Apple, following the traditions of the MacBook Air and iPad Air, is preparing to release the thinnest iPhone in history. The new product, called the iPhone 17 Air, could be presented as early as this fall and, according to Mark Gurman from Bloomberg, will become not just a new smartphone, but “a testing ground for the company’s future technologies.”
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The name iPhone 17 Air does not come as a surprise, given that devices under the Air brand traditionally stand out for their minimal thickness. According to The Verge, the new iPhone will be about 2 millimeters thinner than current models. Presumably, the thickness of the device can be from 5.5 to 6.25 mm, which is comparable to the iPad Pro on the M4 processor and significantly thinner than the “slender” iPhone 6, which has a thickness of 6.9 mm.
The desire to reduce the thickness of the device is not just an aesthetic decision. As Gurman writes, the development of a thin body will allow Apple to move forward in creating foldable iPads and iPhones. In addition, the iPhone 17 Air could be one of the first models in which Apple will test its own cellular modem, codenamed Sinope. The modem should appear in the iPhone SE 4, which is expected to be released in the spring. It is also reported that this year’s entire iPhone lineup will receive Apple’s proprietary Wi-Fi and Bluetooth modules, although their appearance on the Air has not yet been confirmed.
As for the characteristics, according to preliminary information it is known that the iPhone 17 Air will receive a 6.6-inch ProMotion OLED display with a refresh rate of 120 Hz, which was previously used only in iPhone Pro models. Unlike older models, there will be only one 48-megapixel camera on the rear panel, and a 24-megapixel front camera is provided for selfies. It is also expected that the smartphone will be equipped with an A19 chip and, like the iPhone SE 4, will receive 8 GB of RAM to support Apple Intelligence artificial intelligence functions.
It is possible that the iPhone 17 Air could become not only Apple’s thinnest smartphone, but also the flagship of new technologies, including the company’s first foldable devices. The official announcement of the smartphone may take place this fall.