I'd take the iPhone Air 2 in a heartbeat if that means there'll be no iPhone 18 Plus

Why mess up a good thing? It seems that Apple has finally found the weird kid a place in the family – or, better yet – it seems that Apple has finally found a way to make its most unpopular model a bit more popular.

I'm talking about the black sheep in the iPhone family, the fourth model that desperately wants to be a hit but somehow always fails to become one. The model that sits between the baseline iPhone and the Pro/Max duo, that's the one I'm referring to, as you've already guessed correctly.

The iPhone 12 mini and the iPhone 13 mini, although interesting on paper with their compact form factor, were despised by the market.

Then came three iPhone Plus models (in the iPhone 14, 15 and 16 lineups), which failed to assert their presence (let alone dominance) in the hearts and minds of fans.

That's why Apple pulled the trigger with the iPhone Air last year, which replaced the Plus model.

Unveiled alongside the rest of the iPhone 17 family, this sleek bijou has a single camera, an uninspiring battery and gets obliterated by the Pro on all fronts save for thinness with its 5.6mm chassis.

But it seems that Air is so much more popular than its Plus cousin. Just a few hours ago we reported that according to Ookla's data, the iPhone Air outperformed the iPhone 16 Plus by more than double in Q4 2025 compared to the same period in 2024, with especially strong adoption in markets such as South Korea and Japan.

That's fine and all, but there's someone knocking at the door right now. It's a dark, cold night, probably full of terrors. Should I open it? Oh, it's the iPhone 18 Plus.

Well, it's the iPhone 18 Plus figuratively speaking – as its rebirth is just a rumor at this point; nothing is official. Yeah, well, vampires and trolls don't exist either, but they can certainly cause nasty nightmares, right?

What the data says

The Ookla data I mentioned above offers an intriguing look at the market performance of Apple's "fourth-tier" iPhone models. According to Speedtest usage share, the iPhone 16 Plus held just 2.9% of active devices in the US during its Q4 2024 launch period, while the iPhone Air, which effectively replaced the Plus slot in the lineup, reached 6.8% during the same timeframe for Q4 2025.

This more than doubling of the share shows that the Air significantly improved adoption in a segment that had historically lagged way behind the base, Pro, and Pro Max models. The Air is not a true hit, but if it's more popular than the Plus, why not give it a pat on the back?

It's worth noting, however, that this type of data has its limitations. Speedtest usage measures active devices running network tests, not actual sales, shipments, or total user adoption. Despite this, the figures are still fascinating because they reveal patterns in real-world device usage that official sales numbers might not show.

Don't we need an iPhone 18 Plus?

Some folks surely do – but Apple can't grant every separate wish, or we'd soon end up with about a thousand different iPhones and that's not how mass production works.

I'm not a big fan of Plus phones, as it turns out. This is true for Galaxy S Plus models, too. And it has nothing to do with a phone's physical size – it's just that I struggle to see where the actual "plus" is – the iPhone Plus doesn't (didn't?) bring anything extraordinary to the table in terms of performance or features.

OK, a bigger screen. But is it brighter? In the case of the iPhone 16 and the iPhone 16 Plus – no. Can it reproduce more colors? Also no. Does it have a different protection, a sturdier scratch-resistant glass? No, dude. The bigger phone simply has a bigger battery. That's cool, but everything else is the same: the chipset, the cameras, the software gimmicks, the RAM and storage options, et cetera.

If you need a bigger screen and a bigger battery because you enjoy playing demanding games or you want to have more space while editing photos or videos, you should simply go for the Pro Max model. It'll do things faster and better, plus you'll get a superb camera experience. Yes, I know the Pro Max is costly, but, hey, I didn't force you to join the Apple cult in the first place.

Meanwhile, the iPhone Air model has that unique thinness that gets people going. Again, I'm not a fan of thin phones, but at least the Air is… different.

Maybe it's time for Apple to fork the budget-friendly "e" series iPhone and, while keeping the compact original, to introduce an XL version as well. That way, if you want a big-screen iPhone but can't afford a Pro Max, you won't have to start doing shady favors to fund the upgrade.

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