Here's just how thin the iPhone 17 Air could be – and it's thinner than the rumored Galaxy S25 Slim

The iPhone 17 Air could take the place of the iPhone 16 Plus (Image credit: Future)

The iPhone 17 Air is rumored to be 5.5 mm thick
It's expected to replace the iPhone 16 Plus
Samsung is rumored to be launching a Galaxy S25 Slim too

If the rumors are right, we'll get a new iPhone model this year: the iPhone 17 Air. Courtesy of one well-known Apple analyst, we might now know just how thin this handset will be – and it's apparently going to beat the Samsung Galaxy S25 Slim in terms of thinness.

According to Ming-Chi Kuo (via MacRumors), the iPhone 17 Air is going to be a mere 5.5 mm, front to back, at its thinnest point. For comparison, the current iPhone 16 measures 7.8 mm front to back – so the new phone will be nearly 30% thinner.

From what we've heard about the Galaxy S25 Slim, it's going to be 6.x mm thick. If you've after the thinnest flagship phone you can buy in 2025, then it might well be the iPhone 17 Air – though these dimensions still need to be confirmed, of course.

The iPhone 17 Air may only offer eSIM support and do away with the physical SIM card slot in order to reduce thickness, according to Kuo. The handset is expected to replace the iPhone 16 Plus from the current range.

Slimming down

The iPhone 6 is the thinnest iPhone to date (Image credit: Future)

The Plus model has reportedly the least popular model in the iPhone range, and Apple will be hoping some extra sales can be sparked with a redesign and a new name – with the phone's thinness apparently the key selling point.

If the 5.5 mm prediction is correct, then the iPhone 17 Air would claim the honor of being the thinnest iPhone ever built. The current record holder in that regard is the iPhone 6 that launched in 2014 measured 6.9 mm front to back.

The phone has also been rumored to use a thinner and more efficient display technology, which will help in hitting that 5.5 mm target. As with the other iPhone 17 we can also look forward to a bump in performance as well.

It'll be Samsung that gets to show off its super-thin phone first though: the next Samsung Unpacked event is scheduled for January 22, and we think we'll see four different Samsung Galaxy S25 models, including the Galaxy S25 Slim.

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Dave is a freelance tech journalist who has been writing about gadgets, apps and the web for more than two decades. Based out of Stockport, England, on TechRadar you'll find him covering news, features and reviews, particularly for phones, tablets and wearables. Working to ensure our breaking news coverage is the best in the business over weekends, David also has bylines at Gizmodo, T3, PopSci and a few other places besides, as well as being many years editing the likes of PC Explorer and The Hardware Handbook.