iPhone 17 ‘Slim’ rumors are still floating around

Apple engineers are wrestling with where to put the SIM card, battery, and thermal materials in the rumored iPhone 17 “Slim,” according to The Information. Although US iPhones haven’t had SIM cards for a couple of years now, they’re required to in China, making it a tricky, but necessary hurdle to get over.

The 17 Slim’s single, center-mounted camera will reportedly be surrounded by a rectangular bump that’s made of aluminum instead of glass. It also says the iPhone Plus will leave the lineup, something that’s been rumored off and on alongside whispers about this new phone.

Other rumors around the 17 Slim (or Air, or whatever Apple names it) include that it will feature a 6.6-inch (or 6.55-inch) display and an aluminum frame. It could get a more energy-dense battery, which it will need if it’s under 6mm thick, as The Information writes. That’s slimmer than the 6.9mm iPhone 6, Apple’s all-time thinness champ — a distinction that famously came with certain... structural compromises. And all of that could come at a cost; rumors have pegged its price somewhere north of the $1,200 Pro Max.