The iPhone 17 Air is going to be thin. We already know the Galaxy S25 Edge is thin. What’s the end game here?
Apple and Samsung will be competing for the ultra thinnest smartphones this year.
Another day, another iPhone leak, part of which we covered already last week. But this isn’t just about the iPhone 17 Air; eventually, I’ll bring up the Samsung Galaxy S25 Edge, too. Both devices have been trending in the gadget rumor space enough that multiple thinkpieces have sprouted about what this means for phone design.
This year, thin is in. I don’t like it. It’s not that I don’t like the idea of thinner, lighter smartphones—I enjoyed the lighter chassis on the Oppo Find N5 foldable—but with the uptick in the use of GLP-1 drugs for weight loss and the U.S. government moving to the right with each passing day, it feels a little too on the nose. Ultimately, these manufacturers want the marketing credit to say their devices are the thinnest. No one expected it to become the battle of svelte between the world’s two biggest phone manufacturers.
Varying reports allege the iPhone 17 Air will be the precursor to what Apple plans to do with its foldables. The idea is that whatever specifications the Air includes will lay the foundation for what’s essential inside an iPhone. The iPhone 16e already gave us a glimpse of what Apple thinks that is, but it’s in a different class than the iPhone 17 Air. The Air is supposed to exist between Apple’s essential iPhone and the everything-you-need iPhone Pro model, so it’ll probably be a little more beefy. Also, we’ve talked about how Apple’s iPhone 17 Air will supposedly look like Google’s Pixel devices from the backside. There are more renders making the rounds, including three-dimensional video. Ice Universe, a noted leaker in these parts, has already expressed excitement over it.
