Updated Sept. 7 with more details and analysis of the iPhone 17 Air.
In less than 48 hours, Apple’s special event will be underway (at 10 a.m. Pacific on Tuesday, Sept. 9 — read this for full details of the schedule. A new report offers fresh insights into exactly what will be coming. Here are full details for the iPhones.
The latest details come from Bloomberg’s Mark Gurman, who amplified his previous comments with new revelations. Some was widely predicted, starting with four iPhones, including a slim one likely “called the iPhone 17 Air — a name that continues a branding convention used in MacBooks and iPads,” Gurman said. He’s likely right, though I have another thought about what it could be called: iPhone Air.
He also confirmed reports that it would be around 5.5mm thick but would mean “a drop in battery life and the inclusion of only a single rear camera (which sits in a pill-shaped bump).”
More interestingly, the Air will have “the same A19 processor as the iPhone 17,” he said, which has been a source of controversy, with reports saying it would instead have the A19 Pro chip expected for the Pro and Pro Max phones this fall.
“It will also have a standard USB-C port, ProMotion support and a 6.6-inch screen. Its frame is too thin to support physical SIM cards so users will need to adopt eSIMs,” he added. These are not surprises but Gurman is more bullish than others about the eSIM-only note.
Though eSIM is standard for U.S. iPhones, many international carriers don’t handle eSIM, which could affect sales. and it may confirm that this phone is slimmer than the Samsung S25 Edge, which at 5.8 mm is thick enough to accommodate a physical SIM card.
He also pointed out that the iPhone 17 Air will have the company’s own modem, the Apple C1. It may not be as fast as Qualcomm’s modem that will be in the other iPhone 17 models, but it’s known for being especially power-efficient ,which makes it a better choice if battery is a concern.
“Like the iPad Air, the iPhone Air is designed to be sandwiched in the lineup between the base level iPhone and the Pro models,” Gurman said and, oh, look, he called it by the name I think it could be.
Also, he commented on the price, saying that it may be almost as expensive as the more powerful iPhone 17 Pro: “Apple is betting heavily that consumers are willing to pay much more for form-factor despite consistent demands for longer battery life and better cameras. That may end up making the Air line quite niche,” he explained. I’m not sure that’s true: there are a lot of people who value style.
Since then in his weekly Power On newsletter, Gurman has had more say about the iPhone 17 Air.
“In short, the new iPhone Air may be a cool piece of technology (or “awe dropping,” to quote Apple’s event slogan), but it probably won’t be a blockbuster product. I think it will do better than the mini and Plus iPhones from recent years, but that’s a fairly low bar. Those formats never caught on with consumers,” he said.
Well, that may be true, but I still believe it could be a success. And, remember, there are analysts who feel that the point of the super-slim iPhone Air is to pave the way for the iPhone Fold, effectively two slim phones put together. Reports suggest this could arrive in 2026.
“Still, focusing on the initial success of the model probably misses the point. The 2008 MacBook Air didn’t sell particularly well either. But it set the stage for the 2010 MacBook Air, which was redesigned — with processors on par with the regular MacBook and MacBook Pro — and given a lower, $999 starting price. The rest is history, and the MacBook Air has been Apple’s top-selling Mac for at least a decade.”
