The key to making a successful product is to identify a problem, then offer to solve it. But what happens when there are no problems left? Then you have to create one. Or three.
During its “Awe Droping” event today, Apple has unveiled the iPhone air, which is 5.6 mm is its thinnest smartphone. (It’s even thinner than these 17 very thin things.) But rather than explaining why this super-wire design is a good thing for customers, the company has mainly played defense. Most of the presentation has been devoted to reassuring fans that the obvious disadvantages of the design will not be a problem.
As I have already discussed, making the slim iPhone design thin is a strange decision because it requires that the user compromises in three important areas for an upgrade that seems to be mainly aesthetic. But don’t worry! Apple is on the case to solve problems He just created.
Pain point 1: Sustainability
Almost everyone’s first reflection when the air of the iPhone has become a serious rumor for this cycle was to worry about a bendgate rehearsal, the wave of customer complaints after the launch of the iPhone 6 more than 7.1 mm in 2014. If this device was subject to flexion, surely the air of the 5.6 mm iPhone would be even worse?
Not the case! Apple rushed to explain that iPhone air has the advantages of a spatial quality titanium chassis which “goes beyond the strict requirements of resistance to Apple turn”, as the press release boasts. The display is protected by the new ceramic shield 2 at the front, while the ceramic shield (probably of the first generation) protects the glass on the back. With better resistance to 3x scratches and better resistance to 4x crack than the previous generation, the iPhone Air is the most durable iPhone of all time. And it will have to be.
Apple
Bread 2: battery life
Cutting the thickness of the 28% housing means a smaller battery. But Apple again took problems to make sure that it does not mean that iPhone air has bad autonomy. He highlighted, a little vaguely, “software optimizations”, as well as an unusual internal architecture (essentially entering the loudspeaker and the Apple silicon components in the camera module, now renowned like the tray), which recognized a certain space for the battery.
However, the best way to make your electricity reserves last is to use it less. The air is covered in this regard by a trio of new Apple chips (the A19 Pro processor with its 4 efficiency cores, the C1X cellular modem, which, according to Apple, uses 30% less energy than the previous generation and the wireless N1) which in fact “the most effective iPhone ever made”.
iOS 26 should also help. Apple has highlighted the adaptive power supply of the new software, which learns your models of use in order to intelligently keep the power when and if necessary. But it is not unique to iPhone air. It’s just practical.
Overall, the battery life should not be too bad. Access the compare iPhone page on the Apple website (rather than the comparison tool on the iPhone air page, which only allows you to compare it to the iPhone 15 or more!) And you will find that it is more than respectable even compared to recent handsets. The air is fixed at around 27 hours of video reading, which is behind the iPhone 17 (30 hours), 17 pro (33 hours) and 17 pro max (39 hours), as well as the 16 pro max (33 hours). But it is indeed ahead of the iPhone 16 (22 hours), slightly ahead of the 16th (26 hours) and the dead level with the iPhone 16 Pro and the 16 plus.
And if the battery life is a problem, you can always buy the $ 99 air Battery accessory from the air, which has been announced at the same time and is somehow compatible with the air.
Apple
Point 3 point: camera performance
The latest obvious problem with air design concerns the configuration of the back -oriented camera, which obtains only one physical lens. It is an astonishing return, given that (with the exception of the budgetary models and 16th), iPhones had at least two objectives on the back since the XS in 2018, and the pro models have had three Since 11 pro in 2019. Since iPhones have absorbed the role previously occupied by digital cameras and have been used for this function more than almost all others, such a drastic compromise feels scary.
So Apple has once again evolved to appease these fears. Instead of the reference as a single objective configuration (this is how the iPhone SE 2022 is labeled on the comparison page; similarly, the iPhone 16 is specifically labeled as “double camera”), the company has spoken of offering it two lenses in one: the main 48MP fusion camera, plus a 12MP 2X TV. It seems that it is the same marketing strategy used for the iPhone 16th, which also has a single rear lens, but which has a “2 -in -1 camera system” on the Apple website.
But do the iPhone air and the iPhone 16th really have two goals in one? It would seem that the “12MP telephoto” simply refers to the additional 2x optical zoom (or rather to “optical quality”), which Apple claimed for its iPhones because they obtained a bump at 48 MP: all iPhone of 48 MP can achieve it by backing up in the 12 megapixels of the Center of the Sensor. Indeed, if you compare the iPhone air (with its “2x telephoto lens”) to the iPhone 16, which does not have a telephoto lens, you will see that they both have the same maximum optical zoom of 2x. While the iPhone 16, unlike the air, has the possibility of withdrawing at X.5, because it do Have an ultra-large lens. The air cannot do macro or spatial photography, the two features of the iPhone 16.
There are therefore clearly gaps in the arsenal of the rear photography of the iPhone Air; It would be difficult to say that it is a match for iPhones with two recent objectives in all respects. At the same time, I would be surprised if the air takes bad photos. The iPhone photography has advanced to the point where it is considerably more powerful than most of us need it, and my experience of reviewing combined even comparatively undernourished as the 16th is that you must really seek the most demanding shooting conditions to find notable weaknesses.
And when it comes to the front camera … Well, that’s another matter. This is an important step of the previous generation. The selfie -air camera is assessed at 18 MP, against 12MP on the entire 16 series, and now has the practical central functionality of the iPad for automatic crops depending on facial detection. Due to the largest square sensor, you can take selfies in the orientation of the portrait (generally the most practical), and the front of the scene will reframe them as portrait or landscape without having to change their plug. The front camera is also capable of an ultra-stabilized video in HDR 4K.
Apple
Everything (the rest) is great
Maybe it will seem fallacious after the comments above, but I don’t want to sneak you too much on the air of the iPhone. Because it is exactly the type of risky product that Apple must release. It is a remarkably conservative company, overall, and it prefers to launch products that are the same as the previous generation, but slightly better. Release a product that is worse in some respects in order to achieve something really new is exciting and admirable.
It is interesting, however, that the unique sales proposal of the air – being incredibly thin – is not addressed in the presentation almost as much as the three subjects which I discussed in this article. The speakers have made some poetic comments on “having the impression of holding the future” and having to hold it to believe that it is real, but very shortly was devoted to the explanation Why We need a 5.6 mm phone when 7 mm + phones are perfectly tolerable for more than a decade.
The iPhone 17 air is a remarkable phone.
Apple
Has anyone have pockets of jeans so tight that their iPhone 16 will not go inside? Is the iPhone 16th too heavy? Do we really need a thinner iPhone? This is the part where I need to persuade.
But it is a beautiful object, there is no doubt about this. The mirror finish is pleasant. The colors are beautiful (although perhaps a little too subtle; I would like to have the possibility of sage as on the iPhone 17). I like the appearance of this shiny 6.5 inch display, an interesting 6.1 inch screen jump from the iPhone 16, and the fact that promotion and always are also available on the iPhone 17 makes them less appreciated. I know that the A19 Pro chip will be exaggerated for today’s applications, but it just means a little more to the test of the future.
In short, I am enough intrigued by the iPhone air that I want to try it for myself. Right now, I don’t think there is a point to make such a thin phone, but I know enough about technological progress to suspect that the use of air can change my mind. As the iPhones in series 18 appear next year, I may be so accustomed to a 5.6 mm chassis that I cannot bear to come back to something bigger.
For more information on this year’s new phones, see our huge iPhone 17 Supergui.
