iPhone Air 2 is rumored to get two fantastic upgrades, but I’m still not convinced it’s worth it

When the iPhone Air 2 launches sometime next year, it’ll easily steal the show from the vanilla iPhone 18 and iPhone 18e, at least on paper. Just like the iPhone Air before it, this will be an extremely thin phone, which will look and feel great, but it may also bring some of the most critical upgrades to the concept.

Even with the improvements, Apple will have a hard time convincing the majority of its potential customers that the downsides will be worth it. I think this could turn into the reason the Air 2 ends up in the same place as the iPhone 16 Plus and the iPhone 13 mini. Beloved by some, but largely forgotten by the many.

iPhone Air 2 is rumored to come with a couple of crucial improvements and a thinner design

The latest rumors about the iPhone Air 2 make it sound like one of the most exciting launches in recent years. After the original Air was criticized for the single camera and small battery, Apple is expected to fix these issues and make its follow-up even thinner.

It appears that the iPhone Air 2 could slim down by another 0.4 mm, reaching a truly impressive thickness of 5.2 mm. Just to give you a comparison, the iPhone 17 is 8 mm, and the iPhone 18 Pro Max is 8.75 mm thick.



While 2-3 mm doesn’t sound like a lot, the iPhone Air 2 could be 40% thinner than the iPhone 18 Pro models, and 35% thinner than the vanilla iPhone 17. In even simpler terms, the Air 2 may be over a third slimmer than the other slab iPhones, which is quite a lot.

Despite this radical design decision, Apple is expected to add a second camera and a larger battery this time around. The battery capacity could jump over 10% from 3,150 mAh to “at least” 3,500 mAh. As healthy as this increase is, it won’t solve some of the most pressing issues of this device.

iPhone Air 2 is unlikely to perform as well as an over $1,000 phone should

Though the original iPhone Air was surprisingly fast and its battery lasted surprisingly long, it had issues in both aspects. Equipped with a modified version of the A19 Pro of the iPhone 17 Pro, the original Air was quick to overheat, which quickly impeded its performance. Its battery could last a day of moderate usage easily, but once you put it under a heavier load, things started looking much worse.

None of this was exactly surprising last year, and it’s very likely to repeat next year. The iPhone Air 2 may have even less space for heat dissipation from the chipset, and the slightly larger battery is unlikely to fare much better under stress. Considering the significant efficiency gains of the A20 Pro, the performance will certainly be much better and good enough for the vast majority of smartphone users.

The issue is that the potential $1,099 or $1,199 starting price of the iPhone Air 2 puts it in a space where “good enough” is simply not enough. Missing a GPU core, a third camera, heavy load performance, a second speaker, and a worry-free battery is an extremely tough sell at this price point.

It may not be worth it, but it’s still good to have it

Even though I am sure the Air will join the Plus and mini iPhones as an example of a failure from Apple, I’m glad it exists. This is still one of the most impressive phone designs I’ve ever tried, and I can see it becoming the norm once the technological progress allows making such a device without compromises. Until then, I’ll just stick to the heftier alternatives.

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