Leaked iPhone 17 Air Rumored to be Thinnest Model Yet!
It feels like only yesterday that we launched the iPhone 16 lineup here in the Philippines. Yet we’re now getting leaks and rumors about their upcoming successors. One model stands out in particular as well.
Latest leaks now point to a new iPhone 17 “Air” model, which will supposedly be the thinnest iPhone yet. But how thin you might be wondering? Well, this model will supposedly come in at just 6mm thin, much, much thinner than the iPhone 16 Pro Max’s 8.25mm and even the much older iPhone 6’s 6.9mm.
How is this possible? Well, the secret is supposedly in that new display panel:
A new OLED display and…one camera?
Initial leaks from DigiTimes suggests that Apple will use a panel similar to Taiwanese brand Novatek’s TDDI OLED panel. This design reportedly combines the touch sensor layer and the display driver in just one unit. After all, TDDI does stand for “Touch and Display Driver Integration”.
Sure, it might only shave off a few millimeters on paper but even the smallest numbers can make a difference in how thick the phone will feel in hand. Still, there’s no official word whether this is the route Apple wants to take with this new model.
Another leak suggests that Apple may only place one camera on the back of this new iPhone, ditching the ultrawide. Maybe relying more on the ‘Fusion’ camera concept they already implemented in the 16 lineup. Though even this isn’t definitive yet.
What we do know is that the iPhone 17 Air will be sporting a 6.6-inch OLED display despite its apparent slim design, making it much closer to the iPhone 16 Plus than the base model. And for good reason too, which we’ll touch on later. It might even come with ProMotion technology finally giving users that smooth 120Hz refresh rate experience.
Slim design; Non-Pro performance
Despite the seemingly more premium design, this thinner iPhone model is reportedly only coming with the upcoming base A19 chipset, not the much stronger Pro variant. According to analyst Jeff Pu, this means there’s going to be less GPU cores and slightly lower clock speeds.
That said, we can’t write off this hypothetical phone from any benchmarks just yet.
For starters, both the A19 and the A19 Pro will supposedly use TSMC’s latest 3nm process; one that supposedly offers better performance and energy efficiency than the 3nm chips powering the A18 and A18 Pro.
And we’re sure to see the phone integrate their new Apple Intelligence features as well. For non-AI enthusiasts, this does mean more RAM and headroom for your apps, most likely 8GB like the previous lineup.
Still not the thinnest Apple device
Even if all of these currently leaked specs come true though, this still won’t be Apple’s thinnest device. That honor still belongs to the 13-inch M4 iPad Pro which launched back in May 2024. The whole tablet measures just 5.1mm thick while packing all the performance and efficiency improvements that come with the latest chipset.
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Farewell to the iPhone Plus Model?
For anyone wondering if this leaked iPhone 17 Air will add another piece to Apple’s already varied lineup, there’s well, news. It’s speculated that the iPhone 17 Air will be replacing the “Plus” model in the lineup. Sad news for anyone who found that model to be just right in terms of design, dimensions, and performance.
It’s probably not too surprising. The Plus model is generally not the most popular among the iPhone lineup. It didn’t even break the top 10 in Counterpoint’s best-selling smartphones for Q3 2024 for example. Given the Air’s rumored 6.6-inch display though, it should still serve as a good option for anyone who wants a bigger display without going for the Pro models.
Especially since early leaks have also floated the possibility of the slimmer iPhone 17 Air being much more expensive than even the iPhone 16 Pro.
Whatever the case, the iPhone 17 Air will hopefully retain the wide color options we get with the non-Pro models. Just as a good alternative for anyone who’s not too big on the more metallic Titanium look of the Pro.
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