iPhone 17 Air may be a safer phone than Apple originally hoped

With Apple rumoured to be planning an iPhone 17 Air later this year, this weekend brought some information on what it won’t be.

According to a report the company considered a larger display for its skinnier iPhone model and also wanted to make it the first ever iPhone without a connectivity port.

Bloomberg’s Mark Gurman reckons Apple wanted “to make the Air device Apple’s first completely port-free iPhone” but ultimately decided against it because it would have likely annoyed EU regulators.

The EU recently enacted its mandate for all mobile devices to support USB-C chargers, a change that Apple itself had to adapt to when shifting away from its Lightning connector.

It would have meant all charging and data transfer activity would need to be accomplished wirelessly. There’s been talk of a port-free iPhone for years, but the adoption of universal wireless charging hasn’t been forthcoming. There’ll usually be situations where most users will need a cable-based option every now and then. Anyway, Apple ultimately decided against making such a device.

Apple also wanted to build the iPhone 17 Air with a 6.9-inch display – the same size as the current iPhone 16 Pro Max, according to the reporter’s Power On newsletter.

However, the ghost of the “bendgate” saga that blighted the iPhone 6 Plus phone over a decade ago, which saw users’ devices suffer from bending when placed in people’s pockets.

Gurman wrote: “When it first started work on the phone, it prototyped a device with a 6.9-inch screen — matching the Pro Max. Apple pulled the plug on that over fears that a thin device with a giant screen would be susceptible to bending. The company suffered such a controversy in 2014 — “Bendgate” — when the iPhone 6 Plus would sometimes warp when in a tight pocket.”

Furthermore, Gurman seemed to corroborate other rumours about the device. It will instead arrive with a 6.6-inch 120Hz ProMotion display with the as-yet-unannounced A19 chip and C1 modem, a Dynamic Island on the display, and just one main camera. It’s likely to arrive in September for around $899.

Risk-free iPhone

It’s understandable that Apple may be less inclined to go all out with an iPhone 17 Air. The slimmer design will be a departure from the monotony of the last four generations. However, a port-free phone would have been a risk we’d have expected from Apple in other times. It spent years removing things like headphone jacks, HDMI ports, and Ethernet cables from laptops and phones.

However, regulators in the EU have taken a dim view of such exclusive behaviour and it wouldn’t want any problems with actually selling the device in Europe. Probably not worth the hassle. Same goes for the larger display. Bendgate was a PR nightmare.

Kinda sad to see Apple so risk averse though.

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