Determined to give us something new to talk about, Apple has introduced its ultra-thin iPhone Air. It’s just 5.6mm thick with a 6.5-inch ProMotion display, a 48-megapixel dual camera, a selfie camera that supports Center Stage, and an add-on MagSafe battery. Among other things.
We asked the staff of The Verge for their first impressions of the iPhone Air. We’ll run a full review of the phone, of course, but here are some feelings about the phone from our staff.
Preorders for the iPhone Air begin on Friday, September 12th, and it ships on September 19th.
Do you want an ultra-slim iPhone?
The iPhone 17 Air is thin and lovely. My iPhone 15 Pro isn’t quite as thin, but it’s also titanium — only I’d never know because it’s always inside a thick plastic prophylactic. Unless your Air will live dangerously without a case, you’re probably better off with an iPhone 17 or 17 Pro. Otherwise, you’ll have trouble remembering why you opted for the Air’s worse battery when you end up doubling its thickness with that $99 MagSafe Air battery Apple just happened to announce today. — Thomas Ricker, deputy editor
And it weighs only 5.8 ounces…
My personal phone is still a Pixel 6 (yes, I know, I tend to put off these upgrades), which weighs approximately 7.3 ounces on its own and almost 9 ounces with the rather rugged case I have on it (I’m not only a procrastinator, but I’m nervous about breaking it). Which means that every time I drop it into my pocket, it pulls my pants down slightly. Having a phone this lightweight would be lovely — although it wouldn’t be quite as lightweight once you added the extra battery (see Thomas’ comment above). —Barbara Krasnoff, reviews editor
We’ve been through this routine before, Apple.
I just don’t understand why Apple is going back to worshipping at the altar of thinness. Between the iPhone Air and Samsung’s Galaxy S25 Edge, I am not liking this potential trend for phones. It really makes little sense to me when most people want phones with long-lasting batteries. It’s even more asinine when you consider that, not long ago, Apple compromised its MacBooks so severely in the pursuit of thinness that the fraught keyboards failed. (Remember the class action lawsuit that cost Apple $50 million?) Apple turned things around by making its MacBooks thicker again and was heralded for it, and now every MacBook in the lineup has a good keyboard and a battery that easily lasts a whole day or more. Why are we doing this song-and-dance again? —Antonio G. Di Benedetto, reviewer
I like my iPhones thicc
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