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

[rotobadger]

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.

I feel the same. And the Air much more comfortable to hold for extended periods due to its weight reduction. Also, the 13pro, for me, hurt my hand due to the sharper edges. The Air is so much easier to hold and doesn’t cause me any discomfort at all.

 

[Cryates]

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

My 17 Pro I’m using simultaneously is also draining faster today than I thought it might. Could just be those “first day” woes.

50% remaining with 2:58 SOT for the 17 Pro. I was at 56% remaining with 1:58 SOT earlier for the Air.

 

[grovertdog]

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.

I'm very pleased so far with my Air, but I agree with you re: the bumper. I'm clumsy and wanted to enhance my grip. Bumper may make grip actually worse, I, too, was hoping for softer rubber/silicone type feel, but nope. I guess its sole purpose is edge protection. And I paid $30+ for this ridiculous thing. Not sure what my Plan B will be.

 

[irish2110]

My 17 Pro I’m using simultaneously is also draining faster today than I thought it might. Could just be those “first day” woes.

50% remaining with 2:58 SOT for the 17 Pro. I was at 56% remaining with 1:58 SOT earlier for the Air.

Less than ideal. Hoping that’s its first day issues.

 

[myWatch]

If you're missing 0.5x, use the selfie camera with it's widest fov. Not as wide as 0.5, but it's close.

 

[myWatch]

I feel the same. And the Air much more comfortable to hold for extended periods due to its weight reduction. Also, the 13pro, for me, hurt my hand due to the sharper edges. The Air is so much easier to hold and doesn’t cause me any discomfort at all.

Which is why I didn't love the Samsung S25 Edge. The sharp edges negates any comfort benefits from its thin/light weight design.

 

[noobinator]

Can someone confirm what’s been said in here about scaling? That the icons, keyboard etc will be the same size as on the pro? I had issues typing in the pro but not pro max.

 

[Lowgun84]

View attachment 2554858
Less than ideal. Hoping that’s its first day issues.

On battery since 8:05am

 

[Jasd]

Seriously impressed with the Air. First time I’m not getting the largest and greatest iPhone. I think the mobile industry in general needs to go in a new direction you can only improve the camera and battery so much.

Thinner and foldable are the phones of the future. And I wouldn’t be surprised in the future if phones have a single larger 200mp sensor and use a combination of optics and machine learning to extract photos at multiple focal lengths similar to what they are doing with the front facing camera.

 

[irish2110]

View attachment 2554883
On battery since 8:05am

Solid. Nicely done.

 

[colonelbutt]

Amazing. This is the future of phones. So light. So slim. All the power.

 

[kp98077]

I already love mine, Tried the speaker, it's perfectly acceptable to me, took some pictures, looks fine, and it is definitely so much easier to hold than my 15 pro max. Will see how the battery does, but so far so good. And I don't feel like I downgraded at all with the display size coming from max.

How’s battery today?

 

[archvile]

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. 😅

Is that the tan bumper case?

What do the rails look like as far as gold color?

 

[Lotus2]

uestion about the sides and comfort level of holding.

My big complaint on the last few iphones I have had, including the 16 Pro I now have, is that it is very uncomfortable to hold due to the flat sides and right angle sharp edges on the sides. The sides literally dig into my palm and fingers. This was never the case with older phones that had the rounded sides. How are the sides on the Air? Are the sides and side edges any more rounded? Or is it still the same feel as the 16, 15, 14, etc

Much better. The iPhone Air was much more comfortable to hold as compared to the more recent iPhones.

 

[sleeptodream]

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.

Not premium? Not polished? Neither was the X? Credit card not comfortable in your pocket? What???

 

[captain poopers]

id love to see the case

I love their cases because they add almost no bulk but do add grip. I’ve had them on my 15 PM and 16PM.

 

[captain poopers]

My 17 Pro I’m using simultaneously is also draining faster today than I thought it might. Could just be those “first day” woes.

50% remaining with 2:58 SOT for the 17 Pro. I was at 56% remaining with 1:58 SOT earlier for the Air.

I think this is an iOS 26 issue. My 16PM was draining quickly on the last betas and the RC. I wouldn’t even use my phone, just having it sit on my desk and it would be at 50% when I left work for the day.

 

[Lotuskid]

how about reading wise did you see a difference between the two i am in the same spot! I certainly like the case selction much more for the pro

In terms of the smaller phone being less readable? Yes the the larger air certainly scales up the text a bit and will be easier on the eyes.

I haven’t had an issue with the 6.3 inch pro though but as I’m approaching middle age I can appreciate the larger text

 

[jmpage2]

Took my Air off charger at 615AM at 100%. It's gotten pretty light but not atypical use for me, some web scrolling, looking things up, check/respond to some texts, took some pictures, streamed some music to my AirPods on 90 minute mountain bike ride.

It's 730PM now, so 13+ hours and the battery is at 49%.

The battery is going to be fine for me. On days I am using it a ton for work, etc. I put it on a charger for 20 mins. Not a big deal.

I had a boss who was constantly running his phone hooked up to a giant brick, he said he was on video conferences and on his phone ALL day. For people like that even the battery on the Pro Max is not going to make it.

Air seems to be pretty good compromise on battery life vs portability for those who aren't on their phone continuously the entire time they are awake.

 

[bueller11]

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.

Upgraded from a 15 pro max and after using it for a day I agree. I like it because it does feel pretty nice to hold. But I don’t love it. It kind of reminds me of an iPod touch. I might find myself missing the other lenses more than I thought since I’m not wildly impressed by it.

 

[ab2c4]

Much better. The iPhone Air was much more comfortable to hold as compared to the more recent iPhones.

That is great to hear.

 

[Cedo_]

Took my Air off charger at 615AM at 100%. It's gotten pretty light but not atypical use for me, some web scrolling, looking things up, check/respond to some texts, took some pictures, streamed some music to my AirPods on 90 minute mountain bike ride.

It's 730PM now, so 13+ hours and the battery is at 49%.

The battery is going to be fine for me. On days I am using it a ton for work, etc. I put it on a charger for 20 mins. Not a big deal.

I had a boss who was constantly running his phone hooked up to a giant brick, he said he was on video conferences and on his phone ALL day. For people like that even the battery on the Pro Max is not going to make it.

Air seems to be pretty good compromise on battery life vs portability for those who aren't on their phone continuously the entire time they are awake.

Love this. Thank you for sharing your battery experience. I’ll chime in too.

Took mine off the charger at 5am, and as of 6:45pm I’m sitting at 34%. No charging yet.

My day during work hours is checking emails, texting, phone calls, reels and YouTube here and there during my admin work. About an hour of Spotify use at the gym.

I know it’s only day one, but if this keeps up I should have zero issues.

 

[Apple_Robert]

Im playing around with air since yesterday and found it a bit laggish when scrolling home pages and here and there. Also, seems weirdly less brighter than my 15 pro (at same brightness percentage)

Lagging might be due to indexing. It has 12GB of RAM using the same family chip as the Pro. The Air is not lacking in power or scrolling / viewing ability etc.

 

[mlayer]

Picked mine up shortly before 11 AM today at the local Apple Store in Glendale, AZ. Eleven observations:

1. The Apple employees handled two customers at once with reservations, which makes sense since there's a bit of down time in the process of checking everyone out.
2. The other customer that was paired with me happened to be a TSMC employee (a process engineer!) at the big plant in Anthem, north of Phoenix, where they don't yet make the chips for these phones. He was getting iPhones for himself and his wife. As we were finishing I thanked him for his work, as did the Apple employee. I consider it the circle of life. Phoenix is a real tech hotbed.
3. WiFi was severely strained as you would expect as everyone was waiting for their gigabytes of iCloud backups to come through. Some customers were asking to do the restores by cable as if that would speed things up.
4. After a few tries I was able to port my phone number to the new eSIM in the Air. Some carriers are better than others at doing this. Mine is temporarily Total Wireless (Tracfone/Verizon) and will switch in a month back to Mint Mobile, whose process is easier.
5. I propped up my new Air on my original MagSafe battery pack with its Popsocket attached. The MagSafe battery and others like it should be viewed as extenders and not much more. Apple limits the charging ability whenever the heat rises, which it did as the 6 GB restore and app downloads were happening for me.
6. I can only tell that my Air is the Sky Blue color when it isn't fully bathed in light. Call it "Hazy Blue" if you like.
7. While the iconic plateau was indeed hot, the titanium sides were never more than warm, feeling cooler than my previous 15 Pro got.
8. The contraption the Apple employees used to apply screen protectors (Belkin brand IIRC) broke some of the new protectors, which suggests that they were not sized to match. I laughed while I applied my Amazon-purchased screen protector flawlessly using only the wipes and the plastic guide the manufacturer provided.
9. After trading in my 15 Pro, the credit posted minutes later to my checking account. I prefer that to the exchange shipping program, which bit me in the past with a 2016 MacBook Pro.
10. I went home with the iPhone in my pocket, protected only by a screen protector. I ate lunch with it at a local burger joint. The Air is so much easier to handle than previous iPhones, even better than the X because I knew that the X was fragile and prone to breakage. Not so with the Air. It didn't even get scratched.
11. The camera has three stops or crops, 2X (52 mm), 1.4X (35 mm), and 1X (26 mm). Historically I haven't used 1X all that much, going with 2X or 3X if I needed the zoom. I have used 0.5X (ultrawide) plenty. I never owned a Pro Max phone. I guess I'll find out how much I miss the ultrawide.

extra note - I tried my Amazon-sourced TPU bumper when I got home. It's good for what it is, the buttons are placed correctly and work. I won't use it much because it adds extra width and for the first time I like carrying the phone without a case.

 

[Qu1ckset]

Seriously impressed with the Air. First time I’m not getting the largest and greatest iPhone. I think the mobile industry in general needs to go in a new direction you can only improve the camera and battery so much.

Thinner and foldable are the phones of the future. And I wouldn’t be surprised in the future if phones have a single larger 200mp sensor and use a combination of optics and machine learning to extract photos at multiple focal lengths similar to what they are doing with the front facing camera.

What a lot of people don’t know is foldable screens are way more delicate due to the softer screen which is nothing like a normal candy bar phone..

Foldables are crap for anyone working trades or dirty jobs imo

But I agree air is very refreshing , the lightness is very welcomed!