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iPhone Air Do you still love the iPhone Air?
- Thread starter awshucks
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I regularly got 6 hours of SOT. That's why I moved back to the Pro.. not enough for me.
In Canada from the Apple Store it’s $1,449 for the Air vs $1,129 for the base model. Most carrier stores are offering the Air on a discount with certain plans.
It's a great phone but it's compromised too much. No reason for it not to have high density battery and dual cameras. Better speaker quality is likely possible as well. It's still a breath of fresh air against them going utilitarian almost Android like with their other devices function over form - it's almost like Apple is having identity crisis.
Two months in and my appreciation for my Air only grows. It's an absolute pleasure to use. I knew the only thing I would miss from my 16PM was the telephoto, which I do, but so infrequently. Whereas every day for many hours I enjoy using the Air for everything other than the telephoto. Using a Pro again for me would be like using a Toyota Tundra as my daily driver in Manhattan so that I can move apartments once in a blue moon. By far the Air is the best iPhone in the lineup for me.
I just wish some people would read the the title of this thread and not share us their opinions on something they never owned...
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EXACTLY!!! As an Air owner from the very beginning when I pre-ordered mine I haven't had any major issues using my Air, including the supposed poor battery life. All these "compromises" as pointed out by various content creators and others repeating them without having owned and used the Air on a daily basis, not reviewing them but actually using them full time, is just noise.
No the Air is not the "perfect" iPhone but from my point of view being a Pro Max user since they first came out, this new iPhone has been so refreshing to own and use on a daily basis. It has some pro-level features that the base 17 does not have. From my use case, the Air has done a splendid job tackling everything I have thrown at it. As a normal iPhone user, not a power user, this is perfect for my needs and yes, I have multiple iPhones to choose from (my 17 Pro, my various 13 minis from my collection) if I want to use a different iPhone. Why the 13 mini? Because it is easily the best handheld iPhone Apple has made and sometimes I love having a small compact iPhone I can easily use with just one hand. For me this is a refreshing change. Why I gravitated towards my Air as my primary phone. A lightweight and very thin platform that can be used with one hand on the most part. It is a perfectly balanced iPhone reminding me of how nice and unique the 13 mini truly was.
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As someone who owned the iPhone Air for 2 weeks before returning it and getting the iPhone 17PM, I have no regrets. I did had buyer remorse for the time of owning the Air, but had the PM since, and i am satisfied.
This whole entire time, i seen alot of 17PM but i barely seen any Air... probably 2-3 and those were among older folks. They are for sure not popular comparing to the 17PM.
This whole entire time, i seen alot of 17PM but i barely seen any Air... probably 2-3 and those were among older folks. They are for sure not popular comparing to the 17PM.
If true that's about what the price should be if they want to sell it. Irrespective of build quality i just don't see people paying 1799 for a phone with the air's spec.
Ditto.
I think that at that price point, people don't want to compromise on things like performance and the camera - and like it or not the air has compromises to get the form factor.
Its a nice form factor, the engineering is amazing, etc. - but i don't feel that most people spending this sort of money on a phone are willing to give up the cameras, battery life and performance to get that form factor. They're willing to have the Pro Max size/weight to get them.
Hence the lower sales. People are just going Pro/Pro Max instead.
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I bought a new iPhone Air for $100 less than a new iPhone 17. That was in October. Now they're about the same price.
Sorry, I didn't mention that I live in another country. We have a unique pricing system.
Nah that's fine, I get it.
Just interesting how pricing varies at the moment, even in the same country depending on where you buy.
In my country people prefer to buy iPhones from small retailers. It's cheaper. About a month ago, prices for the iPhone 17 started going up in smaller stores. If I were to buy an Air now, I'd pay $100 more. They predict prices will continue to rise. Our tax system recently changed.
I went with an Air for the exact opposite reason — I wasn’t prepared to pay more for a Pro/Pro Max that is worse in my book. The Air is thin, light and elegant. The display is large. I don’t take tons of photos and my usage is probably relatively light. When I might be on the road for extended periods, I’ll bring the MagSafe battery, but for the other 98% of the time, I get to enjoy the benefits of owning an Air.
So in my case, the Air solves my problems and I was happy to pay for it.
No kidding, plenty other threads that arent directly asking Air owners how they like their device.
I'm on my phone WAAAAAAAY too much, and live in fear that it'll die on me if my battery isn't charged to at least 90%. But that has led to my phone's battery life (or whatever it's called) being at 79%.
Yep, it is actually quite a diverse lineup of iPhones available for varying lifestyles this generation, everyone has something they may like.
I get the feeling once Apple add a 2nd camera and larger battery (without it getting too much thicker) in the Air 2 it may develop quite a loyal audience.
They will need to keep it true to “Air” though and not lose their vision the way they did with iPad Air.
Battery life has improved significantly since my last report despite having iPhone Air for about a week when I got a 4h screen on time. I haven’t charged since Friday afternoon and I’m at 36% currently with 5h 42m of screen on time. More impressively, I’ve since enabled the Always On Display which doesn’t seem to even go to sleep as I’ve had the iPhone face up on my desk. Granted, I did take my iPhone SE out with me for the weekend as it’s still my primary device but this is more what the optimist in me expected to see with iPhone Air.
Pro tip: enable Music Haptics to create the illusion of having a second speaker. This still isn’t as impressive as it feels in the stereo configuration where the iPhone is already producing enough bass to feel it rumble throughout the phone, but for general usage the speaker is adequate enough.
I still love it. I recently debated getting an OG Pixel Fold to give them a go but the damned thing was such a heavy brick I declined after holding it. The best things about the Air are unquantifiable on a spreadsheet. Its the UX, the feel of it in your hands and pocket that makes it such a unique phone to use, moreso because Apple created it with this in mind rather than just building it with off the shelf parts like the S25 Edge which feels as generic as the rest of the Galaxy line (even if the main camera is better)
The battery life is better than my old 16 Pro (If you need your phone for more than 6 hours a day you might have a problem!) and I never really miss the .5x camera. I can squeeze 9 hours of PSP emulation out of it. Barring iOS26 bugs, the damned thing is off the charts for speed and takes much better photos than my DSLR at the same focal lengths. It feels nicely future proof for whatever iOS27 brings to the table.
Poor sales are down to Apple's terrible marketing. The problem they have is that every reason to buy the Air (minimalist big phone without the bulk) is a reason not to buy the Pro Max and guess where their marketing budget goes.
For any future revision I hope Apple sticks a 200mpx sensor inside the main camera making a 4x crop a viable zoom like on the S25 Edge. A video-out wouldn't hurt either.
The battery life is better than my old 16 Pro (If you need your phone for more than 6 hours a day you might have a problem!) and I never really miss the .5x camera. I can squeeze 9 hours of PSP emulation out of it. Barring iOS26 bugs, the damned thing is off the charts for speed and takes much better photos than my DSLR at the same focal lengths. It feels nicely future proof for whatever iOS27 brings to the table.
Poor sales are down to Apple's terrible marketing. The problem they have is that every reason to buy the Air (minimalist big phone without the bulk) is a reason not to buy the Pro Max and guess where their marketing budget goes.
For any future revision I hope Apple sticks a 200mpx sensor inside the main camera making a 4x crop a viable zoom like on the S25 Edge. A video-out wouldn't hurt either.
Similar to what they did with 12 mini and 13 mini. A real mess.