iPhone Air, “a piece of the future”

Another Apple event has come and gone, and I have a few thoughts to share. When I ran tech-bytes.net, I used to do long articles covering the events in great detail. Instead, I’m going to trickle out my thoughts as I process these announcements and read the upcoming news coverage.

This September, like others before it, is all about the iPhone, Apple Watch, and AirPods. These devices undergo either significant design changes or iterative updates, also known as the tick-tock cycle. For the iPhone, we see several design overhauls this year. The regular iPhone 17 (the model which I’d recommend to most people) got some ‘pro’ features. The Pro models got major redesigns and some impressive upgrades to the cameras, thermal design, and (most importantly) the battery. But the most interesting announcement to me was the iPhone Air.

The iPhone Air is a paradoxical device because it’s both the most and least advanced phone in the lineup. Essentially, Apple is going for thinness above all else, with the phone body being a mere 5.6 mm at the thinnest point. For reference, that’s very comparable to the last iPod nano released. Apple has reverted to using an aluminum unibody design (like the iPad and Mac) for its Pro models. But the Air’s ultra-thin chassis is titanium, probably to keep it from bending. The front and back of the phone are made from Apple’s second-generation Ceramic Shield. The “plateau,” the new word for the “camera bump,” is where the phone houses the single 48 megapixel camera, flash, and A19 Pro chip. The chip is the same found in the pro phones, minus one GPU core. The iPhone Air effectively replaces the standard Plus models, like the iPhone 15 and 16 Plus that came before it.

Considering the profile of the device, it’s impressive that Apple managed to pack these technologies into the Air. I would argue that it’s the most Apple-like design to come along in a decade. They are still the kings of hardware design, but there are some caveats. When comparing this middle child phone to its younger and older siblings, the limitations become more obvious. Battery life is respectable. Apple claims the Air can do 27 hours of continuous video playback. But, the base iPhone comes in at 30 hours, and the Pro and Pro Max get 33 and 39 hours respectively. In fact, during the keynote, Apple didn’t explicitly mention the Air’s battery life except to say that it lasts all day.

If you’re coming from an older device, I’m sure the battery is more than sufficient. But, clearly, there are power limitations when you optimize for thinness.

The Air comes equipped with a single rear 48-megapixel fusion camera, which I’m sure is also excellent, but this is a step back from the two-camera setup on the regular 17 and the three-camera setup on the 17 Pro. However, the Air does get the much-improved selfie camera included in the other models.

On a side note, the selfie camera improvements might be the most important camera announcement from the whole event. Users can now take landscape selfies (which is great for family vacation pics) while using the phone in a portrait position. This automatic perspective is important because holding the phone landscape puts the camera sensor to the side, making for less-than-ideal framing. Very cool.

As I mentioned above, the Air gets the A19 Pro chip found in the more expensive models. But Apple made a big deal about the Pro phones getting a vapour chamber cooling system to optimize performance. Without this cooling system, I think it’s safe to expect performance to be somewhat throttled on the Air.

It’s worth noting that the Air does receive some exclusive hardware for connectivity. Inside is Apple’s new N1 chip for WiFi, Bluetooth, and Thread. The Air also gets the C1X (an evolution of what’s available in the iPhone 16e) for cellular connectivity. I assume that the efficiency of these in-house chips was critical for getting the Air’s battery to an acceptable state.

So the question remains, who is this phone for? Is it a premium device? It’s certainly not the most expensive in the lineup. Is it targeted for the design-conscious financier who carries phones without a case in his breast pocket? Is it for the mainstream user who wants thin and light and doesn’t care about tech specs? At first, I wasn’t sure what to make of it. My initial impression was that the iPhone Air is like a really slick sports car that looks cool, but lacks the comforts of budget alternatives. It’s like having a pristine mid-2000s Porsche with a high-gloss fire engine red paint job. The downside is that, unlike your new Toyota Camry, it lacks decent AC, a backup camera, good headroom, gas mileage, and power steering. It provides a glimpse of what’s to come, which would explain Apple’s claim that it’s like “a piece of the future.”

At the same time, the iPhone Air is the most true to the Apple brand. It only seems like a trade-off in comparison to the company’s ever-expanding phone lineup. Thin, light, beautiful, single camera, good enough battery life. Had Apple only continued to make one iPhone model annually and sell the previous year’s model at a discount, I don’t think we’d be having the same discussion. It wouldn’t matter if it paled in comparison to the features in competing Samsung Galaxy or Google Pixel Phones because Apple doesn’t care about its competition. Apple gives you what it thinks you should have, not a choice (at least historically). Can Apple still get away with telling you what you want, while offering more choices than ever? I don’t know.

When I first saw the iPhone Air, I thought it was a sports car, designed for a high-end market of individuals who buy premium products. Now, I think it actually appeals to a wider audience than we realize.

I went back and watched older announcements for the devices like the iPhone 4 and iPhone 6, and even the iPad 2 and iPad Air. Specs were mentioned, but the keynotes focused more on the design and feel. In contrast, more recent product reveals feel more technical and “computery.”

Whether you like the iPhone Air or not, this feels more on brand for Apple. It’s a product I can envision Steve Jobs introducing. It’s simple, and most importantly, really cool looking. I’m starting to believe that adding more cameras and focusing on specs creates noise. It’s getting harder and harder to keep track of which models receive or don’t receive the newest features. The Air’s announcement, to me, was a stark departure from recent events and a return to tradition, and probably foreshadows what’s to come.