iPhone Air review: A hinge away

The iPhone Air is predestined to fail. The second iPhone off the rank exists in a flux state, for now it is the Air, but it has also been the Plus and the Mini, and just like those that came before, the Air’s reign will end with a few fans grasping for the remaining stock. But unlike its other identity crises, the iPhone Air will likely live on in the next middle child from Apple - its long awaited foldable.

As you’d expect, the iPhone Air is a solid device, but on its own, the phone’s thinness isn’t that exciting. It is the implications of the thin form factor that peaks my interest. The Air isn’t just a phone, it is a statement. It says, “I saw your poor battery and camera performance” to the early foldables, “now, hold my beer.”

I won’t make the same ozempic joke every other publication has made, but it is hard to deny that thin is in. Samsung launched the Z Fold7 boasting its newly slender 4.2mm form factor, and introduced the 5.8mm S25 Edge earlier in the year. Bundle that with the iPhone Air’s 5.6mm frame and we’ve got a clear trend. Consumers haven’t exactly been screaming for thinner phones, so to see two leaders working towards the same result is interesting. But, while both Samsung and Apple share the pursuit of thinness with every celebrity on the red carpet, Apple’s design choices are obviously a result of R&D on its foldable.

Nixing the SIM slot for an eSIM only model, and holding the majority of the iPhone Air’s smarts within the camera bump leaves plenty of space for a battery that can hold up to the rest of the iPhone 17 family. While this means the Air does have camera limitations, the engineering is genuinely impressive. Alongside the camera components, Apple managed to fit the A19 Pro chipset, processor, modem, speakers, eSIM, and antennas into a 6.5cm x 2.5cm space. Theoretically, this means the iPhone Air doesn’t have to compromise on battery size, and in our practical testing that theory holds up. Apple’s stats say the Air can stand up to 27 hours of video playback, but in real world testing it tracks closer to seven hours of screen time. Unless you’ve got a big day of scrolling ahead of you, the iPhone Air’s battery won’t be a concern.

For any other flagship, battery life is a one sentence story, but in the context of a potential foldable it becomes more than that. Up until recently battery life has been a sticking point for foldable phones, so it makes sense that Apple would find a workaround before launching its own. The design choices we’re seeing in the Air fit the bill.

It isn’t without flaws though. Impressive as it might be from a technical perspective, the real world applications can be a bit janky. For example, the Air is lighter than the new Crossbody Strap accessory, so it slides off the table if the strap is dangling off the edge. The fully loaded camera bump also makes the device noticeably top heavy, so it has the tendency to teeter out of your hands unless you leverage the bottom tightly. Neither issues are salient, but they’re details that make the Air feel more fragile despite having a strong titanium design and better scratch and crack resistance than older devices.

Decked out with just one lens, the iPhone 17 Air starts in a camera deficit compared to pretty much every phone on the market. With an in-built 2x telephoto lens, the 48MP Fusion Main camera is pitched as a two in one, but I did still find myself missing the versatility of a multi-lens device.

The singular lens works fine for portrait and landscape photography, but I missed the macro capabilities of the ultra wide. The Fusion lens has trouble focusing on ultra close up shots, and the whole picture can turn out hazy. You can see this demonstrated in the shot below. Although you can see plenty of detail on the leaves and the grass, random parts are in focus and you lose any depth between the two subjects. You’ll see something similar in the shot of yellow flowers. The focus is scattered making the whole image look flat and somewhat disorientating.

As a point-and-snap camera, the Fusion lens is reliable. It can take a clear, sharp picture in any well lit space, and Apple’s Photographic Styles give you plenty of options for playing with composition and colour. For people who prefer to take a quick snap and go on with their day, there won’t be a marked difference between the iPhone Air and any other recent Apple device. Those with a keener eye for detail may be left wanting.

The details mostly come down to the chipset, resolution, and the sensor. Despite the Fusion lens having 48MP capabilities, it is set to 24MP by default. Amping this up will give you a bit more detail in your photos and let you blow them up larger for print, but it will also obliterate your camera storage. Sticking at the default there are minor differences between the Air and the iPhone 16 Pro’s main camera performance which mostly result from the sensor differences. This wreath, for example, looks quite similar in both pictures. Once you zoom in on the leaves and oranges, you can see sharper details coming from the 16 Pro. These two shots are the same resolution, shot with the same 48 MP Fusion camera, but the Pro has a larger sensor which allows more light to get in.

We see inverse results on the front-facing camera. The whole iPhone 17 family has a new selfie camera with (you guessed it) a larger sensor. Even though it doesn’t use the full 24MP it is capable of, the front facing camera has a higher starting point in the Air than on previous iPhone models. Take this comparison between the 16 Pro and the Air. In the eyebrow area you can make out individual strands on the shot from the Air, while the 16 Pro is a bit more muddled. The new sensor also allows for Centre Stage, which lets you switch frames from portrait to landscape without moving the phone.

Even in low light, when a larger sensor is preferable, the Air still performs well. The colour balance remains true-to-life and the images retain a good amount of detail when shooting in night mode. There is still some artefacting, particularly around light sources, but the overall effect is up to scratch. You’ll struggle to capture movement thanks to a much slower shutter speed in low light, but that is the same no matter which phone you’re shooting with.

On the video side of things, Apple has introduced a few fun features to mixed results. The Air, along with the rest of the family, now has ultra stabilised video, dual capture video, and audio mixing. The video stabilisation creates a smoother, gimbal sort of effect, and compared to the previous iPhone there are far less unwanted bumps in moving shots. Dual capture video is a cute feature that I personally don’t have any use for, but I could see flooding TikTok feeds after concerts. The audio mixing however is pretty poor. The features lets you pick between Standard, In-Frame, Studio, and Cinematic mixes, and while they do increase the clarity of the voice, it has a markedly synthetic sound to it. Something about the edited audio feels off and unnatural, and while you can change the intensity of the mix it doesn’t remove that uncanny feel.

Although there are compromises with having one lens in such a small phone, the overall camera results for the iPhone Air are better than you’d expect. This kind of performance bodes well for when Apple adds a hinge. Like battery, phone photography generally suffers when manufacturers move into foldables, and while Apple has long been able to accomplish a lot with a little hardware, seeing actual improvements in a slim form factor is a promising sign.

Starting at $1,799, the iPhone Air sits in a strange spot. It is more expensive than the iPhone 17, but has worse battery life, and is down one camera lens. It does have the Pro chipset, but that isn’t enough to offset a $400 price difference. On the flip side, $200 more gets you the iPhone 17 Pro, which has a smaller screen but a more versatile tri-camera set up, a larger battery, and USB 3 support for faster file transfer. That is an appealing upsell that legitimately benefits the consumer, and will continue to do so for the life of the phone.

The iPhone Air is a solid device, but it doesn’t quite fit the promise of Apple’s usual middle child. It isn’t a bigger, or smaller baseline model, it is an entirely different phone with worse specs that costs $400 more. Logically, no one should buy it. No matter how nifty the tech is. Realistically, I don’t think Apple intends for people to get attached to the Air, but I do think it is a waypoint to acknowledge. It is Apple’s way of showcasing the future Fold’s tech before even recognising its existence. It is meant to make competitors quiver, and consumers perk up.

And, well, consider me perked. The Air showcases strengths that Samsung and Motorola have taken years in the public market to get to. It is clever, it is powerful, but the value proposition isn’t there. Right now the Air feels like a concept phone that has been made available for purchase, with the hinge to come in 2026.