There were 2 speakers, one on the bottom and another on top. Now there is only top speaker, front firing one. Experience would be subpar...
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Other FYI: The “iPhone Air” only has one speaker. That’s something to considering when choosing your phone.
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I believe you are wrong. The original iPhone up to the iPhone 6S had a singular speaker.
The iPhone 7 was the first to introduce stereo speakers.
If you use that speaker, sure it's subpar. But a lot of us don't.
The only times my speaker ever makes noise is when a timer/alarm goes off, I get an unexpected phone call and need to hold the phone to my ear, or I am on a FaceTime with family and my 4-year old is around and wants to talk too. Otherwise I am using AirPods.
I suspect that those use cases won't be harmed by one speaker. If you listen to music on your phone, or watch movies/shows/YouTube without headphones, then absolutely it leads to a subpar experience. But for me, personally, lack of the second speaker plays zero part in the decision; in fact, I suspect I'd rather have the extra battery than the space the speaker takes up.
I agree with this. I don’t watch films or series using my phone speaker, nor do I use it to play music.
I couldn’t care less about it and would much prefer a slimmer, lighter, more premium design.
YES !
On the spot - single vs dual speakers are not a deal breaker.
I only use the speaker as a speakerphone whilst on a call.
If I wanted to listen on social media, YT, or movie - I'd connect to my noise cancelling headphones instead of blaring it to others near me.
They indeed had "mono" speaker experience - it was a single bottom speaker that played music and such, and the upper speaker was used for calls-only. You are right that with 7 they have tuned it up and so both speakers now created some sort of stereo field. But now situation is that you are left with only "left mono speaker", while iPhones originally had it on the right.
It will hurt experience but if person is using bluetooth devices all the time then maybe it is not an issue
I rarely have time for proper listening these days so I just play it thru my phone speaker when I am at home or walking somewhere where I don't disturb other people. The issue is iPhone speakers are just convenient for casual listening: you don't even need to connect anything. So Air definitely not my choice, I absolutely love my stereo speakers on 11 Pro, they sound good enough to listen to music once in a while
What’s the difference though, if they originally had the loudspeaker in a different location to the ear speaker?
Surely they’re just both in the same place on the Air, but the overall experience is no worse than the OG iPhone up to iPhone 6S?
I don’t think the older phones played any sound out of the ear speaker when playing music through the loudspeaker but I may be wrong?
I am not sure, gotta wait for those youtube reviews! They usually test all new phones by playing generic NCS music at full volume, it would be a fun test if they take old clunker like 6s (had it, atrocious speaker quality) and Air and compare
Same. It's definitely a let-down.
The camera situation doesn't bother me. I use the main camera 95% of the time, the telephoto the other 5%, and the ultra-wide never. So the base 17 would have the same issue for me.
But one speaker? I do watch videos without AirPods sometimes, especially if I'm watching it with a friend.
If I'm going to get the Air, I have to decide how many downgrades I'm willing to accept for $1000...
My bet is the single speaker is much better and louder than it was when last seen for iPhone 6S, but obviously not as good as the stereo experience of the Pros.
I think it’ll be more than good enough for most people, though.
Honestly, I gotta disagree here. I think the Air is perfect as it is. I’m not big on taking photos, so the camera isn’t a big deal for me. And cutting down from dual speakers to a single one? Totally the right call. I never use my phone’s speakers anyway — I always plug in my headphones when I need sound.
If someone really cares about those features, they should just go for the higher-end models. The Air exists for people like me who don’t need all those extra bells and whistles that just go to waste. Making it lighter and thinner by removing stuff I’d never use? Absolutely love that!
Sure, the speakers of the Air are poor, but I don’t think that the issue is stereo speakers. I don’t care about phone speakers, I don’t use them. I have had the quad speakers of my 9.7-inch iPad Pro for nine years and I’ve practically never used them. Best device speakers I’ve ever had, almost 100% unused.
The issue is that according to several posts I’ve seen, they distort pretty heavily. It seems like Apple cranked up the volume so as not to make the difference that staggering and pushed the speaker a little too much. I don’t have the Air, but I’ve seen some reports of distortion during challenging songs playing at a volume as low as 50%. That’s unacceptable for me. For the once-in-a-while moment during which I use them, significant distortion would be unbearable.
The issue is that according to several posts I’ve seen, they distort pretty heavily. It seems like Apple cranked up the volume so as not to make the difference that staggering and pushed the speaker a little too much. I don’t have the Air, but I’ve seen some reports of distortion during challenging songs playing at a volume as low as 50%. That’s unacceptable for me. For the once-in-a-while moment during which I use them, significant distortion would be unbearable.
But samsung has shown that you can have a large, thin & light phone with those features as well. You may not use the phone speakers or dual cameras, but plenty of people do and have been put off buying the Air because of this.