iPhone Air evaluation: Apple’s pursuit of absolute thinness | iPhone

The iPhone Air is a technical and design marvel that asks: how a lot are you prepared to surrender for a light-weight and ultra-slender profile?

Beyond the apparent engineering effort that has gone into creating one of many slimmest telephones ever made, the Air is a reductive train that boils down the iPhone into absolutely the necessities in a premium physique.

Cut away the rear cameras, slim down the battery, take away the stereo audio system and maximise the display screen, and what’s left is a powerful sliver of titanium and glass.

Doing so isn’t low-cost. The iPhone Air begins at £999 (€1,199/$999/A$1,799), sitting in between the usual £799 iPhone 17 and the £1,099 17 Pro fashions.

Photos don’t do the Air justice. You know it’s one thing particular as quickly as you choose it up. Its 5.64mm-thick body feels thinner due to delicate edges and light-weight weight that’s 12g lower than the already fairly gentle iPhone 17.

The glass lump on the again incorporates a lot of the guts of the cellphone with the remaining devoted to the battery. The standard iPhone buttons line the perimeters together with the digital camera management and motion buttons. The earpiece speaker within the prime is the one one: it’s fairly good however you may inform there’s no stereo sound when watching movies, which is a little bit of a disgrace because the 6.5in display screen is easy, brilliant and incredible.

The Air behaves identical to some other fashionable iPhone. It runs iOS 26 with its glass-like design, has all the identical apps, Face ID and is tremendous responsive. There is just one hiccup and that’s the shortage of a nano sim card tray, because the iPhone Air depends solely on eSim. In the US Apple has solely supported eSims because the iPhone 14, however fashions bought in every single place else had nano sim slots, till the Air.

Most of the key networks within the UK can present eSims, however the expertise of setting it up or shifting between telephones isn’t nice for all of them and never all finances suppliers help them. The cellular networks have some work to do to make eSims an excellent expertise in every single place.

Specifications

• Screen: 6.5in Super Retina XDR (120Hz OLED) (460ppi)

• Processor: Apple A19 Pro (5-core GPU)

• RAM: 12GB

• Storage: 256, 512GB or 1TB

• Operating system: iOS 26

• Camera: 48MP rear; 18MP front-facing

• Connectivity: 5G eSim-only, wifi 7, NFC, Bluetooth 6, Thread, USB-C, satellite tv for pc, UWB and GNSS

• Water resistance: IP68 (6 metres for 30 minutes)

• Dimensions: 156.2 x 74.7 x 5.64mm

• Weight: 165g

A19 Pro chip

The Air has the A19 Pro chip much like the iPhone 17 Pro, however with one fewer GPU core, decreasing its efficiency just a little for video games and different graphics-intensive duties. It feels fast in every day duties however will get noticeably hotter by the digital camera lump when doing intensive jobs.

Despite a lot of the physique being devoted to the battery, a smaller capability cell is the Air’s first massive concession to slenderness. The battery life is shorter than different iPhones, however isn’t as dangerous as you may think. For comparatively gentle days with the display screen actively used for 5 hours for looking, messaging and watching video totally on wifi, the Air lasted a good 40 hours between costs.

On heavier days, taking pictures pictures, utilizing mapping on 5G out and about, listening to music, messaging and watching video on the commute, the Air lasted about 30 hours, ending the day with roughly 25% left. It ought to see out most days with a nightly cost, however in the event you do numerous gaming or different extra intensive duties you might want low energy mode.

Sustainability

The battery will last in excess of 1,000 full-charge cycles with at the very least 80% of its unique capability and could be replaced for £109. Out-of-warranty screen repairs cost £349. Specialists iFixit awarded the iPhone Air a seven out of 10 for repairability.

It incorporates greater than 35% recycled materials together with aluminium, cobalt, gold, lithium, uncommon earth components, metal, tin, titanium and tungsten. The firm breaks down the cellphone’s environmental influence in its report. Apple presents trade-in and free recycling schemes, together with for non-Apple merchandise.

Camera

The digital camera is the second massive concession. The Air solely has a single 48-megapixel digital camera on the again with the brand new and improved 18MP selfie digital camera with Centre Stage tech from the iPhone 17 line on the entrance.

The major digital camera matches that from the common iPhone 17, not the bigger sensor from the 17 Pro, however performs admirably. It can shoot nice pictures and video in good lighting and manages dim indoor gentle pretty properly. It can look a bit delicate and grainy at instances and gained’t win any digital camera awards, however usually shoots respectable pictures. It can carry out a 2x crop zoom, which is fairly good in brighter scenes, however zoom additional and your pictures have all of the hallmarks of digital zoom: surfaces and folks look a bit delicate and element is misplaced in additional distant topics.

The lack of an ultrawide and telephoto digital camera definitely hampers the pictures you may get. The solely different iPhone with a single rear digital camera is the decrease value iPhone 16e.

The 18MP front-facing digital camera mechanically pans and zooms to suit everybody in group pictures, and might shoot panorama selfies with out having to show the cellphone sideways, which is a neat trick. You also can shoot video from the entrance and rear cameras on the similar time to place the photographer within the body in just a little window.

Price

The iPhone Air prices from £999 (€1,199/$999/A$1,799) with 256GB of storage.

For comparability, the iPhone 16e prices £599, iPhone 17 is £799, iPhone 17 Pro is £1,099, the iPhone 17 Pro Max prices £1,199, the Google Pixel 10 prices £799, the Samsung Galaxy S25 Edge is £899 and the Fairphone 6 sells for £499.

Verdict

The iPhone Air is a exceptional design looking for an issue to unravel. I’m undecided many individuals have checked out their present smartphone and wished it might be thinner moderately than having longer battery life and a greater digital camera.

The super-slender body feels transformative whenever you first choose it up, however the novelty shortly wears off. As with Samsung’s equally skinny Galaxy S25 Edge, the lighter weight is essentially the most significant change making it simpler to carry and pocket. The Air has a giant display screen however gained’t weigh you down.

The battery life is best than anticipated and may see out most days with some left within the tank when new, which might not be the case after a few years of use. Apple sells a wise MagSafe battery so as to add one other 65% capability to the Air, however slapping it on the again removes the good thing about the skinny and light-weight design. So does including a case.

The greatest concession is the only digital camera on the again. The lack of ultrawide and telephoto choices is a reduce too far for me utilizing a cellphone as my main technique for capturing reminiscences.

But if you’re an Apple purchaser who desires a slender novelty that’s nice to carry and use, the iPhone Air is a particular piece of {hardware}. For everybody else there are higher choices elsewhere.

Pros: tremendous skinny and light-weight, nice display screen, good single rear digital camera, upgraded Centre Stage selfie digital camera, prime efficiency, lengthy software program help, Face ID.

Cons: no ultrawide or telephoto cameras, costly, comparatively brief battery life, deserves for use with out a case, lack of cutting-edge AI.