Compromises:
1. Single speaker
2. Single camera
3. Extremely poor battery life (due to thinness)
4. Inferior C1X 5G modem compared to SD X80 in Pro series
5. Too thin to hold.
6. Busted Wifi 7 that is incapable of 320 Mhz channel width on 6Ghz.
7. No mmWave which is in Pro models.
8. No display output via USB-C to an external monitor or TV.
9. Still USB 2.0 speeds for a premium device in 2025.
10. Slower binned SOC (again due to thinness and heat concerns)
Did I miss anything?
As a "light" iPhone user whose options were previously "thick and heavy" or "mini, but old and slow", this is how I interpret your (temporary, IMO) compromises:
> Single speaker
It's plenty loud IMO. Phone speakers are terrible for consuming audio anyway (in my opinion), and it's mostly unnecessary when you're mostly using AirPods or bluetooth headphones (which I do).
> Single camera
Definitely a compromise, unless you don't take that many photos or don't use >2x zoom often (which I don't; I hardly used the telephoto lens on the 13 mini). Anyway, I'm sure that the next iteration of the Air (if there is one) will get a camera array OR, my preference, a single high-MP sensor with a zoom lens.
> Extremely poor battery life
Not true. It's on par with the iPhone 16 Pro. That tracks with my experience using this phone since launch.
> Inferior C1X 5G modem
Hardly! It's pretty close in performance. Apple is 100% going to move onto this chipset for all of their phones in the next two years anyway. Makes too much sense. Qualcomm's only moat was its library of patents, which Apple doesn't need now that they manufacture their own modems and basebands and have complete vertical control of the stack. (This is extremely exciting to me, as this means faster baseband updates, potentially new features that would historically require modem updates, and much better security). Anecdotally, I haven't noticed a difference in performance at all, and I often use the phone as a hotspot.
> Too thin to hold
Much better than too thick and heavy to hold, IMO. That Popsocket cases exist is absolutely asinine to me.
> Busted WiFi 7
Irrelevant to most people; WiFi 7 is extremely early days, and most people don't have the equipment to notice this con. Anecdotally, I have a three-node eero Max 7 system meshing on an Ethernet 10Gbit backplane with a 5Gbit fiber internet gateway and still get silly throughput numbers on speed.cloudflare.com and fast.com over Wi-Fi.
> No mmWave
Same deal as WiFi 7, IMO.
> No display output via USB-C
I hardly ever use this, as when I've tried to use it, I either had no control over setting display resolution or the apps that I wanted to use it for (Netflix IIRC) block external displays due to DRM. Anyway, that's what my MacBook is for (and what my iPad Pro would be for, if it weren't so artificially restricted).
> USB 2.0 speeds
Can't think of the last time I needed to transfer anything over USB-C. I did backup/restore an iPhone 16 Pro over USB-C using iMazing, and that was pretty neat, but that's it.
> Slower binned SOC
I'm a "light" iPhone user and don't game, so I haven't hit these limitations yet. It's as fast as my 16 Pro was, maybe slightly faster given the A19 SOC.
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This phone is unbelievable, and I hope that Apple builds on this platform instead of sticking to its outdated "thick phone" slate.