Rumoured iPhone 17 Air could be as thin as 5mm and not have a physical SIM card tray
It will also reportedly only have a single camera and only speakers on one side. Has Apple gone too far to make a thin device?
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A render of the rumoured iPhone 17 Air. Photo: MacRumors
An in-depth report published by The Information has contradicted recent rumours that Apple would not be able to make the rumoured iPhone 17 Air as thin as expected.
Korean blogger @yeux1122 said earlier this month that Apple had encountered difficulties in making the iPhone 17 Air thin. The blogger said that because of battery limitations, the iPhone 17 Air would likely be thicker than 6mm.
However, The Information contests these claims in their report. Based on the latest prototypes, the iPhone 17 Air would likely only be between 5mm and 6mm thick, which would easily make it the thinnest iPhone ever. For context, the thinnest iPhone to date is the 10-year iPhone 6 at 6.9mm.
That said, the report acknowledges that Apple is struggling to find an adequate battery to fit into the chassis, but also stated that there is enough time for Apple to overcome this hurdle.
Unsurprisingly, compromises have to be made to get it this thin. The information claims the phone will only have a single speaker and a smaller battery. In addition, to further reduce thickness, it will only have a single camera.
The report also says Apple will use its own in-house modems for the phone. Apple’s own modems are said to be smaller and more power efficient, though they will lack fast 5G mmWave support and will also have slower cellular speeds compared to Qualcomm’s modems.
Perhaps most crucially, the iPhone 17 Air will reportedly be an eSIM-only device. This isn’t an issue in the US where the last three generations of iPhones were eSIM only, but it could be a problem in countries that still rely heavily on SIM cards – like China.
Finally, the report says Apple will unveil the device in September next year alongside the standard iPhone 17 and iPhone 17 Pro and is expected to replace the iPhone 17 Plus.
Based on these rumours, one can't shake the feeling that Apple is perhaps going too far to make the iPhone as thin as possible. Though the novelty of the device and Apple's brand cachet cannot be underestimated and will certainly help drive sales, it will be interesting to see how customers feel about giving up features for an ultra-thin phone.
Source: The Information via MacRumors
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