iPhone 17 Air Will Reportedly Cost $200 More Than The Cheapest iPhone 16 Plus

By Chris Smith
Close-up of the Apple logo at an Apple retail store. gracethang2/Shutterstock

Apple will unveil the iPhone 17 series on September 9, and now, a last-minute TrendForce report has listed the purported specs and prices for each of the four phones coming out of the show. The analysts offer specs similar to previous iPhone 17 rumors covering this year's models. The starting price points are somewhat more surprising than what other analysts have proposed for the iPhone 17 line, particularly for the iPhone 17 Air, which could cost $200 more than the cheapest iPhone 16 Plus.

TrendForce believes the ultra-thin iPhone will start at $1,099, a price that some iPhone 17 Air buyers might find harder to accept. The iPhone 17 Air should feature a single camera on the back and a much thinner battery than the $899 iPhone 16 Plus. The Air is rumored to be 5.5mm thin compared to 7.8mm for last year's Plus. That model also offered users a secondary ultra-wide camera in addition to the main lens.

However, there is some good news in TrendForce's report, assuming the information is accurate. The iPhone 17 Air might feature 256GB of storage and 12GB of RAM. The $899 iPhone 16 Plus comes with 128GB of storage and 8GB of RAM. You'd have to pay $999 for the 256GB version, but the RAM stays at 8GB regardless of storage options. Add the A19 chip, and the iPhone 17 Air becomes a reasonable upgrade as vendors upgrade flagship phones to ensure they're ready to support AI features for years to come. When taking these rumored upgrades into account, the iPhone 17 Air's $1,099 starting price is only $100 more than its predecessor.

Price hikes for all but one iPhone 17 model

iPhone 16 models on display in a store. Ringo Chiu/Shutterstock

TrendForce says every iPhone except the standard iPhone 17 model will cost more than the previous generation. However, the iPhone 17 Air, iPhone 17 Pro, and iPhone 17 Pro Max will all start at 256GB of storage. Only the iPhone 16 Pro Max started at 256GB of storage last generation. Even so, the iPhone 17 Pro Max will get a price hike according to TrendForce's predictions. Here are TrendForce's estimates compared to the current prices for the iPhone 16 series:

  • 128GB iPhone 17: $799 (same as 128GB iPhone 16)
  • 256GB iPhone 17 Air: $1,099 ($200 more expensive than the 128GB iPhone 16 Plus)
  • 256GB iPhone 17 Pro: $1,199 ($200 more expensive than the 128GB iPhone 16 Pro)
  • 256GB iPhone 17 Pro Max: $1,299 ($100 more expensive than the 256GB iPhone 16 Pro Max)

The table below also lists the main purported specifications for the four phones. Every iPhone 17 model should feature an LTPO OLED panel with a 120Hz refresh rate, A19 or A19 Pro chips, and LPDDR5X RAM. The standard iPhone 17 will have 8GB of memory, while the Air and Pro versions will feature 12GB of RAM.

iPhone 17 series specs and prices according to TrendForceTrendForce

The report also notes that all iPhone 17 models will receive "major camera upgrades." The front camera will feature a 24-megapixel sensor instead of the 12-megapixel lens used on the iPhone 16. The rear cameras will feature 48-megapixel sensors. The iPhone 17 Air will be the only model to get a single-lens camera module. TrendForce analysts expect the iPhone 17 Pro models to feature optimized software algorithms that will improve optical zoom and image resolution. We'll have to wait for Apple's iPhone 17 event on September 9 to see whether any of these predictions come true.

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