Next year, Apple would finally offer a big new design feature. Indeed, it is rumored that there will be no iPhone 17 Plus. On the other hand, the firm would prepare an iPhone 17 Air, on which it would prioritize the quality of the design, to the detriment of certain elements of the technical sheet. In addition, Apple would strive to make this iPhone 17 Air as thin as possible. Recently, journalist Mark Gurman (Bloomberg) also indicated that, thanks to the use of a 5G modem designed in-house, instead of Qualcomm modems, Apple would manage to design an iPhone 17 Air which would be thinner than the iPhone 16 Pro by 2 millimeters.
In other words, this Air model could therefore have a thickness of around 6.3 millimeters. This will probably be considered an achievement. And Apple could boast of having developed the thinnest iPhone ever. However, if Mark Gurman’s information is correct, the iPhone 17 Air would not be the thinnest Apple product. Indeed, that title would still go to the 11-inch iPad Pro 2024, which is 5.3 millimeters thick. On the other hand, Apple will not be able to boast of having designed the thinnest smartphone of all time, since a few brands of Android smartphones have already released thinner devices in the past.
We had a lot of ultra-thin smartphones in the 2010s
Among the thinnest devices in the smartphone market is the Vivo millimeters, and a thickness of 4.75 millimeters.
The Oppo R5, also released in 2014, had a thickness of 4.85 millimeters.
In 2015, Samsung also released the Galaxy A8, which had a thickness of 5.9 millimeters.
This list is not exhaustive, but it shows that at the time, extremely thin smartphones were already available on the market.
iPhone 17 Air: what sacrifices will you be willing to make?
The challenge for Apple engineers is probably to develop a very thin smartphone that also meets consumer expectations in 2025. Unfortunately, it is rumored that, to develop this iPhone Air, the Cupertino firm would have been forced to make some sacrifices at the technical sheet level.
For example, Apple’s 5G chip, which would save space, might not support 5G mmWave, which allows for better connectivity. On the other hand, it is rumored that the iPhone 17 Air would only have a photo sensor on the back (like most smartphones from the early 2010s).
