The iPhone 17 Air probably won't be as thin as those older Android smartphones

Announced in 2014, the Oppo R5 had a thickness of 4.85mm. © Oppo

Next year, Apple would finally offer a major design innovation. Indeed, it is rumored that there will be no iPhone 17 Plus. On the other hand, the firm would be preparing an iPhone 17 Air, on which it would prioritize the quality of the design, to the detriment of certain elements of the technical sheet. In addition, Apple would strive to make this iPhone 17 Air as thin as possible. Recently, journalist Mark Gurman (Bloomberg) also indicated that, thanks to the use of a 5G modem designed internally, instead of Qualcomm modems, Apple would manage to design an iPhone 17 Air that would be 2 millimeters thinner than the iPhone 16 Pro.

In other words, this Air model could therefore have a thickness of around 6.3 millimeters. This will probably be considered an achievement. And Apple could boast of having developed the thinnest iPhone ever. However, if Mark Gurman's information is correct, the iPhone 17 Air would not be the thinnest Apple product. Indeed, this title would still go to the 11-inch iPad Pro 2024, which is 5.3 millimeters thick. On the other hand, Apple will not be able to boast of having designed the thinnest smartphone ever, since a few Android smartphone brands have already released thinner devices in the past.

We had quite a few ultra-thin smartphones in the 2010s

Among the thinnest devices in the smartphone market is the Vivo X5 Max, released in 2014. Featuring a 5.5-inch Super AMOLED display, it had a height of 153.9 millimeters, a width of 78 millimeters, and a thickness of 4.75 millimeters.

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The Oppo R5, also released in 2014, was 4.85 millimeters thick.

In 2015, Samsung also released the Galaxy A8, which had a thickness of 5.9 millimeters.

© Samsung

This list is not exhaustive, but it shows that at At the time, extremely thin smartphones were already available on the market.

iPhone 17 Air: what sacrifices will you be willing to make?

The challenge for Apple engineers is probably to develop a very thin smartphone that also meets the expectations of consumers in 2025. Unfortunately, it is rumored that, to develop this iPhone Air, the Cupertino firm would have been forced to make some sacrifices in terms of the technical sheet.

For example, the Apple 5G chip, which would save space, might not support 5G mmWave, which allows for better connectivity. On the other hand, it is rumored that the iPhone 17 Air would only have a photo sensor on the back (like most smartphones from the early 2010s).

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