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iPhone Air Impressions after Apple Store Visit (all new iPhone models)
- Thread starter Macintosh101
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I received my blue iPhone Pro yesterday and I think it looks very good. So good that I wish I wasn't going to put a case on it. But I know I drop my phone from time to time and I keep it in my shirt pocket, so a case is necessary. I wish there was a clear case that I liked, but I don't like the white square on the Apple case, and don't like the way the MagSafe rings look on it. The best compromise for me would be if Apple made a clear case with a matching blue square instead of white. I bought a Mujjo blue leather case and am happy with it, but it does hide the phone.
As far as scratches in the store -- I don't consider that important. Store iPhones are not well treated and are handled by hundreds of people (including children) a day. All phones will scratch if abused.
As far as scratches in the store -- I don't consider that important. Store iPhones are not well treated and are handled by hundreds of people (including children) a day. All phones will scratch if abused.
Basically my conclusions are the same as the OP. Air felt massively underwhelming and I actually think the Pro fit better in my hands since it’s smaller. The Pro will be. It’s a proper rugged look and I like that it feels more like a utility phone than a piece of jewellery
JerryRig couldn’t bend the phone with bare hands. Ceramic Shield looks very durable. Had to apply over 200lb of pressure in a jig to get the phone to bend.
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I too visited an Apple Store (SF Bay Area) yesterday and tested products. The iPhone 17 Pro Max in particular, A-B testing against my 16 Pro Max. My observations:
• Five hours after opening the store still had a short line to enter the busy store. Most folks looking at iPhones. I was the only person trying to do any kind of image capture comparisons among scores of people. Probably a good thing, because it seemed that the constant 5-hours test usage of the iPhones on their MagSafe mounts may have been causing some camera performance anomalies due to heat. Hard to tell though.
iPhone 17 Pro Max
• The new tele lens is a huge improvement.
I am a photographer, and the new telephoto competence makes the 17 Pro a must have for me. Those here that whine about the definition of "8x tele" simply do not get it. These 3-lens iPhone camera systems are different from the one-lens ILC the whiners are trying to compare to. What matters is real-world capture performance, and yes the 12 MP Apple chooses for its marketing metrics is totally reasonable.
[P.S. shoot RAW captures and keep the iPhone camera still.]
• The lack of a gray or equal iPhone Pro color choice absolutely sucks. Apple deserves to lose sales because of it. If the tele lens improvement was not so important to me I would stay with the 16 PM. I verified my reluctant preorder choice of 17 PM silver as the least offensive color choice to me, but I strongly dislike the bright white ceramic back. I would much prefer a light gray ceramic back that did not visually "pop" like the white does.
Maybe next year Apple can bring back the far more elegant titanium alloy frames combined with some muted ceramic fronts/backs. I doubt it though, because they are probably saving a lot of money using the cheap-looking aluminum alloys.
• The aluminum alloy frames present as much cheaper and inelegant. A clear aesthetic/cosmetic downgrade from the titanium alloy 16 Pros. Probably a durability downgrade too, but we can not make that determination based on a day or on a week of clickbait internet nonsense. It will take real-world months.
AirPods Pro 3
• My need regarding AirPods Pro revolved around the fit. The AirPods Pro 2 constantly fell out of my ears. Maybe the new foam works as advertised by Apple, because the new AirPods Pro 3 design did fit my ears much better in walk-around testing. Enough so that I bought a pair.
• Testing the various tricks of the new AirPods Pro 3 in the noisy Apple Store suggests that they work and sound good as expected. ;~) I could not A-B compare against the AirPods Pro 2 however, because I only have one AirPods Pro 2 (the dog chewed up the other one after I fell asleep and it fell out of my ear).
• The case for the new AirPods Pro 3 seems quite large. Hopefully that means even better battery performance.
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Agreed Air is not "the future." The iPhone Air will however be one of the solid future iPhone products. Over years Apple brought the amazing iPhoen Pro camera system to our smartphones, and we can probably expect Apple to similarly improve the iPhone Air camera system over time.
Visited the Apple Store on release day to browse the new models and if available, purchase an iPhone Air just for fun as a secondary phone on my other line.
After seeing the various reports and videos I was interested to see for myself. YouTubers focus typically favors clicks, engagement and impressing Apple with their fawning reviews. Reality can be vastly different.
We know the Air is somewhat of an engineering marvel, yet it’s not without its shortcomings. I'm not comparing it to other iPhones but rather comparing it to how I would actually use it and what I want in a thin phone.
Yes it’s beautiful and I don't place battery life at the top of my priorities so there's that. Testing the single speaker revealed dismal performance. Even for occasional use (I have ear buds) it’s a flat monotone experience. Not surprising yet disappointing. The display is typical iPhone, very nice.
Interesting the only new iPhones they had available for sale were the Air models in Black and White, no iPhone 17, no iPhone Pro or Pro Max.
Because of the shortcomings, especially what Apple didn't include compared to the brilliant Galaxy Edge which I currently own, I decided to wait until next year. Surely by then Apple will add dual speakers and possibly two cameras to become a true competitor to the well equipped Edge.
After seeing the various reports and videos I was interested to see for myself. YouTubers focus typically favors clicks, engagement and impressing Apple with their fawning reviews. Reality can be vastly different.
We know the Air is somewhat of an engineering marvel, yet it’s not without its shortcomings. I'm not comparing it to other iPhones but rather comparing it to how I would actually use it and what I want in a thin phone.
Yes it’s beautiful and I don't place battery life at the top of my priorities so there's that. Testing the single speaker revealed dismal performance. Even for occasional use (I have ear buds) it’s a flat monotone experience. Not surprising yet disappointing. The display is typical iPhone, very nice.
Interesting the only new iPhones they had available for sale were the Air models in Black and White, no iPhone 17, no iPhone Pro or Pro Max.
Because of the shortcomings, especially what Apple didn't include compared to the brilliant Galaxy Edge which I currently own, I decided to wait until next year. Surely by then Apple will add dual speakers and possibly two cameras to become a true competitor to the well equipped Edge.
No, you failed to garsp the comment you reference. The poster's point was that if you are looking at the display A) it is not face down getting scratched and B) you are not busy agonizing over alleged scratches in the aluminum alloy, because the metal side is not visible.
1) There is no paint on iPhones.
2) Agreed: "The Pros have never looked less premium and less enticing to me," even though I bought one, for the tele lens.
Launch day interest is exactly that: launch day interest. And it was high apparently.
Weird about the in-store scratches. How come this issue isn't as prevalent with the in-store demo MacBook Airs with the Midnight finish or the MacBook Pros or iPad Pros with the Space Black finish? We've seen irritation online over the anodization wearing around the ports over time — but not the extent of scratches being photographed & reported on the new iPhone Pro models. I have my iPhone Pro in Deep Blue & we'll see how it fares.
Yes I agree it’s very strange, especially as photos taken around different Apple retail stores seem to show the same thing. Keep us updated!
IDK. It may be that there is no "better" aluminum anodizing, and that cheap aluminum anodizing will always look like cheap aluminum anodizing. TBH I expected better, and was very disappointed when I handled the iPhone 17 Pros.
Apple clearly took a step down with the new iPhone Pro metals. iPhone Pro sales should suffer for it; not everyone will value the cameras enough to spend $hundreds to get a substantially cheapened iPhone Pro like I did.
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The iPhone Air has only one camera, which is hugely limiting. The Air lacks the telephoto lens and it lacks the ultra-wide lens used for macro.
Having spent time with all three - 'base'; 'air'; 'pro' - you CAN have everything but just not in at the same time, and in one iPhone. Apple is so clever - my guess is that most people will sit in the intersection of two iPhone versions
They’re pro Max doesn’t really feel that much heavier than the 17 pro to be honest
Man, the second you slap a case on that iPhone Air it stops being Air and instantly becomes iPhone Heavy. The design? Honestly pretty underwhelming when I saw it in person. And that orange shade? It might as well come with a label saying, ‘Please rob me.’ I know this is an unpopular opinion and I’m bracing for the dislikes, but come on… I love tech, I upgrade every year, and I get that each update is just a small step. But this year? First time I seriously thought about skipping the Pro Max. Ended up grabbing silver since last year I had white, so at least color-wise I’m good
