This hidden iPhone Air design feature could be a big deal for iPhone Fold — here's how

(Image credit: Tom's Guide)

The iPhone Air is unlike any iPhone we've ever seen before. It's ultra-thin and light, yet it seems to maintain the durability that you wouldn't normally expect from such a design. But it also appears that Apple is using this opportunity to test new designs and technologies that may not be suitable for other iPhones.

One perfect example of that is the revelation that Apple has employed a 3D-printed USB-C port made of titanium. According to Apple's press release, this port is designed to be "thinner and stronger" while also using "33 percent less material" than traditional manufacturing.

While that may not matter to most people, this could be a test run ahead of the iPhone Fold launch next year.

The thinnest iPhone ever

The iPhone Air is currently the thinnest iPhone Apple has ever made, measuring just 5.64mm at its thinnest point. But rumor has it that the iPhone Fold could be somewhere between 4.5 and 4.8mm thick. It may not sound like a big difference, but internal phone space is already at a premium on ordinary phones.

Shaving off even a millimeter means the whole thing needs to be redesigned, with parts reconfigured in what must be the world's worst game of Tetris. So anything that can be shrunk down to help free up space for other things is going to be essential.

Things we've already seen include improving battery density, so you can maintain power storage in a smaller space. It was reported that the iPhone Air could feature silicon-carbon batteries, which are 15% denser than traditional lithium-ion batteries, to avoid reducing the reduction in available power.

We don't know if the iPhone Air currently uses these new batteries. If they have, Apple certainly hasn't told us anything about them. But it's one key example of how space can be saved and help maximize performance on thin phones.

Overcoming a foldable hurdle

Oppo Find N5 open, showing the USB-C port — (Image credit: Tom's Guide)

You may be wondering how the USB-C port fits into this scenario. It all comes down to the fact that foldable phones are reaching their limit, where the thickness of the phone is only fractionally larger than the USB-C charging port itself. If you want your phone to be capable of wired charging, you have to make space for the charging port — so there's a limit to how thin those phones can physically go.

Phones like the Oppo Find N5 and the Honor Magic V5 have more or less reached that limit, both reaching a thickness of 4.2mm. You only need to look at those phones to see how little space there is around the USB-C port. To the point where either the port needs to shrink or the phones are stuck where they are.

By decreasing the size of the USB-C port, Apple could free up room to squeeze slightly more into the iPhone Fold. Alternatively, simply make the design slightly thinner than it would have been otherwise.

I suppose the environmental implications of producing less waste in the manufacturing process aren't such a bad thing either.

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Tom is the Tom's Guide's UK Phones Editor, tackling the latest smartphone news and vocally expressing his opinions about upcoming features or changes. It's long way from his days as editor of Gizmodo UK, when pretty much everything was on the table. He’s usually found trying to squeeze another giant Lego set onto the shelf, draining very large cups of coffee, or complaining about how terrible his Smart TV is.

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