Transfer over, iPhone Plus, right here comes your super-slim alternative: the iPhone Air.
Throughout Apple’s {hardware} occasion on Tuesday, the corporate unveiled the iPhone Air, its thinnest and lightest mannequin to this point. This replaces the Plus mannequin within the firm’s 2025 lineup, following the underperformance of the iPhone 16 Plus final 12 months, based mostly on knowledge from analysis agency DSCC.
The star of as we speak’s occasion attracts inspiration from Apple’s MacBook Air technique, which debuted in 2008 because the thinnest laptop computer obtainable, positioned between the extra inexpensive MacBook and the higher-quality MacBook Professional.
Now Apple is making use of the “Air” idea to the iPhone, emphasizing thinness and lightness as the principle promoting factors.
The “airiness” really feel is because of its titanium body, and it measures at simply 5.6 millimeters thick. This makes it about 0.08 inches (or barely over 2 mm) thinner than present iPhones and thinner than Samsung’s 5.8 mm Galaxy S25 Edge. For a greater concept of how skinny it’s, take into consideration 4 stacked dimes, which whole about 5.4 mm.
The cellphone options a big 6.6-inch show, sporting the identical 120 Hz ProMotion setup discovered on the Professional fashions. It runs on the A19 Professional chip, additionally like the brand new Professional and Professional Max fashions, offering a efficiency enhance over the bottom iPhone 17 mannequin.
One other attention-grabbing element is that it’s an e-SIM-only gadget. This helps maintain the cellphone wanting glossy since there’s no want for a bodily SIM card slot. It additionally presents extra safety than common SIM playing cards, as they will’t be simply faraway from a misplaced or stolen cellphone.
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When rumors started circulating in regards to the iPhone Air, many issues centered on battery life and the absence of two rear cameras, like what the Plus mannequin has. Nevertheless, in the course of the occasion, Apple launched its new 48-megapixel fusion digital camera system, which features as a number of superior cameras in a single.
Regardless of being thinner, the iPhone Air presents all-day battery life. Moreover, with the iOS 26 replace, customers will achieve the Adaptive Energy Mode characteristic, which makes use of Apple Intelligence to make clever changes all through the day, thereby serving to to increase battery life.
Nonetheless, Apple appeared to acknowledge the battery issues by unveiling a brand new line of equipment unique to the Air, together with a slim MagSafe battery that’s compact sufficient to slot in your pocket. When utilizing this extra battery, customers can take pleasure in as much as 40 hours of video playback.
Moreover, two customized instances can be found for the iPhone Air: One is a translucent case that’s simply 1 mm thick and is available in frost and shadow colours, whereas the opposite is a light-weight bumper obtainable in 4 matching colours. Notably, the iPhone Air will also be paired with a brand new cross-body strap.
As for the colour choices, the iPhone Air is out there in house black, cloud white, mild gold, and sky blue.
Apple joins the “thinness wars,” however will it attraction to most people?
Rumors of a brand new, ultra-thin iPhone, probably named “Air,” first surfaced in 2024 from Bloomberg’s Mark Gurman, who not too long ago argued that the thinner design will set the usual for all future iPhone fashions, much like how the MacBook Air influenced Apple’s laptop computer lineup.
When the MacBook Air first got here out, it was praised for being ultraportable at a time when most laptops have been heavy and ponderous. Nevertheless, it additionally obtained a whole lot of criticism for being too costly and having some shortcomings, reminiscent of poor connectivity and a sluggish, small arduous drive.
Nonetheless, the unique mannequin set the stage for the 2010 model, which was revamped with improved processors and a extra inexpensive beginning worth of $999. Since then, the MacBook Air has been Apple’s high vendor for greater than a decade.
With that being stated, anybody excited about shopping for the iPhone Air ought to think about whether or not holding off for later variations with upgrades and higher options is a wiser transfer. Or, for these die-hard Apple followers, possibly it’s price proudly owning the unique mannequin for bragging rights.
Moreover, the slimmer cellphone might pave the best way for a future iPhone that folds, an idea that has been rumored and is predicted to launch across the similar time subsequent 12 months. A foldable gadget would assist Apple compete with Samsung and Google, whereas additionally serving to it regain market share in China, the place it has been struggling not too long ago.
