Apple’s next ultra-thin iPhone Air could shrink to the same 5.2 mm thickness as an unfolded iPhone Duo while packing a larger battery, according to a new leak reported by MacRumors’ Tim Hardwick.
The claim comes from the Korean Naver blog account “yeux1122,” which says the iPhone Air 2 will be about 0.4 mm thinner than the current model even as battery capacity rises. Apple lists the original iPhone Air at 5.6 mm thick (more precise measurements put it at 5.64 mm), so a 0.4 mm cut would land the successor near 5.2 mm — roughly a 7 percent reduction. That figure lines up with the thickness Apple quotes for the iPhone Duo when it is fully open.
The Duo, which Apple introduced in September 2026 as its first foldable iPhone, measures 5.2 mm unfolded and 11.3 mm closed, and weighs 254 grams. Apple has called the open Duo the thinnest iPhone it has made. The current Air, by contrast, is a non-folding titanium slab that weighs about 165 grams and is only fractionally thicker than the open Duo. Matching that open thickness in a conventional phone would erase the Air’s one remaining dimensional disadvantage against Apple’s own foldable.
A separate earlier rumor, also noted by Hardwick, puts the Air 2’s battery at 3,500 mAh, up from the 3,149 mAh cell in the present Air — an increase of roughly 11 percent in raw capacity. Fitting both a thinner chassis and a larger battery is the notable engineering claim; ultra-thin phones usually trade internal volume, and therefore endurance, for slimness. The leaker’s track record is mixed, so the numbers remain unverified.
MacDailyNews Take: The Air 2 is expected in the first half of 2027, alongside the standard iPhone 18 and the lower-cost iPhone 18e, under Apple’s split release schedule that put the iPhone 18 Pro models and the Duo on stage in September 2026. Other circulating reports have suggested additions such as a second rear camera and improved thermal cooling hardware.
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