Apple is reportedly working on a second-generation iPhone Air that is expected to launch in spring 2027, and one of Apple’s main goals is to improve battery life. We now have the first rumor suggesting what kind of improvement might be coming.
In a Weibo post listing supply chain forecasts, serial leaker Digital Chat Station said the iPhone Air 2 is expected to feature a 3,500 mAh battery. That’s an increase over the current iPhone Air’s 3,149mAh battery, indicating an increase of about 11% in raw capacity.
Larger battery capacity generally means either a physically larger battery or a denser battery, but that doesn’t automatically mean a bigger phone. Apple might also be able to improve the internal packaging to accommodate a larger battery in the same chassis. Regardless, this is going to be another tight squeeze.
Several previous rumors suggest that Apple is adding a second camera to the iPhone Air to address customers’ biggest complaint about the device. The current model has a single rear wide-angle lens, making it less versatile than the more affordable iPhone 17 in terms of photography. Reports suggest that Apple will add an ultra-wide lens to the iPhone Air 2 to solve this problem.
Several technologies are housed in the tray of the iPhone Air to maximize space for the battery. So Apple would probably have to significantly redesign the internal components to adapt them to another camera. Whether this will impact the battery packaging design remains to be seen.
The device will use an A20 chip based on Apple’s new 2nm process, allowing it to offer better efficiency, which should improve battery life regardless of any changes in its capacity. Additionally, according to a separate report, Apple is adopting an OLED technology made by Samsung called CoE (Color Filter on Encapsulation), which could make the iPhone Air 2’s screen thinner. This could allow Apple to squeeze in a slightly larger battery while keeping the device dimensions the same.
The iPhone Air 2 is expected to launch in the first half of 2027, alongside the regular iPhone 18 and the cheaper iPhone 18e.
