iPhone Air reviews: The best and the worst of the early reviews

The iPhone Air hits shelves this Friday, but select early reviewers already have their hands on Apple’s thinnest iPhone yet. It’s the company’s boldest design shift since the iPhone X introduced FaceID and OLED displays. This time, though, Apple isn’t chasing new sensors or screen tech — it’s rethinking how the iPhone feels in your hand. And based on early impressions, people are into it.

That’s not to say it’s flawless. The Air compromises on camera quality and battery. Like the long-running MacBook Air vs. MacBook Pro debate, users are asking if the tradeoff in performance is worth the sleek form factor and lighter feel. For many reviewers, the answer is yes — especially if you value aesthetics, portability, and a bit of novelty in your daily device.

Mashable’s full review of the iPhone Air is still in the works. So, until we’re ready to render a verdict, here’s a guide to the early iPhone Air reviews.

On the design

WIRED’s Julian Chokkata:

The iPhone Air is just 5.6 millimeters thick and 165 grams; contrast that with the iPhone 17 Pro, which has a smaller screen yet weighs 206 grams and is 8.75 mm thick. It’s a palpable difference. Initially, you might feel like the lighter weight makes the Air seem “cheap,” but that notion quickly disappears. This phone feels strong, durable, and rigid.

CNET’s Abrar Al-Heeti:

There’s one design element that’s a bit of a letdown, especially if you spend as much time binging YouTube and TikTok videos on your phone as I do. The iPhone Air doesn’t have a speaker on the bottom, only one at the top of the phone. That means the listening experience isn’t as immersive, and music doesn’t sound as good as it would on an iPhone with multiple speakers. It’s not a deal-breaker, but for a nearly $1,000 phone, I’d expect a little more without having to resort to AirPods Pro 3 or other headphones for better audio.

CNET’s Abrar Al-Heeti holds the iPhone Air.
Credit: CNET

Engadget’s Sam Rutherford:

Apple is setting new highs for mobile design with the iPhone Air. Not only is it even skinnier at just 5.6mm (versus 5.8mm for the S25E), it’s the best example yet of what I like to call “the sci-fi space pebble look” thanks to its rounded corners and beautifully polished edges. It’s a proper marvel of engineering and while I generally don’t like saying this, you really do have to hold one to fully appreciate Apple’s craftsmanship.

On battery life

The Verge’s Allison Johnson:

Now for the less-good news: battery life is just okay. And honestly, that’s a pretty good outcome for the Air; the situation could have been worse. If you’re a light user and you spend most of your time on Wi-Fi, you might never have a problem with the battery.

PCMag’s Eric Zeman:

The iPhone Air ran for 19 hours and 15 minutes. That’s less than the 16 Plus’s 21 hours and 51 minutes, but better than the iPhone 16’s result of 17 hours and 47 minutes. More importantly, it’s the shortest battery life of the new iPhone 17 models by several hours. The iPhone 17 runs for five hours longer, the 17 Pro runs for eight hours longer, and the 17 Pro Max runs for an amazing 13 hours longer. If you have battery anxiety, the iPhone Air is not the iPhone for you; the other models offer far more battery life.

Gizmodo’s Raymond Wong:

In my totally unscientific daily testing, I would say the iPhone Air has good battery life, but my iPhone 16 Pro still had more juice by the end of the day. Is it deal-breaking, poor battery life like many people have been fearing? Absolutely not.

On the camera:

TechRadar’s Jacob Krol:

This is where the compromises necessitated by the iPhone Air’s unfeasibly thin design begin: the iPhone Air only features a single, 48-megapixel Fusion camera on the back. It can shoot at 1x, a sensor crop in 2x, or a maximum digital 10x, but the quality falls off noticeably with the latter.

The Verge’s Allison Johnson:

On the subject of limitations: that camera. I mean, technically there are two of them — the 48-megapixel rear camera and a new 18-megapixel selfie camera that does some cool stuff. But there’s just one sensor and lens on that rear camera bump, even though the Galaxy S25 Edge managed to fit a second one. The single rear camera feels justifiable on the $599 iPhone 16E; on the Air it feels like a real concession.

Tom’s Guide’s Mark Spoonauer:

However, I don’t like that shoppers have to give up both an ultrawide lens and telephoto zoom with the iPhone Air. At least Samsung gives you an ultrawide camera that enables macro photography. But the iPhone Air’s main 48MP camera is very good overall.