We don’t yet know if Apple’s iPhone 17 Air will be a commercial success when it launches this fall, but the unreleased slimline handset already has one fan. The YouTube channel Unbox Therapy got hold of an early prototype and showed it off in a video this week, describing the phone’s design as “crazy” and “insane” and predicting that, assuming the chassis strength is good enough to avoid another Bendgate controversy, Apple will “sell a boatload of these things.”
The initial reaction of the YouTuber, Lewis Hilsenteger, is overwhelmingly positive. “This is crazy. Oh my god!” he says when the device emerges from its container. Struck by the difference in thickness between the 17 Air and a 17 Pro Max prototype sent in by the same supplier, he checks the listed dimensions: the slimline model is 5.65mm at the thinnest point, compared to 8.75mm for the 17 Pro Max and 7.96mm for the 17 Pro.
(For comparison with current standards, the iPhone 16 Pro and 16 Pro Max are both listed on Apple’s website as being 8.25mm thick, while the 16, 16 Plus, and 16e are 7.8mm, so the Air is a huge reduction while some other models are getting thicker, possibly to accommodate larger batteries and possibly to exaggerate the Air’s thinness.)
But there are important caveats: namely the reference to Bendgate. The unanticipated flexibility of the super-thin iPhone 6 Plus (7.1 mm) back in September 2014 damaged Apple’s reputation for hardware perfectionism for some years after. But Apple will surely be laser-focused on durability this time, and it seems unlikely the company would risk the dreadful PR of a repeat incident. A second caveat added later in the video may be more pertinent: Hilsenteger frets that “this thing’s going to have horrible battery life.” That’s probably going to be true.
More pressing, the iPhone 17 Air is likely to be an exercise in compromise. Aside from battery life and the possible risk of bending, the phone is expected to have just one rear camera lens, like the iPhone 16e, and the processor and RAM allocation of a standard iPhone model, not a Pro one. If customers are willing to make those compromises for the sake of a slim body, while paying a relatively high price, we can expect Apple to lean harder in that direction. If not, the Air experiment will die after one or two models like the mini and (presumably) the Plus.
It’s important to say, before we get too excited, that Apple won’t officially announce the iPhone 17 Air and its sibling products for another five months, so calling the video a “hands-on” might be considered a little tenuous. This isn’t an actual 17 Air as it will be revealed, but a prototype or dummy supplied by a third-party manufacturer. (The identity of that manufacturer isn’t revealed for obvious reasons, but it’s likely to be an accessory maker with contacts in Apple’s supply chain.)
Corroboration with other prototypes inspires some confidence that this one is legitimate, but plans can change and it’s possible the final product will be different. But it’s hard not to watch that video and get excited for the launch.
For all the latest leaks and rumors as we lead up to the big day, bookmark our regularly updated iPhone 17 megaguide. Or pick up a bargain on a current model with our roundup of the best iPhone deals.
Author: David Price, Editor, Macworld
David has been writing about technology for well over two decades, and got on board the Apple hype train when covering the original iPhone launch in 2007. He is an enthusiastic Apple Watch evangelist and feels that the HomePod is misunderstood.
