Apple Plans to Make the Slim ‘iPhone Air’ into a Pro-Level Device
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Now that we know nearly everything to expect from this year’s iPhone 16 lineup, many analysts and leakers have set their sights on what Apple has in store for us in 2025 and beyond. Reports of a new ‘iPhone 17 Slim” have already been making the rounds for a while, and now Bloomberg’s Mark Gurman is weighing in with some new insight on Apple’s ultimate goal for the ultra-thin iPhone.
While reports on the slimmer iPhone have been all over the place, the common factors are that Apple is working on a thinner iPhone to replace the iPhone Plus in the lineup that won’t have pro-level features (it may have only a single camera), but will be the thinnest iPhone Apple has ever made. It may also be sold as a luxury option, possibly with a price tag above that of the iPhone 17 Pro Max.
That last one seems dubious, but it wouldn’t be an unprecedented move. Instead, it would mark a return to Apple’s 2008 strategy with the original MacBook Air, a woefully underpowered “executive laptop” that sold for nearly twice as much as a much better-equipped MacBook Pro. Its most distinguishing factor? It was slim enough to fit inside a manila envelope — something that was a very big deal among the clunky laptops of 2008.
Of course, Apple has since evolved the MacBook Air well beyond its form-over-function beginnings. While it’s far from Apple’s most powerful laptop, the modern era of Apple silicon puts a MacBook Air on par with Apple’s entry-level MacBook Pro, at least in raw performance.
By itself, the idea of an incredibly thin iPhone isn’t as far out as it would have been a few years ago. Earlier this year, Apple introduced the M4 iPad Pro as its thinnest device ever, and it seems this is just the start of a return to its “thinnovation” days. However, the difference between the new iPad Pro and the 2008 MacBook Air is that, while both devices are “impossibly thin,” they sit at opposite ends of the power spectrum. The M4 iPad Pro is not only the most powerful iPad that Apple has ever made, but it outperforms all of its standard MacBooks, which remain left behind on the older M3 chips (for now).
Apple reportedly plans to do the same with next year’s M5 MacBook Pro lineup, slimming down the highest-end models like never before.
Despite this, everything we’ve heard about the “iPhone Slim” so far has suggested that the device won’t be the most powerful, but it turns out that it may just be a stepping stone to something much greater.
For starters, Gurman hints that the new iPhone, which he’s dubbing the “iPhone Air,” may still be a notch above the standard iPhone 17. His choice of the “Air” moniker seems more like an attempt to illustrate how he views the device than from any insider info on a potential name, but it makes sense in light of the iPad family’s division into the lower-tier iPad, the mid-tier iPad Air, and the highest-end iPad Pro.
Next year, Apple will give this fourth-model concept another try. The approach this time around: a far thinner design. The idea is to create an “Air” version of the iPhone of sorts, something that sits in between the iPhone 17 and iPhone 17 Pro. The most apt comparison is probably to the original MacBook Air from over a decade ago, which was somewhere between the regular MacBook and MacBook Pro.Mark Gurman
Gurman also likens it to the original 2008 MacBook Air, which did sit in a similar mid-tier position. At that time, the MacBook family consisted of standard suffix-less MacBooks with plastic bodies and Apple’s aluminum MacBook Pro models. The MacBook Air was definitely a luxurious piece of kit compared to those lower-end models.
His theory is that the “iPhone Air” would appeal to those who want something “snazzier” than a standard iPhone but don’t need the power or cameras of the iPhone Pro. Still, there may not be more power inside, as Gurman describes it as “something that looks much cooler while still having the specifications of a regular iPhone.”
Still, Gurman believes this isn’t Apple’s longer-term game plan. Instead, the original iPhone Air will start as a simple but luxurious entry and eventually grow to pro-level specs.
But even this slimmer entry will just be a step toward something better. Eventually, Apple will want to squeeze the power of a Pro model into this smaller design. That feat will likely take until at least 2027 to achieve.Mark Gurman
The biggest question is why Apple wouldn’t wait until the pro-level model is ready, but several possibilities come to mind. One possibility is that Apple may want to test the market and see how a slimmer upscale iPhone is received by the masses. It doesn’t have much to lose here by trying; the iPhone mini and iPhone Plus have both been flops, so there’s little harm in testing the waters with a new fourth model rather than abandoning it entirely and returning to the iPhone 11 era of a single standard iPhone.
Gurman isn’t speculating on how Apple will price the new “iPhone Air.” Other analysts have predicted a price tag above even the iPhone Pro Max, but we remain skeptical Apple will go to that extreme. The iPhone Plus was always a hard sell because it was so close in price to the iPhone 15 Pro, which offered a similar design with more powerful features. An “iPhone Air” in that price slot with a more unique design could certainly be more compelling and would also fit more logically into the pricing strategy that Apple uses for the iPad Air.
[The information provided in this article has NOT been confirmed by Apple and may be speculation. Provided details may not be factual. Take all rumors, tech or otherwise, with a grain of salt.]
