Air - first impressions of the thinnest iPhone ever…

Now that I’ve been living for a little more than a week with the latest iPhone Air as my main phone, how is it? Is it really THAT thin? Does the battery drain quickly? Does it bend or break? Is the (one) camera any good? And how does it compare to my iPhone 15 Pro or the super thin iPad Pro M4? Here goes:

• The iPhone Air is stunning!
• Almost as thin as the M4 iPad Pro!
• It’s almost half as thin as my previous iPhone 15 Pro!
• Compared to the iPhone SE 2022 it’s still thinner!
• The Macro mode is not missing!
• The selfie camera makes up for everything!
• Bummer: the USB-C doesn’t have Display Port support
• Switching to eSIM wasn’t all that bad!
• Why I’m not going case-less! Pitaka all the way!
• I’m charging it to 90% only! What!?
• Migrating to the iPhone Air was super easy, barely an inconvenience…
• iPhone Air is the future. Now.
• P.S. If you don’t believe me…

The iPhone Air is stunning!

Oh yes, it’s a stunner. I can’t believe how thin it is. Every time I pick it up I don’t expect it to be that thin. Every time it just brings me joy.

Just as with the iPhone 12 Mini, this model takes me closer to the future when the phone is just really a slab of glass. It’s unbelievable.

Almost as thin as the M4 iPad Pro!

My mind is still blown that my current iPad Pro is still the thinnest Apple device ever, but the iPhone Air is almost there! There’s only half a millimeter difference (5.1mm on the iPad vs 5.6mm on the iPhone) but you can barely see it.

As I mentioned in my M4 iPad Pro review, the thinness changes the device - and quite similar logic applies here. The iPhone Air’s thinness makes a new thing possible:

With iPhone Air I can have a bigger screen while having a smaller and lighter phone!

My small hands love the thinner device while I appreciate more screen estate.

It’s almost half as thin as my previous iPhone 15 Pro!

Again, just look at these two phones on top of each other:

Even with both Phones in Pitaka cases, the difference is basically double the size:

Compared to the iPhone SE 2022 it’s still thinner!

The iPhone SE 2022 is basically an upgraded iPhone 6 design. And it was the famous “bendgate” iPhone because people claimed it was too thin and it bent in people’s pockets. Mine didn’t bend and I loved it. Well, the Air is thinner!

Look again, the Air is in the Pitaka case and it’s still thinner!

The Macro mode is not missing!

As Christian Selig pointed out, you just have to use the 2x mode and you’ll get all the macro you really need. Here’s a photo of the back of my beloved Logitech MX Anywhere 3s mouse taken in Macro Mode on the iPhone 15 Pro and with the 2X lens on the Air - do you see any difference?

The trick is to use the 2X lens and it gets the job done! Yeah, you can clearly see that the Air’s camera on the right is worse, but you can still read the fine print.

The selfie camera makes up for everything!

I’m a middle-aged man with 3 daughters. When they were small I’d use the telephoto camera more as I wanted to capture them playing from afar. Now all I do is take selfies. Selfies when we visit some place, when we eat out in a restaurant, when we meet up with friends. Most of the photos I take are selfies, and the new selfie camera is soooooo cool!

Finally I don’t have to do weird gestures with my hand to switch to the portrait mode! I can just hold the camera up and take a horizontal selfie! It’s amazing and it’s actually an upgrade I was really looking forward to this year!

Bummer: the USB-C doesn’t have Display Port support

When I visit my family I like to connect the iPhone to a screen using HDMI port to be able to show them photos or videos. I can still do it with my iPad or my wife’s iPhone 16 Pro Max, but for some reason (space constraints?) the standard Display Port protocol is not supported. Bummer.

Switching to eSIM wasn’t all that bad!

I’ve been using eSIM’s on my iPhone for years now for additional SIM cards, meaning when I was traveling to Taiwan or the USA and needed a separate plan for the Internet data. However my main SIM has always been a physical one. Preparing for the migration to the iPhone Air I decided to migrate to eSIM still on the iPhone 15 Pro (just went to Settings and “convert to eSIM”).

The migration went quickly but there was one hiccup. The phone line was working, but iMessage suddenly couldn’t register my number and instead of iMessages, I started receiving SMS messages from my contacts. Also the eSIM on my Apple Watch Ultra 2 stopped working. I called my operator and they escalated this and the next day when I woke up all was fixed automatically.

Later, when I migrated to the iPhone Air I had a similar issue. After the migration iMessage stopped working and the eSIM on the watch also couldn’t register. Next day when I opened my eyes all was good and all fixed itself yet again.

Why I’m not going case-less! Pitaka all the way!

I’ve watched drop tests online. I know the new iPhone Air is very sturdy thanks to the titanium case and even stronger glass shield. I know all that. I’ve acquired this information.

However, I notice that when I use it without a case, it’s more slippery and as I have really small hands, I tend to worry that the phone might fall. Whereas if I use it in this super thin Pitaka case, I’m completely worry-free. I use the phone like if I don’t care about it.

With this super thin case the phone is only slightly bulkier, I can still appreciate the titanium sides with all the buttons and the bottom of the phone exposed. As you can also see on the photos above, even in this case, it’s still thinner than anything else. By a mile.

I did go to a local Apple Store and tested both the new silicone cases and the bumpers. I don’t recommend them. When using them with the iPhone Air I felt like its charm was gone. Only with the super thin and light Pitaka case (Amazon link) you can still appreciate the titanium sides, the exposed buttons and the thinness of the device.

I’m charging it to 90% only! What!?

Yes, I know the battery is small on the iPhone Air and I should try to maximize it, right? However, all the studies on Lithium-ion batteries show that if you don’t top the batteries to 100% too often, it’s going to last longer. In iOS battery settings you can set up if you want the iPhone to charge always to 100% or choose a spot between that and 80%.

Now, my 2-year old iPhone 15 Pro has 717 cycles on it with 86% health. Even though I’ve been using Magsafe chargers for many years now, I remember that when the iPhone was full or almost full, I would hesitate to put it on the charger so that I don’t top it off too often. Instead I’d put it down and let it lose the charge.

With the Air I decided to change the approach and set it to charge to 90% max. This way I never hesitate to put it on a MagSafe charger as I know it’ll never reach 100%. Again, just like with having the case, it’s one thing less to worry about. Whenever there’s a MagSafe puck around, I’ll just put my iPhone there and that’s that.

Just the other day I took it out of a charger at 90% at 8 am in the morning and was using the phone all day long, walking around town, taking lots of pictures, using navigation, browsing the web, watching YouTube videos and much more… and at 10 pm I had still 20% of charge left. It does have an all-day battery life!

Migrating to the iPhone Air was super easy, barely an inconvenience…

Yes, really. I just did a normal phone-to-phone transfer. First the eSIM transferred with my phone number and later everything followed. After initial transfer wizard it said I’d have to wait around 45 minutes which I would say was almost an hour. The last 3 minutes lasted more than 15!

However, after all was done I didn’t have to fiddle too much with the iPhone. Yes, I got logged out of some apps (all Amazon apps, Slack plus… TestFlight apps were uninstalled…) and install my company’s VPN profile again as well as connect to my favorite Bluetooth devices or set up the payment cards in my Wallet again… but overall I spent maybe 1 hour more setting it up and that was that! I basically haven’t touched my old iPhone since. After a week I finally erased it (after migrating my Signal chats to the new phone).

iPhone Air is the future. Now.

That’s my final conclusion. After just few days with this device I’m in love with it. This is the iPhone for me. Not because it’s flashy but because it really is the future of a smartphone.

It’s glorious and I’m happy I get to use it as my main iPhone now!

P.S. If you don’t believe me…

…just watch this review below of someone who basically thinks the same way I do: