The iPhone 17 Air could be the biggest thing to happen to the iPhone since the release of the redesigned iPhone X back in 2017 – and it’s rumored to be coming out later this year.
Rumors suggest Apple isn’t holding back on its ultra-thin iPhone either, with a thickness said to beat not only Apple’s iPad Pro M4 but the iPhone 6, Apple’s thinnest iPhone to date, potentially making it one of the best smartphones around.
However, it looks like that ultra-slim design could come at a cost with other sources suggesting a smaller-than-average battery and potentially only a single camera despite potentially coming in at a higher price tag than the entry-level iPhone 17.
That said, here’s everything there is to know about the iPhone 17 Air right now, from the latest release date and pricing speculation to design and hardware leaks.
iPhone 17 Air at a glance
- Ultra-slim iPhone could replace iPhone 17 Plus
- 6.6-inch OLED screen with ProMotion support
- Said to measure 5.5mm thick
- Could only have a single rear-facing camera
- Expected to launch in September 2025
iPhone 17 Air release date rumors
It seems clear that, if rumors are to be believed, we’ll be seeing the iPhone 17 Air sometime in 2025.
If it is the replacement for the Plus model in Apple’s flagship collection, that narrows the potential release down even further to September, Apple’s preferred month for iPhone announcements going back quite a few years (aside from a few COVID-related outliers).
That said, the general expectation among leakers and analysts alike is that the iPhone 17 Air should appear sometime in early September 2025, though we’ll update this section if we hear anything that suggests differently.
iPhone 17 Air pricing rumors
There’s no clear consensus when it comes to the potential pricing of the iPhone 17 Air.
At one end of the spectrum, The Information suggests that the ultra-slim iPhone could be more expensive than Apple’s current top-end iPhone 16 Pro Max, which starts at £1,199/$1,199 despite the fact that it won’t offer quite the same level of hardware as Apple’s pro-level iPhones.
That said, analyst Jeff Pu claims that the iPhone 17 Air will be a mid-tier iPhone that’ll essentially replace the Plus model in Apple’s current line-up. That, coupled with a separate report suggesting the price will be similar to that of the iPhone 16 Plus, suggests that the iPhone 17 Air could cost around £899/$899 – but we’ll have to wait and see for now.
iPhone 17 Air design and screen rumors
It’s clear from the supposed branding that there’s one key focus for the iPhone 17 Air: its size. Even though the iPhone 16 and iPhone 16 Pro aren’t exactly what most would consider overly thick and heavy, the iPhone 17 Air could blow them out of the water.
That’s because, according to The Information’s sources, the new model of iPhone should have a “significantly thinner” design with an aluminium chassis, apparently foregoing the lighter titanium frame of recent Pro models. That’s not up for debate generally, though there isn’t a lot of consensus on the actual dimensions of the phone.
The most recent rumblings from the ever-accurate Apple analyst Ming-Chi Kuo suggest that the ultra-thin iPhone will measure in at around 5.5mm at its thinnest point. That’d make it the thinnest iPhone in Apple’s collection to date, over a millimetre thinner than the 6.9mm-thick iPhone 6, the current winner of the award, and around 30% thinner than the regular iPhone 16.
That thin design comes with compromises – which we’ll get to shortly – but the most immediately obvious is apparently the use of a single speaker on the bottom of the phone, compared to the two we’ve become accustomed to on Apple’s iPhone range.
That’s said to be paired with a 6.6-inch screen, which could offer a nice middle ground between the 6.2-inch screen of the iPhone 16 and the 6.9-inch iPhone 16 Pro Max, especially if the phone is to replace the current Plus model as rumored.
That’s what both Ming-Chi Kuo and analyst Jeff Pu believe anyway, with DSCC analyst Ross Young claiming that it’ll come in at a slightly smaller 6.55 inches.
Apple is rumored to finally expand ProMotion to the entire iPhone 17 line-up later in 2025, and that should include the Air model if rumors are to be believed. There were whispers about the iPhone 17 possibly only having 90Hz support instead of the full 120Hz, but that’s not true of the Air model – apparently.
That’s said to be combined with ultra-slim bezels to really maximise the screen experience on offer, and it could even have a smaller Dynamic Island if The Information is to be believed.
iPhone 17 Air camera and performance rumors
We earlier alluded to the sacrifices in hardware to achieve such a slimline phone, and if rumors are to be believed, it could be the cameras that suffer the most.
That’s because, unlike the two cameras you get with the iPhone 16 and the three cameras you get if you opt for a Pro model, the iPhone 17 Air is said to feature just a single camera – the 48MP Fusion camera present in the iPhone 16, according to the latest online whispers.
However, there may be more to the story. While leakers and analysts like Ming-Chi Kuo have confirmed the existence of a single camera, recent design leaks suggest that the iPhone 17 Air could have a Pixel-esque camera bar on the rear. If there’s only a single camera, what does the iPhone 17 Air need all that additional space for?
There is said to be an improved selfie camera, likely a 24MP snapper, along with an improved six-element lens – though that’s also supposedly slated for the rest of the iPhone 17 collection, so it’s not exclusive to the new Air model.
Another notable downgrade in hardware could come from the battery, with reports claiming that both Apple and Samsung’s slimline phones will only offer batteries somewhere in the region of 3000mAh to 4000mAh. Combined with the iPhone’s supposed 6.6-inch 120Hz screen, that could translate to worse battery life than the iPhone 16 – but that’s pure speculation on our part for now.
Interestingly, it’s also believed that the iPhone 17 Air will only offer eSIM compatibility worldwide, with no traditional SIM tray available in any region. That has been the case for all models of iPhone since the release of the iPhone 14 in the US, but in most other regions, you get a combination of eSIM and physical SIM.
Other expected upgrades come in the form of the Apple A19 chipset, which is said to also feature on the iPhone 17 while the Pro models will get the A19 Pro chipset, coupled with 8GB of RAM to power the Apple Intelligence experience.
There’s also said to be a new custom 5G modem and Wi-Fi chip, both of which are designed by Apple in-house, apparently offering improved energy efficiency and boosted speeds, though these could first launch on the upcoming iPhone SE 4.
Trusted Take: What we think the iPhone 17 Air needs
The iPhone 17 Air is an exciting prospect, taking us back to a time when thin really was in – but in a world where we’ve now got versatile cameras, top-end performance and all-day battery life, are we ready to trade that all in for a slimmer iPhone?
I’ve got my doubts, but it’ll also depend on how Apple frames it; it could do well as a ‘Plus’ replacement, mimicking the Air’s half-way-house offering between the regular iPhone and the Pro models as the iPad Air does, but I doubt it’d garner interest if it’s more expensive than the (more capable) Pro Max.
