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iPhone Air iPhone Air First Impressions Mega-Thread [MERGED]
- Thread starter Geert76
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I guess some people really rely on stereo speakers and the ultra wide camera lens. For me its a non issue and why I plan to get the Air (hopefully next month). I don't use the ultra wide camera, I don't really take many pics at all with my phone and the ones I do the main camera is fine for me. As for the single speaker as long as it works for phone calls that is all I care about.
What matters most on a phone to me is that it is comfortable to hold and is light weight. That is my priority when it comes to features so the Air was made for someone like me. There are a lot of people out there that can't comprehend that. I'll turn 55 next month and the last thing I want to do is carry around and deal with a heavy phone, I'll be just fine without a few features that I don't even care about in the first place.
My settings are identical. No auto brightness. When they’re next to each other side by side the 15 is brighter
There is space for it and they held off for an upgrade path. That's what annoys me, it shouldn't happen on a cutting edge $1,000 device.
I use the speakers anywhere from ~20-30 hours a week so it matters a huge amount to me, I recognize some people never use it but a lot of people do. Some of us are blessed with really nice home offices and fairly large houses and listen to a lot of audiobooks / podcasts where the volume matters. I also do use the speakerphone most of the time for calls at least during the day when I'm home without people around. Carrying it around while I do chores etc. is just a lot nicer and more comfortable vs. AirPods, unless I'm vacuuming or something. If I'm in one of the areas of the house without ambient speakers I'll use it for music playback too sometimes, just for background music not critical listening.
On the rare occasion I work in an office I do use AirPods and like them.
There's a disconnect where people think an obvious downgrade that could be fixed with a sub $10 part that Apple designed for internally and did not include should be written off just because some people are inconsiderate and use them in public settings where it's inappropriate. I'd never do that, of course.
Apple did the same thing with the iPod Touch 3rd generation (the damn mount was inside) and the original iPad (prototypes had a camera and the held out for a 2nd gen, internals very similar to the Air where there was space but no mount).
I get insulting people or minimizing a downgrade is just justification of their purchase or desire to purchase, and despite that I appreciate the people who have given good descriptions on the difference because I now know the Air is not for me.
Next year assuming they address this, which they probably will given how the internals are laid out, it'll be between the Air and Fold, which will depend on how much business travel I need to do. I love the Air's form factor and look forward to eventually getting it, and certainly for the people that never or rarely use the speakers it's a good device, but Analytics e.g. from Marco Arment directly via overcast proved that an absolutely enormous amount of people do use speakers a lot, like medium double-digits if I remember correctly.
One other consideration is that AI Voice interaction is becoming very good especially if you don't use ChatGPT where it's a downgraded model. Some other providers offer the full functionality and interacting with voice while your hands are full or you're doing something else really does feel more like the "living in the future" use case we were promised. Once again, not something to do in public of course.
But, perhaps the most important thing: the dogs genuinely like hearing family on the phone
.None of this takes away from your enjoyment of the device, but it is worth pointing out for people that are on the fence or might care. The best thing for those people to do is buy one and try it, or just wait since it's obviously coming in a year or two.
Day 2 is going good so far! I have about 2 hours SOT and 84% but I have been home and on WiFI for most of that. I'm still noticing the phone has a bit of lag switching apps, and even opening them. Not sure if stuff is still indexing, or if it's due to restoring from using a backup.
What I don’t understand is why you’d opt to use the phone speakers for use in a large home office instead of getting a Bluetooth speaker? However much stereo speakers improve over a single one, phone speakers are always going to be limited by their size. That isn’t to discredit your use case at all, but I think I’d struggle to see that as the norm - if someone is working on a device other than their phone, my experience is that device is typically playing the music. Alternatively an external speaker, or headphones. You might be the first person I’m aware of who opts to use their phone speakers so extensively.There is space for it and they held off for an upgrade path. That's what annoys me, it shouldn't happen on a cutting edge $1,000 device.
I use the speakers anywhere from ~20-30 hours a week so it matters a huge amount to me, I recognize some people never use it but a lot of people do. Some of us are blessed with really nice home offices and fairly large houses and listen to a lot of audiobooks / podcasts where the volume matters. I also do use the speakerphone most of the time for calls at least during the day when I'm home without people around. Carrying it around while I do chores etc. is just a lot nicer and more comfortable vs. AirPods, unless I'm vacuuming or something. If I'm in one of the areas of the house without ambient speakers I'll use it for music playback too sometimes, just for background music not critical listening.
On the rare occasion I work in an office I do use AirPods and like them.
There's a disconnect where people think an obvious downgrade that could be fixed with a sub $10 part that Apple designed for internally and did not include should be written off just because some people are inconsiderate and use them in public settings where it's inappropriate. I'd never do that, of course.
Apple did the same thing with the iPod Touch 3rd generation (the damn mount was inside) and the original iPad (prototypes had a camera and the held out for a 2nd gen, internals very similar to the Air where there was space but no mount).
I get insulting people or minimizing a downgrade is just justification of their purchase or desire to purchase, and despite that I appreciate the people who have given good descriptions on the difference because I now know the Air is not for me.
Next year assuming they address this, which they probably will given how the internals are laid out, it'll be between the Air and Fold, which will depend on how much business travel I need to do. I love the Air's form factor and look forward to eventually getting it, and certainly for the people that never or rarely use the speakers it's a good device, but Analytics e.g. from Marco Arment directly via overcast proved that an absolutely enormous amount of people do use speakers a lot, like medium double-digits if I remember correctly.
One other consideration is that AI Voice interaction is becoming very good especially if you don't use ChatGPT where it's a downgraded model. Some other providers offer the full functionality and interacting with voice while your hands are full or you're doing something else really does feel more like the "living in the future" use case we were promised. Once again, not something to do in public of course.
But, perhaps the most important thing: the dogs genuinely like hearing family on the phone
None of this takes away from your enjoyment of the device, but it is worth pointing out for people that are on the fence or might care. The best thing for those people to do is buy one and try it, or just wait since it's obviously coming in a year or two.
But nonetheless it’s not like Apple isn’t catering for that preference, as you can buy cheaper and more expensive phones with stereo.
I'm not going to tell anyone to "hold it different" because their use case is their use case, but your thinking tracks mine. I was SHOCKED to see how many people are saying "no second speaker, no sale". A second speaker is going to be tiny, which means it won't sound good. If you care enough about audio quality to say "nope, not buying that phone" I don't understand why you're listening to phone speakers in the first place.
I'm definitely not an audiophile, but my phone almost never makes sound. If I'm watching something: AirPods. I made myself use the single speaker to watch Formula 1 over the weekend and it was fine. I could absolutely tell a difference compared to the Pro Max, but they both sounded significantly worse than listening on my AirPods.
But I'm starting to think I'm the weird one. Given the forum's reaction, I definitely am. And, thinking about it more, I suspect "normal users" are probably more likely to just use the phone speakers, given what I see when I'm out and about.
went to the store to play..
It's cool, reminded me of the old iPod touch from back in the day. I'd be tempted to buy it but battery life.... and carrying around the external battery all time will defeat the purpose.
It's cool, reminded me of the old iPod touch from back in the day. I'd be tempted to buy it but battery life.... and carrying around the external battery all time will defeat the purpose.
Yeah, I'm keeping my 15PM for now and I do think they'll address it.
I generally listen to music on my Studio Display, HomePods, high-end Stereo, or AirPods Pro / Max but for voice content the iPhone really is nice for it and has been since the iPhone 7. e.g. if I'm in the middle of an audiobook and don't want to break the listening I'll grab it while I run to the kitchen to make lunch etc. and keep it running.
I'm curious about the exact percentage, for a few years I know Marco was using a kitchen iPad with speakers and it's the main reason he kept the iPad version of the Overcast app going at the time, before it worked on macOS via Apple Silicon and provided a better adoption rate. I definitely don't think it's the majority of people, though, agreed.
I have dated some people that used their devices for music playback out loud too, and even had playlists for it. At the time that took me off guard probably like some of this commentary is to other people.
I’m throwing in the towel on the Air today after having used it over the weekend.
Coming from a 15 and going to the Air, I was thrilled by the design of the phone, and it is beautiful. Screen size going from 6.1 to 6.5 was also a very nice bump.
However, just about everything else felt like a downgrade and I just couldn’t justify having paid $200 extra for this experience. I hated how slick the clear case from Apple felt when trying to pick it up. The phone being super thin also didn’t make this any easier. The battery life was also not quite what I was hoping. I think Apple is greatly exaggerating suggesting this is comparable to a 16 Pro.
The Air’s battery life feels comparable to my two year old 15, with 89% battery health. Mrwhostheboss battery video confirmed my suspicions on this. The Air died well before the 16 or 17. While the battery life on my 15 right now is still adequate for me, that’s with the Air having 100% battery health. It’s just too much of a compromise on this front for me.
So I’m going to swap this out for a regular 17 and I think I’ll be very happy with that phone, and the screen only goes down to 6.3 in size. Everything else will get better though, including getting that silicon case again which I love.
Coming from a 15 and going to the Air, I was thrilled by the design of the phone, and it is beautiful. Screen size going from 6.1 to 6.5 was also a very nice bump.
However, just about everything else felt like a downgrade and I just couldn’t justify having paid $200 extra for this experience. I hated how slick the clear case from Apple felt when trying to pick it up. The phone being super thin also didn’t make this any easier. The battery life was also not quite what I was hoping. I think Apple is greatly exaggerating suggesting this is comparable to a 16 Pro.
The Air’s battery life feels comparable to my two year old 15, with 89% battery health. Mrwhostheboss battery video confirmed my suspicions on this. The Air died well before the 16 or 17. While the battery life on my 15 right now is still adequate for me, that’s with the Air having 100% battery health. It’s just too much of a compromise on this front for me.
So I’m going to swap this out for a regular 17 and I think I’ll be very happy with that phone, and the screen only goes down to 6.3 in size. Everything else will get better though, including getting that silicon case again which I love.
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Interesting! I have used mine for things like podcasts, too. Have you heard the Air speaker though? It seems to be a YMMV thing because some people despise it, but honestly I have no problem with it at all. After 30 seconds or so, I forgot all about it.
If I return my Air it will be because I still like my 16 Pro.
The difference between the speakers for voice content between my 16P and Air is a lot less than it is with music. It's perfectly adequate for me for podcasts. I think your use case is definitely unique. I have speakers throughout my house and it takes 2 taps to send the audio from my phone to one for extended listening. My home office has a Mac with way better speakers and AirPods if I need to be discreet and handoff makes it pretty seamless. It sounds like you pretty much have all of those options but choose to use the phone speakers for 20-30 hours a week?
I'm pleasantly surprised with the Air. I just can't get over how light and "flingable" it is compared to my bigger 15PM. Feels great in the pockets. Speaker with podcasts or talk radio is fine. I use external stuff for music. Battery life so far seems fine. Not sure I'd get it though with a smaller screen.
Not surprised with those numbers. I charged my 15PM overnight so still doing it with the Air doesn't matter to me.
I noticed the same with my 16P, which is odd because aren't blacks just supposed to be off on an oled?
I have an LG display on the Air and a Samsung display on the 15 for whatever that’s worth.
Today my grueling 2-hour morning commute on public transit proved to be a good comparison test between my new Air and my previous 15 Pro (87% battery health). Normally running both phones with 100% as I left my front door, I used it heavily (Bluetooth, YouTube, Overcast, Safari, Transit, socials, almost entirely screen-on time). Usually the 15 Pro would be in 50-55% battery range by the time I stepped into the office. The Air was at 70% at the same point today. Some of the difference is attributable to the lost capacity on the 15 Pro. Still, I'm really happy with the Air thanks to the new design, light weight, 256 GB instead of 128 on the 15 Pro, and the new battery. There was some wonkiness trying to pair some third-party Bluetooth accessories that was fixed fairly quickly. Other than that, no complaints.
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Just played with this thing. It's very nice, but... I was more impressed when trying Galaxy Edge? Feeling conflicted. It is certainly not bad but I expected more. Can't quite put my finger on it, but perhaps side rails have something to do with it. They do not look as impressive in real life as they do in pictures for me... 🤔
The unit I tried also had color/tint shifting screen red to green depending on viewing angle. Was very obvious when I was comparing it with mine. Higher peak brightness sounds nice on paper though I can't say that I could tell a significant difference with both maxed out..
The unit I tried also had color/tint shifting screen red to green depending on viewing angle. Was very obvious when I was comparing it with mine. Higher peak brightness sounds nice on paper though I can't say that I could tell a significant difference with both maxed out..