Technologies

Every iPhone 17 Air Rumor: What to Know About a Slim New iPhone

Speculation around a thinner iPhone raises questions about battery capacity and camera features. Here’s what we know so far.

Rumor has it, we may soon see an ultra thin iPhone. The rumored iPhone 17 Air — or it might be called the iPhone Slim — could potentially replace the current iPhone Plus amid Apple’s next iPhone release in the coming months.

The buzzed-about «Air» is getting a lot of attention in the iPhone 17 rumor mill, but the prospect also has people asking if Apple may have to sacrifice features to get a super thin phone.

Here’s the skinny on what we could expect with the newest iPhone.

iPhone 17 Air release date: Is the slimmer iPhone coming this year?

For nearly a decade, Apple has held an event in September to announce its new phones. This year we expect Apple to reveal the iPhone 17 series, including the rumored iPhone 17 Air.

If the iPhone 17 Air rumors are true, Apple would be the latest to join the ultra-thin phone trend this year. Last week, I got to try out Samsung’s new lightweight Galaxy S25 Edge after previewing it and a slew of shockingly thin phones at the Mobile World Congress in March.

The iPhone 17 lineup may be the last to follow this fall-release model, according to Apple analyst Ming-Chi Kuo and a report from The Information. Starting with the iPhone 18, Apple will reportedly split its phone releases so that lower-cost iPhones launch in the first half of the year (previously reserved for iPhone SE models) and higher-end pro models are announced in the latter half. That would likely mean a rumored iPhone 18 Pro, Pro Max, Air and new foldable iPhone model could debut in fall 2026. Keep in mind that an iPhone Flip or Fold has been rumored for years.

You’ll likely be able to preorder a new iPhone the Friday after the announcement, with the phone shipping a week later.

What will the iPhone 17 Air cost?

Early rumors about an iPhone 17 Air hinted that it could cost even more than the iPhone 17 Pro, but a March Bloomberg report suggested the phone could cost around $900. That price tag would align with the rumor that the «Air» could replace the Plus, which currently costs $899. For comparison, Samsung’s Galaxy S25 Edge starts at $1,100.

However, there’s also the question of how tariffs could affect the price of an iPhone. Amid President Donald Trump’s ongoing tariff drama, Apple has mostly escaped additional taxes by stockpiling inventory and getting most of its products on a tariff exemption list.

Apple has moved some production of US iPhones to India to avoid the steeper tariffs imposed on China. However, Trump recently said he pushed Apple CEO Tim Cook to move US iPhone production from India to the US. How much all of this could affect iPhone prices is yet to be determined.

Regardless of how tariffs play out, Apple is expected to raise the price of the iPhone. These price hikes are rumored to start with the iPhone 17 line, so prepare now to pay more for «Air.»

iPhone 17 Air camera: potential downgrade?

Among the rumored potential sacrifices Apple may have to make to get a skinnier phone is limiting the camera features.

The rumored iPhone 17 line is getting a new camera bar that extends across the width of the phone. But Front Page Tech shared an iPhone 17 Air video in February that showed a physical mockup of the phone based on rumors. One of the more surprising reveals was a smaller camera bar with one lens on the left, suggesting the «Air» phone has a single rear camera, similar to the iPhone 16E ($599). It’s not clear if the camera would be the same as the 16E or if Apple would go the route Samsung did and include the main camera from the iPhone 17 Pro.

The single camera theory is backed up by analyst Ming-Chi Kuo and a Bloomberg report, which said that the rumored Air may not have the ultrawide and 5x telephoto lenses that have become staples of Apple’s premium iPhones.

In a bit of good news, it’s also rumored that the front-facing «selfie» camera on all iPhone 17 models, including the Air, will be upgraded to 24 megapixels, according to analyst Jeff Pu.

iPhone 17 Air vs iPhone 17 Pro

It may be getting a lot of attention, but the rumored Air appears to be less an advanced Pro model and more a replacement for the Plus.

However, rumors are that the Air would have a 6.6-inch display, according to analysts Jeff Pu and Ming-Chi Kuo. If accurate, that would mean the Air’s display is slightly smaller than the iPhone 16 Plus, with a 6.7-inch display, but larger than the iPhone 16 Pro, which features a 6.3-inch display. The iPhone 16 Pro Max leads with a 6.9-inch display. It’s unclear if the 17 Air’s screen would be a Pro Motion display like the one found on iPhone Pro models.

If the rumored Air lives up to its name, then the biggest potential advantage it could offer over a Pro is its size and weight. A Bloomberg report from March notes that the iPhone Air could measure 5.5mm thick, compared to the iPhone 16 Pro at 8.25mm.

Mac Rumors reported that a leaker on the Korean-langauge Naver blog, going by «yeux1122,» said that the rumored iPhone 17 Air weighs approximately 145 grams (5.11 ounces). Compare that to the iPhone 16 Pro, which weighs in at 199 grams (7.03 ounces). If this rumor proves true, the Air would be just slightly heavier than the iPhone 13 mini, which weighs 141 grams (4.97 ounces).

Bloomberg’s report also notes that the iPhone 17 Air is expected to have super slim bezels compared to the rest of the line, along with a Camera Control button and a Dynamic Island cutout in the display.

iPhone 17 Air battery life expectations

Among the challenges of slimming down an iPhone could be figuring out how to reduce the battery size without compromising battery life.

Initially, it was assumed that a skinnier iPhone would simply have a reduced battery life since there would be less space to house a large battery. But more recently, AppleInsider reported that a skinnier iPhone might use a silicon-anode battery that could help extend its battery life.

Yeux1122 said the battery capacity is 2,800mAh, based on details that originate with «mass production confirmed sample,» according to MacRumors. It added that a high density battery in the Air could increase its «actual capacity» by 15 to 20%.

If the rumored iPhone 17 Air does use the silicon battery technology, it would be the first iPhone to do so.

Are iPhone Air rumors and leaks to be trusted?

Rumors are just that. The speculation leading up to the iPhone’s release is often based on insider knowledge or leaked information from the teams working on the iPhone’s design, but those plans can continue to evolve and are not necessarily reflected in the final product. We’ll only be able to confirm these rumors with certainty when Apple officially releases the next iPhone and we can see it for ourselves.

Technologies

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Technologies

My Camera Test: Comparing the $499 Pixel 10A With the Galaxy S25 FE, Motorola Edge

The Pixel 10A’s cameras are similar to those on the 9A, but it still performs quite well compared to other phones in its price range.

Google’s $499 Pixel 10A uses nearly the same cameras as last year’s Pixel 9A, but I wanted to see how its photos directly match up to its midrange Android rivals: the $650 Samsung Galaxy S25 FE and the $550 Motorola Edge.

I traveled with all three phones around St. Petersburg, Florida, checking how flexible each was in different environments, from bright outdoor settings to an indoor coffee shop and an evening brewery. All three environments can be challenging for the small image sensors on each phone.

While I find the cameras on all three phones to have different strengths and weaknesses depending on the setting, I’m quite impressed with how the Pixel 10A keeps up. In my tests, the photos include lots of detail, even though certain settings appear to involve a lot of processing to improve them.

Wide and telephoto cameras

Starting with photos taken on the sidewalk in downtown St. Petersburg, I notice that all three phones handle bright sunlight slightly differently, especially how it’s depicted on the street.

For the Pixel 10A, the sun provides a slight exposure mark over the Bay First sign at the top of the frame, but it remains fairly cordoned off to focus on the rest of the streetscape. Zooming in, you can see the Century 21 location, but the street is captured in the most detail, with the phone’s camera maintaining its natural gray color.

For both the Galaxy S25 FE and the Motorola Edge, the sun has a more pronounced effect on the rest of the image. The pavement’s color is notably brighter. I also find both the S25 FE and the Edge have slightly more clarity on the business signs on the Bay First building, including the aforementioned Century 21 logo.

Since the S25 FE and the Edge each include a telephoto camera that supports 3x optical zoom, I took a photo at that zoom with each phone. The Pixel 10A uses digital zoom on the phone’s 48-megapixel wide camera, but a lot of the scene’s detail remains preserved.

The Pixel’s zoom photo provides a clear view of the 7th St N sign, the trees and the plants. However, if you look further back at the next intersection, you’ll notice that the 7th St S sign and the Colony Grill are much harder to see. It’s those smaller details that are captured by the S25 FE and the Edge, both aided by telephoto cameras, making them more visible.

Of the three zoom photo examples, I feel like the S25 FE has the best color reproduction while also retaining details like the signs further back. Even though the photo was taken with the S25 FE’s 8-megapixel telephoto camera rather than its 50-megapixel wide camera, the colors remain complementary when comparing the 1x to the 3x. Meanwhile, the Edge’s 10-megapixel telephoto camera looks quite a bit different from the 50-megapixel wide camera — the whole image has a more yellowish hue.

Ultrawide cameras

Moving inside the Southern Grounds coffee shop, I decided to use the ultrawide cameras to capture my sausage, egg and cheese on toast. The three photos came out wildly different.

The Pixel 10A’s 13-megapixel ultrawide and S25 FE’s 12-megapixel ultrawide have a more balanced set of colors and details, in my opinion. The wheat toast appears lighter in the Pixel’s photo than in the darker hues captured by both the S25 FE and the Edge.

When zooming into my notebook, however, the Pixel and S25 FE captured more of the page markings, details that blur together more in the photo taken by the Edge. While the Edge’s 50-megapixel ultrawide camera is a higher-spec number, I noticed it had a harder time distinguishing toast levels, giving more of it a darker look. If I hadn’t eaten it myself, I’d have thought it was burned based on the Edge’s photo.

Night photography

Moving over to a nighttime setting, I used the three phones to take photos outside of 3 Daughters Brewing. I felt like all three did a decent job at producing the colors of the building, but they differ in how they handle light sources.

Both the Pixel and the S25 FE tone back the glare produced by the various lighting fixtures. Meanwhile, the Edge’s photos show noticeable streaks that dominate the sky. When inspecting the photos more closely, I find that the Galaxy captured a sharper view of the furniture, like in the Connect 4 set next to the blue chairs in the center of the frame. The same details are visible in the Pixel’s and the Edge’s depictions of the scene, but they appear smudgy by comparison.

This type of scene needs to take advantage of a phone’s processing power in order to iron out visibility issues, and I do find that the Edge appears to come up short here in this regard, with a lot of noticeable image noise.

Selfies

Each phone takes selfies with noticeable differences in style and color choices. For this test example, I’m in a well-lit daytime room with natural light from a window. The 12-megapixel front-facing camera on Google’s Pixel 10A brightened up my face as if there was a light in front of me, and captured a decent amount of the details of my hair and face.

The front-facing camera on Samsung’s Galaxy S25 FE shows a noticeably darker color tone, but it still captures a similar shade of orange on the wall behind me. Of the three photos, I felt like the S25 captures the most details, including strands of hair, and defaulted to a closer crop than the other two.

The photos taken by the 50-megapixel selfie camera on the Motorola Edge feel a bit smoothed out. The orange color on the wall is noticeably different from the Pixel and the S25 FE, though it does capture a lot of my face details, from hair strands to the fabric textures on my shirt.

The $499 Pixel 10A camera keeps up and, in some cases, exceeds the detail captured by the slightly more expensive $550 Motorola Edge and $650 Galaxy S25 FE. I’m quite impressed by how the Pixel camera handles colors and low-light environments, but the phone’s processing work sometimes makes scenes appear brighter than they are in real life.

The Galaxy S25 FE is no slouch either, with a third telephoto lens for capturing more detail farther away. While I did find the Motorola Edge to struggle in low light, it is one of the lowest-cost phone options currently available for someone who must have a 3x optical telephoto camera.

But if you can live without the telephoto lens, the Pixel 10A’s low cost and photography abilities will likely be a good fit for most people.

Google’s Pixel 10A Looks Stylish for a Low-Cost Flagship Phone

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Technologies

Today’s NYT Strands Hints, Answers and Help for March 14 #741

Here are hints and answers for the NYT Strands puzzle for March 14, No. 741.

Looking for the most recent Strands answer? Click here for our daily Strands hints, as well as our daily answers and hints for The New York Times Mini Crossword, Wordle, Connections and Connections: Sports Edition puzzles.

Does today’s date seem memorable to you? If so, today’s NYT Strands puzzle might be easy. Some of the answers are difficult to unscramble, so if you need hints and answers, read on.

I go into depth about the rules for Strands in this story.

If you’re looking for today’s Wordle, Connections and Mini Crossword answers, you can visit CNET’s NYT puzzle hints page.

Read more: NYT Connections Turns 1: These Are the 5 Toughest Puzzles So Far

Hint for today’s Strands puzzle

Today’s Strands theme is: A math teacher’s favorite dessert.

If that doesn’t help you, here’s a clue: 3.14

Clue words to unlock in-game hints

Your goal is to find hidden words that fit the puzzle’s theme. If you’re stuck, find any words you can. Every time you find three words of four letters or more, Strands will reveal one of the theme words. These are the words I used to get those hints but any words of four or more letters that you find will work:

RITE, SPIT, TIPS, STAT, STATE, GIVE, RUST, FINE, LAZE, SURE, PEAL

Answers for today’s Strands puzzle

These are the answers that tie into the theme. The goal of the puzzle is to find them all, including the spangram, a theme word that reaches from one side of the puzzle to the other. When you have all of them (I originally thought there were always eight but learned that the number can vary), every letter on the board will be used. Here are the nonspangram answers:

VENT, CRUST, FRUIT, EDGES, GLAZE, FILLING, LATTICE

Today’s Strands spangram

Today’s Strands spangram is HAPPYPIDAY. To find it, start with the H that’s six rows down and three to the right from the upper-left corner, and make — well, a pie shape.