iPhone Air is a technological and design marvel. How much are you willing to give up for a lightweight and ultra-thin profile?
Beyond the obvious engineering effort to create one of the thinnest phones ever, the Air is an exercise in reduction that boils down the iPhone to its absolute essentials in a premium body.
Cut out the rear camera, reduce the battery, remove the stereo speakers and maximize the screen, and what’s left is an impressive piece of titanium and glass.
Doing so is not cheap. The iPhone Air starts at £999 (€1,199/$999/A$1,799), slotting between the standard £799 iPhone 17 and the £1,099 17 Pro model.
Photos don’t do air justice. As soon as you pick it up you know it’s something special. The 5.64mm thick frame feels slimmer thanks to soft edges and a weight of 12g less than the already quite light iPhone 17.
The chunk of glass on the back contains most of the phone’s internals, with the rest being dedicated to the battery. Typical iPhone buttons line the sides, including camera controls and action buttons. The earpiece speaker at the top is the only thing there is. It’s pretty good, but you’ll notice that there’s no stereo sound when watching videos. That’s a bit of a shame, because the 6.5-inch screen is smooth, bright, and fantastic.
Air works just like any other modern iPhone. It runs iOS 26 with a glassy design, features the same apps and Face ID, and is very responsive. There is one problem: there is no nano SIM card tray. Because iPhone Air relies entirely on eSim. In the US, Apple only supported eSIM starting with the iPhone 14, but models sold elsewhere, all the way up to the Air, had a nano SIM slot.
Most major networks in the UK can offer eSims, but the experience of setting up an eSim or moving it between phones isn’t for everyone, and not all budget providers support it. Mobile networks have work to do to make eSim a good experience everywhere.
specification
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screen: 6.5-inch Super Retina XDR (120Hz OLED) (460ppi)
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Processor: Apple A19 Pro (5 core GPU)
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ram: 12GB
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save: 256, 512GB or 1TB
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Operating System: iOS 26
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camera: Rear 48MP; 18MP front
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Connectivity: 5G eSim only, Wi-Fi 7, NFC, Bluetooth 6, Thread, USB-C, satellite, UWB and GNSS
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Waterproof: IP68 (6 meters for 30 minutes)
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size: 156.2 x 74.7 x 5.64mm
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weight: 165g
A19 Pro Chip
The Air has the A19 Pro chip, similar to the iPhone 17 Pro, but it has one less GPU core, which means slightly slower performance in games and other graphics-intensive tasks. It feels fast in everyday tasks, but when you do intensive work it gets noticeably warm due to the camera mass.
Despite most of the body being dedicated to batteries, the smaller capacity cells are the Air’s first big concession to slimness. Battery life is shorter than other iPhones, but it’s not as bad as you might think. During a relatively light day of active use of the screen for five hours of browsing, messaging, and mostly watching video on Wi-Fi, the Air lasted about 40 hours on a single charge.
In heavy weather, taking photos, using 5G maps, listening to music, sending messages, and watching videos of my commute, the Air lasted about 30 hours and ended the day with about 25% left. A nightly charge should get you through most days, but if you’re gaming a lot or doing other intensive work, you may need a low-power mode.
sustainability
The battery will last over 1,000 full charge cycles with at least 80% of its original capacity and can be replaced for £109. An out-of-warranty screen repair costs £349. Expert iFixit rates the repairability of the iPhone Air at 7 out of 10.
Contains at least 35% recycled materials including aluminum, cobalt, gold, lithium, rare earth elements, steel, tin, titanium and tungsten. In its report, the company details the impact of mobile phones on the environment. Apple offers trade-in and free recycling, including for third-party products.
camera
The camera is the second biggest concession. The Air only has a single 48-megapixel camera on the back, while the front features a new and improved 18MP selfie camera with Center Stage technology from the iPhone 17 line.
The main camera matches the regular iPhone 17 rather than the larger sensor on the 17 Pro, but it works great. It can take great photos and videos in good lighting and manages dim indoor lighting fairly well. It can look a little soft and grainy at times, and it won’t win any camera awards, but it generally takes decent photos. You can do a 2x crop zoom, which is pretty good for brighter scenes, but zoom in further and the photo has all the hallmarks of a digital zoom. This means surfaces and people will look a bit soft and detail in distant subjects will be lost.
The lack of ultra-wide-angle and telephoto cameras definitely hampers the photos you can get. The only other iPhone with a single rear camera is the cheaper iPhone 16e.
The 18MP front camera automatically pans and zooms to fit everyone in a group photo, and lets you take landscape selfies without turning the phone sideways. This is a neat trick. By simultaneously recording video from the front and rear cameras, the photographer can also be captured in a small window frame.
price
The iPhone Air costs £999 (€1,199/$999/A$1,799) and has 256GB of storage.
For comparison, the iPhone 16e sells for £599, the iPhone 17 sells for £799, the iPhone 17 Pro sells for £1,099, the iPhone 17 Pro Max sells for £1,199, the Google Pixel 10 sells for £799, the Samsung Galaxy S25 Edge sells for £899 and the Fairphone 6 sells for £499.
verdict
iPhone Air is a stunning design that pursues a problem to solve. Many people may have looked at today’s smartphones and wished they were thinner rather than longer battery life and better cameras.
The ultra-slim frame gives it a transformative feel when you first pick it up, but the novelty quickly wears off. Like Samsung’s equally thin Galaxy S25 Edge, the lighter weight makes it easier to hold and fit into your pocket. The Air has a large screen, but it doesn’t overwhelm you.
Battery life is better than expected and you will see most of the time when new the battery still has some left in the tank. This may not be the case after several years of use. Apple sells a smart MagSafe battery to add 65 percent capacity to the Air, but mounting it on the back eliminates the benefit of the thin and light design. The same goes for adding examples.
The biggest advantage is that there is a single camera on the back. The lack of ultra-wide and telephoto options is too much of a problem for me, who uses my phone as my primary way to capture memories.
But if you’re an Apple buyer who wants a sleek, novel product that’s easy to carry and use, the iPhone Air is a special piece of hardware. For everyone else, there are better options elsewhere.
merit: Very thin and light, great screen, good single rear camera, upgraded center stage selfie camera, top performance, long software support, Face ID.
disadvantage: It doesn’t have an ultra-wide or telephoto camera, it’s expensive, has relatively short battery life, isn’t worth using without a case, and lacks cutting-edge AI.