It’s been a while since an Apple event showed off a new product that made me immediately think I need that. Since — I dunno, the iPhone X? — the upgrades have mostly been incremental.
A little faster, a little better camera. Still, you’d be fine keeping your old phone.
But seeing the iPhone Air at Tuesday’s Apple event, I went full cartoon wolf eyes bulging out a-WOO-gah. I need that.
The premise seems simple on paper: iPhone, but thin. And yet, I hadn’t fully thought through how much I would actually want the $999 device.
I’ve been devoted to the Max size of iPhones for years now — I love the big screen for reading and watching — and I wouldn’t be willing to give up a Big Screen just for a lighter phone.
(The iPhone Air’s screen is 6.5 inches, which is juuust slightly smaller than the iPhone 17 Pro Max’s 6.9 inches. Personally, I’m used to the Pro Max 14, which is only 6.7 inches. I can deal with the loss of 0.2 inches!)
Nor do I want to give up speed or features. A few years ago, Apple reintroduced a “Mini” size along with the iPhone 12 line, which was about the same size as the old iPhone 5. I know that some people — especially those with small hands — rejoiced. They cared about the ease of holding the phone and how it could easily fit in their pocket. The iPhone SE line also catered to the small phone fans, but there was a huge compromise on features.
It might be time for the iPhone Air
Right now, I mainly carry my phone in a purse, and I use a Pop Socket to help me hold it. I’ve gotten used to the stretch my hands have to make to cover the territory of a big screen. A small-screen phone just isn’t appealing (although I did get a real kick out of seeing a friend who uses an incredibly tiny Unihertz Jelly device).
There’s something I need to admit, though: The weight of my current Pro Max has been getting me down.
In the last few years, I’ve noticed something slightly pathetic: I get wrist pain from excess phone use, and depressingly, it gets worse on the weekends when I’m away from my computer. As I write this now, I’m wearing a wrist brace (an injury from a pillow fight has exacerbated it), which is a sort of sad sign of how much my addiction to doomscrolling has rotted not just my brain but my body.
Sure, I could spend less time on my phone. But what if, instead, I could just get an amazing new iPhone Air that is so slim and light that it solves all my problems?!
Are there potential downsides compared to the Pro Max? Sure. The battery life is probably worse, as you’d expect with a thinner device. Apple is offering a $99 battery pack that attaches to the iPhone Air, and sadly, it’s probably necessary.
Besides, I’ve gotten used to carrying around a pink floral MagSafe battery pack I picked up at T.J. Maxx for when my current phone needs some extra juice.
And the camera on the Air may be slightly disappointing — it does have only one lens in the back, after all. That does matter to me, and I guess I’d like to fully try it out to see how it compares.
But the addition of two new features to the camera function also makes me think that it’ll still be a big upgrade camera-wise from my 14 Pro Max. Center Stage for the front-facing camera — the feature that automatically fits multiple people on screen and can follow them around to center them — is really cool. It’s been on the iPads for a while, but this year is the first time it’s on iPhones.
The “Dual Capture” feature that lets you make a video of both the front-facing and rear cameras at the same time (the example Apple gave was filming your face’s reaction as it also recorded a kid’s basketball game) seems really cool, although I suspect I won’t use it much.
The point is, my weak wrists are ready for a thin and light iPhone. I care about having a big screen, and I’m willing to settle for a potentially crummier battery if that’s what it takes. Finally, my prayers have been answered. Thank you, God Tim Cook.
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