iPhone Air iPhone Air is the best product Tim has ever launched

[Porco]

Actually the M4 iPad Pro ( I have one) did make some compromises.
Firstly, the battery life and secondly the speakers are inferior to the iPad Pros before it.

Oh I know, and if you read how I phrased my comments you will see I wasn’t claiming it made no compromises at all. There are plenty more besides the ones you mention too. Everyone’s mileage will vary, good luck to anyone for whom the Air works for them regardless.

 

[Jackbequickly]

It is an interesting product but not sure it is the best ever. We will see how it performs soon. For me, I am sticking with a new ProMax. It’s size and weight never bothered me.

 

[uacd]

It looks nice but no second speaker is a big disadvantage to me. I would have much preferred no USB-C, anyway there is AirDrop which I would usually use for data transfers.

It might be innovative but… incomplete. Also size is kinda big to my liking. I will probably wait one year more and see if they fix what I dislike in second iteration

 

[illyb2000]

My wife is thinking about upgrading from 15 plus to either the 16 plus or the Air and has asked for my advice. My advice is to go for the Air She doesnt use the wide angle lens so wouldn't miss it and doesn’t look on paper that smaller than the plus.

 

[drugdoubles]

Their wordings are backed up by the EU's testing findings, which even Apple doesn't want to have to do and has been forced on them by the EU...

The iPhone Air is Class A for Energy Efficiency, where last year’s Pros were Class B. Huge improvement.

Air matches or exceeds 16 Pro on all battery tests, but less than 16 Pro Max. However, the gap is very close for average use to the Pro Max (~18-22 hours real-world for all).

The Air has a Class A battery cycle life (1000 cycles) vs 800-900 cycles on 16 Pro and Pro Max. Better long term longevity.

Drop tests wise, the Air survived 180 falls from 1m (Class B) while the 16 Pro and Pro Max survived 90 (Class C). Double the survival rate vs 16 Pro models. Matches 17 Pro Max.

Scratch Resistance - Class A. Last year’s models - Class B.

Bend Tests - Outperforms 16 Pro in all tests and was fine over 3000 bend cycles.


1. The iPhone 17 Pro is an incredible phone and a powerhouse for people who want the very best cameras and very longest batteries.

2. The iPhone Air is an engineering marvel, with Pro performance, a great battery, a very good single camera and a beautiful design.

Both can be true at the same time.

The battery is so small then of course its effectiveness is good, but none of the above saying it wouldn’t easily overheat and slow down.

 

[Joseph C]

The battery is so small then of course its effectiveness is good, but none of the above saying it wouldn’t easily overheat and slow down.

I would hedge my bets it doesn't overheat any more than prior models at worst, and probably will overheat less due to the new chip and efficiency optimisations across all models this year. And that any task which causes overheating and slow down is firmly a "power user" or professional task - eg a task which should be performed on an iPhone Pro.

For the vast majority of users I doubt it'll be a problem. I said in another thread I've personally never experienced overheating or slowdowns on my iPhones doing video editing, filming in ProRes (including at 120fps to external storage), doomscrolling endless video content, and more. I can't speak for gaming as I don't game.

We'll find out more on Wednesday when the review embargo lifts and I'm ready to be disappointed. Until then I remain optimistic about this exciting product.

 

[drugdoubles]

I would hedge my bets it doesn't overheat any more than prior models at worst, and probably will overheat less due to the new chip and efficiency optimisations across all models this year. And that any task which causes overheating and slow down is firmly a "power user" or professional task - eg a task which should be performed on an iPhone Pro.

For the vast majority of users I doubt it'll be a problem. I said in another thread I've personally never experienced overheating or slowdowns on my iPhones doing video editing, filming in ProRes (including at 120fps to external storage), doomscrolling endless video content, and more. I can't speak for gaming as I don't game.

We'll find out more on Wednesday when the review embargo lifts and I'm ready to be disappointed. Until then I remain optimistic about this exciting product.

For majority, no need to be that thin and having much more battery is much more practical. 17 Base is more than enough. Overheat or not will be reported after few days.

 

[Joseph C]

For majority, no need to be that thin and having much more battery is much more practical. 17 Base is more than enough. Overheat or not will be reported after few days.

You could also argue the majority buy the Pro but actually don't need, or rarely use a lot of, the Pro features/capabilities.

The base is certainly enough for most and an amazing phone (especially this year, gaining ProMotion, Always On, the slimmer bezels).

But the Air is, to me, very exciting as it gives me the iPhone X-like "wow" factor, while making far fewer sacrifices than I expected. I'm prepared to be proven wrong though and will exchange within 14 days or 3 months (my carrier allows swaps every 90 days with no penalty) for a Pro if needed.

The new form factor is too much of a draw for me and I'm very impressed by the capabilities it does have with the processor, screen, battery life etc. It gets the Centre Stage front camera and the back camera looks great (I rarely use 0.5x, though I may miss that 3x+ from the Pro, as I do love that lens).

Either way it's great there's a "third way" this year, and I'd say the Air's existence has allowed Apple to push the Pro models even further (making them a bit thicker, beefing up the battery to ridiculous levels, etc) as it lets those who prefer a super premium feel get a Pro-enough model so the Pros can focus on being powerful and utilitarian.

 

[cjsuk]

It is funny that you imagine a phone is a super computer.

The Air kicks out more GFLOPS than our old Cray T3E (yes we had one) so yes, it is a supercomputer in your pocket.

In perspective I run simulations on my laptop in minutes that would have taken hours and more electricity cost than my laptop is worth. Everything is a supercomputer now!

 

[Donkey Man]

iPhone Air ALL THE WAY!

 

[Parowdy]

Stawp mate

iPhone Air will hardly save any life’s.
Apple Watch saved thousands.

iPhone Air will definitely not change the how we listen to music or change the wireless headphone market.
AirPods, especially AirPods Pro 2, did.

iPhone Air doesn’t provide a large user base with incredible power and capabilities to create basically whatever they want.
Apple Silicon Macs do.

iPhone Air doesn’t take advantage of the abundance of Bluetooth capable Apple products around the world.
AirTag does.

iPhone Air has no business in reducing credit discrimination.
Apple Card does.


iPhone Air has an incredible internal design, but lacks basic features previous phones had.
It is not the revolutionary device you want it to be.

And rest assured, Tim Cook didn’t design anything about this phone, except maybe the supply chains.

 

[Parowdy]

It is funny that you imagine a phone is a super computer.

All the major computing history took place in the last 40 years.
Any iPhone, Samsung and Pixel these days is a super computer.
Creating silicon with billions of transistors is a technological feat not thought possible not too long ago.
Having those chips actually work reliably and being able to mass produce them is a perfect showcase of how far computers have come. Considering how incredibly power efficient these devices are, they definitely are super computers, and compared to not even 20 years ago, supercomputers.

 

[jazzpolizei]

Either way it's great there's a "third way" this year, and I'd say the Air's existence has allowed Apple to push the Pro models even further (making them a bit thicker, beefing up the battery to ridiculous levels, etc) as it lets those who prefer a super premium feel get a Pro-enough model so the Pros can focus on being powerful and utilitarian.

A key point, well made.

Really to my taste the Pro models at this point have gotten so utilitarian that they feel less and less like Apple products — or at any rate, like products of the old Apple.

 

[Fiona FTW]

The Air is the future but not the present. Tim’s legacy will be as money printer not innovator, and it’s clear Apple’s most important biggest new product launch under his leadership is the AirPod, evidenced by them worn seemingly by every person walking or running on the street like they were born with them in there ears.

To Tim’s credit he also moved Apple away from Intel and Qualcomm, and that should improve Apple;s ability to innovate going forward. But the Air is a beta product and nowhere near as cool as the OG MacBook Air.

 

[SmOgER]

I didn’t even mention lack of one gpu before even I knew it since this is a very small factor. What matter more are it lack of one camera, 15% less battery, one speaker only all of these are conpared to cheaper 17 base. Their weight are almost the same too. Air is not innovative, it is normal for a product becomes thinner after cut off so many things and they even charge you much more.

15% less battery while being 30% slimmer and having more efficient chip? Sign me up.

 

[drugdoubles]

All the major computing history took place in the last 40 years.
Any iPhone, Samsung and Pixel these days is a super computer.
Creating silicon with billions of transistors is a technological feat not thought possible not too long ago.
Having those chips actually work reliably and being able to mass produce them is a perfect showcase of how far computers have come. Considering how incredibly power efficient these devices are, they definitely are super computers, and compared to not even 20 years ago, supercomputers.

If you compare to Stone Age, yeah, but not this AI period. iPhone has basically no AI comparing to main competitors. It is more an old tech phone while its competitors are full of AI functions.

 

[baconcat_8964]

MacBook Air launched as an ultra-portable laptop with a lot of compromise, now it's the mainstream MacBook.

iPad Air launched and replaced the regular iPad, became the mainstream tablet.

I'm not sure if iPhone Air will be the future mainstream iPhone, but that's possible.

 

[MayaUser]

OP has left the building

 

[MayaUser]

I'm not sure if iPhone Air will be the future mainstream iPhone

It will if apple goes iphone fold...because in one part of the folding you will have SoC battery and the other electronics...so they are testing worldwide now for the future
So one part of the folding iphone will be the air the other part battery and display

 

[bbates123]

Dumb question but with the CPU in the plateau, I would think the Air wouldn't get hot in hand because most of the heat will be in the plateau, or am I not thinking about that correctly?

 

[mikethebigo]

It is a compromise and an engineering marvel at the same time. Steve launched several products like that during his tenure.

 

[MayaUser]

Dumb question but with the CPU in the plateau, I would think the Air wouldn't get hot in hand because most of the heat will be in the plateau, or am I not thinking about that correctly?

it will be garbage if the plateau will overheat when we are talking on our phones...our hands will stay cold but our head....

 

[MayaUser]

It is a compromise and an engineering marvel at the same time. Steve launched several products like that during his tenure.

Yes, but i hope will never be in the iphone 6 plus or Macbook Pro Intel i9 situations

 

[mikethebigo]

Yes, but i hope will never be in the iphone 6 plus or Macbook Pro Intel i9 situations

I think if you’re going to keep pushing the limits of technology as hard as possible, things like that will remain inevitable. It’s part of the adventure of getting a first gen product over waiting 1-2 revisions. It won’t be perfect, but it’ll be cool.

*Not saying something terrible will happen here, just that issues with some first gen products will always be possible.

 

[joeblow7777]

It is funny that you imagine a phone is a super computer.

It is! Do you not understand what people would think of the computing power of the phones that we casually carry around today if you took one back in time just 30 years? Even Star Trek didn't predict mobile devices as good as our current smartphones. I know that it sounds like a cliched thing to say in the tech community, but NASA put men on the moon using computers that couldn't run the operating systems of today's watches! Yes, we carry around in our pockets devices that surpass a room full of computing power in our parents' generation. The fact that we use them mainly to share memes and take selfies is beside the point. 😅