice to get a big screen for less, but I think most people who want that gravitate toward the pricier and more powerful iPhone 16 Pro Max.
The iPhone 16 Pro Max costs $300 more than the iPhone 16 Plus, but when you add in carrier incentives and trade-in deals, that gap can shrink in a hurry — especially when spread out over a couple of years of payments.
As the thinnest iPhone ever, the iPhone 17 Air is being positioned as something truly unique in Apple’s lineup. And there’s plenty of reasons to be excited — and also some things to be worried about.
Here’s the biggest iPhone 17 Air rumors so far.
The iPhone 17 Air is going to be super thin
Based on the leaks and rumors I’ve seen, the iPhone 17 Air could be as thin as 5.5mm (0.21 inches), compared to 7.8mm for the iPhone 16 Plus (0.3 inches).
The upcoming Galaxy S25 Edge is rumored to be 5.84mm. So the iPhone 17 Air could wind up being the thinnest phone in the world from a major brand. The Tecno Spark Slim is 5.57mm, but that’s only a concept for now.
A big OLED display
The iPhone 17 Air will reportedly feature a 6.6-inch OLED display. That’s a little bit smaller than the iPhone 16 Plus (6.7 inches) but plenty big for immersive entertainment and gaming on the go.
Plus, the iPhone 17 Air’s panel is tipped to feature a 120Hz refresh rate with LTPO technology. That means you should enjoy smooth frame rates along with always-on display capability.
A single 48MP camera
The iPhone 17 Air is tipped to sport a single 48MP wide camera, which sounds like a bummer given that the model it’s replacing has both a wide and ultrawide lens.
That also means you won’t get a telephoto zoom, though Apple will likely give you the equivalent of 2x optical zoom through that 48MP sensor.
The good news is that the front camera on the iPhone 17 Air is rumored to get a resolution bump from 12MP to 24MP. This should result in more detailed selfies.
A19 Chip
The iPhone 17 Air will likely get the same A19 chip as the regular iPhone 17, and Apple will reserve the A19 Pro chip for the iPhone 17 Pro and iPhone 17 Pro Max (or iPhone 17 Ultra if that rumored model replaces the Max).
This chip will likely be based on the same 3nm process as the A18 processor, so we would not expect a huge jump in performance. However, the A19 chip is rumored to offer a vapor chamber heatsink, which should result in better sustained performance.
Longer battery life than you think
One of the biggest fears around the iPhone 17 Air — other than durability — is that it won’t last long enough on a charge. However, Bloomberg’s Mark Gurman reports that Apple has been working hard to give the iPhone 17 Air battery life that’s “on par with current iPhones.”
To be fair, that spans a pretty wide swath of runtimes based on our iPhone 16 battery testing. The standard iPhone 16 averaged 12 hours and 43 minutes on our web surfing battery test, and the iPhone 16 Pro Max endured for over 17 hours. The iPhone 16 Plus got 16:29.
So we’d be happy with anything over 12.5 hours from the iPhone 17 Air, which would be remarkable with a smaller size battery. Gurman says Apple will pull that off by focusing on efficiencies in the display, silicon components and software.
iPhone 17 Air price
There’s no definitive word on the iPhone 17 Air’s price, but Apple could decide to charge the same $899 it does now for the iPhone 16 Plus.
Apple also could decide to charge $999 for the device if it opts to raise the price of the iPhone 16 Pro to $1,099, but that’s just speculation.
iPhone 17 Air outlook
Overall, I’m more optimistic than pessimistic about the iPhone 17 Air. If Apple can recreate the magic of the MacBook Air in iPhone form and get people excite about phone design again, it could have a real winner on its hands.
It just needs to convince shoppers that the iPhone 17 Air doesn’t make too many trade-offs in order to achieve its svelte profile.
