After a day with the iPhone Air, I am loving the device so far. It feels like the purest expression to date of what the iPhone was always meant to be - a weightless pane of glass that you hold in your hands. The idea was always for the hardware to disappear and to just interact directly with touch-based software in a one-handed form factor that fits easily in your pocket. Each major iteration of the iPhone has slowly approached this ideal, and the Air feels like it has leapt forward to finally achieve something close to it.
The iPhone X was billed as a big step in the direction of an edge-to-edge screen with no buttons or large bezels in the way. But ever since I got my iPhone XS, I had mixed feelings. This era of iPhones offered a much larger screen than the iPhones 1-8, along with much improved cameras and performance, but the build felt like a tank compared to the iPhone 8 and earlier. It was significantly heavier and thicker, especially the stainless steel models, in the name of screen real estate and general capability.
The iPhone Mini tried to give us an edge-to-edge screen without all the added bulk and weight, but the smaller screen size just didn’t resonate with the general public or even with me, even though I craved a lighter phone and never liked the feeling of a brick in my pocket or my hand.
The Air has finally reached the sweet spot of a very generous 6.3” screen that still feels light & thin and nearly disappears in your hand. It’s about the limit of a screen size that I can use one-handed while still offering immersion. What’s remarkable is not the compromises, but how LITTLE the Air gives up to achieve this. Compared to anything but the current gen of Pros, the Air has great battery life, great processing speed, great screen, etc. And the titanium frame still has the premium polished finish and feel of the earlier stainless steel iPhones without the weight.
Of courses, there’s room to pack more battery life and camera quality into this form factor going forward, but it already feels like Apple has finally delivered an all-day, super capable, big beautiful touch screen in your hands that where the hardware really does fade away. For me, it’s by far the best iPhone experience so far and a joy to use.