Unless you’ve been living under a rock or simply HATE Apple products, you’re probably aware of this week’s keynote, which revealed the latest versions of Apple’s cash cow, the new iPhone 17. To quickly recap what was announced, we got four new iPhone variants: the vanilla iPhone 17, the iPhone 17 Pro, the iPhone 17 Pro Max, and the reason I decided to write this article, the iPhone Air.
Apple iPhone Air Features via Apple.com
- Breakthrough Design: The thinnest iPhone ever made at 5.6mm, featuring a grade 5 titanium frame and a new plateau on the back for the battery.
- Powerful Camera Systems: An innovative 18MP Center Stage front camera and a versatile 48MP Fusion Main camera system with a 2x Telephoto lens and an updated Photonic Engine.
- Powerful Apple Silicon: Powered by the A19 Pro, N1, and C1X chips, enabling features like a new 6-core CPU, Wi-Fi 7, Bluetooth 6, and a new, faster cellular modem.
- All-Day Battery Life: The redesigned internal architecture and power-efficient chips provide all-day battery life.
- Enhanced Durability and Display: Features the Ceramic Shield 2 front cover and Ceramic Shield on the back, offering improved scratch and crack resistance, along with a 6.5-inch Super Retina XDR display with ProMotion and high peak brightness.
Right off the bat, the biggest feature in the iPhone Air is its impossibly thin design. Like the Pro models of the last two years, the iPhone Air uses a titanium frame that incorporates the “plateau,” aka Pixel hump, and a single camera at the rear. Apple claims to have both the front and back of the phone coated with its Ceramic Shield technology. This should allow the phone to handle most daily wear-and-tear but I wouldn’t go around trying to smash glassware like in their demo.
Apple’s next big claim is the typically opaque “all-day battery life” claim—even though they don’t include the actual battery size in any of their spec sheets, just arbitrary numbers claiming “up to 22 hours” of video playback. While this sounds great, removing myself from the emotion of the event has allowed me to really think about what it that means. Additionally, on a second watch of the event, I found it telling that Apple felt the need to create a new MagSafe battery pack just for this phone. I guess that “all-day” battery needs a little help to get through the day. Don’t we all.
I Thought You Said you wanted this Phone?
To be clear, the Apple iPhone Air has piqued my interest. From what I’ve seen, it is beautifully designed and appears to be super lightweight. If I’m being completely honest, I don’t really rely on my phone as a camera. I’ve got plenty of those and prefer using an actual camera—even if it’s a cheap “digital disposable.” Gaming is also not much of a consideration for me; rarely do I game on my phone, and going through the apps I use the most, they are mostly limited to productivity apps (Email, Project Management Tools, Camera, and Instagram – in that order). At the end of the day, I might not be as heavy of a phone user as I once was.
So, while I’ve griped about the battery life of the iPhone Air, I may be in that small number of users who could probably get along fine with a phone that’s largely a fashion accessory rather than their do-it-all device. While it is tempting, I’ve found myself working from the odd coffee shop with shit Wi-Fi and recognize that I would need the battery bump in the Pro Max model for using my phone as a hotspot. But beyond that, I think I just want a stylish, thin phone that won’t look like my pocket is weighed down by a brick.
