Apple has finally made the iPhone Air official, and after getting some hands-on time right after the “Awe Dropping” event came to a close, one thing’s clear: it’s stunning and sexy. The keynote videos and glossy press shots capture the elegance, but the iPhone Air is even more impressive in person.
Beyond just looking at it, you really need to hold it. It’s an ergonomic delight, and while we all expected a really thin iPhone, after seeing the full feature list, it doesn’t have a laundry list of compromises either. Battery life, of course, is the big question mark here, and my short hands-on time with it didn’t give me an answer on this.
Let’s talk about the weight and thickness here. Like other iPhones, the Air is not top-heavy or bottom-heavy; it’s pretty well balanced and can be held comfortably with just one hand. It weighs in at 5.82 ounces and measures 5.64 millimeters thick. Those numbers do scream thin, though it’s not the thinnest or lightest on the market.
Beyond the ergonomics, though, the iPhone Air doesn’t feel super delicate; it’s as tough as the rest of the iPhone 17 lineup. It has grade five titanium all around, which is finished with a great polish, and is sandwiched between Apple’s latest Ceramic Shield 2 on the front and back.
Pushing all that to the side, though, the main element of the iPhone Air is the display. And Apple didn’t really cut corners here – it’s a 6.5-inch Super Retina XDR display with punchy, vibrant colors, a high peak brightness that handled very well against a brightly lit hands-on room, and most importantly, it sports a 1Hz to 120Hz refresh rate called ProMotion. That also means it’s always on, which is now also part of the base iPhone 17 – more on that later.
There’s also the new front-facing camera. Similar to the iPhone 17, 17 Pro, and 17 Pro Max, the iPhone Air features the upgraded 18-megapixel CenterStage camera with a larger sensor that can fit more people into the shot with just one lens. It’s a neat software feature that I think a lot of people will genuinely get excited about – much more than slofies.
This also leads us to one of the biggest questionable parts of the iPhone Air … at least for some. There’s only a single camera on the back, and it resides on a “plateau”—basically, a raised rectangle on the back of the Air. Here, Apple’s opted for a single 48-megapixel Fusion camera that likely isn’t a slouch, and it gives you “two lenses” in one, as it’s 1x with three focal lengths and a cropped 2x. It can also shoot at 12-megapixel, 24-megapixel, or full 48-megapixel image sizes.
I would have really liked to see an ultra-wide here, but I’m looking forward to putting the iPhone Air through its paces to see how this performs. This will likely be a disappointment for some, especially if you’re coming from a Pro, but the trade-off is the design, as the Air is really stunning. I currently use a 16 Pro Max daily, but I am really considering the Air, and it has me wondering if I can live with just one wide lens.
It might have simply come down to a matter of space, as it’s super thin, and an ultra-wide lens might have taken up too much space. Still, more to come here, but if you’re considering Air vs. Pro and you value cameras, I think your mind might be made up.
One area where the iPhone Air is nearly on par with the 17 Pro or 17 Pro Max is in terms of processor performance. The Air is getting the latest in silicon from Apple, the A19 Pro, with a 6-core CPU, a 5-core GPU, and an all-new Neural Engine. This should make the iPhone Air quite speedy and likely a hit for most tasks – Apple has noted the performance should be between the iPhone 16 Pro/Pro Max and the 17 Pro/Pro Max. It does lack the new thermal cooling of the latest Pro lineup, though.
It was plenty snappy with iOS 26 in my hands-on time, but the real win here is that it is getting the A19 Pro versus some other chip. Especially when you consider the price … it’s just $200 more in the US than the base iPhone 17 with an A19. I’m not concerned about performance here, but I do hope that the A19 Pro is quite efficient.
Why? Well, it comes down to battery life. Apple has pretty much packed the inside of the iPhone Air with a battery from the plateau down, and it’s even launching this as an eSIM-only device globally to make more room for the battery inside. That will attract some eyes – less so in the United States, as we’ve had eSIM-only iPhones since the 14 family.
Now, I didn’t get a sense of the battery from the hands-on, so that is the biggest question here. I can tell you that Apple is promising “all-day battery life” and touting the adaptive power management features of iOS 26. The spec sheets also say up to 27 hours of locally stored video playback or 22 hours of video streamed from the web.
We’ll need to see how well it performs, but Apple is also selling a first-party iPhone Air battery that magnetically attaches to the back. You can call it the return of the MagSafe Battery Pack, though it’s a squished and flatter one.
You’ll be able to charge the iPhone Air with MagSafe on the back or with the USB-C port on the bottom. For that port, Apple actually had to re-engineer the charging port.
So that’s my brief, early first impressions of the iPhone Air. From a design standpoint, I think it’s the most exciting one in years, partially because Apple put a lot of the must-have features inside. It’s also probably our closest look at a future folding iPhone, which could result in two of these tapped or hinged together.
If you’re focusing on the nicest-looking iPhone or the one with the most aesthetically pleasing design – Samsung Frame owners will understand this – I think the Air will likely be at the top of your list. You’re also getting a fairly large, excellent display with always-on and ProMotion functionality, the latest Pro-series chip, and one good camera.
We’ll just need to see how good that single lens is and where the battery life shakes out, but at this point, the iPhone Air might break my long-standing relationship with the Pro Max.
Specs comparison
Below, you’ll find a beat-by-beat comparison of the key specs offered by the iPhone 17, iPhone 17 Air, iPhone 17 Pro, and iPhone 17 Pro Max.
| Header Cell – Column 0 |
iPhone 17 |
iPhone 17 Air |
iPhone 17 Pro |
iPhone 17 Pro Max |
|---|---|---|---|---|
|
Weight: |
177g |
165g |
206g |
233g |
|
Display: |
6.3-inch OLED |
6.5-inch OLED |
6.3-inch OLED |
6.9-inch OLED |
|
Resolution: |
2622 x 1206 |
2736 x 1260 |
2622 x 1206 |
2868 x 1320 |
|
Refresh rate: |
120Hz |
120Hz |
120Hz |
120Hz |
|
Peak brightness: |
3,000 nits |
3,000 nits |
3,000 nits |
3,000 nits |
|
Chipset: |
A19 |
A19 Pro |
A19 Pro |
A19 Pro |
|
Rear cameras: |
48MP wide (26mm, ƒ/1.6), 48MP ultra-wide (13 mm, ƒ/2.2) |
48MP wide (26mm, ƒ/1.6) |
48MP wide (24mm, ƒ/1.78), 48MP ultra-wide (13 mm, ƒ/2.2), 48MP telephoto (8x optical zoom) |
48MP wide (24mm, ƒ/1.78), 48MP ultra-wide (13 mm, ƒ/2.2), 48MP telephoto (8x optical zoom) |
|
Front camera: |
18MP (ƒ/1.9) |
18MP (ƒ/1.9) |
18MP (ƒ/1.9) |
18MP (ƒ/1.9) |
|
Storage: |
256GB, 512GB |
256GB, 512GB, 1TB |
256GB, 512GB, 1TB |
256GB, 512GB, 1TB, 2TB |
|
Colors: |
Black, White, Mist Blue, Sage, Lavender |
Space Black, Cloud White, Light Gold, Sky Blue |
Silver, Cosmic Orange, Deep Blue |
Silver, Cosmic Orange, Deep Blue |
Price & availability
- Starts at $999 / £999 / AU$1,799
- Pre-orders open on September 12, shipping from September 19
The iPhone 17 Air was announced at Apple’s ‘Awe Dropping’ event on September 9. Pre-orders will begin on September 12, and the phone will start shipping on September 19.
The iPhone 17 Air starts at $999 / £999 / AU$1,799 for the model with 256GB of storage, with that price rising to $1,199 / £1,199 / AU$2,199 for 512GB of storage, and $1,399 / £1,399 / AU$2,599 for 1TB of storage.
You can see full iPhone 17 Air pricing below.
|
Storage |
US price |
UK price |
AU price |
|---|---|---|---|
|
256GB |
$999 |
£999 |
AU$1,799 |
|
512GB |
$1,199 |
£1,199 |
AU$2,199 |
|
1TB |
$1,399 |
£1,399 |
AU$2,599 |
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jacob.krol@futurenet.com (Jacob Krol)
