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iPhone Air Impressions after Apple Store Visit (all new iPhone models)

Macintosh101

Macintosh101

macrumors 6502a
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Nov 23, 2017
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I just got back from an Apple Store in London , fully expecting to either upgrade my 15 Pro Max (natural titanium)to either the Air or the 17 Pro / Pro Max. I left with my 15 Pro Max.

Observations:
  • The store was packed. Nobody apart from me was looking at the Air, only the regular 17 and mainly the 17 Pro.
  • The Air is underwhelming. I expected to be blown away by the design and the feel of it. It's quite nice, sure. But when you’re using it, it just feels like a thin, but gimped phone. It's clearly a precursor to a foldable. Liquid Glass looks like it was designed with the Air in mind.
  • I compared the 16s in store with the new iPhones, and the anti-reflective coating makes a very negligible difference.
  • Do not, do not, do not purchase the dark blue pro, or the black Air. The rear of these models were covered in very visible scratches. These would not come off with rubbing, or a micro fibre cloth. They looked shockingly bad; the orange and silver Pros, and the other Air colours were all fine- no visible scratches.
  • The regular 17s are really nice and a great deal. The orange Pro is striking, but the novelty soon wore off. The only phone which left a lasting impression on me was the silver Pro. However there’s something about the aluminium this year that makes the Pros feel slightly ‘cheap’, almost as if it should be the base model.
Hope this helps some people. I feel like Apple are very much in a transition phase and these are ‘holding’ products, before something more radical.
 
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My impressions from the store are largely the same as the OP's.

Pro - the orange in person seemed a bit too much as opposed to the photos. It looks nice, but I know the novelty would wear off for me and I'd be better served with a more neutral, more muted color. The silver doesn't look impressive at all, looks rather bland with the unibody design, but the blue one looks really good in person. It's a shame about paint issues, though. The Pros have never looked less premium and less enticing to me. I particularly dislike the back plate which shines under certain angles and stands out too much from the rest of the body. That plate doesn't sit flush on all corners, too. All in all, I wouldn't buy this phone.

Air - massively underwhelmed. I have my doubts about the performance of this phone, but I did expect to be impressed with the new design and the thinness. When I held it, different story. It looks nice but that's it, no wow factor for me. Given that this phone's main advantage is the design, I was surprised by how uninspiring it was for me when I saw it in person. If it didn't have the plateau bump, it would be a different story, but that bump is just too thick for me to appreciate the thinness of the rest of the phone. What surprised me the most is that I could see frame drops already, on day 1, on a brand new unit. This tells me the throttling will be real in this one. When it comes to smoothness of the user experience, the difference between the Pro and the Air is clear, which is surprising as I'd expect that to show when the phone runs hot. The phone was not even warm and I could see frame drops in the first few seconds of scrolling through Safari, and other apps had this behavior, too. I think the Air will either have average-at-best battery life or it will underperform considerably as opposed to the Pro, because of thermal throttling.

Base - not much to say, same phone as last year, now with ProMotion. It's clearly not as fast as the other two. Given that the A19 outperforms the A18Pro which outperforms the chip in my 15 Pro, I was surprised that the user experience isn't smoother on an A19 with ProMotion in comparison with my phone. Granted, different OS, but still, if the performance gains are so big and the phone now has 120Hz, why am I not seeing a clear difference. The specs tell me that this phone should be faster and smoother than it is, but for the price tag it's a great buy.
 
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waquzy said:
You are wrong.

*Confirmed by an actual iPhone Air owner
Click to expand...
Honestly glad l hear it. But it’s also only been one day. Hard to say what your normal usage is going to be like in one day, especially when it’s new. After 2-3 months with it will be the real test. Like I said in my op, I do hope I’m wrong. It just seems like apple at least, views the battery lie as a problem.
 
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Gsxr750 said:
Honestly glad l hear it. But it’s also only been one day. Hard to say what your normal usage is going to be like in one day, especially when it’s new. After 2-3 months with it will be the real test. Like I said in my op, I do hope I’m wrong. It just seems like apple at least, views the battery lie as a problem.
Click to expand...
Will report back for sure. I’m a heavy user btw, as I use my iPhone as a hotspot throughout the house as well.
 
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The iPhone Air is the first phone I feel excited about since the iPhone X. I have been a Pro user for the last 5 years or so and yesterday my Air arrived. It usually takes me the full 14 days to decide whether it is worth buying a new phone. This year, the decision took about an hour. The Air is really amazing in the hand and without a case weighs the exact same as my wife's iPhone 12 Mini with the case. It is quite an engineering feat.
 
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Macintosh101 said:
I don’t blame you. Theoretically I love the idea of darker models. I’ll be interested in an update after a few weeks or so, to see if you get the kind of scratches that were visible in the store.
Click to expand...
Will let you know mate. I always go caseless and use my iPhones as consumables and not relics therefore if it were to scratch easily it is going to happen in my case 😂
 
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Air give me wow factor and I’m serious thinking about going from 14PM to Air. 17 Pro and Pro Max are rugged, too much rugged in comparison. I know that battery and cameras will be compromises, but yesterday I can’t stop to touch and play with the Air.
 
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zkap said:
The phone was not even warm and I could see frame drops in the first few seconds of scrolling through Safari, and other apps had this behavior, too.
Click to expand...
May be just iOS 26 an its liquid ass.

I'm seeing on my stuttering on my Phone 12 as well. An admittedly aging phone - but it's much more pronounced than the previous five versions of iOS (14 through 18), which slowed down rather imperceptibly.
 
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zkap said:
My impressions from the store are largely the same as the OP's.

Pro - the orange in person seemed a bit too much as opposed to the photos. It looks nice, but I know the novelty would wear off for me and I'd be better served with a more neutral, more muted color. The silver doesn't look impressive at all, looks rather bland with the unibody design, but the blue one looks really good in person. It's a shame about paint issues, though. The Pros have never looked less premium and less enticing to me. I particularly dislike the back plate which shines under certain angles and stands out too much from the rest of the body. That plate doesn't sit flush on all corners, too. All in all, I wouldn't buy this phone.

Air - massively underwhelmed. I have my doubts about the performance of this phone, but I did expect to be impressed with the new design and the thinness. When I held it, different story. It looks nice but that's it, no wow factor for me. Given that this phone's main advantage is the design, I was surprised by how uninspiring it was for me when I saw it in person. If it didn't have the plateau bump, it would be a different story, but that bump is just too thick for me to appreciate the thinness of the rest of the phone. What surprised me the most is that I could see frame drops already, on day 1, on a brand new unit. This tells me the throttling will be real in this one. When it comes to smoothness of the user experience, the difference between the Pro and the Air is clear, which is surprising as I'd expect that to show when the phone runs hot. The phone was not even warm and I could see frame drops in the first few seconds of scrolling through Safari, and other apps had this behavior, too. I think the Air will either have average-at-best battery life or it will underperform considerably as opposed to the Pro, because of thermal throttling.

Base - not much to say, same phone as last year, now with ProMotion. It's clearly not as fast as the other two. Given that the A19 outperforms the A18Pro which outperforms the chip in my 15 Pro, I was surprised that the user experience isn't smoother on an A19 with ProMotion in comparison with my phone. Granted, different OS, but still, if the performance gains are so big and the phone now has 120Hz, why am I not seeing a clear difference. The specs tell me that this phone should be faster and smoother than it is, but for the price tag it's a great buy.
Click to expand...
Haven’t had any stuttering or performance issues you mentioned. 🤷‍♂️

My Air has performed flawlessly so far.
 
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Macintosh101 said:
I just got back from an Apple Store in London , fully expecting to either upgrade my 15 Pro Max (natural titanium)to either the Air or the 17 Pro / Pro Max. I left with my 15 Pro Max.

Observations:
  • The store was packed. Nobody apart from me was looking at the Air, only the regular 17 and mainly the 17 Pro.
  • The Air is underwhelming. I expected to be blown away by the design and the feel of it. It's quite nice, sure. But when you’re using it, it just feels like a thin, but gimped phone. It's clearly a precursor to a foldable. Liquid Glass looks like it was designed with the Air in mind.
  • I compared the 16s in store with the new iPhones, and the anti-reflective coating makes a very negligible difference.
  • Do not, do not, do not purchase the dark blue pro, or the black Air. The rear of these models were covered in very visible scratches. These would not come off with rubbing, or a micro fibre cloth. They looked shockingly bad; the orange and silver Pros, and the other Air colours were all fine- no visible scratches.
  • The regular 17s are really nice and a great deal. The orange Pro is striking, but the novelty soon wore off. The only phone which left a lasting impression on me was the silver Pro. However there’s something about the aluminium this year that makes the Pros feel slightly ‘cheap’, almost as if it should be the base model.
Hope this helps some people. I feel like Apple are very much in a transition phase and these are ‘holding’ products, before something more radical.
Click to expand...
So. The pro looks like a cheap plastic phone. The Air is the future.
 
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waquzy said:
You are wrong.

*Confirmed by an actual iPhone Air owner
Click to expand...
Gsxr750 said:
I have a feeling a lot of people are going to be disappointed by the airs battery life. Had that feeling from the moment they released an external battery pack made just for it. Truly hope I’m wrong though.
Click to expand...
Well after a days use you are wrong. My battery is better than my 16 pro work phone that used equally as much yesterday. My 16 pro has a brand new battery installed 2 weeks ago.
 
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zkap said:
My impressions from the store are largely the same as the OP's.

Pro - the orange in person seemed a bit too much as opposed to the photos. It looks nice, but I know the novelty would wear off for me and I'd be better served with a more neutral, more muted color. The silver doesn't look impressive at all, looks rather bland with the unibody design, but the blue one looks really good in person. It's a shame about paint issues, though. The Pros have never looked less premium and less enticing to me. I particularly dislike the back plate which shines under certain angles and stands out too much from the rest of the body. That plate doesn't sit flush on all corners, too. All in all, I wouldn't buy this phone.

Air - massively underwhelmed. I have my doubts about the performance of this phone, but I did expect to be impressed with the new design and the thinness. When I held it, different story. It looks nice but that's it, no wow factor for me. Given that this phone's main advantage is the design, I was surprised by how uninspiring it was for me when I saw it in person. If it didn't have the plateau bump, it would be a different story, but that bump is just too thick for me to appreciate the thinness of the rest of the phone. What surprised me the most is that I could see frame drops already, on day 1, on a brand new unit. This tells me the throttling will be real in this one. When it comes to smoothness of the user experience, the difference between the Pro and the Air is clear, which is surprising as I'd expect that to show when the phone runs hot. The phone was not even warm and I could see frame drops in the first few seconds of scrolling through Safari, and other apps had this behavior, too. I think the Air will either have average-at-best battery life or it will underperform considerably as opposed to the Pro, because of thermal throttling.

Base - not much to say, same phone as last year, now with ProMotion. It's clearly not as fast as the other two. Given that the A19 outperforms the A18Pro which outperforms the chip in my 15 Pro, I was surprised that the user experience isn't smoother on an A19 with ProMotion in comparison with my phone. Granted, different OS, but still, if the performance gains are so big and the phone now has 120Hz, why am I not seeing a clear difference. The specs tell me that this phone should be faster and smoother than it is, but for the price tag it's a great buy.
Click to expand...
I always find the performance of in store models a bit on the slow side. They are continuously MagSafe charged and are always hot, they are running a video loop of promotion material and people are probably jumping into games and taking loads of pictures and video so I would take the airs performance with a pinch of salt. Also a .0 of iOS 26 could be a factor too!

They always remind me of nursery toys. When you have toys at home your kid is a bit softer with them/you can tell them to be gentle, whereas toys at nursery get battered and smashed around all the time…
 
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Visited the Arndale store today. Im going to give thoughts on the aesthetic because we all know the tech works, it works very well.

Air
Avoid black. The demo model is already scratched and the magsafe mark is prominent.
The gold and blue are hardly noticeable.
White is the colour to go for.
But honestly, yes it’s thinner, yes it’s lighter - but it sort of looks cheap. IMO there’s something about the camera lens giving it a cheap look.
Not compelled to purchase. Good sign of where things will go, but i’d rather wait for the refined version.

17
The colours are drastically different to online, much more washed out. I was suprised at how light the blue is. Green is best, but I think 16’s are still better colours.

Pro
I’m not a fan of the glass back square on the Pro’s.

Overall not a good year for iPhone IMO. But a clear sign of where things are going and I’m more excited for direction and products to come.

Watch
Apple watch Ultra in black looks really good!

11+SE3
Exactly as you’d imagine, solid choices.
 
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