Pros & cons: Does the iPhone Air have a future?
Apple is expanding its smartphone portfolio with a new model, the iPhone Air. Interim solution or future-proof series?
Pros & cons
(Image: heise medien/Mac & i)
With the iPhone Air (Mac & i test), Apple has introduced a new form factor to its smartphone range for the first time in years. But is it enough to make the device thinner than any iPhone before?
How much of a future does the device have if a foldable is released next year? Mac & i editors Sebastian Trepesch and Ben Schwan discuss.
The pros & cons are taken from Mac & i issue 5/2025, which is now available. The new issue can be ordered in the heise shop – as a print magazine or as a PDF.
PRO
The iPhone Air shows what Apple is good at: designing a stylish, slim form factor that makes even rivals like the Samsung Galaxy S25 Edge look thinner. Together with the polished titanium casing, this adds a touch of magic. In contrast to the unsuccessful iPhone Plus, it conveys lifestyle. Clearly, a marketing department has done an impressive job behind it. But these soft features are also part of a product.
But the iPhone Air also impresses technically. In benchmark tests, the chip outperforms last year's Pro model. RAM, display, selfie camera – everything as with the current Pro. The battery life is at least on a par with last year's models. That will be enough for the many owners who put their iPhone on a MagSafe charger in the office. No one will be able to wipe out the battery with TikTok on the commuter train ride home. Nor will they be able to drain it during a long night of partying. Only when you go on an extended day trip with lots of videos and navigation with poor reception could the battery run out. But honestly, every iPhone Pro owner has a power bank with the right capacity in their pocket.
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Do you remember when Steve Jobs conjured the first MacBook Air out of an envelope in 2008? Ben, I and perhaps you are not part of the target group; we own a heavier, more powerful MacBook Pro. Nevertheless, the slim Mac has enthusiastic fans. The iPhone Air could have a similar fate.(tre)
CONTRA
Anyone who buys the iPhone Air for at least 1199 euros may look hip and fashion-conscious, but will soon be annoyed. The fact that the new device is replacing the underperforming Plus models of all things – which in turn replaced the underperforming mini models –is a bad omen. Apple likes to use the gap between standard and Pro devices as a field for experimentation (for example with its own modem chip C1X, which is only in the Air) and then simply see if and how things progress.
The main problem with the iPhone Air, however, is that it is an expensive transitional model that sits between two stools. It is neither a standard iPhone nor a Pro. And as impressive as its thinness is, the sparrows are already whistling from the rooftops that the first iPhone foldable will appear in less than a year. This will probably be even thinner than the Air when unfolded – with a massively larger screen. The problem of the weak Air battery, which Apple freely admits by offering an expensive MagSafe additional battery, should not exist there either.
I would have preferred Apple to bring its Foldable to market sooner than to be distracted by the iPhone Air and launch a half-finished product. In future years, standard iPhones may be as thin as the Air or thinner. But then they would have to manage without all the compromises that Apple is now burdening buyers with. (bsc)
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