My 4 doubts about the iPhone 17 Air

Something you’re going to hear a lot more buzz about in the next several months is the iPhone 17 Air, sometimes dubbed the iPhone 17 Slim. There’s always plenty of hype around any new iPhone model, even if it turns out to be an incremental upgrade like the iPhone 16 series. However, the Air could be Apple’s first major design overhaul since the iPhone 11, looking unlike most smartphones, let alone last year’s models.

I’m skeptical of how good the Air will be for a few reasons. Bear in mind that these points are all based on rumors — I’m fully expecting some details to change. I’m also genuinely hoping that the product will succeed and break any doubt I might have, so you might almost consider it advice for Apple, assuming they have any room for changes this late into the product cycle.

1 Apple has a mixed track record with thin devices

The threat of a new Bendgate

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A decade ago, Apple ran into serious controversy (and legal problems) when people discovered that the iPhone 6 and 6 Plus — especially the latter — were a little too easy to bend. If you weren’t paying attention, you could even bend the phones by sitting down with them in your pocket. It was a pretty potent deal-killer for a device that cost several hundred dollars. Court documents later revealed that Apple had long been aware of the issue in private, despite public attempts to dismiss any complaints.

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You’d think Apple would’ve learned its lesson, but the company’s obsession with thinness has created subsequent problems on a smaller scale. Mainly, I’m thinking of the 2018 iPad Pro, for which you can find plenty of examples of bending online.

Apple seems to have made 2024 iPads a little more sturdy, but the specter of Bendgate looms in the background, and iPhones don’t have people as enthralled as they used to. A controversy with the iPhone 17 Air could steer thousands or millions of customers towards Android phones.

2 Thinness is getting priority over specs

People don’t care that much about slim devices

You’d think that the radically different version of the iPhone 17 would be the one with the best specs, but that’s not what rumors are saying. Instead, the Air is expected to replace Plus-model iPhones, sitting between the base iPhone 17 and the 17 Pro. Yes, the Air should have things like an A19 processor, 8GB of RAM, and a 6.6-inch, 120Hz ProMotion display, but don’t expect any more than two rear cameras. It may have as few as one, according to analyst Ming-Chi Kuo, although I personally doubt that unless Apple equips it with variable zoom.

The consensus seems to be that Apple is hoping a slim design will be a selling point on its own. I think Apple is overestimating how much that matters anymore — sure, many people will be attracted by the new aesthetic, but most phones are thin enough to fit comfortably in a pocket these days. I’ll bet that if you asked the average person, they’d take two-day battery life or a cheaper price over thinness every time. But those don’t seem to be acceptable ideas in Apple’s boardrooms, so here we are.

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3 The price could be astronomical

How much are bragging rights really worth?

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It’s been claimed by The Information that the iPhone 17 Air could actually cost more than the iPhone 16 Pro Max, which starts at an eye-watering $1,199. It’s another rumor I’m wary of, but sadly, I could see it coming true. Apple has long targeted a “premium” market, by which it really means richer shoppers are willing to pay for pure luxury. There’s a reason the company even dared to ship the Vision Pro for $3,500 when the $500 Meta Quest 3 exists.

Some people have the disposable income to buy phones based purely on aesthetics, but that’s not most of Apple’s base, I can guarantee. iPhone upgrade cycles are getting longer, upwards of three years, and even then some people are buying older models to save cash. An Air costing as much or more than a Pro Max might arrive dead in the water.

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4 The iPhone 17 Air may be quickly eclipsed

Why accept compromises now when you can do better by waiting just a little longer?

Reasonable speculation by Bloomberg‘s Mark Gurman suggests that the Air will eventually become the template for all iPhones. Once Apple solves pioneering design and miniaturization issues — in other words, there won’t be any need to charge extra for mid-tier specs, and you’ll be able to get Pro-level specs in an Air form factor.

I call it reasonable because Apple followed the exact same template with 2017’s iPhone X. The next year, we didn’t just get the iPhone XS and XS Max, but an affordable alternative, the iPhone XR — a deal good enough that I went out and bought one myself.

Gurman argues that we won’t see the Air design become widespread until 2027, but even if it takes that long, some people will understandably take a look at the Air’s specs and price and decide they’d be better off waiting a year or two. As things are, rumors suggest the Air could be a compromised middleground no one asked for, like a mediocre version of the iPhone X.

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