Yes and no. Gain another camera and perhaps a little bit of battery life. But lose the premium titanium & ceramic build quality/durability, sleeker design, A19 Pro, C1X modem, and ability to get up to 1TB storage.
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iPhone Air People Just Don’t Get the Point of the iPhone Air
- Thread starter Sami13496
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1/ the iPhone mini was mostly praised by reviewers but sales were a dud. on this basis, bc it seems that most reviewers will give the air a non enthusiastic review I can see it selling well as a contrarian outcome
2/ the air is an extremely powerful brand for apple. they wont give up on the iPhone air even if the sales are bad. if in 2 years the market (though bad sales) says that it needs a 2nd camera, apple will add it. they wont kill the phone line just like the mini.
3/ I deeply suspect apple wants to cannibalize base iPhone sales. base 17 is clearly the correct/best value. but selling a 1 camera phone at 20% higher sale price makes apple a lot more money. I can see them slowly killing base iPhone features while adding them to air until they've killed off enough base sales.
2/ the air is an extremely powerful brand for apple. they wont give up on the iPhone air even if the sales are bad. if in 2 years the market (though bad sales) says that it needs a 2nd camera, apple will add it. they wont kill the phone line just like the mini.
3/ I deeply suspect apple wants to cannibalize base iPhone sales. base 17 is clearly the correct/best value. but selling a 1 camera phone at 20% higher sale price makes apple a lot more money. I can see them slowly killing base iPhone features while adding them to air until they've killed off enough base sales.
The Air is a really interesting product that I am sure only Apple could pull off.
If Samsung or google had released a phone with only one camera and a 1k asking price I am pretty sure most on this forum would have slated it. But because it’s Apple, many are now justifying how they don’t use the additional cameras or extra battery life anyway and a simple thin phone is all they need.
Don’t get me wrong, I have debated it myself and for me I don’t want to lose out on the ultra wide/macro or the telephoto so I’m sticking with the pro max but it is interesting to see how the appeal of more battery life and more/better cameras over the previous years suddenly seems to have been changed by Apple with the release of the Air
If Samsung or google had released a phone with only one camera and a 1k asking price I am pretty sure most on this forum would have slated it. But because it’s Apple, many are now justifying how they don’t use the additional cameras or extra battery life anyway and a simple thin phone is all they need.
Don’t get me wrong, I have debated it myself and for me I don’t want to lose out on the ultra wide/macro or the telephoto so I’m sticking with the pro max but it is interesting to see how the appeal of more battery life and more/better cameras over the previous years suddenly seems to have been changed by Apple with the release of the Air
Says no one who has actually seen and touched it first hand.
What's your source for what "many" and "most" Air users think? Especially because the Air hasn't shipped yet, I'd love to know how you came by this information.
No-one was asking for a thinner phone. Maybe. But I was asking for a lighter one. I had to give up my 16 Pro Max because it was causing me real problems with my index finger. Turned out the regular 16 is a great phone and I missed nothing I’d lost.
The Air gives me back some screen real estate that I lost without any additional weight. That is a win.
Plus it looks awesome.
I don’t even know what RAW, PRORES or MACRO are. I take thousands of photos a year and never look at most of them. And as long as the one speaker is loud enough to hear podcasts in the shower, I’ll be fine. And if it isn’t, it’ll give me an excuse to buy the new Bose micro speaker.
Battery life? Pah. I have charging facilities all over my home. And, in the wild, I’ll have the MagSafe battery pack in my bag. You know, for those 24 hour days when I somehow need to watch 40 hours of video.
The Air gives me back some screen real estate that I lost without any additional weight. That is a win.
Plus it looks awesome.
I don’t even know what RAW, PRORES or MACRO are. I take thousands of photos a year and never look at most of them. And as long as the one speaker is loud enough to hear podcasts in the shower, I’ll be fine. And if it isn’t, it’ll give me an excuse to buy the new Bose micro speaker.
Battery life? Pah. I have charging facilities all over my home. And, in the wild, I’ll have the MagSafe battery pack in my bag. You know, for those 24 hour days when I somehow need to watch 40 hours of video.
The iPhone Air fits very well for the following people:
Camera guys like me who do not need multiple lenses and bulky cameras on the iPhone.
Rich businessmen who needs something premium, but the Pro seems excessive unnecessary.
Now what Apple is doing is separating "Premium" and "powerful"
Camera guys like me who do not need multiple lenses and bulky cameras on the iPhone.
Rich businessmen who needs something premium, but the Pro seems excessive unnecessary.
Now what Apple is doing is separating "Premium" and "powerful"
Lightness and how it feels in hand are functions.
Even if they do... as a current 16 Pro Max user... in general everyday use i have noticed basically ZERO difference to the performance of my old 13 mini.
For people who aren't doing high end video or photography work or AAA gaming on their phone.... they will notice no difference between any of the current line up performance wise.
Yes, perhaps it will be like the MacBook Air and it will eventually gain those features, but today I don’t really see the point.
Maybe it will become the default, but right now it’s a compromised iPhone 17 that’s more expensive, and whose only two advantages are thinness and weight, on the one hand and grouping them as a category (which I don’t care about), and if you like, screen size, but it’s barely larger than the 17 and a little smaller than the 16 Plus. Apart from that, it’s all drawbacks.
I think you have to be really bothered by the weight of the regular iPhones to get it for long-term use.
I think it’s a good upgrade from the Mini if you can lose the Ultra Wide. Obviously, especially if you like the Mini because of weight. Better battery life (a key issue of the Mini), in a thin package. Ergonomics will be tougher as it isn’t small, but the Mini’s days are counted anyway. If battery life was poor on iOS 14 and 15, it won’t be good at all on iOS 26.
Otherwise… I’m just not seeing it right now.
I’m not upgrading from my 16 Plus on iOS 1&, but if I were, I pretty much immediately rejected the Air as a possibility.
The only interesting aspect of its drawbacks is… that for the first time ever, Apple included full portrait mode on a single camera lens.
As a user of my beloved iPhone Xʀ running iOS 12 for 5.5 years, it was the only thing I missed from the Xs. It wasn’t a technical limitation after all. I wish I had it on my Xʀ.
0,28” bigger screen is a really nice upgrade over the 17. For me this is already a red line. There is no scenario in which I would buy a 6.3” phone (6.27” to be exact).
12 GB RAM over 8 is another nice upgrade.
Ceramic Shield on the back sounds nice too.
A19 Pro over A19 something better will be.
C1X chip doesn’t sound bad either.
I really prefer titanium over alluminum, but this is something personal.
And yes… The aesthetics and the feel in the hand are the biggest difference.
On the other hand… 0,5x and macro photos and some more battery… Na… I take the Air without thinking twice.
I mean… there are certain improvements beyond thinness and lightness. I think it's worth celebrating that there's a new option for everyone to choose what suits them best.
This weight reduction may seem small on paper, but it can very well feel significant in the hand.
Exact same sentiment. I'd be sticking with my 13 mini if the camera wasn't showing its age - getting tired of asking my wife to take photos of x y and z with her Pro Max. I've attempted to upgrade nearly every year but can't get down with the extra size/weight. Hoping the lighter weight offsets the size this time around.
Nice avi.
I don’t particularly do any of that really. And I’ve noticed differences in each of the iterations I have upgraded to.
I will have had every phone since the 15pm.
That being said, I wouldn’t have been happy if I were paying full price to upgrade annually and I wouldn’t be doing it without the trade in offers from the carriers.
I believe that while many people buy the Pro model because they truly benefit from its features, there are certainly also buyers who get it out of FOMO, without actually making any use of the better cameras, and then end up suffering from the size, weight, and price. So for many, getting to use the Air could be quite a relief and a refreshing change. We will see.
The chip is negligible, but the larger screen if you like that is a downgrade vs the 16 Plus.
But regarding the rest it is just whether you care about the features it lacks and whether those supersede the light design.
It is a downgrade. You may prefer the design regardless, but it is a downgrade vs the 16 Plus, let alone the regular 17. I don’t think 0,28” of screen make up for the rest.
This is an exchange of opinions in which all of them are equally valid. At the end of the day, you buy what you like and it’s okay.
But I have the 16 Plus and I’d consider the Air a complete downgrade.