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

The iPhone Air is a perplexing telephone.

Similar to my expertise with Samsung’s Galaxy Edge a few months ago, Apple’s super-thin iPhone Air has grown on me slightly shortly. The telephone 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 appear to be a big change while you see the machine in footage or movies, however it’s very noticeable while 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. Because the iPhone Air’s reveal, there’s been numerous 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 all the way down to different iPhones? I am leaning in direction of the latter, and might see the inevitable foldable iPhone or iPad mainly being two iPhone Airs glued collectively.

The sleek-looking telephone is not with out vital drawbacks, although. First, the iPhone Air solely incorporates a single f/1.6 48-megapixel digicam (there is no ultrawide, or telephoto lens), and its sensor-crop zoom solely hits 2x. There are additionally considerations about battery life, given the telephone’s skinny design. The excellent news is it is not as dangerous as I anticipated, however it’s not nice both. With all of that in thoughts, the iPhone Air is clearly an announcement from Apple, due to its attention-grabbing design that makes it clearly stand out from different iPhones and most Android gadgets.

The important thing query surrounding the telephone 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 incorporates 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 defend building.

Execs & Cons

• Glossy design
• Tremendous gentle
• Single lens snaps good images

• 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 most effective 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 burden that feels extra game-changing to me. After I maintain the iPhone Air in my hand, I recognize 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 practically all conditions, whether or not that is holding it above my head whereas scrolling social media in mattress (I am infamous for dropping my telephone on my face) or shortly checking my messages whereas I am operating errands. Alternatively, I discover that its show is a bit too huge at 6.5-inches. This makes it barely smaller than the 6.7-inch iPhone 16 Plus and larger than the 6.3-inch iPhone 17 Professional, however nonetheless smaller than the iPhone 17 Professional. I’d have most popular the iPhone Air featured a show measurement 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 mentioned, the show appears to be like 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 disillusioned (extra on this later), and I want there have been extra lens choices.

Lastly, just like the iPhone 17 Professional, the iPhone Air incorporates 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 change 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 growth lengthy earlier than the iPhone 17 Professional, however we’ll by no means know for certain. Both approach, 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 due to its Ceramic Defend 2 show and Ceramic Defend again. If you happen to’re nervous that this ultra-light and skinny smartphone will flip into “Bengate 2,” that is significantly not taking place.

Apple even requested media, YouTubers, and influencers to try to bend the phone during briefings following the telephone’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?

One among 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 by way of sensor cropping. There is no ultrawide shooter or telephoto digicam. If you take note of 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 tricky promote for many iPhone customers.

On high of that, I discover it troublesome to consider that there will not be an iPhone Air 2 subsequent 12 months with at the least one further 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 telephone physique that is just a few millimeters greater 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 era gadgets, so I feel that it’s extremely doable.

With that out of the way in which, I would 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 most important shooter). I additionally miss the flexibility to snap macro photographs with the iPhone 17 and the iPhone 17 Professional’s zoom digicam. That mentioned, the shooter entrance is equivalent to the iPhone 17’s. Nonetheless, I used to be capable of shoot a number of beautiful trying images 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 identical 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, due to its sq. sensor. This can be a function the selfie-obsessed will discover very helpful. Photographs taken with the front-facing digicam seem crisp and vibrant, with minimal pores and skin smoothing.

A efficiency powerhouse

The A19 Professional would not appear to run that sizzling

One among my most important considerations with the iPhone Air was how the A19 Professional chip would carry out in such a skinny physique. Whilst 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 sizzling because the iPhone 17 Professional (this makes me query Apple’s titanium vs aluminum claims a bit).

Modifying photographs in Lightroom CC is a clean expertise, and any triple-A recreation I throw at, is dealt with with ease. For those 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 would 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 numerous images for this evaluation, 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 couple 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 would 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 telephone 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 telephone for everybody (much more so now that it incorporates a 120Hz display), and the iPhone Air… effectively, I am nonetheless not fully certain.

It would not work for somebody like me who’s a telephone fanatic, as a result of as cool because the iPhone Air appears to be like, I need that additional ultrawide/telephoto lens, and I care an excessive amount of about battery life. I do not suppose my accomplice could be proud of it both, given how essential battery life is to her. Even my mother would in all probability 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 consumer who needs a flashy smartphone that makes an announcement, 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