Apple’s iPhone 17 lineup will be weird. We’re just weeks away from the iPhone 16 launch, but it’s 2025’s models at the center of lots of rumors. Specifically, the ultra-slim ‘Air’ model stands to shake up the iPhone 17 lineup. Here’s why next year’s innovative iPhone Air won’t be the best model, but it will be the future.

Untangling the iPhone Slim/Ultra/Air rumors

When rumors began coming hard and fast about a unique new iPhone model next year, all signs pointed to an iPhone Ultra.

The device was said to be more expensive than the 17 Pro Max, come with a radical ultra-thin design, a redesigned camera system, and more.

Apple has found lots of success with the Apple Watch Ultra, and its more-premium-than-ever M4 iPad Pro models. So an iPhone 17 Ultra made sense.

That ‘Ultra’ name started breaking down before long, however.

The culprit? New reporting that indicated the mysterious iPhone model would come with a worse chip than its Pro siblings, and only a single rear camera.

In other words, this iPhone couldn’t possibly be called ‘Ultra,’ because in multiple ways it would be worse than the rest of the iPhone 17 lineup.

Enter the iPhone 17 Air

All of this led to a lot of confusion about how to view this new iPhone model.

Some much-needed clarity came, however, when Mark Gurman called it the iPhone 17 Air.

The ‘Air’ branding may not mean what it used to. But here’s how Apple uses ‘Air’ with its MacBook and iPad models today.

• The MacBook Air is the thinnest, lightest notebook Apple sells
• The iPad Air doesn’t fit that same bill, but it sits between the base iPad and iPad Pro as a mid-tier option

Apple seems set to tap into both meanings with its upcoming iPhone 17 Air.

Like the MacBook Air, it will be the thinnest and lightest iPhone the company sells.

Like the iPad Air, it will sit above the base iPhone 17 model, but below the 17 Pro and Pro Max.

Thus, with the current naming convention in mind, iPhone 17 ‘Air’ is a good fit.

17 Air is the future of iPhone, but not the best iPhone

The iPhone 17 Air would not only follow Apple’s current trends for ‘Air’ naming, it would also carry the tradition of the very first MacBook Air.

The MacBook Air originally debuted in 2008 as a remarkably thin and light laptop. Steve Jobs famously pulled the device out of a manilla envelope during his Macworld presentation.

The device earned lots of rightful praise, but it also came with its fair share of criticism. Why? Because it very clearly was not the ‘best’ MacBook.

To achieve its thinness, the first MacBook Air sacrificed a lot of then-common utility. It came with:

• no optical drive
• fewer ports, losing Ethernet and FireWire
• worse battery life than the norm
• a crazy-expensive SSD option that maxed out at 64GB

In other words, it was a compromised machine. Its industrial design paved the way for future MacBooks, but it was certainly not the best MacBook.

Similarly, the iPhone 17 Air appears set to come with its own shortcomings. These will include:

• a worse camera system than the Pro models, and maybe even the base model
• almost certainly its battery life won’t measure up to its siblings either
• its A19 chip will have some disadvantages compared to the Pro models’ A19 Pro

Come next fall, when the iPhone 17 line officially launches, the iPhone 17 Air will not be the best iPhone you can get. The 17 Pro and Pro Max are set to keep that title.

But—if it offers a radically sleek design that ‘wows’ like the original MacBook Air did?

Then it will be very clear that we’re looking at the future of the iPhone.

Would you buy an iPhone 17 Air over a Pro or Pro Max? Let us know in the comments.