The iPhone 17 Air is Apple’s most exciting phone in years. Why are we already bored with it?

There was an odd moment last week when JPMorgan analysts released a client note about the first folding iPhone. It was an interesting enough document, backing predictions of a launch next year and hinting at a slightly lower price than previously expected. But what struck me was the part where this year’s phones were simply breezed past like some kind of tiresome distraction.

“With the upgrades to the iPhone 17 series to be released this fall expected to be fairly limited,” the iPhone Fold commentary began, “investor focus has already turned to the 2026 fall launches…” And then on to the stuff that really matters.

And my question is this. When did we get so jaded?

There’s a familiar pattern to iPhone launch cycles that I’ve written about before: radical rumors first, while the product is still a long way off, then more sensible ones as the launch approaches. This is why next year’s iPhone is always more fun to talk and think about—it hasn’t yet been subjected to this inevitable sanding-down process. The wacky upgrades are still on the table. And so to a certain point, I get it: the iPhone 17 is a boringly real and practical product, while the iPhone 18 is a research project that can still be almost anything.

But come on! Have we forgotten what’s coming this year? Even after all the crazier rumors were winnowed out, the upcoming handsets are still expected to include the iPhone 17 Air, an incredibly slender smartphone measuring just 5.5mm at the thinnest point. It’s exactly the kind of bold, risky move that normally gets predicted at the 18-month point, but this time, somehow, it made it through to reality.

Now, let’s be clear at this point. I don’t plan to buy the iPhone 17 Air. Not so much because I’m worried that it will bend or break—we didn’t get a repeat of the Bendgate scandal when Apple released a 5.1mm iPad Pro last year, so I think we can assume the company has solved the issue—but because of the compromises necessary to achieve that slimline frame. I don’t especially care about my iPhone being thinner, and I’m certainly not prepared to sacrifice camera and battery performance (and my wallet!) to achieve it. In fact, I think the Air could very well be a flop.

But at some point we seem to have moved from the iPhone 17 Air being a potentially bad idea to the iPhone 17 Air being a dull idea. As if we’ve been hearing rumors about the product for so long that we’re bored of it before it even launches.

Perhaps this is simply the nature of media coverage. News is supposed to be about new things: the clue’s in the name. It would be odd if tech websites carried headlines every day proclaiming “Apple still expected to launch a super-thin phone.” The coverage examines the latest reports and leaks, whether that’s the full range of colors or the fact that development units are being tested in the wild. It doesn’t re-examine known facts (well, unless a pundit puts them in his newsletter). It constantly looks forward. It seeks novelty.

But as inevitable as this may be, it does feel like the news cycle is desensitising us to something genuinely exciting. Apple, a company utterly wedded to the idea of conservative, iterative product development, is about to release a phone that’s demonstrably worse in multiple departments for the sake of a radical physical redesign.

I mean, I don’t want it. I think it’s a terrible idea. But can we at least admit that it’s interesting?

Welcome to our weekly Apple Breakfast column, which includes all the Apple news you missed last week in a handy bite-sized roundup. We call it Apple Breakfast because we think it goes great with a Monday morning cup of coffee or tea, but it’s cool if you want to give it a read during lunch or dinner hours too.

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