I like how stunningly gentle the iPhone Air is, however the sacrifices are heavy

The iPhone Air is a perplexing cellphone.

Similar to my expertise with Samsung’s Galaxy Edge a few months ago, Apple’s super-thin iPhone Air has grown on me reasonably shortly. The cellphone is so feather-like and skinny that after I slide it into my entrance pocket, it nearly seems like there’s nothing there. Its thinness and weight won’t seem to be a major change if you see the system in photos or movies, however it’s very noticeable if you’re truly holding the smartphone.

It is price noting that that is the primary new addition to the iPhone lineup in a number of years, alongside the truth that it replaces the iPhone 16 Plus. For the reason that iPhone Air’s reveal, there’s been a number of hypothesis about what its distinctive, ultra-thin design means for Apple’s future. Is it a precursor to the often-rumored foldable iPhone? Will its key design options trickle right down to different iPhones? I am leaning in the direction of the latter, and might see the inevitable foldable iPhone or iPad mainly being two iPhone Airs glued collectively.

The sleek-looking cellphone is not with out vital drawbacks, although. First, the iPhone Air solely encompasses a single f/1.6 48-megapixel digicam (there isn’t any ultrawide, or telephoto lens), and its sensor-crop zoom solely hits 2x. There are additionally issues about battery life, given the cellphone’s skinny design. The excellent news is it is not as unhealthy as I anticipated, however it’s not nice both. With all of that in thoughts, the iPhone Air is clearly a press release from Apple, because of its attention-grabbing design that makes it clearly stand out from different iPhones and most Android gadgets.

The important thing query surrounding the cellphone is whether or not its technical trade-offs are price its very cool-looking aesthetic — and the reply to that query is troublesome to parse.

3.5/5

Model

Apple

SoC

A19 Professional 6-core CPU, 5-core GPU

Show

6.5-inch 2736 x 1260 pixel decision Tremendous Retina XDR show

RAM

N/A

The tremendous skinny iPhone Air is simply 5.6mm thick and encompasses a single 48-megapixel digicam lens. Its show is available in at 6.5-inches with helps for ProMotion 120Hz, and its back and front options ceramic protect development.

Professionals & Cons

• Smooth design
• Tremendous gentle
• Single lens snaps good photographs

• Battery life is not stellar
• Just one lens
• Shiny titanium sides

The sleekest iPhone ever

If that is Apple’s future, I am all in

The very best factor concerning the iPhone Air is clearly its design.

The iPhone Air is remarkably skinny, measuring 5.6mm — however it is probably not as slender as some anticipated. To place this in perspective, the Galaxy Edge is 5.88mm and the iPhone 17 Professional is 8.25mm. Whereas the few millimeters distinction is undeniably noticeable, it is the load that feels extra game-changing to me. Once I maintain the iPhone Air in my hand, I respect the truth that it weighs solely 5.8oz (165g), in comparison with the iPhone 17 Professional’s 7.2oz (206g).

This makes it simpler to make use of in almost all conditions, whether or not that is holding it above my head whereas scrolling social media in mattress (I am infamous for dropping my cellphone on my face) or shortly checking my messages whereas I am working errands. Then again, I discover that its show is a bit too massive at 6.5-inches. This makes it barely smaller than the 6.7-inch iPhone 16 Plus and greater than the 6.3-inch iPhone 17 Professional, however nonetheless smaller than the iPhone 17 Professional. I might have most popular the iPhone Air featured a show dimension someplace within the 6.1 to six.3-inch vary as a result of that may make its skinny physique barely simpler to grip.

With that stated, the show seems to be nice, whether or not I am watching Basis on Apple TV+ or scrolling content material on Threads, and it is spectacular Apple packed a 120Hz ProMotion show that may hit 3,000 nits of peak brightness in a smartphone this skinny and light-weight. Flipping the iPhone Air over reveals its glass iPhone 16-like digicam bump with a single lens (Apple calls the bump a “plateau”). The bump kind of resembles the iPhone 17’s rear digicam array flipped to its aspect and stretched. I do not dislike this look, however the precise digicam efficiency has left me considerably disenchanted (extra on this later), and I want there have been extra lens choices.

Lastly, just like the iPhone 17 Professional, the iPhone Air encompasses a throwback curved look, however coupled with this are shiny titanium sides. Apple says it opted for titanium as a result of it is a extra sturdy materials, and that it made the swap again to aluminum with the iPhone 17 Professional as a result of it dissipates warmth higher. A part of me wonders if the iPhone Air nonetheless options titanium as a result of it was in improvement lengthy earlier than the iPhone 17 Professional, however we’ll by no means know for certain. Both manner, I am not a fan of the shiny, smudge-magnetic look and like the iPhone 17’s and iPhone 17 Professional’s matte sides. On the plus aspect, the iPhone Air feels extraordinarily sturdy because of its Ceramic Protect 2 show and Ceramic Protect again. In the event you’re apprehensive that this ultra-light and skinny smartphone will flip into “Bengate 2,” that is critically not taking place.

Apple even requested media, YouTubers, and influencers to try to bend the phone during briefings following the cellphone’s reveal keynote — as somebody who’s attended numerous Apple briefings at this level, that is very out of character for the tech large and speaks volumes about how assured it’s within the iPhone Air’s sturdiness.

Lackluster digicam efficiency

Samsung match an ultrawide lens in its super-thin Galaxy Edge — why cannot Apple?

Considered one of my largest points with the iPhone Air is that it options solely a single 48-megapixel digicam with an f/1.6 lens and 2x zoom achieved via sensor cropping. There isn’t any ultrawide shooter or telephoto digicam. Once you keep in mind its $1,000 price ticket and that the iPhone 17 Professional and its three-camera array prices solely $100 extra, the iPhone Air turns into a troublesome promote for many iPhone customers.

On high of that, I discover it troublesome to imagine that there will not be an iPhone Air 2 subsequent 12 months with no less than one extra lens, whether or not it finally ends up being an ultrawide or a shorter telephoto shooter. Samsung was capable of make it occur with a cellphone physique that is only some millimeters larger than the iPhone Air, so what’s stopping Apple? I do know there are some within the tech media sphere that strongly feel this would possibly not occur since it could require a redesign of a number of of the iPhone Air’s elements, together with its digicam bump. However the tech large has an extended historical past of considerably altering up the design of second technology gadgets, so I feel that it’s extremely potential.

With that out of the way in which, I might describe the iPhone Air’s digicam efficiency as fairly good, however restricted given the single-lens setup. Its sensor is barely smaller than the iPhone 17 Professional’s, leading to poorer low-light efficiency and oddly inconsistent dealing with of highlights beneath difficult lighting (I’ve comparable ideas concerning the iPhone 17’s fundamental shooter). I additionally miss the power to snap macro photographs with the iPhone 17 and the iPhone 17 Professional’s zoom digicam. That stated, the shooter entrance is similar to the iPhone 17’s. Nonetheless, I used to be capable of shoot a number of gorgeous wanting photographs with the iPhone Air’s single 48-megapixel lens.

On the plus aspect, the f/1.9 18-megapixel digicam snaps nice selfies and is similar front-facing digicam as the remainder of the iPhone 17 lineup. This implies it additionally options Middle Stage, permitting you to modify between portrait and panorama selfies on the fly, because of its sq. sensor. It is a function the selfie-obsessed will discover very helpful. Pictures taken with the front-facing digicam seem crisp and brilliant, with minimal pores and skin smoothing.

A efficiency powerhouse

The A19 Professional does not appear to run that scorching

Considered one of my fundamental issues with the iPhone Air was how the A19 Professional chip would carry out in such a skinny physique. When you solely get 5 GPU cores in comparison with the six within the iPhone 17 Professional, the iPhone Air nonetheless seems like an absolute beast, and to my shock, it appears to not even get as scorching because the iPhone 17 Professional (this makes me query Apple’s titanium vs aluminum claims a bit).

Modifying photographs in Lightroom CC is a easy expertise, and any triple-A recreation I throw at, is dealt with with ease. For people who care about benchmarks, the iPhone Air hits 3,723 for single-core and 9,388 for multi-core on Geekbench 6.

Then there’s the query of battery life. No, the iPhone Air does not have nice battery life, however I used to be capable of make it to about 6-8pm, relying on what I did with my smartphone that day. For instance, throughout a day of snapping a number of photographs for this assessment, I barely made it to 6pm, whereas with a extra reasonable use scenario, together with a little bit of social media scrolling, listening to podcasts, and watching a number of shorter YouTube movies, the iPhone Air simply made it to 8pm with my day beginning at about 7am. You may at all times purchase the iPhone Air MagSafe battery, which is undeniably a really cool-looking accent, however that defeats the aim of getting a super-thin smartphone (on that word, Apple’s frost iPhone Air case is great-looking).

So if you’d like a smartphone with long-lasting battery life, the iPhone Air clearly is not for you.

Who’s the iPhone Air for?

I do not know (and I am unsure Apple does both)

That brings me to the important thing query surrounding the iPhone Air – who is that this cellphone truly for? The iPhone 17 Professional and iPhone 17 Professional Max are aimed squarely at content material creators now, whereas the iPhone 17 is the cellphone for everybody (much more so now that it encompasses a 120Hz display), and the iPhone Air… nicely, I am nonetheless not totally certain.

It would not work for somebody like me who’s a cellphone fanatic, as a result of as cool because the iPhone Air seems to be, I need that additional ultrawide/telephoto lens, and I care an excessive amount of about battery life. I do not suppose my companion can be pleased with it both, given how essential battery life is to her. Even my mother would most likely go for the cheaper base iPhone 17 to get that additional digicam lens, particularly given the minimal value distinction.

To me, the iPhone Air is for the Apple person who desires a flashy smartphone that makes a press release, and that does not care about additional digicam lens and battery life. As cool because the iPhone Air is, my guess is that its viewers is fairly small.

3.5/5

Model

Apple

SoC

A19 Professional 6-core CPU, 5-core GPU

Show

6.5-inch 2736 x 1260 pixel decision Tremendous Retina XDR show

RAM

N/A