The Potential Addition to Apple’s Line-up; the iPhone Air

Mark Gurman of Bloomberg claims that the iPhone 17 Air will be a new model in Apple’s upcoming significant iPhone upgrade.

Given Apple’s success with the Air brand for thinner MacBooks and iPads, Anthony Ha, a writer with TechCrunch tried typing this on his MacBook Air, this seems like a logical approach to expand the selection and might be more enticing than the iPhone Plus or small.

According to Gurman, Apple’s first in-house modem, which is expected to make its debut in the upcoming iPhone SE in the spring, will be included in the iPhone 17 Air. Additionally, the phone is expected to be two millimetres thinner than the existing iPhones, making it Apple’s thinnest smartphone to date. The business is reportedly working on a foldable iPhone and iPad for 2026 or later, so this would be a step in that direction.

According to Bloomberg’s Mark Gurman in today’s Power On newsletter, Apple may have decided to call the rumoured thin iPhone that is anticipated this autumn the iPhone 17 Air. “A testing ground for future technologies,” he adds, “will be the phone, including the technology that leads to the company’s first foldables.”

Gurman also lists further Apple devices, such as a smart home hub, that he anticipates releasing in 2025. The Vision Pro, the company’s latest mixed reality headset, is not on the list.

It should come as no surprise that the MacBook Air and iPad Air were the thinnest models in their respective ranges when they were first introduced. According to Gurman, the iPhone 17 Air is anticipated to continue that trend by being “about 2 millimetres thinner” than existing iPhone models. According to other recent speculations, it is between 5.5 and 6.25 mm thick, which is smaller than the iPhone 6—the thinnest iPhone to date—and comparable to the depth of the M4 iPad Pro.

According to Gurman, the thinness isn’t simply a gimmick; it will help Apple move closer to creating folding iPads and iPhones in the future. Additionally, he claims that after the iPhone SE’s release this spring, the phone might serve as one of Apple’s initial test sites for Sinope, the company’s proprietary mobile modem. Apple-designed Wi-Fi and Bluetooth chips are also anticipated to make their debut in this year’s iPhone line-up, though Gurman doesn’t claim that the 17 Air is one of them.

Previous speculations have said that the new 17 Air will have a single 48-megapixel camera lens on the back, along with a 24-megapixel selfie camera. It will also feature a 6.6-inch ProMotion OLED display, which is Apple’s 120Hz variable refresh rate screen that is currently only found on iPhone Pro models. In order to run Apple Intelligence AI features, it is anticipated to include 8GB of RAM and maybe an Apple A19 CPU, similar to the iPhone SE 4.

The likelihood that Apple will launch an iPhone Air in 2025 is growing. The iPhone 17 is scheduled for release in 2025, as we already know. Mark Gurman of Bloomberg, however, speculates that the iPhone 17 Air, a brand-new model, may be included in Apple’s upcoming major iPhone update. According to ReadWrite from August, there was conjecture that the upcoming phone would be significantly thinner than any iPhone to date—possibly by about two millimetres.

Gurman notes that the iPhone 17 Air will have a single-lens camera setup and a low-end A19 processor. “As a testing ground for future technologies, including ones that could allow for foldable devices,” he adds, it is being designed.

The technological giant is also paving the way for rival devices to use Apple’s own modem chips in the SE and Air models. These Apple-designed components are anticipated to be included in the Pro iPhone series in the upcoming year. Additionally, Apple is moving toward its proprietary Proxima chip, which integrates Bluetooth and Wi-Fi, beginning with a few devices and progressively extending throughout the line-up.

Additional other Apple products that might be available in 2025 which is under probability in which Apple may release are, two new entry-level iPads, codenamed J481 and J482, in addition to the smaller phone. It is anticipated that the improvements would include Apple Intelligence and speedier processors. The new models are reported to update to the A17 Pro chip, similar to the iPad mini, and boost up to 8GB of memory. The existing devices run on the A14 chip with 4GB of memory. According to reports, the additional memory is essential for enabling Apple’s new AI platform.