iPhone Air iPhone Air - 1 Month in - My likes, compromises and concerns

[nkgmd]

I love the Air, I think all the controversy over it is nonsense. Yes there are some trade offs but it’s a trade, you get something in return, a thin light easy to hold and carry marvel of engineering. Battery life is perfectly fine and will only get better with typical iterations in software, chip design and battery tech. The single speaker is not noticeable. I use speakerphone frequently and it’s just fine. The camera is very good, that will also get better over time but I predict we’ll get a better single camera in the future, not a second one. There just isn’t room for it. I don't do a lot of telephoto shots, I do a lot of pano's though and these come out great.

I have only one criticism and it’s an easy software fix Apple should consider. In the camera app at the bottom there is a 1x and 2x zoom button. You can reverse pinch with 2 fingers to zoom up to 10x, but no easy one touch button to do so. Adding a 5x and 10x button in a different color to indicate it’s a digital zoom would be a huge improvement. Even the camera side button only lets you zoom up to 6x and you need to swipe it 2-3 times to get there. Maybe also work on the AI image enhancement for digital zoom and I think a lot of nay sayers will soften their stance on the camera.

 

[majkom]

Nostalgia is funny. Yeah, Steve was obviously critical to Apple's success but he had his own flops and bad ideas. iPod Socks anyone?

And what?

 

[Lounge vibes 05]

Since when did innovation mean removing things is beyond my understanding, to me it was to make something better while either retaining the same functionality or improve upon it.

That has never been what innovation means, the term has basically been made useless by tech companies and their fandom.
In actuality, innovation just means “a new method, idea, product, etc.”
That’s literally all it means.
Not all innovations are revolutionary or reinvent the wheel or change the world.
even something as small as Apple using a square camera sensor for the new front facing camera is technically “innovative”, it’s a “ new method, product or idea”.
That doesn’t mean its the best thing ever, it’s gonna reinvent how we use the camera, or anything like that.

 

[nepalisherpa]

Apple continues to reduce items in its products and raises prices and sits back laughing at all those who are reinforcing its greed and doing its customers a disservice while those who are mesmerized by the RDF will claim everyone who does not agree with them are haters. Fast-forward a few years when the entire iPhone line gets neutered and these same customers will claim Apple is not innovating. Since when did innovation mean removing things is beyond my understanding, to me it was to make something better while either retaining the same functionality or improve upon it. One less camera, one less speaker, battery that will probably age faster which will mean either land fill, expensive battery replacement or trade-in.

Make no mistake the iPhone Air is designed as a disposable product that will cost more but the gullible customer who defend it have fallen into Apple’s marketing trap.

According to Merriam-Webster, the word innovation means a new idea, method, or device or the introduction of something new. It does not mean making something better.

 

[joshwithachance]

You people are a joke. I wanted something that looked stunning and was lighter. The Pro is an ugly tank.

How hard you defend the Air, by bashing the Pro, makes Pro users see Air users as even less than tbh. Because Pro users don’t feel the need to defend their purchase. And neither should you.

 

[zenmacx]

So you defense

Do you defend you ugly your Pro is? We aren’t defending the Air, we are stating how the compromises aren’t really compromises for us. So we prefer a better looking phone.

My devices are tools I use in my profession. Their physical appearance is of little consequence, it’s all about meeting the needs of the task at hand.

 

[vvvvvv]

Loving mine since day 1. Came from a 13 mini so the battery is more than enough and I charge every other day usually. MagSafe battery is there in case but I’ve only used it a few times.

Screen is great, design is great. Zero complaints.

 

[thmsnt]

I've had the 6s, 8 Plus, 13 Pro, 15 Pro, and now an Air.

The Air is my favorite iPhone ever, maybe favorite phone ever.

 

[danpass]

Also love my Air. For similar reasons.

The lack ultra wide is noticed. I use it a lot on my 16 Pro. It allows for much more creative flexibility than one might think.
Hopefully the Air 2 / Air Pro has an ultra wide, like 17 Regular.

The MagSafe Air battery is fine on the phone or off. Tall and svelte lends itself well to the Air iPhone.

-

 

[Sammy in SoCal]

Everybody remembers the iPhone 6 and how thin that phone was. It was actually 6.9 mm. Versus the iPhone Air, which is 5.6 mm. I think Apple should keep the current design of the iPhone Air and just bump it up 1.3 mm to where the iPhone 6 was and I don’t think anybody would complain that it wasn’t thin enough. What this would solve is now you would be easily able to add another speaker and more battery. And oh yeah, probably match the number of lenses of the iPhone 17 standard.

 

[ProbablyDylan]

Gotta give credit where it's due - the Air is the best looking iPhone in a hot minute.

 

[Allen_Wentz]

for people who value thin, light, and superb design, its a great phone.
for people who value a large screen, its a creditable phone.
for people who want cameras-galore, its a non-starter.

for apple, the value in launching the iPhone Air is all about getting real world feedback in preparation for the iPhone Fold.
retail price elasticity. repair rate. real life battery data. Ceramic Shield actual protect-ability. consumer profile data by age and income. 12GB RAM & A19 5Core performance and heat characteristics. reliability of C2 chip for cellular data. performance data for N1 chip for Bluetooth and Wi-fi. battery management performance data.

if all goes well. we could be pleasantly surprised that the iPhone Fold, rumored to be USD 2,000+ retail, could come in nearer to USD 1,799.
a big factor in this would be if apple gauges that only 1 camera in the Air resulted in minus-N sales, thereby encouraging apple to put two cameras in the Fold. same thing for a mono speaker. what was the degree of claimed non-sales of the Air had mono speaker given as the top one or two of reasons not to buy.
pricing, ad spend, country by country sales etc of the Air is being followed closely by apple.

my own battery data on the Air:
im setting a charging limit at 85%.
im a medium to heavy user. i have between 30% and 20% left at 20:00 each night.
but this kind of battery life is being achieved only after i began to see that actual talk time on the Air is my biggest battery killer. for days where i am having an especially intensive period where im making more than 2 hours+ of phone calls, then i have begun to attach the MagSafe battery for the Air for the couple hours im on the phone talking. in this case, where the MagSafe battery is attached only during my heavy call time, my battery at 20:00 is about 50% remaining (with having set the maximum charge at 85%).
i have been using the Air since September 27. cycle count is 12 as of yesterday.
pretty good.

My guess is that if the Fold is to be released 9/25 like we expect, the primary design considerations such as which cameras to stuff into it were made months ago. No doubt Apple will indeed look to be "getting real world feedback in preparation for the iPhone Fold," but that feedback will apply to marketing only, no hardware changes possible at this point.

 

[Allen_Wentz]

Everybody remembers the iPhone 6 and how thin that phone was. It was actually 6.9 mm. Versus the iPhone Air, which is 5.6 mm. I think Apple should keep the current design of the iPhone Air and just bump it up 1.3 mm to where the iPhone 6 was and I don’t think anybody would complain that it wasn’t thin enough. What this would solve is now you would be easily able to add another speaker and more battery. And oh yeah, probably match the number of lenses of the iPhone 17 standard.

Each year battery tech improves. Apple may already have a plan for the v2 iPhone Air to have additional battery life without making it 1.3 mm thicker. I strongly agree however that to "match the number of lenses of the iPhone 17 standard" would be huge value add, well worth making the v2 Air a bit thicker.

 

[macbookj0e]

Love mine.

The battery isn’t an issue for me and better than my 15 pro, though coming from a max I can imagine it might not seem so impressive.

The extra 4gb ram is appreciated as is pro motion. The speaker isn’t the best but does its job. Who uses phone speakers for high fidelity audio anyway?

I do miss the 0.5 camera but overall I’m more impressed with the air than I thought I’d be. It feels great, looks great, typing is easier and I wouldn’t change it for any other model.

Like the OP I hope it keeps getting refined over the years.

 

[Konvictz]

I definitely would not want this phone to get any thicker - it will just make people go to the pro model then.

The incentive is it’s not just thin but ultra thin and that’s a feature. Thinner and lighter products do attract consumers (Apple are the first to know this).

The air meets those needs but the controversial factor has been that features have been left out. They can address these in the second generation of the air. Then we will probably see a huge rise in popularity.

I personally would not want this phone to get any thicker as I like this form factor. If anything I would even appreciate 1-2mm thinner if they can engineer it.

 

[nkgmd]

People, an extra camera isn't coming to the Air. Where would it go? The plateau already houses the motherboard, front and rear cameras, Face ID, speaker, radios, etc. and the whole rest of the body of the device is battery. Inevitably they will improve on the single camera and make it more capable with higher power actual zoom, enhanced digital zoom. If you want another camera you'll have to get one of the 3 other devices they currently sell.

 

[Bethanie21]

So you defense

Do you defend you ugly your Pro is? We aren’t defending the Air, we are stating how the compromises aren’t really compromises for us. So we prefer a better looking phone.

The Pro isn’t ugly though

 

[Bethanie21]

The pro is a heavy ugly looking phone. I don’t have need for the 8x zoom. mmWave. Lidaar sensor. Wide photo lens. The single speaker is not an issue as I use my AirPods all the time. The battery is nice but my air is the same as my 16pro which was good for me. So I chose the better looking and lighter phone with a larger larger screen then my pro. And the air is cheaper. So… that’s that.

You’re just justifying your Air purchase. The Pro is in no way ugly.

 

[acblue94]

You’re just justifying your Air purchase. The Pro is in no way ugly.

Justifying my purchase? How so? I bought the Air because I saw how ugly the Pro was. You justify a purchase that you aren’t 100% sure you wanted it or needed it. I was 500% sure this was the phone I wanted. Design and look of the phone is very important to me.

 

[acblue94]

The Pro isn’t ugly though

Let me change my words, it’s not an attractive looking phone compared to other phones on the market. The 16 pro was way better looking. The 17 also feels cheap with all that aluminum. The pro was built for power, battery and camera and the air was built for design. Simple. I preferred the design knowing that I don’t need 8x zoom or wide lens, or mmWave, or Lidar sensors. The battery matches my 16 pro. So I’m not making any sacrifices and everything to gain.

 

[C. Robert]

My pinky is back to a normal shape and it's not the color of a traffic cone.

 

[arc of the universe]

“product from the Steve Jobs era for the first time in years” THIS, i feel it exactly same, this is iphone Steve would love

i like your thinking.
i think Steve would have thought that the Air is indeed one of his favorite products.
but, you see, i am one of the (very) few people who bought the Mac G4 Cube. in fact, i bought two of them.

i see a design language that is common to both the Cube and the Air.

now, i will be the first to point out that both the Air and the Cube are&were not big sellers. so they have that in common as well !! lol. but it doesn't matter to me. i like what i like.
these two devices are my own two favorite apple devices of all time. add in the apple Watch for top three.

i remember seeing Steve pull the core out of the Cube, saying, "there's a gigaflop right there."
the Cube was underpowered with little ability to plug in options and few ports. heavy users hated the Cube.
its the same with the Air. really heavy, very heavy users, can't understand the concept of the Air at all.
the Cube and the Air have similar marketing strategies, similar price points, similar innovations, similar ideal user range. and similar sales figures.

keep on thinking different.

 

[super chimp]

I agree with this long term review. I could live with the battery and camera reductions. It’s the single speaker that’s the deal breaker for me.

 

[taliz]

It's strange how fast you become used to something.
I've never had more than one camera in my phone, until this April when I got an iPhone 15 from work(upgraded from and XR).
A few weeks ago I learned it has a wide angle lens, and I've been using it constantly since.
I was interested in the air previously but now that I've gotten used to the wide angle I wouldn't want to be without it.
I guess it's the same with people who get used to the telephoto in the pro..

 

[teh_hunterer]

Perfectly happy with mine. Battery life is fine - I have to laugh at all these YouTubers using the phone literally all day and purposely not charging it when you'd normally charge it and worrying about the battery life. That's not how most people use their phones, and I'm certainly not using my phone all day. Get a life.

I thought I'd miss the telephoto, but it's been a month and I haven't yet run into a situation where I wanted a telephoto. Literally never used the ultra wide before anyway because I don't like distorted photos.

I use AirPods instead of the phone speaker so that's a non issue.

Look and feel is obviously great. It's the perfect form factor.

It would be good if they could one day fit a telephoto, a second speaker, and one of those newer high capacity batteries, but I'm already perfectly happy with this one.