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If Apple hadn’t made the compromises I would have bought an Air. Played with one today for the first time. The screen quality compared to the pro was obviously not as great. And it shows.

Apple shouldn’t be putting the Air phones next to the Pros.
Erm, they have exactly the same display technology. OLED Promotion with max 3000 nits brightness so they should be identical apart from size.
 
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I don't think this is actually that accurate. All the articles I see are people trying to use them and figuring out poor battery life or that the camera didn't meet their expectations and they are just discussing it. Not really a personal attack, just pointing out the flaws as a device. Same thing with the mini. 90% of people don't care about a smaller or lighter phone, especially when they come with compromises. I'm a 13 mini user currently and I completely understand that most people don't want one due to the battery life. Makes sense.
Except for the battery life is actually quite good, so I don't think it's a valid comparison to the mini in that way. (and I am a mini user myself)
 
That’s not the situation. It isn’t Air vs Pro and which is better.

The Air crowd is in love with our phones and we don’t have interest in the Pro models. So, whenever there is a thread about the Pro phones we don’t bother to post in them.

However, when a topic gets made about the Air some of the Pro crowd goes out of their way to come into the Air threads just to trash talk the Air and its users. Often consisting of outright lies and insults.

I say to many of them “I don’t go into Pro topics to trash you so stop coming in our topics to trash us”. We want to be left alone to talk about our Air’s and for people that might be interested in the Air or have questions about it.

They basically try to shame everyone into buying another model other than the Air.
You hit the nail on the head. It's ike the Pro users think Air users are nuts for spending $999 for a phone with fewer bells and whistles that are important to them and just can't wrap their heads around that, so they have to constantly express their opinions in these threads. They don't understand that there are very valid reasons that people choose the Air, reasons that aren't important to them.
 
Seems like the iPhone Air owners have a chip on their collective shoulders. People are pointing out the lack of things or omissions on the device making it not good value when compared to other offerings and iPhone Air owners see it as hating on them. Boggles the mind but not surprised at the insecurity as even analysts have mentioned that sales are lack luster but let’s continuing telling ourselves this is all about “hate”. 🙄
I think you're a perfect embodiment of the negative energy here that is so frustrating to Air owners. You say "omissions on the device making it not as good value" as if you are someone to determine what quantifies as value. To me, 3 cameras and stereo speakers and a thick/brick phone are not value, not to me. I don't value that. To me value is thin, light, holdability, great form, in a phone that has a great screen and doesn't really sacrifice in battery. It feels like you are the one with the chip on your shoulder. Understand that people don't have the same needs/desire as you.
 
I think you're a perfect embodiment of the negative energy here that is so frustrating to Air owners. You say "omissions on the device making it not as good value" as if you are someone to determine what quantifies as value. To me, 3 cameras and stereo speakers and a thick/brick phone are not value, not to me. I don't value that. To me value is thin, light, holdability, great form, in a phone that has a great screen and doesn't really sacrifice in battery. It feels like you are the one with the chip on your shoulder. Understand that people don't have the same needs/desire as you.
I think that the other thing I have been thinking about is the Air is the future of the iPhones across the entire line. I believe that the thinness is the future of all smart phones and the Air is the first step much like the iPhone X was the future of iPhones back when it came out. Did I buy one well no as I have a iPhone 16 Pro and see myself keeping it for at least three to four years and possibly longer. I am impressed by the iPhone Air but being on a budget and keeping cost down at this time is more important to me. Having been in an Apple Store recently I did have a few minutes handling the iPhone Air and I was impressed but I will still wait.

I just happy for the folks that got the Air and I think for the vast majority of folks the Air will be a great phone for them. The other thing this year the surprising iPhone was the 17 as it exceeds the performance of my 16 Pro but still lacks the 3rd camera and that to me is impressive.
 
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The air has “features” the pro doesn’t and vice versa. Nothing is cheap about using a full titanium build instead of a thin veneer, Nothing is cheap about designing a phone where pretty much all of the state of the art chips and components live and function in such a tiny space. Both have certain value to who they ate important to.
 
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Except for the battery life is actually quite good, so I don't think it's a valid comparison to the mini in that way. (and I am a mini user myself)
Even if the battery life is good by your standards, it isn't compared to the 17, 17 pro, or 17 pro max which are the phones the air competes with.
 
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Even if the battery life is good by your standards, it isn't compared to the 17, 17 pro, or 17 pro max which are the phones the air competes with.
When it comes to design and comfort in the hand the Air destroys all those phones. They all are competing against the Air when it comes to design and they are losing badly in that regard. That is a feature that is important to a lot people.
 
Whether it's a Mini or an Air or a Pro or a Plus ...

Who the hell cares what anyone else thinks?

Enjoy whatever device you want!

I have no clue how we got to a place in society where people are this wrapped around the axle with what other people think of their pocket PC form factor choice.
 
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When it comes to design and comfort in the hand the Air destroys all those phones. They all are competing against the Air when it comes to design and they are losing badly in that regard. That is a feature that is important to a lot people.
That is purely subjective. Battery, camera, these things can't be debated that the other models are superior. The Air is light, but most people clearly don't care, there will always be a few outliers. And design is 100% personal opinion. Based on sales though you'd think the air has the worst. (Although I think the pro model is way uglier).
 
Self-consoling is a thing glad you have pacified yourself. Nothing I said is not fact about the product.
The problem is that you're mixing facts with opinions. Fact: the Air has fewer cameras and one speaker and a smaller battery. Nobody will argue with that. The problem is that you are interjecting YOUR opinion as to how that equates to value and YOUR opinion is that for those reasons it is inferior. Other people value other things like weight, or thinness, or form, and not more cameras and not stereo speakers that we don't need. For me that Air is a better value because I value a phone that doesn't feel like a big heavy brick. Sounds like maybe you need some self consoling and not attacking those with differing values. Why can't you just be happy that different people have different options that make them happy. Life is too short to be angry about a phone.
 
The problem is that you're mixing facts with opinions. Fact: the Air has fewer cameras and one speaker and a smaller battery. Nobody will argue with that. The problem is that you are interjecting YOUR opinion as to how that equates to value and YOUR opinion is that for those reasons it is inferior. Other people value other things like weight, or thinness, or form, and not more cameras and not stereo speakers that we don't need. For me that Air is a better value because I value a phone that doesn't feel like a big heavy brick. Sounds like maybe you need some self consoling and not attacking those with differing values. Why can't you just be happy that different people have different options that make them happy. Life is too short to be angry about a phone.
Another thing I value in the Air is the titanium frame.
 
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The problem is that you're mixing facts with opinions. Fact: the Air has fewer cameras and one speaker and a smaller battery. Nobody will argue with that. The problem is that you are interjecting YOUR opinion as to how that equates to value and YOUR opinion is that for those reasons it is inferior. Other people value other things like weight, or thinness, or form, and not more cameras and not stereo speakers that we don't need. For me that Air is a better value because I value a phone that doesn't feel like a big heavy brick. Sounds like maybe you need some self consoling and not attacking those with differing values. Why can't you just be happy that different people have different options that make them happy. Life is too short to be angry about a phone.
Tim Cook during his latest earnings call mentioned that the iPhone 17 is the best value (paraphrasing here). That means the iPhone 17 Pro/Max and iPhone Air in comparison are not.

Not sure why this is so hard to understand, spec for spec Tim Cook and many others are correct and the market has demonstrated this due to the lack of iPhone Air sales, optical illusions, trying to convince oneself, etc are fine but iPhone Air enthusiasts are the extreme minority. Convincing yourself you made the right choice is your decision but trying to insist that it’s still value is beyond subjective.

Make your peace and hope the iPhone Air lives for another year, if not you have your answer.

iPhone 13 mini went to iPhone 16 Pro and if I had to upgrade I would go with the iPhone 17. Removing things and charging more in most peoples logic is not value but adding more and charging the same or less is, but skew your logic to substantiate your reasonings.
 
Erm, they have exactly the same display technology. OLED Promotion with max 3000 nits brightness so they should be identical apart from size.
They are talking about the different panel manufacturers (possibly also about panel variations between different production lines/runs of the same manufacturer). In practice, even the displays of the same iPhone model can differ substantially (aka the screen lottery). With regard to the Air and the Pro, from reports it seems that at least in the US, the displays on Air units tend to have a noticeable green tint off-axis that the displays on the Pro units don’t have, and hence look poorer side-by-side.

I’m not a Pro defender, by the way, it’s just that I had my own share of screen lottery in the past, and have experienced first-hand how different the displays of the same iPhone model can look, and vary in quality.
 
Tim Cook during his latest earnings call mentioned that the iPhone 17 is the best value (paraphrasing here). That means the iPhone 17 Pro/Max and iPhone Air in comparison are not.

Not sure why this is so hard to understand, spec for spec Tim Cook and many others are correct and the market has demonstrated this due to the lack of iPhone Air sales, optical illusions, trying to convince oneself, etc are fine but iPhone Air enthusiasts are the extreme minority. Convincing yourself you made the right choice is your decision but trying to insist that it’s still value is beyond subjective.

Make your peace and hope the iPhone Air lives for another year, if not you have your answer.

iPhone 13 mini went to iPhone 16 Pro and if I had to upgrade I would go with the iPhone 17. Removing things and charging more in most peoples logic is not value but adding more and charging the same or less is, but skew your logic to substantiate your reasonings.
I went 13 mini to 15 Pro to 16 Pro to Air. Clearly we are not going to see eye to eye on this. You are fixed on "removing things and charging more", and what they removed is important to you but not to me...they removed weight, that is important to me and to many others who don't need all the extra bells and whistles, so therein lies the value. I'm so tired of trying to explain this to people that don't understand, so I give up. It's like trying to argue politics with your family or friends. I love it and like the mini, I will enjoy it for as long as I can.
 
I went 13 mini to 15 Pro to 16 Pro to Air. Clearly we are not going to see eye to eye on this. You are fixed on "removing things and charging more", and what they removed is important to you but not to me...they removed weight, that is important to me and to many others who don't need all the extra bells and whistles, so therein lies the value. I'm so tired of trying to explain this to people that don't understand, so I give up. It's like trying to argue politics with your family or friends. I love it and like the mini, I will enjoy it for as long as I can.
It seems a lot of people, mostly ones who never purchased and actually used the Air, are the ones bashing on this iPhone and pointing out how “compromised” this new iPhone is or commenting on the poor sales of this iPhone.

Clearly the Air is not for everyone.

This has already been established and I can see that @code-m is not a fan of the iPhone Air and that is okay. It is also okay for people to choose their iPhone, including the Air, if this is what they want. They don’t need permission from anyone on which iPhone they want.

Not everyone have the same use case and from what I have been seeing . . . those who are bashing on people who chose their iPhone Air for their phones forgot about that. For some who choose the Air, it’s about form, strength of the iPhone chassis and lightness of the phone.

The battery life may not be a factor for those who got this iPhone because they may have a battery pack to use or are close to a power source to charge their phones if needed.

Still there may be those who choose the Air simply because they desired to have an iPhone that gave them a premium look and feel and did not require all the Pro features however still wanted an iPhone that had the memory of the Pro series (12GB) and shared the same processor (A19 Pro) even if it had one less GPU core. For these people the Air is more than good enough and the single camera, still a 48 megapixel camera, is more than good enough for their use. This is why I chose my iPhone Air by the way . . .

Point being . . . everyone have different use cases and priorities for how they want to use their phones and Apple has made four different iPhones for people to choose (the iPhone 17, iPhone Air, Pro and Pro Max). They all are good products and as far as I am concerned all the negative talk about any of the 17 iPhone line, and yes the Air, is just noise.

Just enjoy the iPhone you chose and if you don’t like what a person chose without understanding where they are coming from, then perhaps try not bashing on people who chose their phones. It’s not you buying the phone for them. It’s their money, let them enjoy their purchase and leave it at that.
 
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