Apple's ultra-thin iPhone 17 Air may come at a cost

Apple is reportedly preparing an ultra-thin iPhone 17 Air as a possible replacement for the iPhone 16 Plus this fall. However, the device will reportedly sacrifice graphics performance, screens, and battery capacity compared to the Pro model in order to be thinner.

Tom's Guide writes about it.

What exactly will change in the iPhone 17 Air?

Fixed Focus Digital's Weibo tip claims that the iPhone 17 Air will be very similar to the iPhone 17 Pro in terms of configuration, but will have three notable sacrifices: a single GPU core cut, a simplified display, and a smaller battery. According to him, "almost all the Pro's parameters" will be preserved, but these are the points that will be compromised — despite this, the insider is "quite optimistic" about the model.

According to rumors, the Air will receive the A19 Pro chip, like the Pro versions, but with five graphics cores instead of six, as in the iPhone 17 Pro. At the same time, it should be more powerful than the base iPhone 17, which is credited with the standard A19 without the Pro prefix.

The screen and battery, according to the same source, will be a step back from the iPhone 16 Plus level. Current leaks suggest a 6.6-inch OLED panel (slightly smaller than the 6.7-inch 16 Plus) with a 120Hz refresh rate, but no ProMotion — that is, no variable refresh rate. A thinner body usually means a smaller battery: the iPhone 17 Air is said to have a 2,800-2,900mAh battery, which is less than not only what's expected from the Pro models, but also the claimed 3,900mAh in the competing Galaxy S25 Edge. For comparison, the iPhone 16 Pro contained a 3,582mAh cell.

Another difference is the cameras. Analyst Ming-Chi Kuo suggests that the iPhone 17 Air will only have one main 48MP module, and the renders confirm this. The regular iPhone 17 is said to feature a 48MP main camera and a 12MP ultrawide, while the Pro versions can upgrade the telephoto camera to 48MP.

As a result, the iPhone 17 Air looks like a model with a number of conscious compromises for the sake of a specific aesthetic and a thin profile. At the same time, sources predict a commercial success of the new product. The iPhone 17 lineup is expected in September — that is, in a few weeks.

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