Even if you’re an Android user, you know very well what a standard iPhone looks like. Sure, there are slight variations but for the past few generations, Apple hasn’t exactly done anything radical to the design of its phones — so much so that most people wouldn’t necessarily be able to tell whether you have the latest version of its flagship or not.

But at Tuesday’s Apple event, which brought us the iPhone 17 lineup along with the AirPods Pro 3 and the Apple Watch 11, the company has shaken things up. 

The long-rumored iPhone Air is real and it’s not just shockingly thin, but shiny too, making it a real target for the magpies among us. I don’t know about you, but my first thought when I clapped eyes on the new device was, «I want to touch it.» I’ve been writing about iPhones for more than a decade and I can’t remember the last time that was the case.

For most of its length, the Air is just 5.6mm thick. This tantalizingly svelte profile is only further enhanced by the gloss-mirror finish. If you’re among the first to get your hands on this phone, you can guarantee it will draw the eye of everyone in your vicinity, in a way that tends not to happen with tech in 2025.

It hasn’t always been this way. When I was growing up I often couldn’t afford the most advanced or expensive phone — so instead I’d search out the weirdos. Some favorites included the navy blue Sony Ericsson Z200, which had a little circular orange screen on the front, as well as the teeny tiny Sagem MW 3020. These phones were conversation starters — often when I whipped them out of the inside pocket of my school jacket, it was the first time people had ever seen them.

Unless you have a foldable phone, that’s a rare occurrence these days. But I predict the iPhone Air is likely to be a real scene stealer — at least at first. Be warned that people are going to want to hold it, touch it and pretend jokingly to bend it or drop it, so keep it in your pocket if you’re precious about others laying their grubby paws on your tech. If you do unveil it in front of your friends, though, you are likely to be the envy of them all.

«It has been a few years since Apple has had new iPhones that you could put on the table in a coffee shop, meeting room or pub, and people would ask, ‘Is that the new iPhone?'» says Ben Wood, chief analyst at CCS Insight. He adds that the iPhone Air «feels differentiated enough that people would consider visiting a store to see it in person.» 

These looky-loos will be great for Apple and other phone retailers, even if people don’t end up buying an Air, Wood says. Every time someone walks through the Apple Store door it’s an opportunity to sell them an accessory or an upgrade, so the ripple effect of increased foot traffic inspired by the Air could be felt across Apple’s portfolio. «This is very valuable at a time when people are holding onto their smartphones for longer than ever,» he says.

The iPhone Air isn’t necessarily the new iPhone that will be at the top of everyone’s wish list, but it’s perhaps the one that’s likely to carry the most social cachet for the next year — until of course Apple unveils the long-awaited foldable iPhone, which will no doubt cast this year’s triumph of minimalist design and engineering into the shade.