iPhone 17 'Air' May Not Be Much Thinner Than iPhone 6

Next year's iPhone 17 "Air" model may not be as thin as Apple planned, according to a rumor originating in Korea.

According to the news aggregator account "yeux1122" on Naver, citing industry sources, Apple has run into problems making the new ‌iPhone 17‌ model sufficiently thin. The device's reduced thickness is apparently dependent on manufacturing a battery with a thinner substrate, but Apple is now facing technical compromises. One of the main problems is cost and Apple is now reportedly falling back on its existing battery technology.

As a result, the ‌iPhone 17‌ Air's battery will not be able to be as thin as Apple first intended for the device's new design. Now, the ‌iPhone 17‌ Air battery will purportedly be around 6mm thick, suggesting that the device itself will be thicker than this. Apple's thinnest ever iPhone was the ‌iPhone‌ 6 at 6.9mm, meaning that the ‌iPhone 17‌ "Slim" is unlikely to be much thinner than the 2014 flagship.

Likewise, the 13-inch iPad Pro and seventh-generation iPod nano could continue to lead as Apple's thinnest ever devices at 5.1mm and 5.4mm thick, respectively. The iPhone 16 Plus, the device that the ‌iPhone 17‌ Air will apparently replace in the lineup, is 7.8mm thick.

The ‌iPhone 17‌ Air is expected to launch in the fall of 2025 with the "A19" chip, a single rear camera, a ProMotion display for refresh rates up to 120Hz.