iPhone fans face a bit of a conundrum this year: iPhone 17 Pro vs. iPhone Air. The super-slim iPhone Air shakes up Apple’s phone lineup considerably, with a cutting-edge new design that makes even dedicated iPhone Pro users question their commitment to the highest-end model.
The iPhone Air sits between the iPhone Pro and the base iPhone 17, taking the place of the retired iPhone Plus. So, how does the iPhone Air fare against the iPhone 17 Pro? Should you ditch the Pro and go Air this year?
Three new Beats iPhone cases designed for Apple’s latest iPhone 17 lineup include an array of color choices as well as kickstand and rugged options, the Apple subsidiary said Tuesday. Available choices cover the whole lineup — iPhone 17, iPhone Air, iPhone 17 Pro and iPhone 17 Pro Max.
“The overwhelming response to our Beats cases proved a core idea: users crave both style and serious utility,” said Oliver Schusser, Apple’s vice president of Music, Sports and Beats. “With that in mind, we’ve engineered the next generation. The new Beats iPhone cases integrate protective features, delivering a significant leap in everyday innovation and functionality.”
Six months after debuting its in-house C1 modem with the iPhone 16e, Apple has followed up with the C1X modem on the iPhone Air.
The new baseband fixes the shortcomings of the initial version, supporting faster speeds while still being extremely power-efficient.
The new Center Stage front camera in the iPhone 17 lineup uses advanced hardware and AI magic to rid us of a thoroughly modern annoyance: having to flip your grip to capture a landscape selfie.
“We are thrilled to introduce our phenomenal new Center Stage front camera,” said iPhone product manager Megan Nash during Tuesday’s Awe Dropping event. “It gives you more pixels, more flexible ways to frame your shot, and incredible stabilization.”
The hardware secret that unlocks this new age of selfie supremacy? A square sensor that’s bigger than ever — almost twice the size of the iPhone’s previous front camera. It’s coming soon to a bar near you in the super-slim iPhone Air, the iPhone 17 and the iPhone 17 Pro/Pro Max, all of which Apple unveiled Tuesday.
Apple shook up its iPhone lineup with the Awe Dropping event’s iPhone Air introduction. The dramatically thinner device, which drops the “17” series number in its name, replaces the Plus model. The super-slim new handset is Apple’s biggest iPhone design departure in years, packing Pro features and remarkably long battery life into a slight-yet-powerful handset.
“We are thrilled to introduce the impossibly thin iPhone Air at 5.6 millimeters,” said John Ternus, Apple senior vice president of Hardware Engineering. “It’s the thinnest iPhone we’ve ever made, and it’s also exceptionally light. It’s unlike anything you’ve ever held before, and it’s packed with our most advanced features.”
Apple’s new line of TechWoven, silicone and clear polycarbonate cases for iPhone 17 series models, showcased at the Awe Dropping even Tuesday, mark a significant departure from the company’s previous materials and design approach.
In addition to the silicon and clear polycarbonate cases with lanyard support for the new Crossbody Strap, the new TechWoven cases feature a synthetic fabric designed to replace the widely criticized FineWoven cases that Apple quickly abandoned after their problematic launch in 2023. Plus plenty of third-party cases are already available.
If you’re planning to get a new iPhone 17 and are already making a list of must-have accessories, an iPhone 17 Ultra Thin Case from Case Luxury should be near the top. They measure just 0.02 inches thin, and they perfectly show off Apple’s renowned industrial design.
There is an Ultra Thin Case that fits each iPhone 17 model like it was built alongside it. There’s no excess bulk, no chunky edges, just a smooth, satin matte finish that keeps fingerprints away and feels grippy enough without being tacky. Plus, the cases come in multiple colors, so you can find one that’s right for you.
Rumors have suggested that Apple might return to the 4-inch iPhone form factor with the next-generation of iPhones, but what would a new 4-inch iPhone even look like?
If this video is anything to go by, it will be crazy thin … even thinner than the iPad Air, from which it would also borrow its moniker.
In just a little over 24 hours, Tim Cook and Co. will take the stage of Flint Center for the Performing Arts in Cupertino, California and unveil at least one 4.7-inch iPhone 6. From previous leaks, we know that this iPhone 6 will have a 1,810mAh capacity battery, a 14% beefier battery than the 1,560mAh battery used in the iPhone 5s. It makes sense it would need one: it will have a sizably bigger display to light up.
But what about the 5.5-inch iPhone 6? Won’t it need a bigger battery even than that? It will, and a new leak out of Apple’s supply chain suggests that it will be a massive 2,915mAh battery, a battery 86% larger than the current iPhone 5s battery.
So far, the consensus is that while we will see a 4.7-inch iPhone 6 in September, we will have to wait until the holidays, or even later, to see the rumored 5.5-inch model. The culprit, claim reports, are those ever pesky “yields,” but what does that mean? Why is a 5.5-inch iPhone 6 so much harder to make than a 4.7-inch one?
A new report out of Taiwan sheds some light on the matter. The issue apparently is that the 5.5-inch iPhone 6 is meant to be super thin… even thinner than the 4.7-inch. And that requires perfecting a very special kind of battery.
The rumors swirl that when Apple unveils the next iPhone in September this year, it will boast a much larger screen. But what would a thinner, 4.7-inch iPhone with a 1080p display, upgraded 10-megapixel camera, and a 9% thinner enclosure look like?
According to this concept by designer Sam Beckett, nearly identical to the current iPhone 5s. Yes, it would be bigger, but it would otherwise have the same proportions, short of shaving a millimeter or two off of the side bezels.
If Apple does release a so-called iPhone Air, I bet this is how they will actually do it. It will look like a natural evolution of the iPhone line so far, not a major design shift.
We’ve seen concepts of the iPhone Air before, but I can’t think of one I like more — or that I think looks more plausible — than Joseph Farahi’s 5.1-inch iPhone 6 concept. This actually looks like a device Jony Ive could design.
If Apple makes a larger iPhone this year — say, a 4.7-inch model — it’s unlikely that they will just phase out the 4-inch iPhone. Instead, they could take an approach similar to this year’s iPad Air and iPad mini: two functionally identical devices with different screen sizes.
So what would an iPhone Air look like? Designer Federico Ciccarese of SET Solution has put together some renders of his dream iPhone Air, and, well, to be honest, it’s pretty much a fantasy. But it’s a pretty one.
Next year, Apple will release the eighth-generation iPhone, the iPhone 6 (yes, it’s weird), and if Appke has shown us anything in the past, we can expect it to be even thinner than the iPhone 5-series of devices, especially now that Apple has finally mastered IGZO display technology with the new iPad mini and iPad Air.
So what will the iPhone 6 look like? The designers at SET Solution wanted to know, so they imagined an iPhone Air that is just 1.5mm thin and 70 grams in weight, with an edge-to-edge display and a slightly larger screen size. It’s an improbable design, but interesting to see what people are expecting.
At the same time, they imagined an iPhone 6c where the ‘C’ stands for curve, not color. It looks a bit silly, but we know Apple is working on curved displays for future iPhones.
Check out those videos after the jump.
Apple’s design patterns are pretty much set at this point: every other year, they radically overhaul the look of the iPhone or iPad.
Next year’s iPhone 6, then, will be a major departure from the iPhone 5 and iPhone 5s, and designer Federico Ciccarese of Ciccarese Design has a good idea of what to expect: a slimmer device that looks a lot more like an iPad Air or iPad mini called (yup) the iPhone Air.