The iPhone 17 Air could be the first in line for this advanced display technology
If leaks so far are to be believed, the iPhone 16 Plus will be replaced by the iPhone 17 Air, and the latest rumor from Apple’s supply chain is that the 2025 flagship phone will have an upgraded screen.
According to the usually well-informed DigiTimes (via 9to5Mac), Taiwanese display manufacturer Novatek could begin mass production of its next-generation OLED displays in the second quarter of 2025 (April, May and June).
These OLED screens are said to come with built-in TDDI (Touch and Display Driver Integration) technology, meaning 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? According to DigiTimes, Apple could very well do that. The link is currently described as ‘speculation’, but the timing is said to match – and so does 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 much about the devices coming next year. It is of course still early: our iPhone 16 review has not been online for very long, after the series was unveiled last month.
We’ve heard that the iPhone 17 could arrive with yet another new button – or rather, that the action button and 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 screen upgrade discussed above).
However, it could be the iPhone 17 Pro Max that gets the most updates: we’ve heard it will come with more RAM, improved AI capabilities on the device, and an upgraded cooling system to further boost performance.
