With a month to go until Apple unveils its new iPhones for 2024, the rumor mill has been whirring faster than ever. But the object of its most recent speculation, unusually, is next year’s big launch, the iPhone 17.
In late July, evidence emerged that Apple is working on a new slim model for late 2025 and that this will replace the Plus model in the range. In other words, there will still be four handsets: 17, 17 Pro, 17 Pro Max, and the new 17 Slim.
Whereas the current standard models range from a thickness of 7.8mm (iPhone 15 and 15 Plus) to 8.25mm (15 Pro and 15 Pro Max), and the equivalent 17-series handsets should be roughly the same, the slimline iPhone 17 model is expected to have a thickness of just 5mm. It’ll be a major slimming-down exercise, in other words, and the first really significant physical redesign since the iPhone 12 in 2020.
Most pundits, prompted by a starting (and startling) price tag of $1,299 revealed by the leaker Ice Universe, have assumed the slim model will sit at the top of the range, costing more even than the iPhone 17 Pro Max. But as the leaker and YouTuber Jon Prosser points out, this sits oddly with the leaked specs we’ve heard about so far. The slim model is expected, for example, to get a non-Pro A19 processor and a single rear-facing camera lens, neither of which suggest it’s targeted at the pro end of the market.
In a lengthy but quite entertaining video, Prosser puts forward his thesis: the slim model isn’t intended to be a premium performance model at all, but rather it will be marketed in the same way as the original MacBook Air, prioritizing form over function. Most rumors say it will have weaker specs than the iPhone 17 Pro generation and a lesser camera system, but will be slimmer and lighter. Is that worth a premium price? Prosser doesn’t seem to think so.
It should be noted, however, that the original MacBook Air was hardly cheap, with a price starting at $1,799 without USB-A or an optical drive and a lower-end 1.6GHz Intel Core 2 Duo processor with 2GB of RAM and an 80GB drive. But that was in 2008.
Prosser is so sure of himself, indeed, that he has pledged to shave his head completely if the slim iPhone 17 costs a penny more than the iPhone 17 Pro Max. Regular readers will recall that “Prosstradamus” once made a similar bet involving his eyebrows, and had to pay out. He also once predicted that Apple would rebrand iOS as iPhoneOS, so don’t by any means assume he is always right.
Following the logic of the MacBook comparison, Prosser thinks the new model will not be called the iPhone 17 Slim at all, but rather the iPhone 17 Air. But that part of the prediction doesn’t come with any hair-removal forfeits, so is rather less exciting. But based on Apple’s other products, the Air moniker makes sense.
For all the latest news and rumors about upcoming Apple smartphones, check out our iPhone 16 and iPhone 17 superguides.
Author: David Price, Editor, Macworld
David has been writing about technology for well over two decades, and got on board the Apple hype train when covering the original iPhone launch in 2007. He is an enthusiastic Apple Watch evangelist and feels that the HomePod is misunderstood.