Much like when I made the change from an M1 Pro MBP to an M4 Air, the thought of an upgrade was interesting but not necessarily something I was looking for, even if open to the idea. Every now and again I’d look up the tech specs and rumors circulating, just to keep an eye on things.

After realizing how durable the iPhone Air really is, that’s when the rest of the phone made more sense. It’s the thinnest iPhone Apple ever made, yes, but it feels safe knowing no mortal human should be able to break it with their bare hands.
.

.
When I switched plans in my carrier, it made things easier to upgrade the phone. It’s only been a few days since getting the phone in my hands, unboxing it, and getting a feel for the new device. I would hardly call this article a review. This article reflects only my first impressions after a few days.

• Major carriers are offering trade-ins for an iPhone 13 or newer: See details
  .
• See: iPhone Air (Late 2025) Tech Specs on Low End Mac
  .

Setting it up

I took it home with me to get it going on my own, and it took a few tries complete the eSim transfer process despite the phones being next to each other. At one point for some reason it said my actual T-Mobile phone could only use carriers which weren’t T-Mobile. I basically ignored this and it worked. Weird.

.
I went in and immediately turned off Apple Intelligence, so it’s not running on the phone. I don’t have a particular interest in it, I’m okay with it taking more time to develop, and I’d rather the phone breathe. The plateau got quite warm to the touch (but not hot) when restoring my iCloud over Wifi, then later 5G. So far so good, no overheating issues from the way I use it so far.
.

Powerful like the Pros

It was a leap of faith, and some research. There’s 12 GB LPDDR5X-8533 running at 4266 MHz with up to 68.3 GB/s of bandwidth, and that’s a big change from last years’s devices. The memory bandwidth goes toe-to-toe with the M1’s, I wonder why Apple made little to no mention of this!
.

.

• Fun fact: The iPhone 17 Pro and Pro Max have even faster RAM, running at 4800 MHz, using LPDDR5X-9600. The iPhone Air uses the same RAM as the iPhone 17.
  .

.

The single core performance goes toe-to-toe with the Apple M4 chip, which is absolutely mind-blowing! It also trades blows with the 18-Core iMac Pro’s Multicore performance, the relative GPU performance of an AMD RX 570, and really gives the M1 chip a run for it’s money.
.

.

• If you’re unsure whether to buy a new iPhone or to replace your old one, this is an option I’d recommend. Some say it’s difficult to notice the differences up-front, I’d say this only applies to iOS 26 UI animations between the 14 Pro and iPhone Air. As soon as you open Safari and load up the Low End Mac home page, the iPhone Air is the clear winner. Apps and web pages load consistently faster, although the 14 Pro keeps up sometimes.
  .
• I’m confident this phone will still feel new even years from now, especially with a battery replacement to keep up. This feels like something I’d hang onto for a few years like the 14 Pro, however, the internal hardware is vastly superior over the old phone so it makes sense. From a hardware enthusiast stance, I don’t mind replacing the battery in a few years.
  .

.
UTM SE is an OS emulator without JIT compilation, which runs ton slower than an emulator with. That being said, it’s extraordinarily noticeable how much faster Android 9 x86_64 boots to ISO and installs on the iPhone Air, versus on the iPhone 14 Pro.

The emulator benefits massively from the leap in Single Core performance, offered by the A19 Pro. I think I need to tinker around with it some more to get it booting post-install, it just hangs after a certain point without booting Android. I’ll get back to you guys about emulating an OS on here properly some other time. Still just getting the phone setup, haven’t had much of a chance to spend time doing this yet.
.

Battery Life

This one may be divisive, as some may prefer a longer built-in battery life. The phone drains slightly faster than I’d like to, but it feels about on par with the iPhone 14 Pro where it is now. Just like with the 14 Pro, I plan on getting a clear case and a battery bank case for certain situations.

I think I can get through most of the day with the built-in battery, but only time will tell. It’s difficult to know so soon. Although.. it’s nice to know it can charge to 50% in 30 minutes.

• A19 Pro can under clock well, going to very low frequencies when needed.
  .
• The Pro Motion display can go to 1 Hz in certain situations.
  .

Other ways to save battery.

• Have a black Lock Screen wallpaper. Since it’s an OLED, those pixels are off. I’ve entertained using a black color Home Screen wallpaper, but it just doesn’t feel right. Dark mode is good enough, I’ll keep the roaring waters on the Home Screen.
  .
• Disable always-on display.
  .
• Turn off Background App refresh. (Settings > General > Background App Refresh)
  .

.
Design & Material

It has Ceramic Shield 2 on the entire back and front of the phone, along with a Titanium frame. The smooth polish makes for a very nice design, bearing a soulful resemblance to the iPhone X. When watching some YouTube videos about the iPhone Air, I found some others agreed.
.

(Above: iPhone Air – Goodbye iPhone 17 Pro? – ZONEofTECH – URL)

(Above: The iPhone Air next to an iPhone X – Source: Low End Mac)
.

It’s not all about looks, though – this iPhone will resist scratches and bends very well. According to JerryRigEverything, the iPhone Air’s screen barely has any scratches at a level 7, and Sapphire scratches at a level 8 and up.
.

(Above: iPhone Air Durability test — I AM SHOCKED – JerryRigEverything – URL)

.
It’s so nice being able to go back to a larger screen iPhone, without it feeling unwieldy or uncomfortable to hold. When the iPhone 12 Pro Max was released, the sharp 90 degree angles of the metal band made it uncomfortable to hold, despite being of a similar size to the 11 Pro Max. The 11 Pro Max on the other hand, was a far more comfortable phone to hold, as the metal band was rounded.

With the iPhone Air, the metal band is still flat on the side, but the corners have been softened enough. Combined with the weight reduction, it feels better to hold. It’s no longer sharp like the Pro Max models from the 12 through the 16, but it doesn’t have the same feel as an 11 Pro Max.
.

iPhone 12 Pro Max

iPhone 11 Pro Max

Fast Storage

The base model ships with 256 GB, which should be plenty for most people. It was a nice step up for myself, going up from the base 128 GB iPhone 14 Pro. It’s a really nice starting point for storage in a phone, and it leaves plenty of room for more – even OS emulation!

• Read: 3200 MB/s, Write: 2497 MB/s for the 256 GB NVMe storage. This is about the same type of result you would see on a brand new M4 MacBook Air. Double thumbs up. Very nice.

.
Camera

Getting something with a single camera feels like an outright compromise when going down from 3 lenses, as there are no telephoto or wide angle lenses. There’s no question the 48 Megapixels is a big leap up, but there is a noticeable difference in quality in the iPhone Air versus the iPhone 17 Pro/Pro Max when you zoom in according to online reviews.

The iPhone Air only goes to 10x Zoom, whereas my 14 Pro could do 15x. The Air seems to have more camera clarity, though. I think I’ll have more to show and tell in a later review.

iPhone 14 Pro 15x Zoom – Aluminum Stand

iPhone Air 10x Zoom – Aluminum Stand

Speaker

Speaker is tinny and slightly spacey, although it somehow actually seems slightly louder than my iPhone 14 Pro, despite being a mono speaker? Sound is more balanced on the 14 Pro. I’m more of a headphones kind of person, anyway.
.

Thermals

According to a video by the Tech Chap, the iPhone Air gets hot the fastest, while after 10-20 minutes, the A19 iPhone 17 takes the lead. The remainder of the iPhone Air seems cooler to the touch than other ones.
.

(Above: iPhone 17 Ultimate Battery Test – 17 | Air | Pro | Pro Max – The Tech Chap – URL)

.
Some more thoughts

• The standby time is quite good, but it dips down faster than I’d like when on social media.
  .
• iFixit gives this a 7/10 for repairability, and Apple posted all the repair schematics on day one!
  .
• Like some others have said, it may be difficult to notice the major performance differences up-front on the iPhone Air with the A19 Pro, except in fringe cases or heavier games, if you’re coming from a newer phone like say a 16 Pro. I imagine over time the differences will be more noticeable.
  .
• However: If you’re like me and are upgrading from say.. an iPhone 13 Pro or 14 Pro, the performance differences will be there but not as noticeable to many. If you demanded the most out of your iPhone 14 Pro, you will absolutely notice it all-around.
  .
• The Center Stage camera up-front is a nice bump up from previous selfie cameras!
  .