The important thing to creating a profitable product is to determine an issue after which provide to resolve it. However what occurs when no issues stay? Then it’s a must to create one. Or three.
At its “Awe Dropping” occasion as we speak, Apple unveiled the iPhone Air, which at 5.6mm is its thinnest-ever smartphone. (It’s even thinner than these 17 very skinny issues.) However slightly than explaining why this super-svelte design is an efficient factor for patrons, the corporate largely performed protection. Many of the presentation was spent reassuring followers that the design’s apparent drawbacks received’t be a problem.
As I’ve argued earlier than, making the acquainted iPhone design thinner is an odd determination as a result of it requires the consumer to compromise in three essential areas for the sake of an improve that seems to be largely aesthetic. However don’t fear! Apple is on the case to repair the issues it simply created.
Ache level 1: Sturdiness
Practically everybody’s first thought when the iPhone Air turned a critical rumor for this cycle was to fret a couple of repeat of Bendgate, the spate of buyer complaints following the launch of the 7.1mm iPhone 6 Plus in 2014. If that system was liable to bending, absolutely the 5.6mm iPhone Air can be even worse?
Not so! Apple hurried to elucidate that the iPhone Air has the advantages of a space-grade titanium chassis which “exceeds Apple’s stringent bend energy necessities,” because the press launch boasts. The show is protected by the brand new Ceramic Defend 2 on the entrance, whereas (presumably first-gen) Ceramic Defend protects the glass on the again. With 3x higher scratch resistance and 4x higher crack resistance than the earlier era, iPhone Air is essentially the most sturdy iPhone ever. And it’ll have to be.
Apple
Ache level 2: Battery life
Slicing the thickness of the case by 28 p.c means a smaller battery. However Apple once more took pains to guarantee us that this doesn’t imply the iPhone Air has poor battery life. It highlighted, considerably vaguely, “software program optimizations,” in addition to an uncommon inner structure (principally cramming the speaker and Apple silicon componentry into the digital camera module, now renamed because the plateau), which wins again some area for the battery.
One of the simplest ways to make your energy reserves last more, nonetheless, is to make use of much less of it. The Air is roofed in that regard by a trio of recent Apple chips (the A19 Professional processor with its 4 effectivity cores, the C1X mobile modem, which Apple says makes use of 30 p.c much less power than the earlier era, and the N1 wi-fi chip) which make it “essentially the most power-efficient iPhone ever made.”
iOS 26 ought to assist, too. Apple highlighted the brand new software program’s Adaptive Energy Mode, which learns about your utilization patterns with the intention to intelligently preserve energy when and the place vital. However that isn’t distinctive to the iPhone Air. It’s simply useful.
All in all, battery life shouldn’t be too unhealthy. Go to the Evaluate iPhone web page on Apple’s web site (slightly than the comparability software on the iPhone Air web page, which solely allows you to evaluate it to the iPhone 15 or older!) and also you’ll discover it’s greater than respectable even when in comparison with current handsets. The Air is pegged at an estimated 27 hours of video playback, which is behind the iPhone 17 (30 hours), 17 Professional (33 hours), and 17 Professional Max (39 hours), in addition to the 16 Professional Max (33 hours). Nevertheless it’s properly forward of the iPhone 16 (22 hours), barely forward of the 16e (26 hours) and useless stage with the iPhone 16 Professional and 16 Plus.
And if battery life does show to be an issue, you possibly can all the time purchase the Air’s $99 MagSafe Battery accent, which was introduced on the identical time and is in some way solely suitable with the Air.
Apple
Ache level 3: Digicam efficiency
The ultimate apparent drawback with the Air design considerations the rear-facing digital camera setup, which solely will get a single bodily lens. That’s an astonishing throwback, contemplating that (except for the funds SE and 16e fashions) iPhones have had a minimum of two lenses on the again because the XS in 2018, and the Professional fashions have had three because the 11 Professional in 2019. On condition that iPhones have absorbed the function beforehand occupied by digital cameras and are used for that perform greater than virtually some other, such a drastic compromise feels scary.
So Apple but once more moved to assuage these fears. As a substitute of referring to it as a single-lens setup (which is how the 2022 iPhone SE is labelled on the comparability web page; equally, the iPhone 16 is particularly labeled as “dual-camera”), the corporate talked about it providing two lenses in a single: the 48MP Fusion predominant digital camera, plus a 12MP 2x telephoto. It appears to be the identical advertising and marketing technique used for the iPhone 16e, which additionally has a single rear lens but is labeled as having a “2-in-1 digital camera system” on the Apple web site.
However do the iPhone Air and iPhone 16e actually have two lenses in a single? It will seem that the “12MP telephoto” merely refers back to the additional 2x optical (or slightly “optical-quality”) zoom, which Apple has claimed for its iPhones since they bought a bump to 48MP: any 48MP iPhone can obtain this by cropping into the middle 12 megapixels of the sensor. Positive sufficient, for those who evaluate the iPhone Air (with its “2x telephoto”) to the iPhone 16, which doesn’t have telephoto, you’ll see they each have the identical most optical zoom of 2x. Whereas the iPhone 16, in contrast to the Air, has the flexibility to unzoom again to x.5, as a result of it does have an ultra-wide lens. The Air can also’t do both macro or spatial pictures both, each options of the iPhone 16.
So there are clearly gaps within the iPhone Air’s rear pictures arsenal; it might be troublesome to argue that it’s a match for current two-lens iPhones in each regard. On the identical time, I’d be stunned if the Air takes unhealthy images. iPhone pictures has superior to the purpose the place it’s significantly extra highly effective than most of us want it to be, and my expertise of reviewing even comparatively underpowered handsets just like the 16e is that it’s a must to actually hunt down essentially the most demanding taking pictures situations to seek out any noticeable weaknesses.
And in terms of the entrance digital camera… properly, that’s a special matter. It’s a big step up on the earlier era. The Air’s selfie digital camera is rated at 18MP, up from 12MP on the whole 16-series, and now options the iPad’s useful Middle Stage function for automated reframing based mostly on face detection. Due to the bigger sq. sensor, you possibly can take selfies in portrait orientation (usually essentially the most handy), and Middle Stage will reframe them as both portrait or panorama with out having to vary grip. The entrance digital camera can also be able to ultra-stabilised video in 4K HDR.
Apple
Every thing (else) is superior
Maybe this may sound disingenuous following the feedback above, however I don’t wish to rag on the iPhone Air an excessive amount of. As a result of that is precisely the form of dangerous product Apple must be releasing. It is a remarkably conservative firm, by and huge, and it prefers to launch merchandise that are the identical because the earlier era, solely barely higher. To launch a product which is identifiably worse in some respects with the intention to obtain one thing genuinely new is thrilling and admirable.
It’s attention-grabbing, nonetheless, that the Air’s distinctive promoting proposition—being amazingly skinny—wasn’t addressed within the presentation anyplace close to as a lot because the three matters I’ve mentioned on this article. The audio system made a couple of poetic remarks about “feeling such as you’re holding the long run” and having to carry it to imagine it’s actual, however little or no time was spent explaining why we’d like a 5.6mm telephone when 7mm+ telephones have been completely tolerable for greater than a decade.
The iPhone 17 Air is a exceptional telephone.
Apple
Has anybody bought denims pockets so tight their iPhone 16 received’t match inside? Is the iPhone 16e too heavy? Do we actually want a thinner iPhone? That’s the half the place I want persuading.
Nevertheless it’s a wonderful object, there’s little doubt about that. The mirrored end is sweet. The colours are good (albeit maybe just a little too refined; I’d like to have the choice of sage like on the iPhone 17). I just like the look of that vivid 6.5-inch show, a worthwhile bounce from the 6.1-inch display on the iPhone 16, and the truth that ProMotion and always-on are additionally accessible on the iPhone 17 doesn’t make them any much less appreciated. I do know the A19 Professional chip will probably be overkill for as we speak’s apps, but it surely means simply that little bit extra future-proofing.
Briefly, I’m sufficiently intrigued by the iPhone Air that I wish to attempt it out for myself. Proper now I don’t assume there’s any level making a telephone this skinny, however I do know sufficient about tech developments to suspect that utilizing the Air could change my thoughts. By the point the 18-series iPhones seem subsequent yr I could have gotten so used to a 5.6mm chassis that I can’t bear to return to something bigger.
For more information about this yr’s new telephones, try our big iPhone 17 superguide.
