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The MacRumors Show: iPhone Air 2 - What Changes After a Difficult First Year

rchaser said:
Does iOS 27 add a camera? Increase battery capacity? Make the speakers better? Bump the chip up to a 6 core? Larger vapor chamber? Decrease the price.

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iOS 27 added functionality that isn't available on the regular 17.

The speaker is adequate for the few times I use it, which is to say not as a speakerphone.

All versions of the A19 & A19 Pro have six cores. If you're talking about the GPU, sure the Pro/Max version has six cores vs. the Air's 5. As if you can tell the difference.

Vapor chamber? I live in Arizona. Even here the only time the Air has gotten hot was during the initial iCloud restore at the Apple Store. Ever since it's run much cooler than my previous 15 Pro.

Decrease the price for what? To satisfy people who still wouldn't buy it? The whole line is about to get a price hike. Besides, you can get it for $849 unlocked at Best Buy. Find a better deal than that.
 
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Like Vision Pro, the air was not meant to be a success but more like a positioning. The air 2 will hopefully fix it all with 2 essential cameras, better battery life, no overheating and stereo speakers it won’t be as light but who cares …
 
It amazes me how many people seem to have both the Air, and also a Pro model just for the cameras. For the same price as a Pro you could buy a "real" camera which would take better phones and videos. Then, just use the Air for what it is intended for!
 
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I’ve had the Air since day one and, for me, it hasn’t been a ‘difficult year’. You can complain about everything and nit-pick over the little things, but at the end of the day, it’s a phone that does everything you need in life, and even more besides whilst being ultra-slim.

2 things I personally would consider:
- Bottom Speaker
- (maybe a second camera for makro/ultrawide)
PsykX said:
  • You pay almost the price of an iPhone 17 Pro, only to get the camera of an iPhone 17e. You read that well, iPhone 17e, because the iPhone 17 has an additional ultrawide angle lens.
Click to expand...

Feel free to buy an iPhone 17e for less money?

The real reason why ppl buy an iPhone 17 Air is the ultra slim form factor and not the camera system.
 
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There is absolutely a market for smaller , lighter iPhones, with less features . Current sizes are getting closer to an iPad Mini than a smartphone.
If the price wasn’t as expensive as a Pro model, they would sell very well.
 
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Two speakers, two cameras and I'm excited. The battery life is iffy to me since I never tried the first generation. I've heard both good and bad, though.
 
Gotta say, I miss the mini. Since that’s just shouting into the void, a clean and simple Air.

More gubbins = less desirable. Remarkable how people seem to just want the prior iPhones here. Take the Air. Add a camera. Add battery life. BAM, basically just another size in the base iPhone lineup, with titanium bling around the edges.
 
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No regrets whatsoever for having scaled down from the Pro to the Air. The only feature that’s truly missed is the combination of telephoto and ultrawide lens ( and software ), but for photography I’ll use a proper camera or a 16 Pro anyway.
It works fine for daily usage, and with MagSafe I have no further need for battery. Should it bring something new to the table, and provided the price is right, there may be reasons to upgrade for those coming from older models. Otherwise, and personally speaking, happy to save money and be one less consumer on this cycle.
 
I'm getting flash back of the iPhone mini people complaining about the battery. it's important to compare apple to apple (pun intended) and relevancy too.

iPhone Air has more battery than iPhone 15 pro so it's an actual upgrade.
comparing the iPhone Air with iPhone 17 pro is ridiculous, not everyone needs Mac performance in a phone and to expect vapor chamber and aluminum is ruining it for the ones who really want elegant phone not cheap aluminum that gets dinged easily

The biggest challenge for the Air is moving people again from 6.1/6.3 to 6.5 as people are tired of the phablet trend.

A question that I have; does the air needs a screen protector? I don't have a case on my iPhone 15 pro and I'm not planning to have one however I had to put a screen protector (until it wears off) since the screen scratches so easily
 
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anthony13 said:
Yeah I should have said 'for me, the best iPhone.' I love the thing, honestly it's the weight difference that really appeals to me.
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It was obvious to the average person that you were speaking subjectively. Some people just love to hate when they see an opportunity.
Who would have thought that portability (size and weight) would be an important factor in a mobile handheld device? For some people even the most important factor. For a lot of spec nerds here that concept is unfathomable.
 
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mattopotamus said:
I wouldn't say people were wrong, they just had planned for 2 years regardless of performance. The same was true for the mini.
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And next year “they just had planned for 3 years regardless of performance”.

Eventually “Apple is ending production of the Air line after 8 consecutive unsuccessful (by our reckoning) years.”
 
jozero said:
Like will the iPhone Fold at 3 grand or whatever it is outsell the traditional iPhone or iPhone Pro? Of course not, thats not the point of it. Yet dollars to donuts I bet we will see a hundred articles on why its not selling well
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There’s not a single competing phone company that won’t be envious of both whatever they call the fold and the Air.
 
What’s interesting to me is that the higher reported depreciation (44.3% iPhone Air vs 34.6% iPhone 17 base) speaks to how the Air is indeed $100 overpriced. I do love having the A19 Pro chip though.
 
I really like my iPhone Air, although at times I miss the second and third camera. I really love it when I'm reading an eBook or other news on my iPhone. I love the light weight, and the bumper case! I have the MagSafe battery and like that too. I think I will opt for an iPhone 18 Pro Max, just for the camera, especially when traveling. However, if the trade in value of this iPhone Air is poor, I might hold onto it.
 
Throw a 200 mp camera on the back, increase the battery with some carbon silicon, and maybe figure out UW 5g speeds for the Americans.

I’d probably also tweak the front camera in some way, but that’s my gen 3. It needs to become a full display, even if that means Touch ID sensor on the side. Something to make it unique.
 
It’s interesting that the Air, mini, and Plus have all flopped in terms of sales (I had a mini and loved it but it didn’t sell well). Maybe there just isn’t an unmet need for another model beyond base, pro, and pro max?
 
"Almost everything other than the battery sits inside the ‌iPhone Air‌'s camera plateau ..."

The camera plateau is already the reason I don't buy this device, so making it bigger and taller isn't going to help me. The phone is as thin as its thickest part, I just don't see the savings.
 
arobert3434 said:
The phone is as thin as its thickest part, I just don't see the savings.
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It really isn't. Any extended use of the Air will reveal how thin it actually feels in hand, in a pocket, etc. The most I can say about the plateau is that it feels like a grip on a point-and-shoot camera, which sounds strange at first since you're pulling it by its lens. You have to reorient your hand(s) to take pictures if that's your intent, otherwise it doesn't do anything negative to the Air's functional experience.
 
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