If there is one thing that annoys me, that’s the way Apple describes its phones as “7.8 mm thin.” Not thick, as the way people speak in the English language, but thin. As if the 7.8 mm part of the sentence doesn’t already tell you. I wonder what they will do when the new models come out? Maybe they should go with “iPhone 17 air measures only 5.6 mm dangerously fragile.”
That’s what we all think isn’t it? Last week, two delicious breathtaking early samples of the ultra-slim 17 air showed, one called it “incredibly thin” and the other simply “crazy.” I can’t be the only viewer who immediately began to think of Bendgate. And remember, the iPhone 6 Plus, the one who accidentally became Apple’s first collapsible smartphone back in 2014, was a practically cool “7.1 mm thin.” The 17 air is a whole new dimension of thin.
However, the chances of another Bendgate are … yes, slim. First, it happened more than a decade ago, and material science has gone on (note the lack of similar reports since Apple released 5.1 mm iPad Pro last May). For another, the company’s reputation was damaged so badly that the failure and its lessons will be burned to business memory. Apple may have grown a little about quality control these days, but it is very unlikely to drop the same ball in the same way again.
Therefore, my concern for the iPhone 17 air is not that it will bend (although I do not store it in my back pocket). My concern is all the other things we have to sacrifice to achieve the inappropriately slim chassis, and the lack of real functional improvement we get in return.
Going after the slimmest iPhone Apple has ever released funds, as far as we can assume at this time, accepted the following compromises:
- A default processor rather than pro
- A “budget” single camera (compared to two on iPhone 17 and three on 17 Pro)
- Mono -speakers rather than stereo
- Lower battery life
- A pro (or almost pro) price
As the 17 air launches may find that there are more restrictions. Maybe it doesn’t have Magsafe like iPhone 16E. But the biggest problem is probably the battery.
Unlike a tablet or a laptop whose roles are limited and often semi-stationary, a smartphone is on duty all the time and everywhere. It does everything and carries pretty much all of its owners’ important data, apps and ability to communicate. A smartphone therefore lives and dies at its battery performance.
Unfortunately, the 17 air battery life will get worse than any other iPhone 17, simply because there will be no room to squeeze in anything more than a smaller capacity cell. We don’t know yet how Bad. Apple can perform miracles by using the very first battery technology to keep it within touching distance of the iPhone 17. But this is unlikely and would of course mean to level the price even longer.
A technical product is a delicate balanced mathematical function. If you change any of its countless variables, reacts something else (speed, size, battery life, price) to compensate. And if you get crazy and push a variable to its absolute maximum or minimum, the whole system goes Haywire. You can’t just say you want a super -thin phone; What you have to say is that you want a super -thin phone and are prepared to pay for this with substandard benefit elsewhere.
Compromise is often necessary and often a good thing. The key is to make right Compromises: To accept restrictions in the areas that are not important to your needs. For me, losing the USB-C port would be a good compromise due to the improvements it could buy me in other areas. But at any metric ease of use, iPhones are already thin enough. No one complains that their iPhone 16E is too fat and making them even thinner will bring vanishingly small improvements to the user experience. The life of the battery, on the other hand, is an active pain point – if not at the time of purchase, then later in the device’s lifetime. It makes no sense to buy thinness and sell battery life.
If you gave me the choice, I wouldn’t actually buy an iPhone 17 air. I would buy an iPhone 17 chunk with a pro processor and two-day battery life that is only 10 mm thick. Sorry, “10 mm thin.”
Foundry
Welcome to our weekly Apple Breakfast column, which includes all Apple News you missed last week in a practical Bite size Roundup. We call it Apple breakfast because we think it goes well with a Monday morning cup of coffee or tea, but it’s cool if you also want to give it a reading in lunch or dinner.
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The Podcast of the Week
The smart domestic market seems to be an ideal fit for Apple, but what has the company show for its efforts so far? In the latest show, we are talking about Apple and its approach to the smart home – what it does now and what we could see in the near future. It’s all in the new episode of Macworld Podcast!
You can catch each episode of Macworld Podcast on Spotify, SoundCloud, Podcasts app, YouTube or our own site.
Reviews Corner
Rygtemøllen
‘Crazy’ thin iPhone 17 Air Make first performance in ‘Hands-on’ video. And look! Here’s another.
Rumor: iOS 19 and iPados 19 Will bring brand new multitasking to iPhone and iPad.
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The iPhone 17E is allegedly set to a jump 2026 launch.
Weekly video
Last week Unbox Therapy released a “Hands On” with iPhone 17 Air! Wow. Except of course it wasn’t quite Exactly: It is actually a prototype provided by an anonymous third -party manufacturer. Still a thoroughly interesting video and it’s worth watching.
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