iPhone Air The iPhone Air speaker is atrocious and if you disagree you're fooling yourself.

[Ctrlos]

Curiosity got the best of me and I finally decided to pick up the iPhone Air. This thing is beautiful. It's not just the thinness, I can see myself quickly getting used to that, it's the lightness. It's actually amazing. I was really curious how the speaker would sound since I spend a lot of my day on speaker calls and at night when going to bed I like to listen to podcasts when falling asleep. As soon as I set it up I instantly opened Youtube and played a video. I thought ok it's not terrible but I kind of expected it. It's useless at high volumes. It wasn't until I took a speaker call when I noticed the HORRIBLE tinny and slight crackly sound coming from it. It happened with all my speaker calls throughout the day.

Anyway, I was willing to deal with the not great battery life and the single camera, but the horrible speaker is an absolute deal breaker. I'm actually shocked Apple settled on this.

If you’re over the age of 15 years old then you have no business using the phone speaker for anything other than video calls when a decent Bluetooth Speaker or some CMF Buds are like £30 apiece.

The iPhone Air speaker is pretty crappy. But as all phones sound crap anyway and the Air only has one speaker it therefore only sounds half as crap.

 

[1rottenapple]

Ok air owner since near the launch day. I wouldn't call it atrocious but it's not fabulous. It can improve a lot for listening at home.

I use mine when I hike and it loud enough for me, but because its not LOUD as you said, so it saves me from being those obnoxious people that plays there music loud on the hiking trail. So your criticism is actually a feature hahaha

 

[ElPaso]

And you think I would get an accurate representation of the speaker call quality by looking at a DISPLAY model phone INSIDE a loud Apple store?
🤪

Sure. When you use your speaker for a call occasionally, wouldn't you want to test it in a noisy environment? There's probably no difference in a display model compared with what you would get in the box. I imagine you can check it by having the Apple employee play music or a video over the speakers.

 

[Tripps9000]

To me the air is a nice phone but that speaker is a deal breaker for me I enjoy having two speakers to listen to

 

[curnalpanic]

I think the Air's speaker is fine for listening to a podcast while falling asleep. I would say it is good, not as good as the iPhone Pro but still acceptable.

 

[jchap]

If you’re over the age of 15 years old then you have no business using the phone speaker for anything other than video calls when a decent Bluetooth Speaker or some CMF Buds are like £30 apiece.

Old people (like my mother) loved talking on the phone in speaker mode when at home. To say that people over the age of 15 have no business using the phone speaker for anything other than video calls seems quite, well, weird.

 

[Ctrlos]

Old people (like my mother) loved talking on the phone in speaker mode when at home. To say that people over the age of 15 have no business using the phone speaker for anything other than video calls seems quite, well, weird.

*and video calls and/or voice calls, the quality of which isn't effected by a mono speaker.

Its people listening to music from their tinny phone speakers who are complaining but what are people doing inflicting such awful sound quality on themselves (from any phone) when they're grown adults with better options?!

 

[leifp]

We need more crap speakers in phones. Maybe reduce the amount of conversations people have in public, and the noise pollution they feel is fine to share when earphones have been better than the phone for years now.

 

[teh_hunterer]

I couldn't imagine using speakerphone all the time. I just chuck an AirPod in if I want to do a hands free call. Even then if I was going to use speakerphone I'd just take/make the call on whatever iPad or MacBook I had nearby. Of the couple times I have used it on my Air it was honestly... fine.

 

[Slo Pesci]

Sure. When you use your speaker for a call occasionally, wouldn't you want to test it in a noisy environment? There's probably no difference in a display model compared with what you would get in the box. I imagine you can check it by having the Apple employee play music or a video over the speakers.

No because I never use the speaker phone in a noisy environment. I use it at home. If you test a speaker in a noisy environment you're gonna miss the small crackles it makes in a quiet environment.

 

[mlayer]

I detest speakerphone usage. I find it annoying. So I almost never use it. It's always AirPods/Beats or my in car setup which I rarely use for calls. If I'm walking around outdoors I'll answer a call by holding the phone up to my ear like an GenX animal. I only use the Air's speaker when I'm getting out of the car and I don't want to use earbuds, so it's at best a minute-long listening experience. I can live with the limitations with that kind of limited exposure.

 

[MayaUser]

People lived with one speaker until iphone 7 and it wasn’t atrocious, now the hypocrisy comes to life since the air speaker is better than any iphones until 13
It just lack a secondary one

 

[MayaUser]

I detest speakerphone usage. I find it annoying. So I almost never use it. It's always AirPods/Beats or my in car setup which I rarely use for calls. If I'm walking around outdoors I'll answer a call by holding the phone up to my ear like an GenX animal. I only use the Air's speaker when I'm getting out of the car and I don't want to use earbuds, so it's at best a minute-long listening experience. I can live with the limitations with that kind of limited exposure.

Agree. The speaker also helps for ringing..sometimes it helps to have dual on different directions..missing calls outdoors it can be a thing

 

[1rottenapple]

I think the fact technology tends to move forward, and to go back, in this case, 1 speaker after dual speakers for 10 years, or removing magsafe (16e) just feels odd. 17e has magsafe and the capability was always there but why did apple hold back the tech (probably cost).

But I am ok with the speaker as I said earlier.

Having no magsafe would infuriate me since my wallet often goes there as well as magsafe mounting options and battery pack; so I am glad that is atleast on there air.

 

[srbNYC]

"Atrocious" is a huge overstatement, and please don't accuse me of kidding myself. Thanks.

The speaker suffices for my purposes, sounds fine, just not as high fidelity as other phones' speakers, and that compromise figured into my pros/cons calculations making the Air the right phone for me. It is far form atrocious for most podcasts and some bedtime listening as I fall asleep. For everything else, I continue to use AirPlay to my HomePod Minis or my earbuds/headphones.

 

[subjonas]

I think the fact technology tends to move forward, and to go back, in this case, 1 speaker after dual speakers for 10 years, or removing magsafe (16e) just feels odd. 17e has magsafe and the capability was always there but why did apple hold back the tech (probably cost).

Tech does tend to move forward, but usually compared to the same model from the previous year. The Air didn't have a previous year so it's free to be a new product with a new set of trade offs (as all products are a set of trade offs).

Also there's a difference between new tech vs more tech. In the 1990s, Apple could have made phone with 2 speakers, but it would have been with 1990s speakers. Apple made the Air with only 1 speaker, but with a 2025 speaker. How much speaker tech has actually come in 30 years I don't know, but this is just to illustrate the point that downsizing isn't necessarily the same as technology regression.

The prime examples of this is when Apple introduced the MacBook Air and the 12" MacBook--they didn't include certain components (eg. ports) or larger components (eg. battery, screen) that other models had in order to hit the size and weight (and of course cost) target they wanted. It was a shrinkification, but all those components were still the newest most advanced technology (I believe), and they probably even had to make new technology to hit their size and weight targets. Those have a lot of parallels with the iPhone Air.

 

[Macdctr]

Having my Air since launch day . . . I am not going to say its speaker is excellent because it is not but with that said, others here in this thread mentioned using Air Pods or Home Pod for your “speaker” requirements. There is nothing wrong with adding these to improve your Air experience.

The device is what it is and I don’t see the point in complaining about this. No iPhones are perfect devices . . . except for the iPhone 13 mini but again . . . There will be those who will disagree and that is okay. I’m not speaking for everyone but for my use case. The Air is a solid iPhone as my 13 mini is a solid iPhone for my use case.

What matters is the iPhone you’re using "works for you".

 

[mlayer]

I detest speakerphone usage. I find it annoying. So I almost never use it. It's always AirPods/Beats or my in car setup which I rarely use for calls. If I'm walking around outdoors I'll answer a call by holding the phone up to my ear like an GenX animal. I only use the Air's speaker when I'm getting out of the car and I don't want to use earbuds, so it's at best a minute-long listening experience. I can live with the limitations with that kind of limited exposure.

I have to correct myself on this. There is one corner case where I'll use the iPhone Air's speaker, listening to baseball games on the MLB app. There have been a few instances in recent weeks where I 've had multiple screens going - including a TV - and I chose to have a ballgame on through the Air as background. It's plenty loud enough for that. For those who aren't aware, that's a very low-fi experience that dates back to early 20th century AM radio. Since all my electronic equipment would kill an AM radio signal in my house or car, the phone works just fine as an extremely high tech replacement.

 

[Slo Pesci]

People lived with one speaker until iphone 7 and it wasn’t atrocious, now the hypocrisy comes to life since the air speaker is better than any iphones until 13
It just lack a secondary one

720p screens were fine 10 years ago too, but it would definitely be atrocious if it were in a $1000 phone today.

 

[Slo Pesci]

Having my Air since launch day . . . I am not going to say its speaker is excellent because it is not but with that said, others here in this thread mentioned using Air Pods or Home Pod for your “speaker” requirements. There is nothing wrong with adding these to improve your Air experience.

The device is what it is and I don’t see the point in complaining about this. No iPhones are perfect devices . . . except for the iPhone 13 mini but again . . . There will be those who will disagree and that is okay. I’m not speaking for everyone but for my use case. The Air is a solid iPhone as my 13 mini is a solid iPhone for my use case.

What matters is the iPhone you’re using "works for you".

I think having to buy air pods or a separate speaker just because you're $1000 phone speaker crackles on speaker phone calls in your home is a bit much to ask. I expect to get what I pay for.

 

[Macdctr]

I think having to buy air pods or a separate speaker just because you're $1000 phone speaker crackles on speaker phone calls in your home is a bit much to ask. I expect to get what I pay for.

and that is fine too but at the end of the day you have to be happy with the iPhone you’re using no matter how much you paid for it. If not then get the device that works for your use case.

Everyone’s use case and “requirements” are not the same otherwise we would not have all the different variations of cell phones that we have today.

I just don’t see the point in complaining about a device, especially by those who never owned and actually used a particular device, yet they are making negative comments as if they actually have long term experience using that device.

I have seen various comments pointing out the shortcomings of the Air which, ironically, reminded me of the negative publicity the iPhone 12 mini and iPhone 13 mini had received because of it’s “poor” battery longevity on a single charge. Like the Air, the mini’s were the worse in terms of having “all day” battery life on a single charge. Some have managed getting all day use on a single charge using the 13 mini and Air. Not all though but nothing stops a person from slapping on a MagSafe battery pack or puck or just connecting the phone to a charger to top off battery charge levels. Heck, most are able to charge their phones while in the car so reading posts from people complaining about “defeating the purpose of the thin or compact form factor” excuse is nothing but rubbish. Just use the phone and charge it when you need to. It is as simple as that. Move on . . .

I have been dailying my 1TB Blue Titanium 15 Pro since getting it from Amazon renewed premium and have been using my Green 256GB 13 mini as a backup iPhone (so I can access my Garmin dash cameras with this device) and for me these two iPhones have been working out perfectly for me although I have my 1TB Space Black Air and my 1TB Deep Blue 17 Pro. My 17 Pro easily being an all day iPhone, I still find myself enjoying my 15 Pro and 13 mini for my daily use. Point being, not everyone will have the same use case for their mobile devices.