‘Apple’s iPhone Air is a bunch of small changes that add up to something big’ – Ars Technica

iPhone Air is the thinnest iPhone ever, delivering pro performance, amazing new camera systems on the front and back, and fantastic all-day battery life.
Apple’s all-new iPhone Air is the thinnest iPhone ever made and, to boot, offers pro performance. iPhone Air features a breakthrough titanium design that is elegant and light yet strong, with an innovative internal architecture that enables the latest iPhone experiences. The back of iPhone Air is now protected with Ceramic Shield, and the front cover uses Ceramic Shield 2, delivering 3x better scratch resistance, making iPhone Air more durable than any previous iPhone. iPhone Air also features a stunning 6.5-inch Super Retina XDR display with ProMotion up to 120Hz.
With the most Apple-designed chips in an iPhone — the powerhouse A19 Pro, N1, and C1X — iPhone Air is the most power-efficient iPhone ever made. Paired with the redesigned internal architecture and software optimizations, iPhone Air has fantastic all-day battery life. A powerful 48MP Fusion Main camera enables the equivalent of four lenses with incredible image quality, and the innovative 18MP Center Stage front camera takes selfies to the next level.
iPhone Air is available in four gorgeous finishes: space black, cloud white, light gold, and sky blue.
Andrew Cunningham for Ars Technica:
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I remain struck by how light the iPhone Air seems, even though the difference between it and most recent iPhones is, on paper, a matter of just a few grams and millimeters. I put it down partly to the phone’s 6.5-inch screen, which at 0.2 inches larger than the basic iPhone (and 0.4 inches larger than what I’m used to) makes the phone look like it should be more of a brick.
But spending time with it has given me a more mixed opinion of what actually holding the phone is like. On the one hand, you really feel the difference in both thickness and weight when you’re doing that thing where you sit the bottom of the phone on your pinky and scroll with your thumb. On the other, its thin profile makes it harder to feel like you have a good grip on the phone, and holding onto it can feel precarious…
After three days, my main takeaway is that the iPhone Air’s built-in battery doesn’t actually feel bad… For a typical (for me) day of intermittent usage between 7:45 am and 1:00 am, I was scraping the bottom of the battery by lights out, but I can make it a full day, especially if I let Adaptive Power trigger Low Power Mode for the last 20 percent. With 20 or 30 minutes plugged into a reasonably fast USB-C charger sometime in the late afternoon or early evening (the phone chargers in our house are usually around 20 W), making it to bedtime without Low Power Mode was pretty comfortable… Your mileage will vary depending on your usage and the iPhone you’re coming from, but I came in expecting battery life to feel like more of a dealbreaker, and I was surprised that I didn’t end up noticing it all that much…
I don’t think the iPhone Air is a slam dunk. I didn’t mind the battery as much as I thought I would, but it’s a clear step down from the 17 or 17 Pro. I wish it didn’t cost $1,000. The camera is good, but it’s hard to go back to a single lens after using something more flexible for so many years…
Like that original MacBook Air, the iPhone Air clearly leaves room for improvement. But also like the MacBook Air, I wouldn’t be totally surprised to see the iPhone Air become the template for what a “normal” iPhone looks like a few years down the road.

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MacDailyNews Take: iPhone Air surprises on three fronts by offering better-than-expected battery life, processor capability, and camera quality. It’s a winning formula that should sell more iPhone units than any iPhone Plus or, for that matter, any iPhone mini ever did.

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