The iPhone 17 Air is the iPhone 17 series phone I’m dying to get. I don’t care about the features I will lose by not going Pro or Pro Max. I’m happy with a regular iPhone with a flagship chip, as long as it has a large screen and a much thinner body. The iPhone 16 Plus almost checked all those boxes, but its footprint was too large for me.
I’m ready to compromise even further. I’ll deal with a single-camera experience if that’s what Apple settles on, and I’ll move to eSIM. I’ll even consider using a phone with less-than-stellar battery life. After all, how can an ultra-thin iPhone feature battery life as good as the Plus or Pro Max? Galaxy S25 Slim buyers might have similar thoughts about the ultra-thin S25 flavor coming this year, especially concerning battery life.
The good news is the battery capacities for the iPhone 17 Air and Galaxy S25 Slim might have leaked. The bad news is that some people might not be comfortable with the figures, especially people on the Android side. But I’m here to tell you not to panic. Despite the smaller battery packs, I expect battery life to be decent on both phones.
A leaker known as Digital Chat Station on Weibo said in a new post that the iPhone 17 Air and Galaxy S25 Slim will have ultra-thin designs, with the frames measuring between 5.x mm and 6.x mm. As such, the batteries will measure between 3,000 mAh and 4,000 mAh.
The leaker warned that these thin designs might impact heat management and battery life. He likely refers to the challenge of fitting a thermal dissipation layer inside the ultra-thin body without further impacting the battery capacity.
The iPhone 17 Air
The iPhone 17 Air is rumored to be just 5.5mm thin. A Galaxy S25 Slim design leak says the phone will be thicker, at 6.4mm.
As for the battery capacities mentioned above, they certainly make sense, especially for the iPhone.
Since the iPhone 14 series, we’ve had battery capacities ranging between 3,279 mAh (iPhone 14) and 4,685 mAh (iPhone 16 Pro Max). Battery life has been generally great, especially on the larger phones. The iPhone 16 series excelled at battery life across the board.
As such, I expect an iPhone 17 Air with a 3,000 mAh to 4,000 mAh battery to last about a day with average to heavy use. There’s no way Apple will launch such a product if battery life isn’t at least decent. Remember that Apple went for an ultra-thin design for the M4 iPad Pro without impacting the battery life of the Pro tablet.
It’s Apple’s A-series and M-series chips that will help with battery conservation. The A19 that will power the iPhone 17 Air should be more efficient than the current generation. Also, the iPhone 17 Air will support 120Hz refresh rates, so the OLED panel will further conserve energy.
The Galaxy S25 Slim
The same considerations apply to the Galaxy S25 Slim. The Galaxy S24 Ultra proves how good battery life can be in a flagship Android phone. More importantly, the Snapdragon 8 Elite powering several Android flagships this year, including the Galaxy S25 series, did very well in battery life tests.
Therefore, a 3,000 mAh to 4,000 mAh battery could be good enough for the Galaxy S25 Slim. The figures might sound scary to Android users who always want bigger battery capacities and better battery life. But remember that the base Galaxy S24 model has a 4,000 mAh battery. Its successor might feature a similar battery pack.
Considering Android’s optimizations and the efficiency components like the Snapdragon 8 Elite can deliver, I’d still expect the Galaxy S25 Slim to feature good battery life. Also, if the thickness measurements are correct, Samsung might opt for a slightly larger body than Apple to squeeze a slightly larger battery pack inside the Slim.
All of this is speculation at this point, based on rather loose information from the Chinese leaker. However, Digital Chat Station’s larger point is that Chinese smartphone vendors might come up with ultra-thin phones of their own in response to Apple and Samsung. They’ll focus on ultra-lightweight and photography on these devices, which are expected to pack 5,000+ mAh batteries.
Finally, I’ll remind you that we might be witnessing big battery breakthroughs in the coming years. Several reports detailed Samsung’s tests with new battery technologies and Apple’s interest in next-gen battery designs. If these materialize by next year, the iPhone 17 Air and Galaxy S25 Slim successors should feature even better battery life than this year’s models.
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