When Apple reveals the iPhone 17 series, it looks like one mainstay, the Plus version of the regular phone, will have been canceled and replaced with something completely different, as Monty Python used to say. This super-slim addition, nicknamed iPhone 17 Air, has raised the most excitement. Here’s what we know so far.
iPhone 17 Air Design
Above all, it’s very thin, perhaps as thin as 5.5mm thick from front to back, which is a lot less than the iPhone 16 Pro and Pro Max at 8.25mm, for instance. This thickness will mean it’s even thinner than the recently released, and reportedly very popular Samsung Galaxy S25 Edge (5.8mm). It would also be the thinnest iPhone ever, though please note the camera bump would make the phone 9.5mm thick where the lenses sit.
It will also look unlike any other iPhone from the back, thanks to just one camera but a horizontal camera panel stretching the width of the phone. Fewer cameras means more room for the one thing it will need the most: battery.
It seems it will have a different look in other ways, too. It’s possible that Apple will change the metal finish on the iPhone 17 Pro from titanium to aluminum, and reserve titanium for the iPhone 17 Air: the combination of stiffness and light weight could be a perfect match for a phone this thin.
And colors will be different from the 17 and 17 Pro ranges, and rumors suggest that along with black there’ll be a white finish that is different from the iPhone 17. Plus either one or two more shades: light gold and light blue are considered most likely.
The display is likely to have 120Hz refresh rate.
iPhone 17 Air Camera
Since the main camera on the iPhone 16 is a 48-megapixel model, this is likely to be the same on the iPhone 17 Air. This resolution also allows Apple to describe it as two cameras in one: cropping in to the central 12 megapixels of the sensor creates a 2x zoom equivalent.
The front camera could be upgraded from the current 12-megapixel resolution found on current iPhones.
iPhone 17 Air Processor
Apple is working on two processors: A19 for the iPhone 17 and A19 Pro for the iPhone 17 Pro and Pro Max. For the Air, some reports say Apple will use the A19 Pro but with one fewer GPU core.
iPhone 17 Battery
This could be the phone’s Achilles’ heel. Rumors say it won’t last as long as other iPhones so users will be relying on power efficiencies in the new processors plus new adaptive battery software in iOS 26.
