If the leaks to date are to be believed, the iPhone 16 Plus will be replaced by the iPhone 17 Air, and the latest rumor coming out of Apple‘s supply chain is that the 2025 flagship phone will have an upgraded display attached.
According to the usually well-informed DigiTimes (via 9to5Mac), Taiwanese display manufacturer Novatek could start mass production of its next-gen OLED screens during the second quarter of 2025 (April, May, and June).
These OLED screens are said to come with TDDI (Touch and Display Driver Integration) technology built in, which means the same chip handles both output and touch input – which then means thinner and more efficient screens.
And the first customer for these thinner, more efficient screens? Apple, quite possibly, according to DigiTimes. The link is described as “speculation” at this point, but the timings would match – and so would the introduction of a slimmer iPhone model.
The iPhone 17 story so far
Besides the possibility of a thinner and lighter iPhone 17 Air (or Slim), we don’t know too much about the handsets coming next year. It’s still early days of course: our iPhone 16 review hasn’t been up for long, after the series was unveiled last month.
We have heard that the iPhone 17 could arrive with another new button – or rather, that the Action button and the volume buttons could be combined into one, at least on the Pro and Pro Max versions of next year’s handsets.
As for the two non-Pro models, they will apparently get screen upgrades that enable an always-on display option, as well as a variable refresh rate for smoother animations and transitions (on top of the other display upgrade covered above).
It could be the iPhone 17 Pro Max that gets the most updates, however: we’ve heard that it’s going to come with more RAM, enhanced on-device AI capabilities, and an upgraded cooling system to further boost performance.