The ultimate finesse…
According to The Information, the first prototypes would be between 5mm and 6mm thick, which would make the iPhone 17 Slim or Air the thinnest ever. But this would not be possible without some concessions.
So, the iPhone 16 Pro and Pro Max are 8.25 mm thickcompared to 7.8mm for the iPhone 16 and 16 Plus; the iPhone 15 Pro and Pro Max: 8.25 mm / the iPhone 15 and 15 Plus: 7.8 mm and finally the iPhone 14 Pro and Pro Max: 7.85 mm and the iPhone 14 and 14 Plus: 7.8mm. It is indeed necessary go back to the iPhone 6 to find a device below the 7 mm mark – it being specified that the thickest measured… 12.3 mm.
But this year, thinness has dropped to a record level with the iPad Pro M4 (13-inch), which is only 5.1 mm thick. It also dethroned the latest iPod nano with its 5.4 mm.
For the moment, on the smartphone side, the current thinness record is held by the iPhone 6 with its 6.9 mm thickness. And, in recent years, the trend has been towards increasingly larger panels and increasingly thick iPhones (partly to house a battery of sufficient capacity to run it).
…but at what price?
Due to this ultra-thin design, some compromises would have been necessary. So the smartphone would not have a drawer for a physical SIM card, but that could still change. If in the United States, all operators have favored an eSIM since the iPhone 14, not all countries are at the same stage (as for example in China).
The iPhone 17 Air would only have a wide-angle and an ultra-wide-angle. In the absence of a telephoto lens or the tetraprism of the Pro models, Apple could use a 48 megapixel sensor, allowing 2x optical zoom. Finally, unlike current models which have speakers at the top and bottom, the iPhone 17 Air would only have one speaker, located at the top. The question of course is whether this could impact sound quality.
The iPhone 17 Air could use a 5G modem designed by Apple. The latter would be slower and less reliable than Qualcomm modems, but would offer better energy efficiency. Finally, the last challenge: the thinness of the device complicates the integration of a sufficiently efficient battery, a major challenge for engineers.
Latest rumors for the iPhone 17
Unlike the iPhone 15 Pro and 16 Pro, the iPhone 17 Pro could ditch the titanium chassis for an aluminum frame with a hybrid aluminum-glass back. The upper half would be made of aluminum, with an outgrowth for the camera unit which would be even larger… than previous models. The bottom half will remain glass to ensure compatibility with wireless charging.
According to the latest rumors from production lines (and more precisely from foundries), the iPhone 17 should have chips engraved in 3nm by TSMC. On the other hand, certain iPhone 18 models could benefit from greater engraving finesse, thanks to the new 2 nm technology from the Taiwanese chip manufacturer.
The reduction in engraving fineness generally rhymes with an increase in processing speed and energy efficiency. And it would be logical that only the Pro models would be the first affected.
According to Jeff Pu (Haitong International Securities), the iPhones of 2025 should benefit from a refreshed design, with notable improvements to the front camera and even a smaller Dynamic Island.
According to a very recent rumor on Weibo, The iPhone 17 Pro MAX is expected to feature 12GB of RAM, up from the 8GB of RAM expected on iPhone 16 models. This increase would a priori concern all models in the range and not just the Pro versions, but nothing is less certain. So far, the iPhone 15 and iPhone 15 Plus have 6 GB of RAM, the iPhone 15 Pro and iPhone 15 Pro Max have 8 GB of RAM. This year, Apple should offer 8 GB across the entire range, before further differentiation next year.
All four iPhone 17 models will feature 24-megapixel front-facing (selfie) cameras. On this point, Jeff Pu agrees with Ming-Chi Kuo: this would be a notable upgrade compared to the current 12 megapixel front cameras used by Apple.
For his part, the Chinese leaker Instant Digital evokes increased resistance of the iPhone 17 screen. The latter would have a new anti-reflective treatment, more resistant to scratches.
According to supply chain sources, Apple may actually have new glass in 2025, likely made by Corning. This already equips current iPhones with the Ceramic Shieldoffering a surface that is even more resistant to micro-scratches, and a more efficient anti-reflective treatment.
According to Ming-Chi Kuo, two iPhone 17 models with Apple-designed 5G modem reportedly launched in 2025including a fourth-generation iPhone SE in the first quarter of the year and an all-new ultra-thin iPhone 17 model in the third quarter.
All iPhones currently on the market are equipped with Qualcomm modems. Moreover, Apple has extended its contract with the latter until 2026, so that the transition to its own chips could take place gradually over several years. It must be said that the Californian firm has been working on the subject for many years, notably acquiring the majority of Intel's smartphone modem business in 2019.
For now, the comparison between the two is impossible, but an Apple chip would have the advantage of reducing dependence on Qualcomm. Remember: all was not well between the two partners. In 2017, Cupertino sued Qualcomm for alleged anticompetitive practices, a story settled out of court in 2019 (coincidentally).
