It’s my fifth year in a row writing about Apple’s annual iPhone event, and I have never actually been tempted to buy the latest and greatest iPhone. Like my colleague Julie Bort, I’ve always waited to upgrade my phone until it’s absolutely necessary. But then the iPhone Air came along. I want it.
Apple’s new iPhone 17 line is impressive in its own right, but this generation of devices marks the first time that Apple has made an iPhone Air. Like the MacBook Air, it’s a thinner, sleeker device, which emphasizes style over its tech specs.
While I can appreciate a state-of-the-art chip, what really makes me want to buy a new phone is that it looks cool. And, boy, is that iPhone Air cool. In the announcement video, Apple showed off the phone as it sat delicately atop someone’s finger, which is wider than the phone itself. It’s a cool visual that is going to make Apple billions of dollars.
At first, I wasn’t particularly moved by the idea of an iPhone Air, because I assumed that in order to be so small, it would have to be technically weaker than the iPhones I’m used to. Plus, the second I saw how gloriously slim it is, I feared that I would drop it on the sidewalk and destroy it (it’s 5.5 millimeters, or a little thicker than three quarters stacked).
Apple guessed that this would be how most customers would react. The iPhone Air was revealed with a beautiful video illustrating how strong it is; compared to previous iPhones, the company says that the screen has 3x better scratch resistance, while the back glass is 4x more resistant to cracks. In his presentation, Apple’s SVP of Hardware Engineering, John Ternus, even proclaimed that it’s “more durable than any previous iPhone.”
The iPhone Air also exceeded my expectations when it comes to its specs. The iPhone Air actually has a more powerful processor and slightly larger ProMotion display than the iPhone 17. Apple actually called the iPhone Air’s A19 Pro chip the “fastest CPU in any smartphone.”
“This is MacBook Pro levels of compute in an iPhone,” VP of Platform Architecture Tim Millet said in the announcement.
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The battery life of the iPhone Air seems like it could be a drawback. Not even this striking phone can overcome its size, and some sacrifices are inevitable, right? No other iPhone has been so intertwined with the announcement of a new slim battery as a probably necessary accessory, which costs an extra $99.
Apple says that with the battery, you can watch 40 hours of video, but 27 without it. For streaming video, the Air can support 22 hours of playback with no extra battery pack, which is actually the same battery life as last year’s iPhone 16.
While I’m less concerned about the phone’s camera capabilities — I remain too stubborn to use an iPhone for my “serious” artistic endeavors — it’s worth mentioning that this phone has (gasp!) just one back camera lens. That means no separate telephoto camera, although Apple says the phone can still zoom in like models with their own telephoto lenses. But I’ll take the sleek design over an extra camera lens, especially if the single lens is as good as other iPhones’ main lens.
It seems too good to be true. Could the iPhone Air really be a magical device that defies everything we’ve ever known about hardware? Could it actually be that tiny and that powerful?
I won’t be buying the iPhone Air on the day of its release. I’m too cynical and need to know from real people, not Apple, that this device is worth the $999 price tag. But if the reviews are good, well, I think I’ll go with the Cloud White finish on my new iPhone Air.
