iPhone 17 Air tipped to come with a ‘Pro’ chipset but one minor limitation

iPhone 17

Apple has been working on a redesigned iPhone for quite some time now, and it is expected to launch this year under the iPhone 17 Air branding. This smartphone, like the recently launched Samsung Galaxy S25 Edge, is tipped to come with an ultra-slim design and could become the slimmest iPhone Apple has ever made. Multiple leaks and reports previously suggested that, like previous Plus models, the Air would share a processor with the base iPhone 17. However, a new leak now reveals that this won’t be the case.

iPhone 17 Air: Expected performance details

Last year, Apple supply chain analyst Ming-Chi Kuo stated that the iPhone 17 Air would be equipped with an A19 chip instead of an A19 Pro chip. However, according to a Weibo post by leaker Chinese tipster Fixed Focus Digital, only the vanilla iPhone 17 may use the base A19 chip. Moreover, it could also be the only model in the upcoming iPhone 17 lineup with 8GB of RAM.

The tipster also adds that Apple is upgrading the Air’s chip too, as it could now get an A19 Pro chip with one less GPU core. This means that the A19 Pro chip, which is expected to house a 6-core GPU to power the upcoming iPhone 17 Pro and iPhone 17 Pro Max, will be a 5-core GPU in the iPhone 17 Air. It remains interesting to see how much difference it makes in real-world usage.

However, the accuracy of Fixed Focus Digital hasn’t always been the best, so this information should be taken with a grain of salt. Like the last few years, the iPhone 17 series is expected to be unveiled in September. Hence, we will find out what the company's actual plans are in a few more weeks