A set of iPhone 17 dummies has surfaced, giving us a preview of how ridiculously thin Apple’s worst-kept secret, the iPhone 17 Air, looks alongside the iPhone 17 lineup.
Noted tipster Sonny Dickson shared purported images of metal molds for the iPhone 17 series on X over the weekend. These kinds of molds are often provided to third-party casemakers to prepare them for the next year’s crop of handsets.
While the iPhone 17 dummy models don’t necessarily reveal any new information that hasn’t already been leaked, the shots do an excellent job of demonstrating the size difference between the rumored iPhone 17 Air and the rest of Apple’s upcoming handsets.
Exactly how thin the iPhone 17 Air will be remains up in the air, though it’s rumored to fall somewhere between 4.5mm and 6mm thick at the thinnest point. One thing the dummies appear to back up is the iPhone 17 Air’s screen size. Previous rumors suggested the thin frame will support a 6.6-inch OLED display, putting it between the 6.3-inch iPhone 16 Pro and 6.9-inch iPhone 16 Pro Max.
Here’s your first look at the iPhone 17 dummies, Thoughts? pic.twitter.com/WnOjD71IbaMarch 16, 2025
Bloomberg’s Mark Gurman confirmed as much in Sunday’s Power On newsletter. Apple thought about bumping the iPhone 17 Air up to 6.9 inches, he said, but “pulled the plug on that over fears that a thin device with a giant screen would be susceptible to bending.”
The iPhone 17 Air is set to borrow several design cues from the iPhone 16 Pro phones, he continued, including slimmer bezels, a Dynamic Island cutout, and a Camera Control button. Dickson’s dummy photos seem to back up these claims, showing off a cutout for the Camera Control button and a slightly tweaked Dynamic Island, with the front-facing camera on the left side of the pill.
Interestingly, the iPhone 17 and iPhone 17 Pro and Pro Max retain the camera’s usual position on the right side, as it’s been since the iPhone 14 Pro. Only the iPhone 17 Air is the odd duck out.
Of course, all of this should be taken with a grain of salt for now. We’ll have to wait until September to learn more about Apple’s next series of iPhones. In the meantime, be sure to tune into our iPhone 17 hub for all the latest leaks and rumors.
