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iPhone 17 Air might make a splash as the world’s thinnest phone

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Alleged Render of iPhone 17 Air.
@zellzoi / x

Apple is not really a brand that goes for big hardware claims. The company is often late to the game, but serves a refined formula that is usually the best in the smartphone segment. The upcoming ultra-thin iPhone 17 Air might change that, and in quite a spectacular fashion.

Leakster Universe has shared on X that the upcoming “slim” addition to the iPhone 17 series will offer a thickness of just 5.5mm across. The post adds that save for the side profile, the iPhone 17 Air will be exactly as tall and wide as the iPhone 17 Pro.

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With a thickness of 5.5mm, the iPhone 17 Air will most likely emerge as the thinnest phone in the market. For comparison, rumors put the thickness of Samsung’s Galaxy S25 Edge in the 5.85-6.4 millimeters range.

Exclusive revelation: The length, width, screen size, and bezel（same iPhone 16 Pro Max） of the iPhone 17 Air and iPhone 17 Pro Max are exactly the same.
Only the thickness is different. The iPhone 17 Air is 5.5mm thick, and the iPhone 17 Pro Max is 8.725mm thick. pic.twitter.com/YjcMFva5IW

— ICE UNIVERSE (@UniverseIce) March 7, 2025

At MWC 2025, Tecno also wowed the audience with Spark Slim, a sleek smartphone with a claimed thickness of 5.7mm and some serious battery firepower under the hood. Yet, it won’t quite outshine the iPhone 17 Air in the race to making the slimmest phone out there, as per the latest leak.

Apple won’t be breaking any historical thinness records, though. China’s Gionee launched smartphone models that were 5.5mm and 5.1mm thick, respectively. The Vivo X5 Max, launched in 2014, arrived with a thickness of just 4.75mm, beating the Oppo R5 back then.

Alleged render of iPhone 17 air in silver color.
@zellzoi / x

But hitting the shelves as the world’s thinnest phone in 2025 will come with some serious cost-cutting, it seems. As per alleged renders, the iPhone 17 Air will only feature a single rear camera, whereas rivals are sticking with a dual-camera setup.

iDeviceHelp and I have been working on something special to share very soon.

Stay tuned! pic.twitter.com/n5AKqSOoWz

— Majin Bu (@MajinBuOfficial) March 6, 2025

As per industry analyst Ming-Chi Kuo, the iPhone 17 Air will rely on a high-density battery to make up for the smaller package. He didn’t go into the technical details, but it is likely that Apple will go with a silicon carbon battery, which offers higher energy density without compromising on fast charging or battery longevity.

The company might also use the new battery packaging tech it employed for the iPhone 16, which makes it easier to repair and replace batteries. The whole stack involves using a metallic shell and an ionic liquid battery adhesive that is separated through a process called electrically induced adhesive debonding.

The iPhone 17 Air will reportedly be filling the gap left by the outgoing “Plus” model this year. However, it might be priced higher than the current-gen iPhone 16 Plus and could use a variant of the Apple’s new C1 modem, which recently marked its debut with the iPhone 16e model.

Nadeem Sarwar
Nadeem Sarwar
Managing Editor
Nadeem is the Managing Editor at Digital Trends.
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