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Issue link: https://digital.macdirectory.com/i/1525170
Dynamic Island and an A19 chip inside rather than an A19 Pro. However, Kuo has another surprise up his sleeve that only makes sense if Apple is going to try to position this as a luxury iPhone: a switch to “a titanium-aluminum alloy metal frame, with a lower percentage of titanium than the current Pro and Pro Max metal frames.” Previous reports have suggested it would stick with the same aluminum build as the iPhone 17. The other curveball is that the iPhone 17 Slim may adopt the in-house 5G modem chip that Apple has been working on for the past few years. That could be related to its thin design, or it may just be an opportunity for Apple to use the higher-end model as a proving ground on the assumption that it won’t be as popular as the rest of the iPhone 17 lineup. The “iPhone 17 Slim” would also spell the end of the iPhone Plus lineup. There will be an iPhone 16 Plus this year, but after that, Apple is done with the standard larger model, which hasn’t fared much better in sales than the poor little iPhone mini of the 2020–21 era. Kuo echoes the reports we’ve already heard about this, noting that the iPhone 15 Plus only accounts for about 5–10% of new iPhone shipments, which puts it in the same league as the iPhone 13 mini, which averaged about 6% during its tenure. The Plus model is even more redundant since most buyers looking for a larger phone tend to gravitate toward the iPhone Pro Max. The “iPhone 17 Slim” won’t be a direct replacement for the iPhone 16 Plus. Instead, Kuo says Apple is “exploring new design trends beyond the existing iPhone lineup.” However, unlike other recent reports, Kuo doesn’t comment on how Apple plans to position the new model. A report earlier this week predicted that the base “iPhone 17 Slim” will sell for $100 more than the iPhone 17 Pro Max, which is the part we’re the most skeptical about, especially as we keep hearing about how under-specced it will be compared to the iPhone 17 Pro models. It’s easy to believe Apple is working on an ultra-thin iPhone, but it’s no longer the company that once sold luxury executive laptops and solid gold Apple Watches. Let’s hope it’s not planning to return to that era.