Apple is going to debut its thinnest ever iPhone later this year, at just 5.5mm thin.While this new cutting-edge iPhone will have some compromises to shave nearly half the thickness of a normal iPhone, there’ll still be a number of features you won’t be compromising on.We’ll be delving into some of the pros and cons here.
Pros #1: Battery life You might expect a much thinner iPhone to have substantially compromised battery life.However, according to Bloomberg’s Mark Gurman, that isn’t going to be the case: iPhone 17 Air is rumored to feature a 6.6-inch display, so it’s unlikely that Apple will still match the Plus-sized battery life while being substantially thinner.However, it should still be able to pack standard iPhone battery life into the Air, which should be enough for most people.
#2: Price Despite being a cutting-edge form factor, iPhone 17 Air is expected to retain the same sub-$1000 price point of the outgoing iPhone 16 Plus, according to multiple sources.#3: Display tech Apple’s thinnest iPhone won’t be compromising on the display technology.It’s going to pack a 6.6-inch OLED display with LTPO, which’ll be a first for non-pro iPhones.
This means that you’ll have a bunch of great display features, such as 120Hz ProMotion and always-on functionality.#4: MagSafe After MagSafe was removed from the iPhone 16e, some had speculated that it wouldn’t be able to fit in the ultra-thin design of the iPhone 17 Air.However, recent dummy model leaks have revealed that MagSafe will continue to stick around on the iPhone 17 Air.
Cons #1: Cameras While iPhone 17 Air will still pack a flagship 48MP rear sensor, that’s all its going to get.iPhone 17 Air is sticking to a single camera setup.While the 48MP sensor will provide the versatility of taking 2x optical zoom shots, you won’t have the flexibility of an ultra-wide camera.
There also won’t be a native telephoto camera, although that historically.hasn’t been an option on non-pro iPhones.If you care about maximizing your smartphones camera, other iPhone 17 models will be a far better choice.
#2: Speakers iPhone 17 Air will only feature one speaker, apparently.According to , the device is too thin to fit a second speaker at the bottom.Instead, Apple will implement an enhanced earpiece speaker to make up for the shortcoming.
You’ll probably be better off using a pair of AirPods Pro for audio-listening, rather than using the built-in speaker.#3: Connectivity iPhone 17 Air will make the switch to Apple’s first in-house modem, the C1 chip.This means that the iPhone 17 Air won’t support mmWave in the US, something that the outgoing iPhone 16 Plus had supported.
It also means that the iPhone 17 Air won’t support every cellular band that the iPhone 16 Plus had supported, although in real world testing, it doesn’t seem to make too much of a difference.#4: Physical SIM cards While Apple removed the physical SIM card tray from US iPhones a couple years ago, physical SIM trays have continued to remain available worldwide.However, the iPhone 17 Air will likely remove it for good in all regions, due to its ultra thin design.
From : This may be an issue for sales of iPhone 17 Air, as China still requires devices to support physical SIM cards.My favorite Apple accessories on Amazon: Anker 25K Compact Power Bank with retractable cable MOFT Magnetic Wallet Stand, fits up to 3 cards AirTag 4-pack (on sale for 30% off!) Anker MagSafe 2-in-1 Wireless Charging Stand with Qi2 AirPods Pro 2 (USB-C) SanDisk Extreme 2TB USB-C SSD, up to 1050MB/s You’re reading 9to5Mac — experts who break news about Apple and its surrounding ecosystem, day after day.Be sure to check out our homepage for all the latest news, and follow 9to5Mac on Twitter, Facebook, and LinkedIn to stay in the loop.
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