- A hands-on video shows how an iPhone 17 Air dummy unit compares to other iPhone 17 models
- The iPhone 17 Air is substantially slimmer than the rest of the iPhone 17 series
- It’s so slim there are concerns it could easily bend
The iPhone 17 Air is going to be slim – that almost goes without saying – but a new hands-on video featuring a dummy unit provides perhaps our best sense yet of just how slim.
Unbox Therapy (via 9to5Mac) has shared a video in which they compare what’s said to be an iPhone 17 Air dummy unit to iPhone 17 and iPhone 17 Pro Max ones, and it’s fair to say they’re wowed by just how slim the Air is.
They say that with its 5.65mm thickness it feels “futuristic” and makes the iPhone 17 Pro Max (which is rumored to be 163.04 x 77.59 x 8.75mm) feel “antiquated” in comparison.
This iPhone 17 Air dummy unit is also a lot thinner than the 149.62 x 71.46 x 7.96mm iPhone 17 dummy unit they have.
Overall they seem seriously impressed, suggesting that it’s so slim that most people won’t care about any compromises – such as there reportedly being only one rear camera – once they feel it in their hands.
Bending and battery concerns
However, the phone being quite this slim also leaves them with concerns, with Unbox Therapy noting that bending could be a worry. They joke that you shouldn’t put it in your back pocket, and say “I just don’t know how they’re going to make it strong enough.”
Given that Apple already went through ‘bendgate’ with the iPhone 6, we’d think making the iPhone 17 Air stand up to pressure would be a priority for the company. So hopefully it won’t bend easily, but it will be interesting to see if and how Apple achieves that.
Unbox Therapy also noted that “if this doesn’t bend in half just by you looking at it, then the battery life is going to be the next problem”, adding that “this thing’s going to have horrible battery life” due to how slim it is.
We’re a little less worried about that, since the iPhone 17 Air is rumored to use a high-density battery, so it might not need as much space for a decent capacity. Still, there are probably limits to what Apple can manage there. But if most people are as wowed by the thinness of the phone as Unbox Therapy seems to be, they might be able to put up with just about any issue resulting from its design.
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