iPhone Air Reviews: Is the Ultra-Thin Design Worth the Compromises?

[robotphood]

Here's another real world battery tidbit from Engadget:

Furthermore, my results generally line up with Apple's numbers. In a streaming video rundown test over Wi-Fi, the iPhone Air lasted 23 hours and 39 minutes — barely an hour less than what I got from a base iPhone 17 (24:45). And in the real world, the Air fared even better than expected. Even on a day with over seven hours of screen on time (which includes running benchmarks and gaming), the phone has 25 percent juice left in the tank. And on lighter days when I'm not working or constantly checking my phone, I often had 40 to 45 percent energy remaining.

I average around 4 hours screen time on my 16P and have only run out of battery by the time I'm in bed (~16 hours) less than a handful of times this past year. I don't think the battery will be much of a compromise for someone like me.

 

[Kai Hawaii]

Let's be honest. Without the Air, the Apple Phone lineup this year would be pretty boring.
Air changed that. And for this, it is almost as having a Steve Jobs moment, being involved in the product design of it.

 

[Simmias]

“Hi, it’s me, Macrumors Consoomer.

I don’t get the point of the iPhone Air. Who asked for this?

iPhone Air is cOmPRoMiSeD. Apple reviewers are BiAs (sic).

Why would you want a MOBILE device you hold in your HAND to be LIGHT?

Why would you want a MOBILE device you put in your POCKET to be THIN?

I don’t get it. Someone please explain. It’s all so confusing.

What I want is MOAR:
Moar GBs
Moar megapixels
Moar cameras
Moar GPUs
Moar MBs/sec
Moar vapors
Moar grams
Moar Pro

My ideal is a phone that resembles a 90s PC laptop - 7 lbs with every port, spec and feature you can imagine. Make sure it has Flash and a keyboard too.

Fire Tim Cook. Steve Jobs is rolling in his grave. Bring back Jony Ive and fire him again.

Thank you for your attention to this matter.”

 

[BruiserBear]

The Air is the first phone design that’s gotten me excited in many years.

The Pro Max is way too big and heavy for my tastes.
The regular iPhone feels just a little too small.
The Air gives me a screen size I want in a very compact package, with enough battery life that I will be just fine.

I have owned an iPhone 15 for two years now and I’ve used the wide angle lens once or twice. I also never play games on my iPhone.

In the rare event that I use the phone a ton in one day, these phones charge faster than ever, and just plugging it in for 20 minutes would get me a ton more battery life.

I’m getting the cloud white iPhone Air.

 

[joshwithachance]

TLDR: YES.*

*if the compromises don’t impact your own personal use case and needs.

 

[Orange Bat]

I agree. I'm not a hater, I want the Air to succeed, but they placed it in the line-up where it shouldn't have been with these compromises.

I’m not a hater either. I just object to the price.

 

[fjfjfjfj]

Clickbait headlines and clickbait YouTubes. Thats the world we live in today. If you’re comparing the phone to the Pro or Pro Max, yes. There will be compromises. I’m not sure who would be surprised by that. If you want the most you can pack into an iPhone, then those are the models for you.

But if you evaluate the device by itself, it seem to stand on its own merits and is a very capable device. Apple set a pretty high bar for the device, given what they could do with tech at the time.

To me, this is just the MacBook Air vs MacBook Pro all over again. They’re designed for different folks. Nothing surprising there.

Very well said.

 

[jmpage2]

Let's be honest. Without the Air, the Apple Phone lineup this year would be pretty boring.
Air changed that. And for this, it is almost as having a Steve Jobs moment, being involved in the product design of it.

100% this. Look at how little has really changed since the X was introduced seven years ago. For the most part it’s been just screen and camera improvements and ooh ah, USB C finally.

 

[DDustiNN]

For those constantly scared of the mediocre battery life a first comparison. Fast forward to 12:20m
If he's right the Air's battery performance is within 5% difference compared to the regular iPhone 17.

And Apple expects us to believe those are actual, unbiased reviews of these phones?

That’s not fair that some “special” YouTubers get the device earlier than 95% of people.

It is worth to wait for direct comparisons, especially of battery life and camera performance. I haven’t really seen anything in all the current reviews, more like “unboxing” useless videos from 2013 YouTube era

Watch that one for exactly what you seek 👆🏻

 

[DDustiNN]

I'm not sure what I trust less: The Influencer-As-Apple-Mouthpiece YouTube avalanche, or the Apple Sycophant Keyboard Warrior Army patting themselves on the back for making such a great choice and making sure to tell everyone what a great choice they made over and over again.

If someone goes to an Apple Store, picks up an Air, and thinks, "yeah, this is for me," then good on them. I hope they use it in good health. The tortured, endless conversation about that decision, however, is just so much narcissism.

I feel it’s the exact opposite. The anti-Air crowd are the ones adamantly pushing against this phone and anyone who says anything good about it. Which is so bizarre, honestly.

We never see these people crying so hard about the “lesser” models any other year. They’re just there as different options for different users. No big deal.

So why is having another option such a big deal all of a sudden? What’s with all of the snobby anti-Air elitism littering all of these threads? Why can’t people just buy the model they like and move on with their lives? It’s starting to sound like the new version of Android vs. iPhone, and it’s ridiculous.

 

[DDustiNN]

100% this. Look at how little has really changed since the X was introduced seven years ago. For the most part it’s been just screen and camera improvements and ooh ah, USB C finally.

Yep… And every year, it’s post after post complaining that noting has changed, we’re only seeing incremental upgrades, and blah blah blah. Now there’s an actual change, and they’re freaking out.

 

[falainber]

Read more reviews. Outside of the second camera, the Air trounces the Edge.

All (at least most) reviewers have iPhones as their personal phones. They are biased as hell. All the advantages I mentioned are factual. Whether the reviewers decide to notice them is a different story.

 

[falainber]

$700?! It was over a grand when the Edge launched. It just shows that 3 months later the value has decreased drastically as is always the case with Samsung.

And? Let's not forget that Samsung is typically way ahead of Apple with new features/tech. You do not have to buy the phones on the release day (although Samsung does offer good incentives). What's important is that today, you can either buy Galaxy Edge for $700, or you can wait a little and buy Air for $1000.

 

[Qu1ckset]

It was the speaker test for me , sounded like crap compared to the 16p and 17 lineup

 

[hans1972]

So tell me again, what was the point of that device’s existence?

1) Lower weight
2) Looking good
3) Thinner

Everything is important and something I would pay extra for. Unfortunately, its area is too big for me.

 

[grovertdog]

All (at least most) reviewers have iPhones as their personal phones. They are biased as hell. All the advantages I mentioned are factual. Whether the reviewers decide to notice them is a different story.

These anecdotes are meaningless.

 

[hans1972]

This video actually states that due to thermals the base iPhone 17 outperforms the Air even though it doesn't have the Pro chip.

That's good. I'm willing to pay extra for less performance.

 

[BruiserBear]

I feel it’s the exact opposite. The anti-Air crowd are the ones adamantly pushing against this phone and anyone who says anything good about it. Which is so bizarre, honestly.

We never see these people crying so hard about the “lesser” models any other year. They’re just there as different options for different users. No big deal.

So why is having another option such a big deal all of a sudden? What’s with all of the snobby anti-Air elitism littering all of these threads? Why can’t people just buy the model they like and move on with their lives? It’s starting to sound like the new version of Android vs. iPhone, and it’s ridiculous.

I think there is a very simple explanation for this behavior.

People are seeing the Air and think it’s beautiful, but they cannot comprehend settling for a phone that doesn’t have everything on it, but then they’re bothered that they’re not getting the pretty phone with everything on it.

So the solution is to tell themselves and everyone else the pretty phone sucks. They want to believe they’re making the right decision buying whatever other phone they’re going to buy and this is how they cope.

 

[mlayer]

Not a review, but a profile of the “metal can” packaging of the Air’s battery. The philosophy is to play it safe in the first iteration before moving on to silicon-carbon or newer higher density tech.

The iPhone Air’s real breakthrough is its battery | TechCrunch

Apple's slimmest iPhone uses a "revolutionary" battery design that allows the cell to fill more space within the device, boosting overall energy storage.

techcrunch.com

If Apple’s right they’ll be in great shape for the future since they patented the metal can. I shudder at the potential cost of replacement batteries.

 

[falainber]

These anecdotes are meaningless.

What exactly is meaningless? Having extra camera? Having second speaker? 200MP vs 48MP camera sensor? Larger battery? Vapor chamber? SIM card slot?

What's meaningless is to rely on early reviews. Those are published by the people who get early access to the Apple devices and who never ever write anything bad about them (to keep the access).

 

[hans1972]

And? Let's not forget that Samsung is typically way ahead of Apple with new features/tech. You do not have to buy the phones on the release day (although Samsung does offer good incentives). What's important is that today, you can either buy Galaxy Edge for $700, or you can wait a little and buy Air for $1000.

I would never buy an Android phone unless it was a get of jail (or concentration camp) necessity.

 

[mlayer]

What exactly is meaningless? Having extra camera? Having second speaker? 200MP vs 48MP camera sensor? Larger battery? Vapor chamber? SIM card slot?

What's meaningless is to rely on early reviews. Those are published by the people who get early access to the Apple devices and who never ever write anything bad about them (to keep the access).

I'll miss the ultrawide camera, which I used for landscapes and architecture photography. Second speaker? Extra zoom? SIM card slot or a vapor chamber? Probably won't miss any of those since I either didn't use them or they didn't matter to me previously.

I kinda miss the old speeds and feeds days when these forums frequently broke out into benchmark comparisons. Everyone knows Apple has the best mobile CPUs for several years. Same goes for Qualcomm modems. Now they're fully encroaching on each other's turf. Try that angle instead. The rest of this stuff I couldn't care less about. I care about weight conservation and a new design, which the Air and to a lesser extent, the S25 Edge bring.

 

[falainber]

I would never buy an Android phone unless it was a get of jail (or concentration camp) necessity.

You are in the [Apple] jail, aren't you

 

[DDustiNN]

I think there is a very simple explanation for this behavior.

People are seeing the Air and think it’s beautiful, but they cannot comprehend settling for a phone that doesn’t have everything on it, but then they’re bothered that they’re not getting the pretty phone with everything on it.

So the solution is to tell themselves and everyone else the pretty phone sucks. They want to believe they’re making the right decision buying whatever other phone they’re going to buy and this is how they cope.

I think this is exactly right, and I said something very similar in another thread earlier today or yesterday, haha.

 

[grovertdog]

I expect a phone with a smaller battery, fewer camera options, one less speaker, etc. to be cheaper than $100 less than the Pro version of the same phone. The pricing on this thing just doesn’t make sense, especially with how good the base iPhone is this year.

This is illogical and illustrates a lack of basic understanding of how pricing and marketing works. This phone is a "whole new thing" at least in the weird context of smartphones. It is not designed or sold as a bargain loss-leader. Not expecting a premium for this type of product from a company like Apple is patently naive, and I'm being kind. And that doesn't make the base 17 any less of a bargain. Just don't buy one. Tens of millions of others will, just watch.