iPhone 17 Air will be 25% thinner, Apple’s ‘thinnest phone yet’ per report – 9to5Mac

Next year’s iPhone 17 Air continues to get more detailed spec leaks. The latest report gives us our best understanding yet of exactly how much thinner the new device will be.

Next year’s iPhone 17 Air has new details

Apple has started drastically slimming down its devices, and the iPhone is next.

2024 was a big year for this new initiative. The M4 iPad Pro launched in May as Apple’s thinnest device ever, then in September the Apple Watch Series 10 debuted with a notable thickness reduction too.

This year’s iPhone lineup didn’t get the same treatment though. But next year that’s going to change—at least with one model.

The iPhone 17 Air will have a radically ultra-thin new design. It won’t have top-tier specs, but it will represent the future of iPhone design nonetheless.

In a Bloomberg report on Apple’s in-house modem projects, Mark Gurman shared a couple new details about what to expect from the iPhone 17 Air.

That device will be the company’s thinnest phone yet and showcase why Apple spent billions of dollars to replace Qualcomm…By using its own modem, Apple is able to create a smartphone that’s about 2 millimeters thinner than an iPhone 16 Pro

For reference, here are measurements for Apple’s current flagships:

• iPhone 16: 7.8mm
• iPhone 16 Plus: 7.8mm
• iPhone 16 Pro: 8.25mm
• iPhone 16 Pro Max: 8.25mm

25% thickness reduction could make a big difference

A 2mm reduction compared to the 16 Pro would equal about a 25% thinner phone overall—slightly more than 25% compared to Pro models, and slightly less with the base models.

This is in line with previous expectations of a device that’s overall close to 6mm thick.

Apple’s current thinnest iPhone ever is the iPhone 6, which came in at 6.9mm thick. The 17 Air looks set to best it with ease.

Most of us don’t use millimeters too often as a form of measurement, so for me at least, it’s much easier to wrap my head around the changes when considering the 25% size reduction.

As I look at my iPhone 16 Pro, cutting 25% off the thickness would indeed make for a huge change. That’s a big chunk of the margin currently surrounding the 16 Pro’s buttons.

The iPhone 17 Air’s shortcomings will make it a hard choice if you normally buy Pro models, but it’s tough to deny it will be an exciting new model.

How do you feel about the expected 25% size reduction? Is that a big enough change to win you over? Let us know in the comments.

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