Apple Insider: Ultra-Thin iPhone 17 Air Slated for 2025 Release

There seem to be almost as many varieties of Apple products as there are varieties of apples. A gross exaggeration? Maybe. But until now, the iPhone lineup had actually been fairly static and simple.

Until now, with word that Apple is preparing the by-far-thinnest iPhone ever: that’s right—it seems we’re staring down the (Apple) barrel of the first iPhone “Air.”

into thin air

Let’s back up a moment and try to make sense of Apple’s naming convention, which is starting to become borderline unwieldy.

There are so many models and sub-models of Apple products that they’ve settled onto a standardized naming convention for the range of sub-models, each of which applies across several product families. The standardized names denote where in the hierarchy each product fits, but it can still get confusing.

There’s “Pro,” which denotes higher-end performance in almost every measurable aspect, and a higher-end price. Whether it’s a MacBook Pro, iPad Pro, AirPods Pro, or iPhone Pro, these are premium products that make your friends and coworkers jealous. Top of the heap.

That is, unless you want to go mobile and go bigger. Then you’ve got an iPhone Pro Max, which grows the screen size of the Pro model (and the price), and the AirPods Max. But there’s no iPad or MacBook Pro Max, although if you’re talking about the Apple chips within them, then there’s definitely (current generation) M4, M4 Pro, and M4 Max. We won’t even get into “Mini.” Confused yet?

There’s also the delineation “Air.” To date, it’s only been the iPad Air and MacBook Air, both models prioritizing thinness and lightness. They slot in below the Pro models at lower prices, making the pitch to would-be buyers that if they don’t need the higher performance of a Pro device for intensive tasks, they’re better off enjoying the featherweight, am-I-actually-holding-anything cases of the more affordable Air device.

We haven’t had an iPhone Air yet in all the product line’s 18 years, but word that the iPhone 17 will also be called “Air” aligns with reports—leaks and speculation, really—that the 2025 iPhone will be thin. Really thin.

Mark Gurman, noted Apple leaker at Bloomberg, said in his newsletter that the next iPhone 17, termed the iPhone 17 Air, will measure a significantly thinner 5.8mm for the regular iPhone 17 and 6.3mm for the iPhone 17 Pro. That jibes with a recent Medium post by Ming-Chi Kuo that reported an even lower number: 5.5mm for the base model iPhone 17.

These numbers are so much thinner than the 7.8mm-thick iPhone 16, the most recent iPhone, that they’re almost, possibly, maybe unbelievable. But Gurman and Kuo, an analyst at the TF International Securities (a financial services group in the Asia-Pacific region), are both veteran Apple prediction experts with reputations of reliability. So the fact that two of them are releasing similar numbers gives me pause on dismissing the claim so quickly.

proving ground

At 6.9mm thick, the iPhone 6 remains the thinnest iPhone ever sold. And that came out at the tail end of 2014. If Rocky V has taught us anything, it’s that every reigning champ’s time at the top comes to an end someday, thanks to a plucky, young upstart.

Why so thin, and why now? You mean aside from the years-long fetishization of ultra-thin devices? Apple wants to see how thin it can make iPhones in preparation for its push into foldable devices, writes Gurman.

It’s likely we’ll get the full unveiling in September, as Apple has traditionally done for annual iPhone releases, with a launch date sometime in October. Does that mean we’ll be waiting by patiently? Hell no. We’re going to Hoover up and vet all the credible-seeming rumors we can until then, so stay tuned for more juicy Apple tea.