The iPhone 17 Air will be just thick enough to accommodate the physical keys on the side and the USB-C port at the bottom, but not much more.
The iPhone 17 Air will undoubtedly be the big star of the next generation of Apple smartphones. This new model replaces the iPhone Plus and will stand out from its peers with a lightweight and thin design. A previous leak gave us a glimpse of the thinness of this iPhone 17 Air, and now we have some impressive new images.
Sonny Dickson has published several photos showing mock-ups of each of the four iPhone 17 models. Lined up next to each other, we can clearly see the difference in thinness between the iPhone 17 Air and the other three mobiles. What is really striking is that the side edge of the device is barely thicker than the action and photo buttons it houses. In addition, these famous physical keys are themselves thinner than those of the other iPhone 17s.
Thin and light, but what about battery life?
In another photo, we see the lower edge of the iPhone 16, where the USB-C port is located. Here too, there is almost no space on either side of the connector. Apple has optimized the design of the iPhone 17 Air as much as possible to chase away unnecessary millimeters. To achieve such a feat, it seems that the Cupertino company has decided to sacrifice the physical SIM card slot, which should force users to switch to eSIM. On these prototypes, the SIM card door is also missing from the standard iPhone 17. It could therefore be that this feature will now be reserved for the Pro models. As a reminder, Apple has already removed physical SIM card slots on all its iPhones sold in the United States for several years.
One of the big unknowns of this device will be its autonomy. By cutting back on the thickness, Apple deprives itself of being able to integrate a large battery. It will be necessary to play on the energy density of the cells to not sacrifice too much capacity. We imagine that the manufacturer has also planned optimizations here and there. with the aim of reducing energy consumption, at the modem level for example.
Take a look at the sides of the iPhone 17 dummy — the Air model is unbelievably thin. pic.twitter.com/ixadQHuxK5
— Sonny Dickson (@SonnyDickson) April 24, 2025
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