The Information has revealed new details about the upcoming iPhone 17 Air.
The prototypes of the device are 5 to 6 mm thick. That means the iPhone 17 Air will be the thinnest Apple smartphone ever. For comparison, the iPhone 16 model is 7.8 mm thick, and the iPhone 16 Pro is 8.25 mm thick. Due to this ultra-thin design, Apple had to make some design compromises.
Currently, the device does not have a physical SIM card tray. This means that the new product is likely to rely entirely on eSIM technology. In the US, all iPhone 14, iPhone 15, and iPhone 16 models no longer have a physical SIM tray.
It is also known that the smartphone will have only one speaker - the top one. There is apparently not enough space for a second speaker on the bottom edge.
It is also known that the iPhone 17 Air will be equipped with a 5G modem developed by Apple. It is smaller and more energy efficient than the Qualcomm modems used in current iPhones. However, Apple's modem will not have mmWave 5G support and will have lower overall mobile speeds compared to Qualcomm's modems.
The last compromise concerns the cameras. The report says that the smartphone will have a single large camera in the middle of the back, while the iPhone 16 and iPhone 16 Plus models have dual cameras.
The device is currently in early production testing at the Foxconn factory. The smartphone will hit the market in September 2025 along with the iPhone 17, iPhone 17 Pro, and iPhone 17 Pro Max models.