The iPhone 17 Air won't sacrifice battery life in the name of thinness, while also supposedly acting as the next evolutionary stage toward rumored portless and foldable iPhones, says veteran tipster Mark Gurmam of Bloomberg.
One would expect a thinner phone to feature a smaller battery, and worse battery life as a result. But according to Gurman, Apple made sure its engineers redesigned "display and silicon components, as well as software," to give the iPhone 17 Air a battery life "on par with current iPhones."
This will no doubt be achieved in part with Apple's efficient new C1 modem, which debuted in the iPhone 16e recently, and a new A19 chipset, also mentioned by Gurman.
Smaller than planned, with notable omissions
Another interesting detail from this report is that Apple wanted the iPhone 17 Air to be the same size as the iPhone 17 Pro Max - 6.9 inches. But fearing durability problems for a phone that large and thin, a smaller 6.7-inch size has been settled upon.
Gurman continues to reveal that Apple did look at removing ports entirely from the rumored super-slim iPhone we'll see later this year, but decided to keep USB-C support in the end. This was apparently due to the European Union's "common charger" legislation, which mandates USB-C charging support for all mobile devices.
That said, there will be no SIM card tray in the iPhone 17 Air globally from the sounds of what Gurman says. iPhones already come without SIM card support in the U.S. but elsewhere in the world, users can use physical SIMs with new iPhones just like they could with models pre-iPhone 14.
However, the rest of the phone will reflect "a new industrial design that accompanies this year's revamped iOS," referring to iOS 19 and its rumored big update to the look of Apple's iPhone software.
Apple leadership will apparently be watching the progress of the iPhone 17 Air closely, Gurman continues. "Apple executives say that if this new iPhone is successful, the company intends to again attempt to make port-free iPhones and move more of its models to this slimmer approach," he says. He adds that Apple also wants to use parts from the new Air model to build new foldable iPhones, ideally in time for the iPhone's 20th birthday in 2027.
So if the iPhone 17 Air sells well, it sounds like we should look out for slim iPads, MacBooks and more in the coming years.
An uncertain future
We have no trouble accepting that Apple wants to remove or reduce certain features to make the iPhone 17 Air as thin as possible. But the idea of removing the charging port would have been a step too far.
A portless design has been rumored for older iPhones, with the first rumors appearing back in 2021. But with the iPhone 17 Air promising big changes to its look and feel compared to current iPhones, Apple seems closer than ever to ditching its phones' ports.
Apple's already shown it has the means to quickly adopt new charging systems for its iPhones, after the iPhone 15 series switched from Lightning to USB-C across the board. Shifting charging methods again after just a few years would be unusual, but perhaps inevitable if the iPhone 17 Air proves a hit.
If — or when — ports disappear from iPhones, we can expect to see an increased focus on wireless charging, and Apple's MagSafe standard in particular.
Apple updated MagSafe for iPhone for the first time since launch last year with the iPhone 16 series, increasing the charging speed from 15W to 25W, perhaps in preparation for an eventual iPhone model that uses wireless charging exclusively.
As far as we know, the iPhone 17 Air should arrive this September with the iPhone 17 and iPhone 17 Pro and Pro Max.
The Pro models should get a new design plus a 48MP telephoto camera on the back, while all models will supposedly be treated to a vapor chamber cooling system and better selfie cameras.
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