iPhone Air hands-on: I wanted to hate it and couldn't

I have to confess something: I wanted to hate the iPhone Air. I was ready to let it go up in flames in the review. Then I used it and can’t hate it. Here’s the story of why.

What I criticized beforehand

Apple markets the iPhone Air as the thinnest and lightest iPhone ever. It is thin and light, but was that the innovation we were waiting for? My expectations were very low. I was convinced that the Air branding was just another word for compromise.

• Camera: As a longtime user of current Android Pro and Ultra devices, I’m spoiled, with 1-inch sensors, Leica cameras, 200x zoom, AI magic, high-resolution telephotos and ultra-wides. The iPhone Air has only a 48-megapixel main camera with a 2x telephoto mode. Any more zoom is digital, and the quality drops noticeably. There’s no real telephoto lens and no ultra-wide. To fit more in the frame, you have to physically increase your distance. And that on a device that costs €1,200.
• Chip: It has the same A19 Pro as the iPhone 17 Pro, but cut down. The Air has five instead of six GPU cores, and the USB-C data rate is at USB 2.0 level. Because of the thin housing, there are signs of aggressive throttling, since the vapor chamber of the Pro models is missing. In graphics-heavy applications, performance can drop noticeably. Apple says the processor is optimized for AI. I wonder which AI. The first thing I did was install Google Gemini so I’d have something useful on the device.
• Speaker: There’s only a mono speaker above the Dynamic Island. In 2025, for €1,200. The argument that you hardly hold it in portrait doesn’t convince me.
• Buttons: Five buttons. When I simply lock the device, I don’t know where to press, and I trigger the camera, mute it or change the volume. You can turn off the Action button and the camera button, but then the pile of buttons is even more pointless.
• Back: The milky camera module looks like cheap plastic, even though the rest is made of Ceramic Shield, so glass.
• SIM: There’s no physical SIM card anymore, Apple removed it to save space. For many, the iSIM is still a book with seven seals.

Why I still can’t hate it

1. The design

It’s an ultra-light, ultra-thin smartphone with a beautiful 6.5-inch OLED display at 120 Hz, which was otherwise reserved for the Pro models. That’s how Apple got me, just like Samsung did in the middle of the year with the Galaxy S25 Edge. I’m a huge fan of light, slim smartphones because I don’t have the biggest hands and hold my smartphone constantly. I don’t want a smaller device. I want a maximally large display for working and watching videos, but not a brick. Those are luxury problems, but I celebrate it. The iPhone Air feels absurdly thin, futuristic and almost weightless. At 5.6 mm, it’s the thinnest smartphone in the world, even though Apple accepted a cut-down processor, the missing SIM slot, a smaller battery and a very reduced camera setup to get there.

2. The battery

It’s 3,149 mAh. I expected it to be empty by 12 noon. But for me it lasts pretty much all day, usually with around 4 hours of screen time. That varies depending on how much I’m away from WiFi or filming and taking photos. With such a small battery, I hadn’t expected that.

3. The camera

Despite the specs I made fun of, it takes really good shots, typical for Apple. The 2x zoom convinced me too. For most of us, the camera is more than sufficient.

Verdict

The iPhone Air has focused on the essentials, to put it positively: a premium experience in an incredibly slim and light package. There are many reasons not to like it, but it conveys an absolute premium feel. You have to be aware that you’re not spending €1,200 on the best hardware, but on a great feeling. I came to hate the iPhone and in the end couldn’t.