In the September Apple event, the iPhone Air was announced along with the iPhone 17, 17 Pro, and 17 Pro Max. I've grown fond of the iPhone Air as soon as I saw it, because it was a sign that innovation at Apple wasn't dead... yet. After the event, everyone jumped on their platforms to express their (biased) opinions, but one of the opinions that I have adopted is, who is the iPhone Air for?

The iPhone Air has the same processor as the 17 Pro's, so you're getting Pro performance for less, sure. Additionally, you're getting a thinner build as a trade-off. Speaking as someone who had held the iPhone Air at an Apple Store for the first time, I can say that the hype for the Air because of its thinness and people being "amazed" when they pick the phone up is overkill. Yes, it's thin. I've played around with it for awhile to see if others are seeing things that I can't, but to no avail.

I was exploring current iPhone models that fits in my hands to do one-handed operations easier. Of course, the iPhone 17 is small in my hands, the iPhone 17 Pro Max is big in my hands, but the iPhone Air was in the middle of the size comparison at 6.5", while the iPhone 17 and 17 Pro is 6.3", and the 17 Pro Max is 6.9". My ideal phone would be one where I could reach the top left of the screen with just my thumb. I've grown up around large Android phones, such as the Samsung Galaxy A22, and A01, since those are the ones my parents have used. I'd assume that the iPhone Air is meant to replace the Plus lineup, as it’s a similar size, and more noticeably, they haven’t released an iPhone 17 Plus, but I honestly don't believe it's worth making it into the latest phone gimmick.

I call thin phones a gimmick because, there was once a study of both iPhone and Android users, seeing what it would take for someone to switch phones. The lowest percentile were people who would switch for the thickness, while the highest percentile would switch due to consistent problems with the phone, such as battery issues, lagging, etc. Mind you, not because the Air is thin, it doesn't mean that it would be fragile. The build wasn't very intimidating for me to be convinced that it is a very tough phone to snap, and even when I have attempted to bend the phone, I still feel like I could do better. JerryRigEverything has done a durability test on the Air, and it took over 200 lbs of force to snap the phone in half, quite a lot more than average human hands can exert.

What I really think is a nitpicky trade-off of the iPhone Air is that there is only a normal lens, no telephoto lens. The base iPhone 17 has both normal and telephoto lenses, but the Air does compensate by maintaining the quality when zooming in at extreme levels with it's software zoom, such as 10x and 20x. What I really like about the iPhone Air is something I haven’t seen anyone talk about: intention. One part of Apple’s design philosophies is that the hardware itself should be less noticeable and prioritizing the screen, and the Air being extremely light in your hands is an example of this. This is why the iPhone X has more "screen" than the previous iPhone 8, and that the Apple Silicon MacBook Air and Pro lineup have notches. I feel like the Air could lead to Apple’s first foldable due to it’s thin and durable design, or could eventually lead to Apple using less components to maybe make the base iPhone cost-effective, considering that the Air seems experimental, and the basis of market exploration. Only time will tell.