‘iPhone 17 Air’ Rumored to Start at $899 With Surprising Battery Life, Camera Control, and More

Bloomberg‘s Mark Gurman today shared some new details about the rumored iPhone 17 Air.

In his Power On newsletter, Gurman said he was told that the device may start at roughly $899 in the U.S., which means that it would occupy the same price point as the iPhone 16 Plus. This would make sense, as it has been widely rumored that the Air model will take over the Plus model’s spot in the iPhone lineup going forward.

Despite its rumored ultra-thin and lightweight design, Gurman said the iPhone 17 Air will provide battery life that is “on par with current iPhones,” although he did not mention any specific models. Presumably, this means that the device’s battery life will be equal to the lowest-end iPhone 16 model, at a minimum. That would be surprisingly good.

Gurman said Apple has made hardware and software optimizations to make the iPhone 17 Air more power efficient. There are three rumored features for the iPhone 17 Air that should contribute to the device offering longer battery life than one might have imagined, including a higher-density battery, Apple’s power-efficient C1 modem, and the lack of an Ultra Wide camera providing more internal space for a larger battery.

Gurman said the iPhone 17 Air will be equipped with the Camera Control button that debuted on all iPhone 16 models last year. This is the first time that this feature has been rumored for the device. The button provides quick access to the camera and related settings, but some people find it to be a nuisance and disable it.

He also revealed that the iPhone 17 Air’s bezels around the screen will apparently be around as thin as the ones on the iPhone 16 Pro models.

A few other iPhone 17 Air specifications that he mentioned had already been rumored previously, including a 6.6-inch display with 120Hz ProMotion support, a Dynamic Island, a standard A19 chip instead of an A19 Pro chip, a single 48-megapixel rear camera, the C1 modem, and the lack of a physical SIM card slot seemingly worldwide.

Unsurprisingly, look for the iPhone 17 Air to launch in September this year.

This article, “‘iPhone 17 Air’ Rumored to Start at $899 With Surprising Battery Life, Camera Control, and More” first appeared on MacRumors.com

Discuss this article in our forums