iPhone Air iPhone Air First Impressions Mega-Thread [MERGED]

[achappy]

My Black Air arrived yesterday and I was stunned when I first took it out of the box. You really have to hold it to appreciate how thin and light it is. My 15PM feels like a brick and so dated. It makes using one handed so much easier. I did a speaker call with my mom and the speaker is a non-issue for me. Fine for the occasional quick video I may watch when I don’t have my AirPods in. It’s a phone designed to be used naked as it’s very grippy on the sides. The camera isn’t an issue because I rarely used the ultra wide and I was never impressed with the quality of the 5X on the 15PM. Battery isn’t an issue for me because when I’m driving I’m using CarPlay and I’m near power all the time. The few times when I may be away from power I have several power banks for my son’s double header games.

My wife wanted to see the new phones so we went into the Apple Store and after holding the 17 Pro and PM I immediately knew the Air was the right phone. The 17s didn’t feel bad but they just felt bulky and ridiculously slippery which means a case is required, adding to the bulk. I took a few photos with the 4X and 8X and really wasn’t impressed with the quality enough where I would upgrade. For me, the Air is the more premium phone.

One last thing that I was disappointed in and that’s the Air cases. I originally had the clear and it’s really slippery, more than the naked Air. So I returned it and was trying the bumper and wad disappointed that the bumper is just as slippery if not more because it’s plastic. So both cases to me adds bulk but are actually harder to hold.

 

[StoneJack]

I just picked up my 16 Pro after a day to wipe it for trade in and it feels like a relic of the past. The Air is an amazing feat of engineering.

Thanks for attaching photos! I don’t use macro a lot, but I’m using it more and I use my phone to take photos for the items I sell as a side gig.

The attached are a couple of macros of my watch, one at 1x and the other at 2x. I’d love to find out how good the Air can be for product photography

Looks just fine.

 

[bevsb2]

I just am not seeing any gold on it. Pictures above are next to the blue Fold 7 and then on top of my space gray Macbook Air. It's incredibly white for light gold. I even double checked the box after opening it to be sure they didn't hand me the wrong one. 😅

Under the bright lights in the Apple Store last evening, except for the black they all looked white. This morning in daylight with the Apple clear case on with white MagSafe mark for contrast, mine looks like a soft blue and is very pretty.

 

[captain poopers]

Got the space black Air and love it. Pitaka thin case delivered today as well as their matching magsafe battery. I’ve been using the phone on and off over the course of the day with “normal” battery drainage. In fact, it feels like it drains less than my 16 Pro Max did with 26 on it.

 

[irish2110]

Yeah battery has been a problem today. I’m at 56% with a little less than two hours SOT and that could be problematic.

What do you think could be the problem? I’m gonna give it a couple days but if this is a real thing as much as I love the phone it’s just not gonna work.

 

[C. Robert]

iPhone air 30fps 1080p
The lens is great

 

[C. Robert]

Got the space black Air and love it. Pitaka thin case delivered today as well as their matching magsafe battery. I’ve been using the phone on and off over the course of the day with “normal” battery drainage. In fact, it feels like it drains less than my 16 Pro Max did with 26 on it.

id love to see the case

 

[Vaporbaked94]

What do you think could be the problem? I’m gonna give it a couple days but if this is a real thing as much as I love the phone it’s just not gonna work.

I really want to know what’s causing this for them. I went from 90%-70% so far today with a little under 3 hours of screen time.

 

[Sheepish-Lord]

I bought both an Air and Pro…did anyone else notice that out of the box the Air’s always on display is turned off vs the Pro which is set to on?

 

[Vaporbaked94]

I bought both an Air and Pro…did anyone else notice that out of the box the Air’s always on display is turned off vs the Pro which is set to on?

I thought that was so weird, I wonder if they are leaving it off deliberately to save battery with users who wouldn’t think to turn it on in the first place. Kind of like how some 120hz android phones will be 60hz out of the box before the setting is toggled manually.

 

[kevjen888]

I had my eye set on the Air up until this morning when i checked it out in person at an Apple Store. It was light , sure, but I didn’t get the premium feeling people were saying, it was just light. The fact it is so thin I don’t think it’d feel comfortable in your pants pocket anyway, imagine put a credit card in your pocket. Then there are the compromises, the Air reminds me of the X when it first came out. Different and new but not a very polished and mature product. I’ll continue on with my pro max trend this year. I will definitely be interested in the next gen IPhone Air.

 

[C. Robert]

I bought both an Air and Pro…did anyone else notice that out of the box the Air’s always on display is turned off vs the Pro which is set to on?

mine isn't, unless I lay it face down.

 

[Cryates]

What do you think could be the problem? I’m gonna give it a couple days but if this is a real thing as much as I love the phone it’s just not gonna work.

No clue. Usage per app looks generally normal. Could be the fact it’s a new battery and it’s essentially the first full day one. Also I have been out and about so not heavily on my phone for extended periods.

Either way, battery anxiety is a thing currently. I was hoping to avoid reaching for the MagSafe battery on day one.

 

[MTD's Mac]

I did a speaker call with my mom and the speaker is a non-issue for me. Fine for the occasional quick video I may watch when I don’t have my AirPods in.

Totally agree. I made dinner with my iPhone Air on the counter, right where I used to have my 15 Pro Max, and was able to listen to a podcast despite lots of noise in the room. The volume was up high, but no issues with sound quality or volume. Anything more acoustically demanding, I'd switch to AirPods anyway.

 

[irish2110]

No clue. Usage per app looks generally normal. Could be the fact it’s a new battery and it’s essentially the first full day one. Also I have been out and about so not heavily on my phone for extended periods.

Either way, battery anxiety is a thing currently. I was hoping to avoid reaching for the MagSafe battery on day one.

Yeah. Likewise. Nothing crazy today in terms of app usage. I looked at my battery usage and saw that safari was the biggest usage today at 22%.

Gonna let it die down again and get a full charge. Hope tomorrow has a different outcome.

 

[Qu1ckset]

One last thing that I was disappointed in and that’s the Air cases. I originally had the clear and it’s really slippery, more than the naked Air. So I returned it and was trying the bumper and wad disappointed that the bumper is just as slippery if not more because it’s plastic. So both cases to me adds bulk but are actually harder to hold.

I came to that conclusion just by looking at the pics of both those cases , not a fan…

Did you try the beats case ? It looked better then the bumper and clear case

Run a Dbrand Rear Skin and run it naked! 😉

 

[Qu1ckset]

Honestly with the main complaints in this thread being the mono speaker and single camera lens , I can almost guarantee the Air 2 will fix address this.

 

[Cryates]

The speaker seems addressable somehow because surely they can find a way to shove a speaker in the bottom. Not sure how they can address adding a second lens though, especially with battery size taking absolute priority.

 

[C. Robert]

I took mine off of the charger at noon and have been using it heavily all day. Youtube, filming, surfing the internet, etc. 50% left

 

[Cryates]

5.5 hours on 93% battery usage isn’t bad by any means, actually pretty good overall, but if you’ve been at home on WiFi and using it for extended periods then you’re going to see pretty good battery life. Venture out and about for most of a day and it tanks. At least that’s my experience.

 

[Webcat86]

The speaker seems addressable somehow because surely they can find a way to shove a speaker in the bottom. Not sure how they can address adding a second lens though, especially with battery size taking absolute priority.

Samsung included the extra lens I think? Not sure if their interior design is what enabled it or if it was just a deliberate choice from Apple

 

[Meedoss]

I’m so torn right now, and I know seeing it in person will make it even tougher. The speakers don’t bother me at all, but the camera does. On the other hand, I do find my 16 Pro bulky in my pocket and realistically we are holding or carrying our phones all day every day, so the biggest “quality of life” improvement will come from the phone being thinner and lighter. That said, I’m surprised at how tall it is, and having downsized from the 14 Pro Max to the 16 Pro, and preferring it, I might dislike the height of the Air.

Maybe wait till you see it

I have a 16 pro, had a look yesterday, decide against it as it's taller, and will be more with a case, I don't even like cases that make my 16 pro taller.

 

[teh_hunterer]

For a long time, I was an early adopter of new iPhones. The last several years have left me feeling “meh” and, as a result, I haven’t upgraded since my iPhone 13 Pro (still a great phone). However, for the first time in 4 years, the new iPhone just grabbed my attention.

I think you win tbh. I had the 13PM, then the 14PM, then the 15PM, and now I'm on the Air, and I've strongly felt that this is the true sequel to that 13PM. That phone ran cool, had two day battery life, and looked amazing with those stainless steel rails.

None of those intermediate upgrades were significantly better phones in any real way. They had worse battery life and other than that a bunch of meh upgrades. This is the first phone I've had since that 13PM that I really felt was an actual new thing.

 

[teh_hunterer]

I have seen one where he put it inside a fridge, ran a benchmark and performance degraded quickly.

So? Even in sustained stress tests the Air outperforms the chonky 15 Pro Max. I'd say that's perfectly acceptable for what is an extremely thin an light phone where even 99% of people who run 3D Mark stress tests never run anything on their phone remotely as demanding after they've done their ritual of staring at benchmarks.

Meanwhile you have that guy running back and forth between his fridge calling the phone a "complete flop" because of a wildlife extreme stress test result. What an absolute out of touch bozo.

 

[Meedoss]

iPhone air 30fps 1080p
The lens is great
View attachment 2554718

they are all good for video