Apple To Launch Thinner iPhone 17 'Air' as Step Toward Port-Free Design

Apple will introduce a slimmer iPhone 17 "Air" this fall, marking a strategic shift toward potentially port-free devices in future product lines, according to a Bloomberg report.

The new model will feature a 6.6-inch display with ProMotion scrolling, Dynamic Island interface, and a Camera Control button while measuring approximately 2 millimeters thinner than current models -- roughly a 20% reduction in depth, the report said. Despite its slimmer profile, the device will maintain battery life comparable to existing iPhones through redesigned display and silicon components. It will incorporate Apple's power-efficient C1 in-house modem chip but will retain USB-C connectivity, despite earlier internal discussions about eliminating ports entirely.

Re: The iPhone 18 Air Crisp Pro will be even thinn

[ArmoredDragon]

I think you meant the air ultra pro max plus.

Re:

[hwstar]

At what point does it become to crisp and too easy to snap it on two?

What about the battery? They'd have to either reduce power consumption, or choose a battery with more energy density (i.e. a potential Bomb)

Brazil will fine apple when they don't put an wire

[Joe_Dragon]

Brazil will fine apple when they don't put an wireless power changer in the box so keeping usb-c is good.

Re:

[alvinrod]

Just don't sell it there. Not that it really matters though because the tariffs and other taxes on tech products [npr.org] in Brazil are so high that it's usually more economical to buy a flight to Miami, load up on technology products, and fly back to Brazil and bribe a customs agent than it is to buy them locally. If consumers there want one, which they almost certainly will because nothing says status symbol quite as much as a product that cannot be aquired commonly, there will be people who find ways to supply th

Make another iPhone Mini please

[ihadafivedigituid]

I seriously don't care about thinner. My iPhone 13 Mini in an Apple leather case + leather Magsafe wallet is still my ideal combo after nearly 3.5 years. They'll get my Mini when they either pry it out of my cold, dead fingers or make another Mini I can replace it with.

Re:

[Guspaz]

I do. Because I'm going to put the phone in a case, and the case will add a ton of thickness. So, thinner phone outside the case, thinner phone inside the case.

Re:

[Bahbus]

If your phone case is adding that much bulk that you need/want a thinner phone, the problem is not the phone's thickness, but your choice of case. Choose a different case.

Re:

[ihadafivedigituid]

Pretty much this. I have the somewhat pricey Apple leather case. It's thin, but my phone has hit the pavement at least three times at 20mph+ while biking, and other than some minor dings in the leather it's like it never happened.

Some of the Otterbox-style cases I've seen are like hauling a wheelie Pelican carry-on around everywhere. And still people have cracked screens, which has never happened to me on any phone.

Re:

[ihadafivedigituid]

Great, you do you.

But it's a little weird that I did say I put my phone in a case (plus Magsafe wallet for thickness++), and you replied as if I said I didn't.

Re:

[locater16]

Supposedly next year the folding iphone will be about the size of an iphone mini when closed.

Re:

[ihadafivedigituid]

Could be cool if they figure the screen part out. None of the foldable phones I've seen so far are acceptable.

I don't stare at my phone all day every day watching movies/Youtube/etc like my soon-to-be ex-wife who does this on an iPhone 13 Pro Max, so the smaller screen works fine for me.

I wouldn't kick a future Mini out of bed for being thinner, but I would be happy as hell if they kept the same exact size and added more battery capacity.

Re:

[antdude]

Ditto. Even SE! I want smaller and lighter iPhones! I don't like big and heavy smartphones due to my disabilities. :(

Air Play?

[Sandman1971]

So will they retroactively path Airplay to run over Bluetooth even in older vehicles? And will they fix their low volume bluetooth problem?

Paradoxically

[fahrbot-bot]

iPhone 17 'Air' as Step Toward Port-Free Design

A more/completely sealed iPhone would be "Less Air" and "No Air". Just sayin' :-)

Re: Sooo elegant

[Anubis350]

You have dongles on your phone?

Re:

[fahrbot-bot]

You have dongles on your phone?

I have a Pixel 5a; it has USB-C and an actual headphone jack.

Oh great. More proprietary tech

[hwstar]

I can see where this is going.

No ports means vendor lock-in with proprietary hardware.

Will there be a standard for wireless charging: No. Only a patent-encumbered charging scheme.

What if you forget your charger on a trip? You can't go down to the electronics store and buy a generic USB C charger. You would likely have to go to an Apple Store and pay through the nose to get a replacement charger.

If there's going to be wireless charging, then it needs to be an open standard. I don't think that Apple will want that and will introduce a proprietary charging standard for market differentiation, and for additional profit.

Re:

[fred6666]

I believe Qi is already an open standard
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/... [wikipedia.org]

Re:

[ctilsie242]

Kinda/sorta. MagSafe is pretty much the de facto industry standard right now. It does okay with power, but it would be nice if it had data. What is missing is a way to DFU restore a phone, because earlier Apple Watches had to be taken into the store for that ability due to a hidden connector that was never sold.

Re:

[dgatwood]

Will there be a standard for wireless charging: No. Only a patent-encumbered charging scheme.

As others have mentioned, there are already standards for this.

The real problems I have with portless phones are all the things that they will never be able to do. Here's a short list:

• Fast, efficient charging. Qi charging maxes out at 15W, and uses close to 22W to do it. You're wasting almost a third of your power on wireless losses.
• NDI. I use iPhones and iPod Touch devices as video cameras in video production workflows. Doing that over Wi-Fi is absolutely not possible, because the latency caused by p

Re:

[nosfucious]

This is the foot in the door to the end of offline backups.

Backups that are on your own PC hardware, that you control.

Backup your device? That will be 20 beer tokens a month payable to Apple.

Re:

[geekbelief]

Not really. I currently backup any files or photos I want from my iPhone 13 to Syncthing on my network via Moebius (which is not expensive, though not free, and the rest is free). Try to get files out with wires was a lost cause for me, and I hate iTunes.

Most Apple customers aren't techies.

[couchslug]

Apple cater to its own immensely profitable niche. Apple does not need (their) few customers who also care about ports.

Those disliking their hardware can buy something else which I do, but I do not and never will matter to Apple.

Re:

[kamapuaa]

Right, techies love ports, it's a great way to, uhh, copy MP3 files to the iPhone?

What about the Elephant in the room

[ozduo]

Nobody outside of the USA is going to buy an Apple product since Trump said f**K you to all non Americans

Re:

[kamapuaa]

Right, they'll use Google's platform instead. Most of the world doesn't have sizeable tech companies.

No lightning connector

[p51d007]

Apple had to bow to the EU and everyone else to switch to the USB-C port. Apple couldn't make any money on accessories like they did with the lightning port. So...drop the port and "subscribe" to the air thing LOL

We have a German saying ...

[angel'o'sphere]

Ich habe rueber geschaut und nueber geschaut und dann schau ich es an, und es ist kaputt.

Wich loosely translates to: I looked over there, then I looked there and then I looked at it, and it was broken.

That is a kind of scolding to a child who broke something but insists, the item broke by itself.

So, we have a phone now so slim ... we can only use it with voice commands? I have to wear sunglasses to look at it or my stern view will break it?

Seriously? Can you not make a phone and increase its thickness by 2m