Report: iPhone 17 ‘Slim’ will emphasize design over features and specs

The iPhone 17 “Slim” (as some are taking to calling it) is one of the more interesting rumors to pop out of Cupertino in a while. The gist of it is that, in the fall of next year, Apple will introduce a new ultra-thin iPhone in addition to some of the usual lineup.

The rumors keep changing and evolving into a picture of an iPhone unlike any we’ve seen so far. The latest rumors come from a Medium post by Ming-Chi Kuo, a noted supply chain analyst who has often been right with past leaks (but whose record has been more mixed recently).

Kuo says the new ultra-slim iPhone is expected to “emphasize innovative form factor design rather than competing on hardware specifications.” To that end, he claims these are the specs of the slim iPhone 17 that he knows about so far:

• Screen size: Approximately 6.6 inches
• Screen resolution: Approximately 2740 by 1260 pixels
• Processor: A19 chip (with the higher-end iPhones using the A19 Pro)
• Dynamic Island area: Similar to current models
• Metal frame: Adoption of a titanium-aluminum alloy metal frame, with a lower percentage of titanium than the current Pro and Pro Max metal frames (with other iPhone 17 models using aluminum metal frames)
• 5G chip: Adoption of Apple’s in-house 5G chip
• Camera: Single rear camera (wide camera)

Most of it lines up with previous rumors: a screen size not quite as large as the Pro Max variants but close, Dynamic Island etc.

This is the second time we’ve heard it will use the lower-end A19 chip not the Pro version from the iPhone 17 Pro and Pro Max. Without knowing the differences between them, it’s hard to say if that’s a big deal or not.

The most notable new details are that the phone will use Apple’s own in-house 5G chip, which is now years behind schedule and seems to never quite get over the finish line. If it’s ready for what will likely be a premium, expensive phone by next fall, that’s certainly news.

But one rear camera? No ultra-wide nor telephoto? That feels like a big step back, no matter what the priorities of this phone are.

Kuo doesn’t dive into price, which has previously been rumored to be everything from “similar to the iPhone 17 Plus would be” to “more expensive than the iPhone 17 Pro Max.”