This is interesting.
As long as it suits your lifestyle that is good.
A lot of people may need their phone for long hours for all sorts of reasons, be it medical, work or otherwise, don’t think they are in trouble per se.
Got a tip for us?
Let us know
Become a MacRumors Supporter for $50/year with no ads, ability to filter front page stories, and private forums.
iPhone Air Do you still love the iPhone Air?
- Thread starter awshucks
- Start date
- Sort by reaction score
This is interesting.
As long as it suits your lifestyle that is good.
A lot of people may need their phone for long hours for all sorts of reasons, be it medical, work or otherwise, don’t think they are in trouble per se.
I get how you might need the standby but 7+ hours of screen time?
In defence of Apple the 12 Mini did have lousy battery life. The 13 Mini was however the perfect digital swiss army knife and they blew it.
Yes, that’s true: 13 mini’s battery is way better than 12 mini’s. Obviously I picked up the 12 mini ahahah 😂
Me too. I swapped it for a 12 and then that turned out to have a crap battery too!
Given the continued focus on improving efficiency and increasing battery life, I would say yes indeed.
I don’t think there is such a thing as “too much battery life” but then again, 2026 more and more feels like we have entered a new level of the twilight zone 6 days in.
I love mine so much I "sold" five to family and friends over the holidays. They held mine and it was "WOW". Played with it for a few minutes, asked a couple questions about my experience since launch and they were sold.
A big selling point for them was how incredibly thin/light it is while having such a large display. I explained how for my use that "feature" was far more important than extra camera lenses, a second speaker or additional battery life. The latter I explained was offset with the MagSafe battery which I only use on the rare occasions I'm away from power for hours on end and have a lot of screen-on time.
Thin/light and a joy to hold/use/carry all the time and thicker/heavier when the extra battery capacity is needed. Best of both worlds!
A big selling point for them was how incredibly thin/light it is while having such a large display. I explained how for my use that "feature" was far more important than extra camera lenses, a second speaker or additional battery life. The latter I explained was offset with the MagSafe battery which I only use on the rare occasions I'm away from power for hours on end and have a lot of screen-on time.
Thin/light and a joy to hold/use/carry all the time and thicker/heavier when the extra battery capacity is needed. Best of both worlds!
Last edited:
I ended up selling mine and going back to a 16p. I ended up missing the extra cameras way more than I expected. Everything else about the air was great for me.
Just returned mine today. I really liked that phone, but couldn’t justify the $1300 I spent when I was missing the display port and wide angle camera. Back to my “old” 15 plus for now.
Still loving the iPhone Air. Sure I charge it more often but that hasn't bothered me as much as I expected. I purchased some wireless car mount chargers to compensate for it and so far so good.
The single speaker is actually fine for watching videos, but it definitely is lacking when playing music.
The camera quality is okay. It's about equivalent to the iPhone 16 base.
The speed and power of the phone is impressive. Heavy video editing on the device will start heat throttling and performance will begin stuttering; I'm sure the new iPhone Pro performs better in that category.
The lightness of the phone is my favorite feature. Other phones feel heavy now. The antenna seems a little worse than my 16 Pro but Apple is finding their bearings with modems so I'll cut them some slack. Overall as an early adopter of the new iPhone Air form factor I am happy with it.
The single speaker is actually fine for watching videos, but it definitely is lacking when playing music.
The camera quality is okay. It's about equivalent to the iPhone 16 base.
The speed and power of the phone is impressive. Heavy video editing on the device will start heat throttling and performance will begin stuttering; I'm sure the new iPhone Pro performs better in that category.
The lightness of the phone is my favorite feature. Other phones feel heavy now. The antenna seems a little worse than my 16 Pro but Apple is finding their bearings with modems so I'll cut them some slack. Overall as an early adopter of the new iPhone Air form factor I am happy with it.
Not sure if people realise that charging the phone often will run up the charge cycles faster, and battery health will drop faster. That's the problem with shorter battery life.
Charge cycles do not happen faster if you charge the phone more often.
Charge cycle USAGE is based on the phone's usage of the battery. The only thing charging does is (since the 15 Pro Max) - not use charge cycles cuz it will run off of wall power. I can leave my 15 Pro Max (or 17 Pro Max) plugged into the wall and use my phone heavily for HOURS and not use 1 cycle for an entire week this way. In fact, thanks to my desk job, I average about 5-7 cycles a month despite using my phone heavily.
Depleting your phone's from 100% to 0% uses 1 cycle. And it doesn't have to be a one shot 100% to 0%. For example: Monday, you use 100% to 70%, then Tuesday you use 70% to 40%, and then Wednesday you use 40% to 0% - that's 1 cycle when you charge it to 100%. SAME if you use your battery 100% to 50%, charge to 100% - that's half a cycle. If you do that twice, that's a full cycle.
Leaving your phone on the charger is actually helpful for reducing cycles (since the 15 Pro Max).
Addendum: I returned my Air on O2 Refresh (A UK carrier deal that lets you swap your phone every 3 months) and exchanged it. This was not because I disliked the phone in any way. My only real niggles are the lack of a video out and how frustrating it is to try and pick up when it’s face-down on a flat surface, even in a case!
I just realised that I was spending more money than I needed so I got a Pixel 9a which is comparitively a chonker but the flush camera is nice. I suppose the real weakness of the iPhone Air is its lack of utility over a mid-range handset. Having a thin, light phone is bloody amazing but is it worth double the price of the 16e or 9a?
I just realised that I was spending more money than I needed so I got a Pixel 9a which is comparitively a chonker but the flush camera is nice. I suppose the real weakness of the iPhone Air is its lack of utility over a mid-range handset. Having a thin, light phone is bloody amazing but is it worth double the price of the 16e or 9a?
For me, yes. Light thin form factor makes a huge difference in usability to me and nothing out there offers the same package of function and form factor at a lower price. (The telephoto camera and DisplayPort are the main trade offs for me, but because of how infrequently I use them compared to how often I hold/pocket my phone, the overall trade off is well worth it for me.)
And higher price for very compact technology is somewhat normal, presumably because it's harder/costlier to do. At least at first. I'm thinking of the first MacBook Air, Sony Vaio, and a lot of ultra light camping equipment.
But for many people, form factor isn't as much of a concern as features and especially cost, so I don't expect the Air to be mainstream. But it's possible that, like the MacBook Air, the iPhone Air will eventually come down in price and up in functionality and become mainstream, but probably not for at least a couple generations.
Last edited:
If money was no object I would agree. But in trying times of lowering monthly outgoings I’m not sure. I wish Apple the greatest success with the Air and hope it stays around. It’s a wonderful device to just pick up and hold. Ultimately though at this point in time it was not for me
I pair my phone to an external GPS receiver for work. If I am in the field, easily 10+ hours of SOT for me in a day.
Yes there are many rumors to suggest they are... But not this year, according to rumors Apple is splitting their iPhone releases. The pros and fold will be in September of 26' as usual.... but the regular 18, air and SE will be in spring of 27'
Now that I can understand. The Air is a Porsche 911, not a Landrover Defender!
Air has gone down to £849 in the UK. https://www.argos.co.uk/sd/iphone-air/
Definitely has a better chance at that price point, puts a bit of space between it and the Pro. Hopefully the Air 2 will come in at 899 with the dual camera system as rumoured.