Why iPhone 17 Air Plans May Be on Thin Ice

There are rumors that Apple is developing a slim next-gen device called the iPhone 17 Air, but recent reports suggest the company is facing challenges. According to an anonymous source from the news aggregator account yeux1122 on the Korean blog site Naver, Apple is having trouble making the rumored "iPhone 17 Air" thin enough to live up to its name. The issue appears to be related to the battery size, which is often the main obstacle in achieving such slim designs.

Apple is reportedly planning to use a 6mm-thick battery in the new, slimmer iPhone, which limits just how thin the device can actually be. It will likely be at least a few tenths of an inch thicker when you factor in everything else that goes into building a phone, too.

As MacRumors pointed out, the thinnest iPhone to date is the iPhone 6, which measures 6.9mm in thickness. If the rumor holds true, the iPhone 17 Air may not be much thinner than that.

Naturally, a rumor from a news aggregation account nearly a year before the iPhone 17's release should be taken with caution. However, if there’s any truth to it, some may find the slim design of the new iPhone a bit underwhelming.