What’s happened: Images have hit the web claiming to show the super-slim battery which Apple will apparently slide into the rumored iPhone 17 Air. It comes as no surprise as the iPhone Air is tipped to be the thinnest iPhone ever, so the battery cell would need to be svelte to keep the dimensions down.
- The images of the supposed battery were posted by South Korean tipster yeux1122, and show it alongside another, thicker battery cell which the leaker says is from the iPhone 17 Pro.
- The post also claims the iPhone Air battery is 2.49mm thick, and it appears to be about half thickness of the Pro battery.
- In the comments, the tipster says they expect the capacity to be bigger than the 2,438mAh battery in the iPhone 13 Mini.
- An earlier rumor from the same tipster suggested the iPhone 17 Air battery would be 2,800mAh.
This is important because: If the reports are true, the iPhone 17 Air will comfortably be the thinnest iPhone ever, marking a significant design leap for the Cupertino, California based firm.
- For the thinnest iPhone ever made we need to look all the way back to 2014 and the iPhone 6, which came in 6.9mm.
- The past three generations of base-level iPhone, the iPhone 16, iPhone 15 and iPhone 14, have all measured 7.8mm.
- Current iPhone 17 Air rumors suggest the handset might be around 5.5mm thick, which would be a serious downsizing.
- The Samsung Galaxy S25 Edge – the main rival to the iPhone Air – is 5.8mm thick and packs a 3,900mAh battery.
Why should I care? The iPhone Air might signal a new hardware direction for Apple, which has delivered us pretty much the same sized iPhone in recent years.
- With what looks set to be a considerably smaller battery than in the rest of the iPhone 17 series, and smaller than the power pack in the S25 Edge, there are questions over what sort of battery life to expect from the Air.
- We noted in our S25 Edge review that poor battery life was the main compromise in what is an otherwise impressive device.
- Apple won’t want to deliver sub-par performance, so it will need to look at ways to improve power efficiency in the Air.
- Improvements could include new battery chemistry – such as the silicon carbon batteries found in the Honor Magic V5 – the inclusion of new heat sync hardware, plus iOS 26 is said to bring its own power savings.
Okay, what’s next? Going on previous announcements, we expect Apple to launch the iPhone 17 series sometime in mid-September. It’s only then when we’ll learn for sure if the iPhone Air is real, and what exactly it can deliver in terms of battery performance.
- But before any iPhone launch, we’ll see the new Google Pixel 10 series arrive on August 20. While no super-slim iPhone Air rival is expected to arrive here, Google is tipped to launch a quartet of new phones.
Via TechRadar
