When I started using the iPhone Air a month ago, I braced myself for compromise. Could I cope with a single rear camera? Would I constantly worry about the phone bending? Surely, such a thin battery would keep me on the hunt for a charger. Right?
It turns out my experience with Apple's thinnest phone wasn't quite so black-and-white.
This wasn't my first time using a premium ultrathin phone. I also tested the Samsung Galaxy S25 Edge earlier this year and had similar concerns that were generally alleviated. But things could always be different with Apple's attempt at a skinny phone. Still, I fell in love with the $999 iPhone Air's sleek design the moment I first held it at Apple Park, which motivated me to have an open mind about the apparent trade-offs compared to the rest of the new iPhone lineup.
I quickly realized I could live with them just fine -- for the most part.
A single 48-megapixel rear camera does some heavy lifting. Joseph Maldonado/CNET
The solo camera (mostly) pulls its weight
Going from the iPhone 16 Pro Max to the iPhone Air felt like it would be a big step down camera-wise, since the Air only has a single 48-megapixel wide-angle camera on the back. But it turns out I don't use an ultrawide or telephoto lens all that much.
Don't get me wrong: I love having the option to punch out to 0.5x for more sweeping landscape shots. When I went to a Jonas Brothers concert a few weeks ago, I kept my iPhone Air securely in my pocket most of the time, instead opting for the 5x optical zoom on the iPhone 16 Pro Max. (You can get an even closer 8x shot on the iPhone 17 Pro Max, but I worked with what I had.) And honestly, if you're spending nearly $1,000 on a phone, you should have more flexible camera options than what you'll get on the Air.
Watch this: iPhone Air, One Month Later: Camera and Battery Worries Put to Rest 05:55
But I could probably count on one hand the number of times I felt like the Air's camera fell short of what I needed. It admittedly took some time for me to wean myself off of towing the 16 Pro Max around for photos and videos. But once I fully embraced the Air, I came to appreciate the crisp, detailed footage it consistently captured, and it hardly left anything to be desired. I'm also glad that features like Center Stage, which can automatically switch your selfie from a portrait orientation to landscape without you rotating your phone, is available on the iPhone Air (as well as the baseline iPhone 17), instead of just the 17 Pro models.
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