The tech giant is expected to announce a new ‘skinny’ iPhone model at its main phone launch event on Tuesday
The new model, heavily touted by supply-chain sources and local media in Silicon Valley, is set to be up to a third thinner than an existing iPhone 16 Pro with a high-end screen that’s smaller than ‘Pro Max’ iPhones (6.9 inches) and significantly bigger than either the base model iPhone (6.1 inches) or ‘Pro’ iPhones (6.3 inches).
But while it looks likely to match the upcoming iPhone 17 Pro’s processor power, its thinness could mean lesser battery life than regular iPhones — the more space that smartphones have under their bonnets, the more battery can be squeezed in.
The other significant compromise to the putative new iPhone Air could be just one rear camera, unlike the two rear cameras (wide and ultrawide) on regular iPhones and three (wide, ultrawide and telephoto zoom) on ‘Pro’ and ‘Pro Max’ iPhone models.
Even with these limitations, Apple could be betting that a chunk of the market likes large-screen devices but doesn’t like how bulky they’ve become, stretching and misshaping jeans and jacket pockets with their weight.
It may also be recalling how its MacBook Air grabbed attention for its sells design when Steve Jobs pulled it out of a brown envelope at the company’s big product launch back in 2008. The MacBook Air went on to become the world’s best-selling laptop with most rival manufacturers copying its design.
A ‘skinny’ iPhone may also be a test-run for the release of a folding iPhone in 2026 or 2027, according to Bloomberg’s Mark Gurman, who has an unrivalled record at revealing Apple’s future product plans.
Earlier this year, rival phone maker Samsung launched a ‘skinny’ version of its flagship Galaxy S smartphone, calling it the S25 Edge. The phone is priced just above the base Galaxy S25 models, at €1,069.
Pricing of the iPhone Air, which is tipped to have a 120Hz ProMotion screen, Apple’s latest A19 chip and Apple’s own efficient new C1 5G modem, is expected to be somewhere between a regular iPhone 17 (likely around €900) and an iPhone 17 Pro (likely around €1,200).
The device is set to be revealed during Tuesday’s iPhone 17 event, which is expected to showcase Apple’s iPhone 17, iPhone 17 Pro and iPhone 17 Pro Max.
Other things to watch during Apple’s event include the euro-pricing levels following the slump in the value of the dollar. Apple, which uses the dollar as its base pricing unit, adjusts the prices of its products in Europe when it projects a medium-term currency trend. While the dollar’s strength in recent years has seen higher prices across the EU, the US currency’s recent weakness could mean cheaper retail prices for iPhones across Ireland and Europe from this week.