This article may contain personal views and opinion from the author.
This year we got served the world’s thinnest iPhone, the iPhone Air — a titanium-and-glass featherweight device that looks more like concept art than a phone in 2025. I get it, it’s new and different, which is rare nowadays, and it’s Apple doing something new, which is even rarer. When you pick it up in the Apple Store it feels like you are holding the future in the palm of your hands. “How is it this thin? How is it this light? It looks gorgeous!”
But don’t be fooled by the excitement of it all. Once you take that shiny new Air home and start using it like an actual phone (you know, for photos and video, music, online content, or anything else normal people do with their phones), the cracks will start showing themselves pretty quickly. Suddenly, this $1000 “fashion phone” (as I like to call it) feels less like the future and more like a pretty piece of tech you paid too much for.
It's all about style, but at what cost?
Image credit — PhoneArena
Let’s give credit where it’s due: Apple pulled off something pretty cool here. At 5.6 mm thick (that’s like stacking three toothpicks on top of each other) and 165 grams (your average espresso cup when it's full), the Air makes every other modern phone look like a chunky dinosaur. It’s the only iPhone in years that genuinely feels like a new category. As you hold it for the first time, you can’t help but feel like you are holding something extraordinary.
But (and it’s a big but) that wow factor fades fast the moment you spend some time with the phone. The little things start piling up, and you begin seeing just how many sacrifices needed to be made to achieve this wondrous form.
Unlike the Galaxy S25 Edge, which manages to be slim without cutting quite as many corners, the Air’s entire pitch seems to begin and end with “look how skinny and pretty I am.”
One lens on a $1000 phone should be illegal
Image credit — PhoneArena
The most obvious downside of the Air is its single camera. In 2025, when you pay $1000 for a phone you expect at least a dual-camera setup. The base iPhone 17 has two, and even its only competitor — Galaxy S25 Edge — has two.
Our scores show the difference as plain as day:
PhoneArena Camera Score:
Photo
Video
Phone
Camera Score
Photo Score
Main (wide)
Ultra Wide
Selfie
Zoom
Apple iPhone 17
150
156
84
24
28
21
Samsung Galaxy S25 Edge
140
146
79
21
23
22
Apple iPhone Air
126
130
82
N/A
28
21
Phone
Camera Score
Video Score
Main (wide)
Ultra Wide
Selfie
Zoom
Apple iPhone 17
150
145
77
23
26
18
Samsung Galaxy S25 Edge
140
134
72
20
24
17
Apple iPhone Air
126
122
77
N/A
26
18
Find out more details about photo and video scores for all phones we have tested on our PhoneArena Camera Score page
We gave it a Photo score of 126 and a Video score of 122. Compare that to the iPhone 17’s 150/145 or the S25 Edge’s 140/134, and it is pretty clear that you are not getting the best for your money. You miss out on proper ultrawide and telephoto shots, which in this price class is inexcusable.
Recommended Stories
The selfie camera’s new square sensor is a nice touch, letting you snap landscape selfies while holding the phone vertically. But it’s a minor party trick that doesn’t make up for losing half a camera system. Plus, from the comparisons we’ve done, this new 18MP camera doesn’t seem to offer drastically different image quality to the 12MP one from previous models.
But there is one more downside to the iPhone Air that, for me, is an absolute dealbreaker.
Audio and everyday use
As someone who regularly enjoys video content on their phone, this one immediately stood out to me.
The iPhone Air only has a mono speaker. In 2025. On a thousand-dollar phone. And it’s not like we are talking about an okay audio experience. Not only are you missing out on stereo sound (which will feel weird when you watch videos, believe me), but it’s also about how bad the sound is: it’s missing depth, bass, but most of all it is really low volume. Playing a YouTube video makes it feel like you are using a budget phone… Forget about playing music while you get ready for work in the morning — you won’t want to do it.
Pair that with weaker haptics than the Pro models, and you start to realize how shallow the Air’s “premium” experience really is. Ah, “shallow” — that is the word I can best use to describe the audio experience on the iPhone Air, and the phone itself, for that matter.
Wait, it has good battery life?
We were all expecting the iPhone Air to do poorly in our battery life tests. What we didn’t take into account in our predictions, however, was the lack of stereo speakers. After running a few controlled tests, we realized that the Air’s greatest downside actually had a silver lining — it helped its battery life.
With a 3,149 mAh cell, the Air lasted 6h 43m in our tests, slightly better than the S25 Edge (6h 22m).
This is great news, but it is a bit ruined by the other major factor when it comes to battery life: the charging. The Air is capped at 20W, which feels a bit disappointing next to the iPhone 17’s 40W and the 25W of the S25 Edge.
Still, the difference is not astronomical. A full charge takes 1h 36m on the Air versus 1h 16m on the iPhone 17.
Still, the fact that this battery life is reached only because the phone uses a single speaker with poor audio quality leaves a bad taste in my mouth.
Absolutely unnecessary horsepower
Image credit — PhoneArena
Apple gave the Air its A19 Pro chip — with one GPU core disabled, but it’s still ridiculously fast. Geekbench and 3DMark prove it can trade blows with Samsung’s Snapdragon 8 Elite inside the S25 Edge, which is no small feat.
The issue is that there’s no vapor chamber cooling in this ultra-thin frame to keep the chip at an optimal temperature, and titanium isn’t exactly great at dissipating heat. If you run a few heavy tasks back-to-back the Air throttles harder than the regular iPhone 17. It doesn’t break a sweat when you are casually using it for social media, but this isn’t the kind of phone you’d want to edit videos or photos for those platforms.
Did Apple really need to flex with the A19 Pro here? Absolutely not. The A18 would’ve been more than enough, probably knocked a few hundred bucks off too, and made this thing way easier to recommend. But no, Apple went with the “luxury” angle.
Admire it, don’t buy it
Image credit — PhoneArena
You are at the Apple Store and you spot the iPhone Air, a shiny thing in perfect lighting at the Apple Store, and you think to yourself: “Damn, that’s a good-looking slab of titanium.” You’ll want to pick it up, twirl it around, maybe even flex it to your friends for a hot second. But the likelihood of you selling it just a year later is high, in my humble opinion.
Meanwhile, you might catch a glimpse at the regular iPhone 17, sitting right there next to the Air. Yes, it looks a lot more familiar and — admittedly — boring, but it is $200 cheaper, and has better cameras, faster charging, and fewer compromises overall. In fact, it’s probably the best value phone Apple has released in the last five years.
So while the Air might turn some heads and feel cool, you can’t convince me that it is anything but a statement piece — not a great phone. And like most fashion statements, the shine will wear off a lot faster than you thought it would. I’d venture to guess that, even if this first generation sells well, a second one would be much less popular.
Oh, and as a little side note, let’s not forget that the iPhone Air is eSIM only across all markets, which is not ideal if you insist on having a physical SIM card.
So, my advice: admire it, go to the store and play with it if you have to, but don’t buy it unless you are absolutely certain you won’t regret it.
50% Off Visible+ Pro Annual Plan
Just bring your number and any iPhone – code ILUVIPHONE
Aleksandar is a tech enthusiast with a broad range of interests, from smartphones to space exploration. His curiosity extends to hands-on DIY experiments with his gadgets, and he enjoys switching between different brands to experience the latest innovations. Prior to joining PhoneArena, Aleksandar worked on the Google Art Project, digitizing valuable artworks and gaining diverse perspectives on technology. When he's not immersed in tech, Aleksandar is an outdoorsman who enjoys mountain hikes, wildlife photography, and nature conservation. His interests also extend to martial arts, running, and snowboarding, reflecting his dynamic approach to life and technology.
A discussion is a place, where people can voice their opinion, no matter if it
is positive, neutral or negative. However, when posting, one must stay true to the topic, and not just share some
random thoughts, which are not directly related to the matter.
Things that are NOT allowed:
Off-topic talk - you must stick to the subject of discussion
Offensive, hate speech - if you want to say something, say it politely
Spam/Advertisements - these posts are deleted
Multiple accounts - one person can have only one account
Impersonations and offensive nicknames - these accounts get banned
To help keep our community safe and free from spam, we apply temporary limits to newly created accounts:
New accounts created within the last 24 hours may experience restrictions on how frequently they can
post or comment.
These limits are in place as a precaution and will automatically lift.
Moderation is done by humans. We try to be as objective as possible and moderate with zero bias. If you think a
post should be moderated - please, report it.
Have a question about the rules or why you have been moderated/limited/banned? Please,
contact us.
FCC OKs Cingular\'s purchase of AT&T Wireless
Things that are NOT allowed:
To help keep our community safe and free from spam, we apply temporary limits to newly created accounts: