If there ’s one thing that gravel me , it ’s the direction Apple describes its phone as being “ 7.8 mm thin . ” Not wooden-headed , like the way people talk in the English language , but thin . As if the 7.8 mm part of the conviction is n’t already telling you that . I enquire what they ’ll do when the new mannikin amount out ? Perhaps they should go with “ The iPhone 17 Air measures just 5.6 mm perilously fragile . ”
That ’s what we ’re all thinking , is n’t it ? Last week , twoleakersshowed off breathtaking early samples of the radical - slim 17 Air , one calling it “ incredibly thin ” and the other simply “ crazy . ” I ca n’t be the only viewer who immediately set forth thinking aboutBendgate . And think that the iPhone 6 Plus , the one that accidentally became Apple ’s first fold smartphone back in 2014 , was a much obese “ 7.1 mm thin . ” The 17 Air is a whole novel dimension of skinny .
The chances of another Bendgate , however , are … well , slim . For one affair , it find more than a decade ago , and materials science has moved on ( note the want of standardised reputation since Apple resign the5.1 mm iPad Prolast May ) . For another , the troupe ’s reputation was damaged so gravely that the debacle and its lessons will be sunburn into corporate store . Apple may have growna little laxabout lineament command these days , but it ’s highly unlikely to drop the same ball in the same style all over again .
My headache about the iPhone 17 Air , then , is not that it will turn ( although I wo n’t be storing it in my back pocket ) . My worry is all the other things we have to sacrifice so as to achieve that preposterously slimline anatomy , and the want of literal functional improvement we ’re getting in getting even .
go for the slimmest iPhone Apple has ever let go means , as far as we can surmise at this point , accepting the conform to compromise :
By the metre the 17 Air launch , we may find that there are more limitations . mayhap itwon’t have MagSafelike the iPhone 16e . But the individual biggest matter is likely to be the battery .
Unlike a tablet or a laptop , whose roles are special and oftentimes semi - stationary , a smartphone is on responsibility all the time and in all place . It does everything , and carries virtually all of its proprietor ’s significant data point , apps , and power to commune . A smartphone , therefore , lives and dies by its battery public presentation .
The 17 Air ’s battery animation , unluckily , is going to be forged than any other iPhone 17 , but because there wo n’t be room to wring in anything more than a smaller - electrical capacity cell . We do n’t yet knowhowbad . Apple may do miracles by using thevery latest stamp battery technologyto keep it within touching distance of the iPhone 17 . But this is unlikely and would , of trend , think jacking up the cost still further .
A technical school product is a exquisitely balanced numerical function . If you switch any of its countless variables , something else ( pep pill , size , battery life , Mary Leontyne Price ) will react to compensate . And if you go screwball and bear on a variable star to its absolute maximum or minimum , the full scheme goes haywire . You ca n’t just say you need a super - fragile phone ; what you have to say is that you require a first-rate - thin phone and are prepared to pay for this with substandard functioning elsewhere .
Compromise is oft necessary , and often a good thing . The Florida key is to make therightcompromises : to accept limitations in the area that are n’t important to your needs . For me , losing the USB - C port would be agood compromisebecause of the improvements it could buy me in other areas . But by any metric of usability , iPhones are already lean enough . Nobody complains that their iPhone 16e is too rich , and make them even sparse will bring vanishingly small improvements to the user experience . Battery life , on the other helping hand , is an dynamic pain in the neck point — if not at the time of leverage , then later in the equipment ’s lifespan . It makes no sense to grease one’s palms thinness and deal battery biography .
If you gave me the choice , in fact , I would n’t buy an iPhone 17 Air . I ’d purchase an iPhone 17 Chunk with a Pro processor and two - day bombardment lifetime that ’s a mere 10 mm thick . Sorry , “ 10 millimeter tenuous . ”
metalworks
Welcome to our weekly Apple Breakfast column , which let in all the Apple newsworthiness you missed last week in a handy bit - sized roundup . We call it Apple Breakfast because we conceive it goes peachy with a Monday daybreak cupful of coffee or tea , but it ’s nerveless if you need to give it a read during lunch or dinner hour too .
Interested in theiPhone 17 ? Here are10 reasonswhy you ’ll definitely want to kick upstairs this class .
Everything Appleneeds to pay off at WWDCstarts withSettings .
On which topic , here are7 iOS 18 settingsyou’ll want tochange mightily away .
The iPad’sMac makeoveris come . It wo n’t work withoutthese nine features .
Senatorraises concernsover Apple’s‘special favors’from President Trump .
How do you solve aproblem like the iPad ? Not byputting macOS on it .
Mahmoud Itani has found7 WhatsApp featuresthat show how badly iMessageneeds to catch up .
Jason Cross is done with Apple’sUSB - C charging cable system . Here ’s what he ’s buying instead .
Tariffsaren’t the only reason why your next Apple devicemight be more expensive .
A developer gotWindows 11torun on an iPad , but we ’re not sure why you ’d need to .
Podcast of the week
The impertinent house market seems like it ’s an idealistic fit for Apple , but what does the company have to show for its efforts so far ? On the latest show , we ’re peach about Apple and its approach to the smart home — what it does now and what we could see in the approximate future . That ’s all in the fresh episode of the Macworld Podcast !
you could catch every episode of the Macworld Podcast onSpotify , Soundcloud , thePodcasts app , YouTube , orour own site .
Reviews corner
The rumor mill
‘ Crazy ’ thiniPhone 17 Airmakes first appearing in‘hands - on ’ video . And look ! Here’sanother one .
Rumor : iOS 19 and iPadOS 19will bringall - new multitaskingto the iPhone and iPad .
Apple is planning to plunge an‘irresistible’sky - blue iPhone 17 Pro .
TheiPhone 17eis reportedly lay out for aspring 2026 launching .
Video of the week
Last week Unbox Therapy stake a“hands on”with the iPhone 17 Air ! Wow . Except , of course , that wasn’tquiteaccurate : it ’s actually a paradigm supplied by an anonymous third - political party manufacturer . Still , a thoroughly interesting telecasting and well deserving a watch .
