Why is Apple sabotaging the iPhone 17 Air with these silly numbers?
Whether you were excited by the... idea of it at any point leading up to last week's belated launch event or felt it was unnecessary from the moment the "Galaxy S25 Slim" rumors started around six months ago, I believe the time has come for all mobile tech enthusiasts to admit Samsung's razor-thin new flagship is a pointless phone. My distinguished colleague Victor Hristov said it best in the introduction of his comprehensive Galaxy S25 Edge review the other day: "I've never liked a phone I would never buy so much." Luckily for fans of the ultra-slim high-end handset concept, Apple is widely expected to throw its hat in the ring too relatively soon, and because the iPhone 17 Air was purportedly already in development when Samsung got the "idea" to start working on a direct rival, I always felt hopeful the Cupertino-based tech giant would come out with a more... coherent product in the fall. But my hopes have been crushed by two numbers that make zero sense. These were mentioned by an occasionally reliable leaker in a new report a few days ago and illustrated shortly thereafter using a product mockup, so while they're clearly far from etched in stone, they seem plausible enough to give me the chills (and not in a good way). I don't know about you all, but I'm old enough to remember a handset like the original Motorola Moto Z from all the way back in 2016. Why am I talking about such an ancient, long-discontinued, and largely failed Android smartphone? Because that bad boy packed a 2,600mAh battery into an aluminum body weighing in at 136 grams and measuring 5.2mm in thickness.
Somewhat similarly, the iPhone 17 Air is tipped to squeeze a 2,800mAh cell into a presumably titanium-made construction with a 5.5mm profile and 145-gram total weight. Naturally, the screen real estate will jump from a measly 5.5 to as much as 6.6 inches, but that's a different discussion.
The iPhone 17 Air (in mockup form) looks incredible next to the iPhone 16 Plus. | Image Credit -- Majin Bu on X What I want to insist on is Apple's inexplicable return to a period in the mobile industry's evolution no one seems to be nostalgic for. The iPhone 12 used to pack sub-3,000mAh cell capacity in 2020, and well, let's just say there's a reason all subsequent (non-Mini) iPhones have come with substantially beefier batteries.
Now, I know what you're going to say. Apple could work its software magic or employ some kind of groundbreaking "high-density" battery technology tricks to make the iPhone 17 Air deliver respectable running times between charges out in the real world. But there's only so much software optimizations and even the latest hardware innovations can do to offset the inherent limitations of a miniature battery, so it's probably wise not to expect any miracles on that front. Look, I'm going to be perfectly honest with you here. I've definitely had my share of complaints (both in public and private) regarding the unnecessary bulk of some of the best phones released over the last few years. With its 227-gram weight, 8.3mm profile, and 6.9-inch display, the iPhone 16 Pro Max is the stuff some of my worst nightmares are made of. You couldn't pay me to use that brick as my daily driver (not that anyone is offering), and of course, the same goes for the likes of Samsung's Galaxy S25 Ultra.
Isn't the Galaxy S25 Edge thin enough? | Image Credit -- PhoneArena But there's a lot of distance between 8.3 and 5.5 millimeters and between 227 and 145 grams, and I would be terribly disappointed if Apple went from one extreme to the other with the iPhone 17 Air . After all, the Galaxy S25 Edge has plenty of problems, but its 5.8mm thickness ain't one. If anything, I had hoped the iPhone 17 Air would go a little higher in that department to avoid its main rival's battery life pitfalls. Just look at the "vanilla" Galaxy S25. At 7.2mm, that thing is not as thin as a credit card, but if Apple or Samsung had reduced that number to, say, 6.5mm or so, they could have achieved the perfect balance between style and power. As things stand (at least based on the latest rumors), the two tech giants seem far more concerned about measuring their egos and mocking one another than the actual needs and desires of actual consumers.
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