iPhone Air Reviews: Is the Ultra-Thin Design Worth the Compromises?
iPhone Air Reviews: Is the Ultra-Thin Design Worth the Compromises?
The initial reviews of Apple's highly anticipated iPhone Air are out, providing a comprehensive look at this remarkably slim device before its official launch. Boasting an incredibly thin 5.6mm profile, the iPhone Air undeniably makes a style statement. However, this ultra-slim design comes with some compromises compared to the iPhone 17 Pro models. The question on everyone's mind: are these trade-offs worth it?
Compromises Compared to the iPhone 17 Pro
To achieve its breathtakingly thin form factor, Apple has made several concessions. Let's examine the key areas where the iPhone Air falls short of its Pro counterparts:
- Shorter Battery Life: Apple claims up to 27 hours of video playback, significantly less than the iPhone 17 Pro's 33 hours and the iPhone 17 Pro Max's impressive 39 hours. This difference is noticeable in everyday use, as detailed in the reviews below.
- No Telephoto Lens: The iPhone Air lacks the telephoto camera with up to 8x optical zoom found in the Pro models. This limits its capabilities for long-range photography and zoom functionality.
- Single Speaker: Unlike the stereo speaker setup of the Pro models, the iPhone Air features a single speaker, resulting in a less immersive audio experience.
- Slower USB-C Data Transfer Speeds: The USB-C port on the iPhone Air offers reduced wired data transfer speeds compared to the Pro models.
- Lower Maximum Charging Speeds: Both USB-C and MagSafe charging speeds are slightly slower on the iPhone Air.
- Slower GPU: The iPhone Air features a 5-core GPU, in contrast to the 6-core GPU in the iPhone 17 Pro models, leading to potentially slightly lower performance in graphics-intensive tasks.
Pro Features of the iPhone Air
Despite the compromises, the iPhone Air still boasts several premium features typically associated with the Pro line:
- ProMotion Display: The iPhone Air includes the adaptive ProMotion display with a refresh rate up to 120Hz, offering smoother scrolling and a more responsive user experience.
- A19 Pro Chip (6-core CPU): Powered by the same A19 Pro chip as the iPhone 17 Pro, the iPhone Air enjoys the same powerful 6-core CPU for exceptional processing power.
- Premium Design: The iPhone Air showcases a sleek and sophisticated design, featuring durable Ceramic Shield glass and a lightweight titanium frame.
Review Roundup: Battery Life and Performance
Several prominent tech reviewers have shared their initial thoughts on the iPhone Air. Here are some key takeaways regarding battery life and performance:
Battery Life
The Verge's Allison Johnson notes that battery life is "just okay." While acknowledging it could have been worse, Johnson expresses some anxiety seeing the battery drop significantly before the end of the day, even with moderate use. Light users might find the battery acceptable, but heavy users will likely need to charge during the day.
Now for the less-good news: battery life is just okay. And honestly, that's a pretty good outcome for the Air; the situation could have been worse. If you're a light user and you spend most of your time on Wi-Fi, you might never have a problem with the battery. Personally, it makes me a little too anxious to see that battery indicator drop into the 20s before dinnertime, though in fairness I was going pretty hard on the battery with around five hours of screen-on time. On a much lighter day on my home Wi-Fi, three hours of screen-on time took the battery down to around 40 percent by bedtime. I'd call that within the bounds of acceptable, if a little on the low end for a $1,000 phone.
WIRED's Julian Chokkattu found the battery life "better than expected," lasting a full day with average use. However, Chokkattu emphasizes that heavy users will still require mid-day charging. The experience contrasted favorably with the reviewer's experience with a previous ultrathin phone.
The battery life of the iPhone Air is better than I expected. The Air was generally able to last a full day with average use for me. I hit around five hours of screen-on time with around 18 percent left by 10:30 pm. This worked for me, but my expectations were also very low. I had to baby the battery so much on the last ultrathin phone I tested, the Samsung Galaxy S25 Edge, and I was surprised to find that this was not the case with the Air. Heavy users will undoubtedly need to top up this phone during the day. On one travel day, I took the phone off the charger at 5:30 am and used it extensively for navigation, music streaming, phone calls, and Instagram Reeling, and I hit 2 percent by 4:30 pm. If that sounds like a very normal day for you, you'll most certainly feel the limits of this phone's battery life. For the most part, I didn't feel as battery anxious as with Samsung's thin phone.
Performance and Thermal Management
Tom's Guide's Mark Spoonauer conducted sustained performance tests, revealing that the iPhone Air exhibited impressive stability and cooler temperatures compared to the iPhone 17 Pro Max during stress tests. Even more surprising was its superior performance to the Samsung Galaxy S25 Edge. Interestingly, Spoonauer's attempts to bend the phone proved unsuccessful in a separate interview. Read the interview here.
How about sustained performance? To test that, we used the 3DMark Wild Life Extreme Stress Test, which simulates gaming for about 20 minutes. We ran it once and recorded the results, then did a second run right after that to really stress test these phones. The iPhone Air performed quite well, with stability scores that beat the Galaxy S25 Edge by a fair margin in both rounds. More surprisingly, the iPhone Air turned in cooler temperatures than the Pro Max when we measured the back of the phones using a laser thermometer in 5 locations and averaged the results. Though the S25 Edge was even cooler.
Camera
CNET's Abrar Al-Heeti tested the single 48-megapixel rear camera, noting the absence of an ultrawide lens as a limitation, particularly for landscape photography. However, Al-Heeti praised the overall image quality, sharpness, color accuracy, and performance in portrait mode. The review includes a gallery of sample photos.
It felt surprisingly limiting to not have an ultrawide camera, especially when I wanted to capture more sweeping landscapes. Not to turn this into a thin phone showdown, but I couldn't help but think of how the Galaxy S25 Edge does have a 12-megapixel ultrawide-angle camera, alongside a 200-megapixel wide-angle camera, which makes it feel like less of a compromise in that regard. Otherwise, the rear camera on the iPhone Air consistently delivered. In the many pictures I took of waterfalls, tea times and urban landscapes, shadows and highlights are well balanced, colors are true to life, and there's an overall sharpness and clarity. Portrait shots (my go-to camera mode) capably blur backgrounds to help subjects -- whether it's a decadent tea tray, an art installation or CNET's talented Jesse Orrall -- stand out.
Videos
Conclusion
The iPhone Air presents a compelling proposition for users prioritizing a sleek, ultra-thin design. While the compromises in battery life, camera capabilities, and other features are evident, many reviewers found the performance to be unexpectedly good. The final decision depends on individual priorities. If an exceptionally thin phone is your top priority, and you can manage the shorter battery life and the lack of a telephoto lens, then the iPhone Air might be the perfect choice for you. However, if these compromises are deal-breakers, the iPhone 17 Pro models offer a more well-rounded experience.
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