I picked up the iPhone Air on launch day, and setup was exactly how I want it: boring. eSIM transfer happened right inside settings on my old phone. No call center hold music, no QR codes, no tiny plastic cards to drop on the carpet. Just hold one phone near the other, tap a couple prompts, and done. Accessibility was there from the first screen — triple-click, VoiceOver on, and I was moving. Smooth, seamless, invisible. The way it should always be.
eSIM: The Sting and the Flex
That doesn’t mean eSIM-only is perfect. It stings. I change phones a lot, and physical SIMs made that easy. Pop out the tray, slot it in the next phone, finished. The Air kills that spontaneity. Now it’s carrier apps, portals, and transfers.
But here’s the thing: when it works, it’s magic. No tray to stab, no ejector pin to lose, no microscopic card to fumble onto the floor. Just phone-to-phone transfer and you’re done. I miss the freedom of physical SIMs, but I can’t deny eSIM is cleaner. It’s the future — convenient for most, slightly irritating if you’re like me.
Thinness: The First Shock
The Air is thin. Shockingly thin. Pick it up, and your brain says: this feels fake. Like a demo shell. Like it should bend in half if you sneeze on it. And yes, I tested it. Both ways. Hard. I had a 6+. I lived through Bendgate. I wasn’t letting Apple surprise me again. The Air didn’t budge.
Thinness aside, the hand feel is the real difference. The sides are slightly rounded — not the sharp, slabby edges of the Pro. It rests more comfortably in the hand, easier to grip, less like a razor blade. And the glossy titanium? Surprisingly grippy. It looks slick, but it isn’t. It has just enough tack that the phone feels planted instead of slippery.
That combination — ultrathin body, slight curves, glossy titanium — makes the Air easier to hold than any iPhone I’ve used. Most phones are things you carry. The Air feels like something that belongs in your hand.
Drop Test (Accidental, but Real)
A phone this thin and this light feels fragile. So when I dropped it — hardwood floor, from pocket height — I braced for damage. I picked it up and… nothing. No dent, no scratch, no scuff. Perfectly fine.
It makes sense. The Air is light, which means less force when it hits the ground. Physics doing me a favor. Heavier phones land harder, and they show it. The Air bounces. Thin doesn’t mean fragile — at least not here.
Living with It
VoiceOver isn’t an app I open; it’s the OS. Every flick, rotor spin, and double-tap goes through it. On a Pro, you feel the weight of that over time. Hold it up at chest height for twenty minutes, and your wrist reminds you you’re carrying a slab.
On the Air, that weight is gone. The gestures feel faster, lighter, easier. Long articles, endless messages, scrolling marathons — no strain. The rotor feels smoother, flicks feel cleaner, and the phone disappears in your hand.
The Air’s screen is bigger than my old 16e, but because the phone is so much thinner and lighter, one-handed use is actually easier. That’s huge when my other hand is holding a cane. On a Pro, replying mid-walk was thumb gymnastics. On the Air, it’s natural.
Not everything improved. Typing is rough. My muscle memory from a smaller phone is off. I keep hitting between keys, autocorrect sometimes saves me, sometimes writes nonsense. It’ll pass with retraining, but it’s an adjustment.
And Back Tap? Worse. I had mine set so double-tap goes Home and triple-tap opens the App Switcher. On older phones it worked. On the Air, it misses half the time. I gave up and went back to awkward thumb stretches instead. Thinness giveth, thinness taketh away.
Battery Anxiety
Battery life is fine. Not amazing, not terrible. Enough to get through a day if you’re near chargers, but away from one? You’ll start checking the percentage constantly. I do.
That’s why I carry a MagSafe battery. Which is thicker and heavier than the Air itself. Think about that: my backup weighs more than my main phone. But peace of mind beats style, so it comes everywhere with me.
Performance, though, is excellent. OCR, Seeing AI, Envision, Aira — all quick, smooth, no lag. Accessibility depends on responsiveness, and the Air nails it.
Sound and the Lone Speaker
The Air has one speaker. Sighted reviewers complain. I don’t. For VoiceOver, it’s plenty — loud, clear, no problem.
Yes, mono sounds odd at first, but you adapt. And honestly, it breaks bad habits. Blind people know the tricks — jamming the bottom of the phone into your ear in a noisy street, or setting it on your lap so it projects better. With the Air, those don’t work. And that’s fine. They were awkward habits anyway.
So sure, stereo YouTube is gone. But I’ll take a phone that doesn’t make me look like I’m trying to swallow it in public.
Haptics: The Unsung Upgrade
Another surprise: the haptics feel stronger on the Air. Cleaner, sharper, easier to feel. I actually turned VoiceOver sounds off completely — now it’s just speech and vibration.
Part of it’s probably physics again. The phone is thinner, and I’m not burying it in a thick case, so every tap resonates through the whole chassis. Rotor spins buzz distinctly, confirmation taps feel decisive, and subtle cues are clearer than they’ve ever been.
On older iPhones, haptics were background noise. On the Air, they’re front and center. Strong enough to replace the constant stream of clicks and beeps. That’s less clutter in my ear, more feedback in my hand.
The Camera Plateau and the Heat
The ugly bit: the camera plateau. Thin glass slab everywhere, then a block stuck on the back with the lens jutting out further. It feels wrong, it looks worse. If the lens sat flush under the frosted glass, fine. But it doesn’t. Apple borrowed one of Google’s ugliest ideas and doubled down.
But I can’t argue with results. I’m not a photographer. I need a camera for OCR, for apps like Seeing AI, and for Aira agents. And the Air’s single camera handles that without issue. Text recognition is instant, remote sessions are smooth, and photos look fine.
Heat? Sure, the top warms up if I’m running Maps, music, and a MagSafe battery together. But only the top. The area I hold stays cool. Annoyance, not a dealbreaker.
The Dynamic Island
And then there’s the Dynamic Island. It sucks. I hate it. I never use it. Apple pitched it as “magical.” In practice it’s a black blob taking up space.
Media controls? I never touch them. Live Activities? I don’t trust them. They don’t update properly with VoiceOver, so half the time I’m left guessing if my ride’s close or if the app gave up. And the real insult? Low battery alerts. They show up in the Island now, and VoiceOver doesn’t read them automatically. The one alert that actually matters gets buried in a gimmick I can’t rely on.
That’s how bad the Island is: it’s literally the reason I bought a 16e instead of a 16 Pro last year. I skipped the flagship just to avoid it. And now I’ve got the Air, and the blob is still here, still useless.
The Island came in with the 14 Pro. Three generations later, it’s still hanging around. Apple said it took “courage” to kill the headphone jack. Fine. Show courage again. Kill the Island.
Accessibility Out of the Box
Aside from the Island mess, accessibility was flawless. Setup was smooth, VoiceOver worked from the first screen, nothing broken, nothing regressed. Accessibility is infrastructure, and on the Air, it feels like Apple treated it that way.
Wishlist for an Air 2
If Apple makes a sequel:
- No Ports. USB-C here is capped at USB 2 anyway. No one’s moving ProRes off an Air. Kill the port, lean into MagSafe.
- No Buttons. Apple’s haptics are good enough. Swipes for volume, long-press for power. Clean it up.
- Better Battery. Thin shouldn’t mean nervous. Denser cells, better chemistry, anything. Stop making me flick to the status bar like a compulsive tic.
Future Predictions
Will there be another Air? I doubt it. Apple’s graveyard already has the Mini and the Plus. The Air probably joins them. This feels like a flex, not a product line.
Maybe it’s a stepping stone to foldables. And flips? I like. I had a Z Flip. I’d buy an iPhone Flip tomorrow. But the tablet-that-pretends-to-be-a-phone style? No thanks. If the Air points anywhere, I hope it’s toward a Flip.
But most likely, the Air is another Mini: beloved by the few who get it, discontinued before it finds its place.
Final Thoughts
The iPhone Air is contradictions made real. Thin but solid. Bigger screen but easier one-handed use. Looks fragile but shrugs off a drop. Weak battery but excellent performance. Ugly plateau but flawless OCR. Every flaw comes with a flip side.
But zoom out, and the message is clear: the Air is the most futuristic iPhone Apple has shipped. Pick up a 17 Pro after using this, and it feels like a brick. Once you live with the Air, everything else feels heavy.
For me, the accessibility gains are real. Bigger screen, lighter weight, grippier finish — it means I can actually use it one-handed while walking with a cane. That’s not a small upgrade. That’s quality of life.
And if you’re thinking, “But I can save £200 and get a 17 with more cameras, stereo sound, and a bigger battery,” great. Go buy it. The Air isn’t for you. The Air is for people who want the future in their pocket right now.
The Air proves Apple can still reinvent hardware. The Dynamic Island proves they can also double down on bad ideas. They once said it took “courage” to kill the headphone jack. Fine. Show courage again. Kill the Island. Let the Air shine without a blob dragging it down.
One week in, the Air isn’t a novelty anymore. It’s just my phone. And that’s the highest praise I can give: Apple made something impossibly thin, impossibly light, and surprisingly durable — and then stuck a pointless black wart on the top.
OK so the Air isn't as terrible as others were predicting, I'm honestly torn between the Air and 17 Pro, I use my phone a lot, watching TikTok streams and YouTube videos, and occasionally use it to record stuff, so I'm kinda wondering which one to go for when my contract with Tesco Mobile for my 14 Pro Max ends next year, in July.