Apple has revealed the iPhone Air, a thin and light version of the iPhone with a large screen and one rear camera. It’s the thinnest iPhone of all time, and the first brand-new flagship iPhone model in three years.
The iPhone Air was announced alongside the iPhone 17, iPhone 17 Pro, and iPhone 17 Pro Max during Apple’s September 9 ‘Awe Dropping’ event. It replaces the iPhone 16 Plus in the flagship lineup.
Although it’s much thinner and lighter than the iPhone 17 Pro Max, the iPhone Air packs a lot of hardware power into its slim frame. It’s got the new A19 Pro chipset, a 6.5-inch display with ProMotion, and a 48MP rear camera with the Camera Control capacitive shutter button.
Apple doesn’t often release a new model of iPhone, so the reveal of the iPhone Air marks a pretty big moment for the tech giant – keep reading for the key things you need to know about the iPhone Air.
Cut to the chase
- 6.5 inch display
- 5.6mm thick
- A19 Pro chipset
- Single rear 48MP Fusion camera
- 18MP selfie camera with center stage
- “All day battery life” according to Apple
- Titanium frame
- Ceramic Shield 2 on both the front and back glass
The thinnest iPhone ever
The iPhone Air sports a new design, with a slim pill-shaped camera bump and a thinner and lighter build. It measures just 5.6mm thick, thinner than any other iPhone, including the rival Samsung Galaxy S25 Edge.
In terms of looks, it’s somewhere between the old iPhone 16 Plus and new iPhone 17 Pro Max, taking cues from both design styles. It sports the same volume rocker, power button, Action Button, and Camera Control as the iPhone 17, with a single USB-C port.
The iPhone Air has a titanium frame and uses Ceramic Shield 2 glass on both the front and back panels. Apple said the iPhone Air is its “most durable design yet”.
The iPhone Air comes in four colors: Space Black, Cloud White, Light Gold, and Sky Blue.
Price and availability
The iPhone Air starts at $999 / £999 / A$1,799 for the model with 256GB of storage, $1,199 / £1,199 / A$2,199 for the model with 512GB of storage, and $1,399 / £1,399 / A$2,599 for the model with 1TB of storage.
Price-wise it sits in between the iPhone 17 at $799 and the iPhone 17 Pro at $1,099. That’s higher than the $899 starting price of the iPhone 16 Plus with 128GB of storage, but the same as the iPhone 16 Plus with 256GB of storage.
As for what you get for your money, the iPhone Air has the faster, newer A19 Pro chipset, a 6.5-inch display, and a titanium frame. The iPhone 16 Plus has an additional ultra-wide camera, a larger 6.7-inch display, and probably a larger battery.
Both phones have a 48MP main camera, the Camera Control button, the Action Button, and support for Apple Intelligence.
The iPhone Air, like the iPhone 17 series, will be available for pre-order on September 12, and on store shelves on September 19.
A19 Pro chipset
The iPhone Air comes with the new A19 Pro chipset. The A18 Pro chipset was already one of the most powerful iPhone chipsets in recent memory, so we’re excited to see what the A19 Pro can do in our testing. Like the rest of the iPhone 17 lineup, the iPhone Air supports Apple Intelligence. That means it has at least 8GB of RAM.
The iPhone Air also has the new N1 chip for Bluetooth and WiFi, as well as the C1 cellular modem introduced with the iPhone 16e.
6.5-inch ProMotion display
The iPhone Air has a 6.5-inch display, sitting between the iPhone 17’s 6.3-inch display and the iPhone 17 Pro Max’s 6.9-inch panel. The display peaks at 3000 nits of brightness and is reinforced by Apple’s Ceramic Shield 2 technology.
Alongside the regular iPhone 17, the iPhone Air has been equipped with a ProMotion display, allowing the display to adjust from 1-120Hz based on what’s on screen.
For reference, refresh rate denotes how often a display redraws the on-screen image. A higher refresh rate means motion and animations look smoother and more natural. Every other flagship phone on the market uses 120Hz or higher already, so it’s good to see Apple finally catching up.
One rear camera and an upgraded selfie cam
The iPhone 17 Air comes equipped with a single rear camera, a 48MP wide camera with 2x ‘optical quality’ digital zoom.
Additionally, the selfie camera has been upgraded to an 18MP sensor with a square sensor and center stage, allowing for identical performance whether the phone is held in landscape or vertical orientation.
The new handset also comes with a very slim version of the Camera Control capacitive button introduced with the iPhone 16 series, which gives users hardware-based control over the shutter, zoom, and other options.
This makes the iPhone Air the first flagship-level iPhone to launch without a second rear camera since the iPhone XR, which was released in 2018. Typically, single-camera iPhones are midrange or budget-friendly options like the iPhone 16e or now-discontinued iPhone SE.
Apple is clearly banking on the thin and light design of the iPhone 17 Air being enough of a selling point for consumers to forgo a second camera. It’s very rare for modern flagship phones to launch with a single rear camera.
eSIM only
The iPhone Air uses an eSIM-only design, which means it doesn’t use SIM cards. Users can instead sign up with a carrier virtually, making it easier to switch between carriers and activate travel-specific plans.
It seems likely that the SIM tray was sacrificed in order to make more room for the iPhone Air’s battery. The iPhone 17, iPhone 17 Pro, and iPhone 17 Pro Max are also eSIM-only.
“All-day” battery life
Nearly every iPhone Air rumor pointed to reduced battery life, and while Apple didn’t admit to this during its presentation, the odds aren’t looking great.
Apple usually states the battery life of its phones in hours of continuous video playback, but for the iPhone Air the only claim made was for “all-day battery life”.
We did also see a new slim MagSafe charging pack revealed, and with this attached Apple claims the iPhone Air gets 40 hours of video playback. That’s neat, but useless in trying to work out how much battery life the phone gets on its own.
