When Apple unveils the iPhone 17 this fall, the model everyone will be talking about will be the iPhone 17 Air. With an incredibly thin body and new design, Apple is looking to inject some innovation into the lineup with a brand new phone that defies expectations and turns heads.
The only problem is, all that thinness will also bring some necessary sacrifices, most notably with a smaller battery. Reports claim that the iPhone 17 Air will have Apple’s worst battery life of all the new iPhones—so bad, in fact, that a new report by The Information claims more than a quarter of users won’t be able to get through a full day on a single charge.
That might be an acceptable sacrifice for some, but Apple is keenly aware that other iPhone 17 Air buyers might want a full day of battery life even on heavy days. For those users, Apple will reportedly revive its Smart Battery Case, which originally launched with the iPhone 6 in 2015. Apple stopped selling the case in 2021 when the MagSafe Battery Pack arrived. The battery pack lasted until 2023.
The Smart Battery Case did a fine job of keeping your iPhone filled up throughout the day, but it wasn’t the prettiest thing, with a white silicone shell surrounding a fairly bulbous battery. The whole point of the iPhone 17 Air is to be the thinnest iPhone ever made, and slapping a battery case on it would sort of defeat the whole point. A more elegant solution would be the MagSafe Battery Pack, which could attach magnetically to the back of the phone when needed (assuming it has MagSafe).
So buyers will have two options: deal with poor battery life to have a super-thin iPhone, or attach a battery bulge and disguise the thinness. Or just buy an iPhone 17 Pro.