I spent quite some time in an Apple store over the weekend, most of it hands-on with the iPhone Air – with the iPhone 17 Pro very much a secondary thing.
That experience, including seeing and hearing how other visitors were reacting to the phone, convinced me of two things …
The iPhone Air is the future
First, this kind of form factor absolutely is the future of iPhone.
The degree of public interest in the new phone was immediately obvious on walking into the store. While I could clearly see the display tables for the base iPhone 17 and for the iPhone 17 Pro, I couldn’t see any sign at all of the iPhone Air table – because it was absolutely surrounded by people.
In order to be fair to those waiting to take a close look, I initially did my hands-on time in stages, stepping back to allow the next person to try it while I rotated around the table and waited for the next one to become free.
Apple is an absolute master at making its new iPhones look completely stunning in the combination of photos, renders, and videos used in the keynote. Generally, they never look quite as good when you actually see them for yourself.
But the iPhone Air is very much an exception to this. Everyone at the keynote said that it looked just as good in real life as in the presentation, and I would absolutely echo this. It looks completely stunning.
I’m the kind of person who unboxes my iPhone and immediately places it into a case. But I have to say, if I were buying this, I would almost feel it was a crime to do so! It looks impossibly sleek.
It also feels really great in the hand. Even with the additional weight of the store tether blocks, it feels incredibly light. I’d wondered whether the very thin edges might feel uncomfortable in the hand, but absolutely not. It’s clear a lot of thought went into the side profile to make it feel comfortable to hold.
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