It has A19 Pro. A19 Pro has matmul acceleration in its GPU, the equivalent of Nvidia's Tensor cores. This would make future Macs extremely viable for local LLMs. Currently, Macs have high memory bandwidth and high VRAM capacity but low prompt processing speeds. Give it a large context and it'll take forever before the first token is generated.
If the M5 generation gets this GPU upgrade, which I don't see why not, then the era of viable local LLM inferencing is upon us.
That's the most exciting thing from this Apple's event in my opinion.
PS. I also like the idea of the ultra thin iPhone Air, the 2x better noise cancellation and live translation of Airpods 3, high blood pressure detection of the new Watch, and the bold sexy orange color of the iPhone 17 Pro. Overall, this is as good as it gets for incremental updates in Apple's ecosystem in a while.
Can someone that is actually interested in this explain the appeal? Thin on its own I get but thin with a giant bump 100% defeats the whole point for me. Seems clear at this point there is little hope of them engineering their way into thin cameras.
I have an iPhone 13 mini, just replaced the battery. If you want my money, give me an iPhone 17 mini with small width and height, I don't care about it being thinner like the Air. Also, no AI ruining the image quality of the expensive camera. I saw examples of a consumer-grade digital camera vs an iPhone 16 and the latter introduced "hotdog skin" effect and other effects that made the photos look over-processed.
I want an extra thick model instead, let’s call it iPhone Travel (or Ultra?). Just thick enough so the cameras are no longer sticking out. Give me an all-week battery instead of an all-day one. Slim down the power usage and give a power saver mode that actually does make a difference. Let me go on a weekend trip in nature or festival without having to carry extra hardware or having to look for public charging stations.
"Impossibly thin" is right in line with Patrick McGee's "Apple in China" who argues that the main reason for Apple's designs is to keep imitators at bay by introducing manufacturing challenges that only they can meet. Indeed impossible at the time of release. One generation after the other. He estimates this gains them about 6 months of headway. Tough world.
(Yes, to be fair, there is more to this new phone than just "impossibly thin".)
I'm going to add +1 to the crowd that thinks that almost no one ever said "Nice, but I wish it was thinner". Who would that be really? Surely apple made their market research before spending the R&D money creating this product. So presumably there is a market segment for it. But who is it?
The standard 17 and Pro seems very much the great product they always are. Incremental refinement. Don't like it? Get one 1-2 generations older. My iPhone 11 still feels very much good enough (which I imagine must be terrible for Apple). Perhaps their idea is that you can't just refine the 15-16-17 every year. You need to try _something_ else, or eventually people will stop paying attention?
That is the dumbest side profile I have ever seen. The camera bump and camera together are thicker than the rest of this thing. By its design it now demands a massive case or just won't ever sit even reasonably flat on a table. Ridiculous.
It's not about the thickness — this is surely Apple just flexing some of the engineering work that has gone into building a future foldable phone (which inevitably requires thinner hardware to fit two screens in the thickness of one).
So don't take this at face value, it's just a prelude to a foldable phone next year.
I sincerely hope that apple will consider making a phone with a worse camera that is flatter. As someone who rarely takes photos, and never photos of importance, the bump is just a dead weight to me. My dream phone has a body like iPhone 12 mini (which I currently use) without the protruding camera. As long as it runs all the common communication apps reliably, I'm happy. I'll pay $100 more than the standard body version even. But it doesn't seem like apple (or any notable phone brand) thinks this is worth doing.
It's the peril of being a niche customer. I can and have voted with my wallet, but it doesn't nudge the needle anyway.
Incredible lift-to-weight ratio is going to contribute to epic hang times from this thing while the camera bump provides a center of gravity for it to rotate around for predictable flight paths.
1. Biggest is that Apple can finally tell if people really want a thinner phone (I don’t). Maybe once they find out the answer, they can finally start using the space more productively.
2. They mentioned local LLM in passing, but this is the biggest possible selling point of the executives actually back real work on making them consumer-level easy. Have a LLM marketplace. Let users sub-train with their own ideas and local data. Enable users to privately and safely port their personal LLMs to their next Apple. Apple has the best most efficient hardware available and they have it in millions of pockets. It’s about time they use that to become the dominant phone and personal device maker. Instead of focusing on anorexic phones.
The 16e is 167 grams, where the Air is 165 grams. It feels like the Air is to the 16e what the Pro is to the standard titled iPhone — the expensive version.
Which makes the marketing feel a bit incongruent with what we've gotten here. It's not noticeably more lightweight than what is currently offered, it's less featureful than the 17, but more expensive than the 17 (albeit perhaps prettier).
It seems like engineering failed to make a true superlight in its class despite narratively trying to re-evoke what we really did experience with the original MacBook Air. Instead we got an elegant up sized 16e priced like a Pro.
When a phone costs north of 1000USD something is terribly wrong. 99% of "modern" phone use is basically (doom) scrolling, browsing the web, using core apps (like maps) for directions, taking pictures and finally communicating with whatsapp and making the odd/rare old school phone call.
This should not require spending 1000-1500USD on a phone.
Im doing all of the above with a iPhone SE for what i paid like 300-350USD for.
Second hand phones are even cheaper, just change the battery and you are good to go.
Also, It's a bummer that they didn't launch something for the mini series. I prefer smaller screens that fit into my pocket, I don't care about thinness. 13-mini will be the last iPhone I can upgrade to in a few years, after that I'll have to look into other phones
Another thing that stuck out, what's the point with having such a thin phone, yet the camera system points out? I would much prefer a complete flat backside
If you’ve been following the rumour mill and also understand Tim “zero waste” Cook’s MO of reusing parts in multiple models, this whole thing makes a lot more sense when you realise they’re going to release a folding iPhone next year, and it’ll be the thickness of two Airs.
“Thinnest” should be measured by the thickest slice for a given dimension.
I have an iPhone 11 which also has a camera bump and the experience of typing while the phone is on a flat surface is laughably annoying. For a company that prides itself on design aesthetics, it is honestly an embarrassing miss.
Just do not understand the market for this one. The current size of phones is a solved problem. Nobody is asking for these things to be thinner. Most people use cases and are happy to add some thickness for battery life. Besides, the camera "plateau" makes it all futile.
It's wild to see the HN crowd, bleeding-edge technologists, regularly bring up "lying flat on a table" as a critical feature for a supercomputer inside a camera that fits in your pocket.
Somebody (many somebodies?) is rolling over in his grave.
Wow, a phone with a battery that's so bad, they're selling an extra one to strap to the back of it, on launch day... The most innovative thing that Apple has done recently is figuring out how to have their CEO deliver a gift wrapped gold bar to the president. [1]
I just want them to release a new iteration of 13 Mini at some point. I don't want a larger phone, I don't care about how thin it is with a massive extruding camera bump; give me an actual handheld phone.
For now my 13 Mini works perfectly fine so I'm in no rush, but when the time comes, I'm going going to buy a massive device that I can't comfortable use with a single hand.
5.6 mm? Pah! The Moto Z beat them by .4 mm almost 10 years ago: https://www.androidheadlines.com/2025/05/the-moto-z-was-so-a... And, more importantly, the Moto Z had a reason for being so thin: the ability to add "mods" that attached to the back of the phone magnetically.
What I don't like about iPhones in terms of practicality is that the corner camera makes it impossible to lay them on a table without wobbling. Google does a better job with its Pixel phones.
This reminds me of Nokia's glory days around the turn of the millennium, when the mobile phone's essential functionality was well established and they excelled at packaging the same thing into ever-smaller cases made of ever-fancier metals.
So there's one feature the Air is missing according to a deep dive of the Compare sheet (https://www.apple.com/iphone/compare/): The Air does not support mmWave cellular connectivity, while the other models (and previous models going back awhile) do support it.
That is...weird? Why would the Air's design prevent that?
I'd be paranoid all the time about breaking it by accidentally sitting on it. Thinner just means it won't have as much strength to resist being bent into an ass-shaped curve, right?
When Samsung came out with its ultra-thin phone earlier this year, reviewers said you can't really tell from pictures but it really does feel different in-hand, and is substantially lighter. This one is slightly thinner than Samsung's
Not enough for me to upgrade, but I would consider this one if I were buying this year
The rumors are also strong for a folding iPhone next year, in which case this may just be them using the same thinness work they already had to do for that. A foldable would prompt me to upgrade
Around 2000-2005 there was a race for the smallest phone with ludicrously small displays. I believe Nokia was kind of leading and “winning” the race. Then blackberry and iPhone reversed trajectory and suddenly bigger was better, and Nokia died out.
I think we are on the same path here, thinner is not what I want. I want a powerhouse that can run AI for at least 48 hours on the worst conditions, a week at least in an ideal scenario.
You know what has been grind my gears for a while?
It's the protruding camera lenses being off-center. I don't mind the "protruding" part but, every time I interact with my phone lying onto a table or countertop or whatever, I have to bear with that silly tick-tack because the damn phone is not level.
iPhones last killer feature was usbc. These are all good and appreciated upgrades for someone with no phone, but my wallet is happy none of it is really that interesting and enough to warrant an upgrade. Right now I don’t know what they could do to get me to want to. Folding? Even more zoom? Even more battery? Return of the headphone jack???? I won’t lie, a headphone jack might…
Summing up, a company that has no more ideas about how to innovate and resorting to tactics like "we improved last year's model by x (with x not so big or relevant to you, user), and if x is not good enough, we have also made it thinner".
Truly boring. But you can't pretend more from a boat manned by a boring captain, focused exclusively on money/market/stocks.
It is quite telling when they boast about the battery life of the other models, but the Air is just "All day battery life", and then immediately announce their magsafe power bank 20 seconds later in the broadcast!
It's late but I spent way too long looking at the top image wondering what the weird phone angles were on the left and right until I realised it said AIR
Can't be just me who feels underwhelmed by the announcements yesterday? I can't imagine why they prioritise making thinner iPhones at the expense of longer battery life.
The transformation here is not size or performance or intelligence but security.
The iPhone Air and iPhone 17 with MIE (Memory integrity enforcement) promise to be the first devices capable of resisting even nation-state-level attacks, through hardware+software integration of memory tagging to stem use-after-free and buffer overflow attacks, and hardware defenses against speculative execution attacks.
Third-party software developers can opt in to MIE now; users should insist on it from their application vendors.
Can I get regular thickness but twice the battery life instead? "All day battery life" is the bare minimum dressed up as a feature - I get at least two out of my cheap android.
A19 uses the 3nm process and its benchmarks look similiar to the A18. My two cents I would hold off to next version of the air/pro with the 2nm process and the A20 series chips.
I feel like this is more of a tech demo than a product. It is impressive engineering, for sure, but you can pay $100 more for the Pro and get significantly more features and battery life.
Not an iPhone nor Apple user, but I feel like we're regressing on battery life. My old Moto G used to last a full week with single charge (yes, I'm a very light user: no social media, games etc.). My newer Google Pixel's battery, with its larger capacity, with the same usage pattern, lasts for 2 days if I'm lucky. That is to say, the normalized idling time for newer phones have grown significantly shorter.
Now, this Apple ad appears to be boasting as if battery that lasts single day is a generous offering. Perhaps it's adjusted for a heavy user. Still, I don't get the impression that we aren't getting actual improvements on battery life.
I don't feel like I need a thin phone. I need a smartphone which can last for a week after a single charge. From what I understand, the energy density in modern battery processes is enough to pack 100 Wh battery into a phone, but for some reason we are stuck with 20 Wh for years.
I understand the market "has spoken" but I feel like I'm on crazy pills when I put a ruler across my iPhone 13 mini and look at where the 6.5" mark is. No other dimension is relevant to me until we get this one under control.
I don't really see the point of making phones so thin when the camera sticks out as much as much as the phone is thick. I would rather have a flat phone that is thicker
I feel like phones are currently in the "Osprey backpack" stage of product development. There's nothing new happening and no new problems to solve, short of a miracle like making your backpack half the weight or something. So what they do instead is add features one year but take others away so they can add them back later.
So it's like: year 1: super thin, super light (shit battery life, no headphone port etc), then year 2 it will be: awesome battery life, headphone jack (but thick, heavy).
Basically they have to be careful they don't ever make the perfect phone. They do have planned obsolescence as another trick up their sleeve, though. So you'll never see an Apple phone with upgradable storage etc (the Android ones go more for having the software becoming obsolete).
Every time I read an apple press release, I immediately bounce off because of the purposeful omission of the definite article when referring to their products; like "iPhone Air features ..." instead of "The iPhone Air features ...".
It's irrational, but it's like an uncanny valley via text for me.
I'm genuinely bummed that Apple killed the Plus iPhone.
For years, it was the perfect sweet spot -- bigger screen and bigger battery without the Pro price tag. It was especially great for elderly users: easier to read, easier to hold, and they didn't have to pay $1,000+ just to get a phone they could actually see and use.
The jump from the base model to the Plus was usually just $100, but you got a noticeably larger display and often better battery life -- the kind of practical upgrade most people actually cared about.
Now, if you want a larger screen without breaking the bank... well, you can't. Apple's lineup basically forces you into the Pro models, which feels like a loss for accessibility and for people who just want "big and simple."
I wish they'd kept the Plus around. It wasn't flashy, but it served a real audience.
So basically: thinner, shinier, faster. Itэs impressive from an engineering standpoint but at what point does thinness stop being a feature and start being a liability? I feel like we’ve been here before with bendgate.
We will have Silicon Carbon battery that has 2x energy density of normal lithium battery shipping on Smartphone later this year. Apple is very slow in new battery technology adoption, but one could imagine in a few years time this iPhone Air will have double the battery life.
The thinness of the letters in the title really accentuate the camera bump. For me it makes it looks like it's called APR and really draws attention to a design feature I dislike, having said that I know that some people find camera bumps a positive feature.
It's annoying me that Apple has called it "iPhone Air" and not "iPhone 17 Air", this is Apple creating (again) confusion for every tech person in the future
I just can't imagine anyone wanting this? Please correct me if I'm wrong, but do people really want a thinner phone? I love my 16 Pro and plan to get the 17 Pro.
Definitely feel like thicker and longer battery is better. Heavier feels nice.
If you're going to do a phone-width camera bump, at least make it flat so I can put my phone down without it wobbling. Apple's bump on a bump is the worst of both worlds.
I have nothing intelligent to add to this (other than wanting a phone that lays flat), but it's interesting that this thread has almost 1800 comments, far more than the iPhone thread (currently at 256) and the iPhone Pro thread (currently at 89). Maybe people are just excited to talk about a slightly different form factor?
“A new titanium USB-C port is 3D-printed to be thinner and stronger, fitting into the slim design while using 33 percent less material than a conventional forging process.”
I wish they could just make a phone that has 3 or 4 day battery life. I never understood this obsession with thickness, even the normal iPhone is too thin to properly hold without a case.
Por the love of god. I'm already scared of dropping my current phone because its so small in my hand unless I put a beefy case on it. Just leave it thick and use the innovations to put a bigger battery in there. I don't give a shit about saving 2mm but and extra 10 hours of battery life would def perk my ears.
> iPhone Air features an eSIM-only design that saves space internally, helping enable the unbelievably light and thin form factor.
I've only ever had phones with at least one (regular/physical) eSIM, and a 'slot' for an eSIM for travel.
What are the pros/cons of only eSIMs?
Edit: I'm not questioning eSIMs, which I know can be handy: my iPhone SE3 is physical+eSIM. I'm curious about no physical SIM. If you can support 1-eSIM+physical is it a big deal to go to >1-eSIM+physical?
This is an interesting move. Extend the moat. At the same time I'm considering hard wiring a powerbank to my phone so it will have a month of stand-by time.
As much as I want this to succeed because Apple makes great products, I don't know who asked for it. People have voted unanimously with their wallets that bigger screens with longer battery life is what they want. The trend to thin down phones stopped around iPhone 8 or so, when the big screen was introduced. Since then we have seen many cycles where the phones got bulkier with larger batteries and screens. No one complained.
I’m hoping we see that C1X chip in Macbooks soon. I have a cellular 5g iPad and it’s incredibly stable with my work VPN and doesn’t have the constant drops and reconnect issues that I have with hotspoting through my iPhone.
I have Samsung S25 Edge which is essentially same thickness (5.8mm) the biggest difference is weight, phone feels really light compared to my old phone.
The most annoying thing on the phone is wobbling when it is on flat surface thanks to lenses sticking out.
Battery life is alright. I can get 2-3 days of life from it with light use. If I am using it a little bit more, then it is barely one day of battery life.
The thinnest phone is still the Vivo X5 Max from 10 years ago. It was 4.75 mm (iPhone Air: 5.5 mm) without significant camera bump to speak of. Here are some pictures:
I'm always impressed how Apple can name so many products with so few words. Recycling Mac[Book] / Pad / Pod, Air, Pro, and 'i' (hardly even a word) gives you basically their whole product lineup. iPad Pro, MacBook Air, AirPods, iPhone Air, iMac Pro. AirTag must be the only one that has a unique word in it.
They’re running out of ways to innovate across all of their product lines. Introducing yet another product size is the easiest way for them to make it look like the iPhone is still innovating. I’m sure there will eventually be an Apple Watch Air as well as iPad Pro Max/Ultra too.
I don't get the effort of reaching that thickness and then bumping that monster at the top. It will unbalance the phone for sure. I mean there must be a consumer base that would buy an ultra light smartphone without the back camera so to make it consistently thin? I'd buy it
They really know how to get your consumer juices flowing
Aside from Macs for development I've never been an iPhone person but I'm seeing this like ooh. But no I'm good with my $160 motorolla android phone, no shade against this phone, good enough for my needs.
Don't see much improvements that really matter to a common phone user. Battery, maybe?
Reminds me of Windows versions that came after Windows 7. Why don't people just stop doing new versions after the product has reached its saturation point?
Recently got a iphone 16 pro to my mom. First thing i reacted on when opening the package was. Damm that is a thick phone. Compared to my S25 and older android phones i have the iphone 16 feel old and clunky, like from another era.
They introduced N1 network chip. I noticed "thread" technology along with wifi and bluetooth. Tbh, it's first time I heard of this tech. Could anyone enlighten me what this "thread" wireless technology is and its impact?
I've bought an iPhone 16 this year so it will be at least 4 years before I start thinking about a new one. Hopefully we'll have some sci-fi tech until then.
I was hoping for an Apple TV that can do AV1 decoding.
I'm concerned about HN database storage capacity, so here's a simple way to think about this. If you're interested, consider buying it. If it's not for you, no need to argue a whole lot. Plenty of other topics worthy of discussion. XD
The camera hump removes all the "feeling" of having a super thin phone. Also, my phone not being thin enough was never a problem I had. Laptops being thin? Yes that makes sense. But this is barely lighter than the other iPhones. It's all aesthetic.
Let me know when I can replace the battery. Of course that’ll ruin the current business model because it’ll be even more apparent how rarely we’ll need to upgrade these things.
Ad has nothing for me. I want to know more about it's satellite reception, it's physical limits (actual specifications with units too much to ask?), it's hardware security improvements, how many GB of storage, and the final cost.
I get the thinness. My current iPhone is perfectly thin enough on its own, but when you add a case… yeah, the whole package could stand to be thinner. Not sure if that is achieved given the bump.
This announcement contains so many fake marketing words I can't help but read it in DJT's voice...
Add Tim Apple's present and yeah, cool tech, not interested.
> Dual Capture is a new feature that combines the front and rear cameras, so users can record themselves while at a concert or get their reaction to a game’s big play.
I have the largest version of the iPhone 16 and it isn't that big. When I first upgraded the size difference was very noticeable, but that faded pretty quickly. It is annoying that it fits into my front pocket when turned diagonally.
That's the iPhone I was waiting for. I love mu iPhone 14 pro but despise its heft. My previous iPhone was iPhone 6s and when I see it in the drawer and take it in my hand I feel nostalgic for that age when the phone wasn't so in your face with the wight and the tick feel in my pocket.
I don't need a thinner phone. I need a phone that can use a physical SIM card, has a physical keyboard (something like the N900), and a 3.5mm headphone jack... I'll just skip on that overpriced piece of junk.
I love the new colors, especially Sky Blue but why do I need my phone to be wafer thin? It's an engineering marvel, and I'm definitely not complaining, but it just seems odd to make every part of the phone except the top part where the camera resides as thin as possible.
I would have gladly taken uniform thickness and a bigger battery or better transceivers any day of the week and twice on Sunday. Call me a Philistine, but all I really want out of my phone is its ability as a communications device (voice, video, email, SMS, etc) and a GPS. I spend so much time in front of a computer, that by the end of the day I want to unplug myself and touch grass.
Either way, big respect to some former undergrad classmates of mine at Apple who may have played a role in this. This new generation of Apple devices is bringing back color and personality, and I'm all for it. Same for ever-improving FaceTime cameras. The camera on the front is more important to me than the one on the back.
I think the Air makes a lot more sense through the lens of a foldable iPhone.
Even for Apple, there are a significant amount of challenges in building a best-in-class foldable. Supply chain, manufacturing, hardware design, software. Apple is well known for planning ahead; breaking down problems by tackling some in an Air model first seems in line with how they operate.
The price difference really drives this home. It’s only $100 difference between a Pro and an Air. By the time you buy the perhaps-essential battery pack it’s the same price.
I don’t expect this model to continue more than a year or two, it’s a niche option only there to set the stage for a foldable that will take its place.
i have been waiting for an updated iphone SE and with this event i am officially giving up. there is no phone that is simple, functional, reliable and not overpriced. apple is the company that is supposed to make it but i guess they have moved on to other strategies. instead they focus on making hideous bulges and UI that would make steve jobs’ head explode. im fed up with it
IF ONLY MY PHONE WERE THINNER, I SCREAM INTO THE VOID.
Ok, to not be totally glib, I think my reaction to this is coming from a place where, if I made a big list of every single thing I want in a phone, "thinner" would be at the bottom.
I want more freedom to do what I want with my phone, primarily to stop it from spying on my activity to give information to advertisers. I would get a phone twice as thick as my current phone if I could just use it to tell advertisers and information brokers and monopolies to f-OFF with it. I do not care about this and I hate that thousands of man hours and millions of dollars are going into this shit.
This might be an unpopular opinion but does anyone else think that phones are now targeted towards teenagers and young adults and not the general crowd anymore ? I feel Apple has completely made their phones a social tool and not a technology innovation product. Camera, colors and the ability to distinguish your phone from others in selfies (another social feature) and in public is what it seems to be about. Gaming on the phone is another aspect. The phones look different each year (on purpose) and they are increasingly targeted towards young adults who can spend 1000$ of their savings all year towards just looking cool on social media with better pictures and a social profile. I noticed this transition around iPhone X era where design language lost meaning as long as they could compete in the social media world. I feel Instagram and TikTok should thank apple for becoming more social.
I really like the 15 camera I have and feels really good for a casual photo person. I feel that the 16e is more than enough for 99% of those not into social media. Like the phone without social media is just keeping in touch with close friends and family and occasionally taking pictures and making payments. And once in a while a few apps that help you track something like maps or health apps.
The 16e feels like a really enough phone if you don't want to get into the rat race.
My old 13 pro is quite thin and uncomfortable to hold in hand without a case. Why would someone push so hard for a thinner phone? Boosting about extra battery if SIM slot is removed, while doing insane over-engineering to shave a few millimeters is quite a tell.
I know Apple is super successful and will have another great set of quarters, but this is quite disappointing.
If this thinnest iphone air has 27 hours of video playback, why does the regular iphone 17, which looks twice as thick only has 30 hours? At this point, I just want long battery life. Like an "all-week" battery life would be a nice start.
when will apple make an iphone for adults? adults who need good battery life and have better things to do than take pictures for social media. a good UI wouldnt hurt either
Here’s an actual hot take compared to the sentiment in this discussion: this will be the best selling iPhone ever.
Specs wise sure, I’d also love a bigger battery than it being thin*. But the iPhone has been an unbelievable fashion statement, and this insanely sexy iPhone will be the strongest yet.
I’m pretty sure when it comes out, people will actually hold it in their hands and the sentiment will turn. Not talking to you tech nerds, but for the other 99% of the world.
Once you start rocking case accessories, profile of phones can definitely get thinner, i.e. phone loops, those suction cups. I'm fine with going thinner with the trend and I think we're going to get some pretty slick phone cases/accessories that makes actual thinner flusher carrying profile.
At the end of the day, I want future phones to be a A4 piece of paper that I can fold up like ... a piece of paper. If it means dumping stupid billions to shave sub millimeters of generations... then I guess that's the price to pay.
Pretty excited about this one. The amount of tech went into this is obviously insane. Happy to see the company is still the driver of innovation. I bet we'll see more slim phones coming up next months from other vendors.
Long time apple fanboy. I've watched most of these unveilings for the past 20 years. The new phones are impressive. But it was all speeds and feeds. The examples felt so wrong. The women dancing while on the phone. The guy running with while recording. The person needing translation to buy roses? None of those feel grounded in reality. It's like they are building tech for made up in corporate conference room use cases.
By purchasing a new iPhone you are directly contributing to the humanitarian crisis in the Congo. A thin phone won’t change your life but it might be responsible for a life being lost.
What's so great about this? A phone with a weird shape due to the camera? Yahoo, yay so light /sarcasm. Who cares? $1000 for another shiny object thats thin, that has "ALL DAY" battery? Like every other iPhone or phone on the market?
It's not innovative -- innovative would be an "ALL WEEK" solution. This is worth looking at: https://youtu.be/WEmZpHXwu5k
Really?! It’s 2025 and this is what they saw as important. We need repairable tech not this peanut butter and jelly nonsense that’ll be in the trash heap literal months from now. Feels like we’re back to the old Performa, Centris and Quadra era of rolling our more and more barely differentiated products u til folks loose track of what to buy. Have you been in an Apple Store recently, it’s starting to feel pretty cluttered.
Another data point, Googles own phone ad right now is literally along the lines of ‘feel like your existing phone never changes’, clearly a dig at Apple’s product atrophy.
At this point I am like “fuck (perception of) privacy!”. I will just buy the 9a, or Pixel 10a if one releases by the time I switch from my (already large) iPhone 14. At least I won’t have to deal with the never ending shenanigans, the crazy prices, and the very real possibility that if there’s a damage it might be cheaper to buy a new one (in warranty).
Once again, stuff I don't care about. We would be 3x as impressed if it was 3x as wide and 3x battery life.
TouchID is also still sorely missed, and I will die on that hill. I'm on a 2022 SE hoping they change their mind one day. FaceID is a repellent experience.
Now take all of that manufacturing brilliance and, keeping the volume the same, turn it into a small thick phone which will fit in my pocket and hand. Won't need a camera bump
This is becoming comical. iPhone Air only supports USB 2 speeds. Seriously?
Also iPhone Pro only comes with USB 3 speeds while amplifying ProRes RAW support...
hear me out: they make a slim phone, just to develop the supply chain around a foldable display to finally release a folding phone that is a sandwich of the air!
Alright, buckle up — here’s a *Curb Your Enthusiasm scene* where Larry takes the iPhone Air press release way too personally at the Apple Store.
---
### Scene: Apple Store, Santa Monica
*Larry* walks in, holding his old iPhone with a cracked screen. He approaches a blue-shirted *Apple Genius*.
*Larry:*
So I hear you got this new iPhone Air. Thinnest phone ever, huh? Five-point-six millimeters. What is this, a phone or a Wheat Thin?
*Genius:*
It’s our most advanced design yet. Stronger, lighter—
*Larry:*
Stronger? If it’s so strong, why is it thinner than a Ritz cracker? You ever eaten a Ritz cracker? Crumbles right in your hand! That’s what I’m gonna be holding here. Crumbs! Phone crumbs in my pocket!
*Larry:*
Oh! Aerospace. Yeah, good. Because when I’m playing Sudoku on the toilet, I really want NASA technology under my thumbs. Very important. “Houston, I got a number two problem.”
*Genius:*
The new 48-megapixel Fusion camera—
*Larry:*
Fusion? What am I, splitting atoms now? I just want to take a picture of a sandwich. I don’t need the Manhattan Project in my pocket. And the front camera’s square? Square! Cameras are round, wheels are round, even faces are round. You make it square, now I look like SpongeBob in every selfie.
*Genius:*
Well, the square sensor lets you take landscape photos while holding your phone vertically.
*Larry:*
Vertically? Vertically?! Oh, thank you, Apple, you’ve saved me from rotating my wrist. What a terrible burden it’s been. Centuries of humanity struggling, and finally Apple says, “Don’t move your wrist, Larry, we’ll do it for you.” Unbelievable.
*Genius:*
It also has all-day battery life.
*Larry:*
All-day? What’s “all day”? My day? Your day? A raccoon’s day? Be specific! At 11:58 p.m. the phone dies and you go, “Oh, sorry Larry, guess your day’s over!” I still got two episodes of Columbo left, pal!
*Genius:*
It’s also eSIM only.
*Larry:*
Oh, fantastic. No physical SIM. So if I lose signal, I can’t even take it out, blow on it, do the old Nintendo trick. I just stare at my \$1,000 “air” sandwich and pray. That’s the feature? Praying?
*Genius:*
It starts at \$999—
*Larry:*
Nine-ninety-nine! For a phone that could slip between two couch cushions and vanish forever. You should sell it with a metal detector. “Find your iPhone Air before it suffocates under the ottoman!”
(Larry storms out, muttering.)
*Larry:*
Thin phone, thick price. What a world.
---
Want me to *write another one where Larry’s actually at the launch keynote*, interrupting Tim Cook from the audience like a heckler?
As part of our efforts to reach carbon neutrality by 2030, iPhone Air does not include a power adapter or EarPods. Included in the box is a USB‑C Charge Cable that supports fast charging and is compatible with USB‑C power adapters and computer ports.
I was seriously thinking of buying it for a minute till I remembered how much they just exude smugness. I like apple hardware but the company absolutely disgusts me.
My experience is "air" in an Apple product's name means battery life is measured in tens of minutes and the fan makes a horrible racket because the CPU is underpowered and intended for only short suprts of activity. That's fine for a laptop because you can keep it plugged in and use your other computer to do tasks that require CPU, but not appropriate for a mobile phone that you may want to operate untethered for hours at a time.
I'm sure Apple's official word on this is battery life is sufficient for more than a couple of hours of untethered stand-by. I'm just questioning the wisdom of the naming convention. They trained their user community to understand that "air" means low-CPU power / low battery life / thinner package. Are there enough potential customers who will prioritize thin form factor over usability?
Nevermind. I just answered my own question.
[Edit: I understand the Apple fanbois will want to down-vote this, but look at the second sentence of the second paragraph. I am not saying the iPhone Air will be bad. I am saying that the "Air" name has, in the past, been applied to some pretty sub-standard products. I am asking if it's wise to apply a name that has been used for lower-end products to new products that aren't "lower end."]
Imagine putting the phone on the table and seeing it rocking side to side when you press it, the nightmare. Somebody needs to change this stupid trend urgently, we don't need thinner phones.
What I would like is an iphone for like $200 with a stable set of features that I don't have to buy off the used market. I don't care if it's 2 generations behind, because these new phones don't offer anything I care about.
As far as I can tell from the announcement, they're focusing on content creators. Since I don't stream and am not an Instagrammer, it's irrelevant to me. Selling me one of these cameras is just a waste. I don't even know how to make the phone use the second (or third) camera.
This with the glass ui thing feels like now they're doing "innovation" for the sake of "innovation". But as someone said on the other thread about this thing (https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=45185576), at this point they could just make a cardboard phone, wrap it with some fancy words and would sell it like crazy.
I see many comments screaming "WE NEED MORE BATTERY LIFE!"
I'm curious who needs more battery life than the iPhone air will provide? Every single person I know of commutes to and from work daily either in a car where they can charge their phone or to a desk that has a charger (wired or wireless).
The iPhone Air is rated for 27 hours of videoplayback. Let's say it works for a QUARTER of that, its still 7 hours of playback.
What kind of people are away from a charger for more than 7 hours who also only consume content for those 7 hours on a regular basis?
What kind of individuals are these? Please explain
iPhone Air
(apple.com)896 points by excerionsforte 9 September 2025 | 1932 comments
Comments
If the M5 generation gets this GPU upgrade, which I don't see why not, then the era of viable local LLM inferencing is upon us.
That's the most exciting thing from this Apple's event in my opinion.
PS. I also like the idea of the ultra thin iPhone Air, the 2x better noise cancellation and live translation of Airpods 3, high blood pressure detection of the new Watch, and the bold sexy orange color of the iPhone 17 Pro. Overall, this is as good as it gets for incremental updates in Apple's ecosystem in a while.
(Yes, to be fair, there is more to this new phone than just "impossibly thin".)
Congrats to Apple for finally designing out Broadcom and vertically integrating the wireless chip
The standard 17 and Pro seems very much the great product they always are. Incremental refinement. Don't like it? Get one 1-2 generations older. My iPhone 11 still feels very much good enough (which I imagine must be terrible for Apple). Perhaps their idea is that you can't just refine the 15-16-17 every year. You need to try _something_ else, or eventually people will stop paying attention?
So don't take this at face value, it's just a prelude to a foldable phone next year.
It's the peril of being a niche customer. I can and have voted with my wallet, but it doesn't nudge the needle anyway.
1. Biggest is that Apple can finally tell if people really want a thinner phone (I don’t). Maybe once they find out the answer, they can finally start using the space more productively.
2. They mentioned local LLM in passing, but this is the biggest possible selling point of the executives actually back real work on making them consumer-level easy. Have a LLM marketplace. Let users sub-train with their own ideas and local data. Enable users to privately and safely port their personal LLMs to their next Apple. Apple has the best most efficient hardware available and they have it in millions of pockets. It’s about time they use that to become the dominant phone and personal device maker. Instead of focusing on anorexic phones.
https://www.apple.com/shop/product/MH004ZM/A/iphone-air-bump...
It's $39, but if it's indeed rigid as the description implies, then it may be a legit option for drop protection without compromising the thinness.
Which makes the marketing feel a bit incongruent with what we've gotten here. It's not noticeably more lightweight than what is currently offered, it's less featureful than the 17, but more expensive than the 17 (albeit perhaps prettier).
It seems like engineering failed to make a true superlight in its class despite narratively trying to re-evoke what we really did experience with the original MacBook Air. Instead we got an elegant up sized 16e priced like a Pro.
Granted I loved the 13 mini and that didn't sell so who knows.
This should not require spending 1000-1500USD on a phone.
Im doing all of the above with a iPhone SE for what i paid like 300-350USD for.
Second hand phones are even cheaper, just change the battery and you are good to go.
https://www.apple.com/iphone/compare
Also, It's a bummer that they didn't launch something for the mini series. I prefer smaller screens that fit into my pocket, I don't care about thinness. 13-mini will be the last iPhone I can upgrade to in a few years, after that I'll have to look into other phones
Another thing that stuck out, what's the point with having such a thin phone, yet the camera system points out? I would much prefer a complete flat backside
I'll vote with my wallet
I have an iPhone 11 which also has a camera bump and the experience of typing while the phone is on a flat surface is laughably annoying. For a company that prides itself on design aesthetics, it is honestly an embarrassing miss.
Somebody (many somebodies?) is rolling over in his grave.
[1] https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AbEsY-YpF1E&t=133s
For now my 13 Mini works perfectly fine so I'm in no rush, but when the time comes, I'm going going to buy a massive device that I can't comfortable use with a single hand.
What I don't like about iPhones in terms of practicality is that the corner camera makes it impossible to lay them on a table without wobbling. Google does a better job with its Pixel phones.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nokia_8850/8890
The Motorola Razr of course was part of this trend too:
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Motorola_Razr_V3
That is...weird? Why would the Air's design prevent that?
Not enough for me to upgrade, but I would consider this one if I were buying this year
The rumors are also strong for a folding iPhone next year, in which case this may just be them using the same thinness work they already had to do for that. A foldable would prompt me to upgrade
I think we are on the same path here, thinner is not what I want. I want a powerhouse that can run AI for at least 48 hours on the worst conditions, a week at least in an ideal scenario.
It's the protruding camera lenses being off-center. I don't mind the "protruding" part but, every time I interact with my phone lying onto a table or countertop or whatever, I have to bear with that silly tick-tack because the damn phone is not level.
Apple: here's the thinnest phone ever
Truly boring. But you can't pretend more from a boat manned by a boring captain, focused exclusively on money/market/stocks.
The iPhone Air and iPhone 17 with MIE (Memory integrity enforcement) promise to be the first devices capable of resisting even nation-state-level attacks, through hardware+software integration of memory tagging to stem use-after-free and buffer overflow attacks, and hardware defenses against speculative execution attacks.
Third-party software developers can opt in to MIE now; users should insist on it from their application vendors.
https://security.apple.com/blog/memory-integrity-enforcement...
Since it costs $1000-$1400, I'm going to need a nice big thick ruggedized case around it.
Now, this Apple ad appears to be boasting as if battery that lasts single day is a generous offering. Perhaps it's adjusted for a heavy user. Still, I don't get the impression that we aren't getting actual improvements on battery life.
They copied pixel.
https://www.zdnet.com/article/iphone-air-vs-samsung-s25-edge...
So it's like: year 1: super thin, super light (shit battery life, no headphone port etc), then year 2 it will be: awesome battery life, headphone jack (but thick, heavy).
Basically they have to be careful they don't ever make the perfect phone. They do have planned obsolescence as another trick up their sleeve, though. So you'll never see an Apple phone with upgradable storage etc (the Android ones go more for having the software becoming obsolete).
It's irrational, but it's like an uncanny valley via text for me.
Good looking phone though.
Does anyone know it? Was it in announcement video?
For years, it was the perfect sweet spot -- bigger screen and bigger battery without the Pro price tag. It was especially great for elderly users: easier to read, easier to hold, and they didn't have to pay $1,000+ just to get a phone they could actually see and use.
The jump from the base model to the Plus was usually just $100, but you got a noticeably larger display and often better battery life -- the kind of practical upgrade most people actually cared about.
Now, if you want a larger screen without breaking the bank... well, you can't. Apple's lineup basically forces you into the Pro models, which feels like a loss for accessibility and for people who just want "big and simple."
I wish they'd kept the Plus around. It wasn't flashy, but it served a real audience.
[1] https://qz.com/1288272/bendgate-was-real-apple-knew-the-ipho...
Definitely feel like thicker and longer battery is better. Heavier feels nice.
Compare the New iPhone Models - https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=45186294 - Sept 2025 (95 comments)
iPhone 17 Pro and iPhone 17 Pro Max - https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=45186044 - Sept 2025 (42 comments)
Apple Debuts iPhone 17 - https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=45186023 - Sept 2025 (104 comments)
Super fun. Titanium printing
I've only ever had phones with at least one (regular/physical) eSIM, and a 'slot' for an eSIM for travel.
What are the pros/cons of only eSIMs?
Edit: I'm not questioning eSIMs, which I know can be handy: my iPhone SE3 is physical+eSIM. I'm curious about no physical SIM. If you can support 1-eSIM+physical is it a big deal to go to >1-eSIM+physical?
A cellular Macbook would convince me to upgrade!
The most annoying thing on the phone is wobbling when it is on flat surface thanks to lenses sticking out.
Battery life is alright. I can get 2-3 days of life from it with light use. If I am using it a little bit more, then it is barely one day of battery life.
And compared to iPhone Air it has real SIM slot.
USB 2.0 speed only is a little disappointing but it's not the only high-end device not to have faster speeds.
I'm not an Apple user but from an engineering perspective it's hard not to be impressed by the levels of miniaturization involved.
Pro returning back to aluminum is very-very bad for durability.
Aluminium is very soft: it just deforms to a splash on every drop.
I really hope they go back to steel.
https://gsmarena.com/vivo_x5max-pictures-6865.php
Apparently the "thin phone" trend is coming back.
Aside from Macs for development I've never been an iPhone person but I'm seeing this like ooh. But no I'm good with my $160 motorolla android phone, no shade against this phone, good enough for my needs.
I do wish Android phones had lidar
Reminds me of Windows versions that came after Windows 7. Why don't people just stop doing new versions after the product has reached its saturation point?
I was hoping for an Apple TV that can do AV1 decoding.
Let me know when I can replace the battery. Of course that’ll ruin the current business model because it’ll be even more apparent how rarely we’ll need to upgrade these things.
This announcement contains so many fake marketing words I can't help but read it in DJT's voice... Add Tim Apple's present and yeah, cool tech, not interested.
Oh goody.
Or maybe I have it backwards and they always lead with industrial design and fall into use cases.
All I know is that I want new use cases from my devices.
Since the iPhone 5, no phone sits steady on a flat surface anymore, wich is sad
I would have gladly taken uniform thickness and a bigger battery or better transceivers any day of the week and twice on Sunday. Call me a Philistine, but all I really want out of my phone is its ability as a communications device (voice, video, email, SMS, etc) and a GPS. I spend so much time in front of a computer, that by the end of the day I want to unplug myself and touch grass.
Either way, big respect to some former undergrad classmates of mine at Apple who may have played a role in this. This new generation of Apple devices is bringing back color and personality, and I'm all for it. Same for ever-improving FaceTime cameras. The camera on the front is more important to me than the one on the back.
Didn't the hype train around the word "gorgeous" for software run its course? To me its an immediate turn.
Even for Apple, there are a significant amount of challenges in building a best-in-class foldable. Supply chain, manufacturing, hardware design, software. Apple is well known for planning ahead; breaking down problems by tackling some in an Air model first seems in line with how they operate.
The price difference really drives this home. It’s only $100 difference between a Pro and an Air. By the time you buy the perhaps-essential battery pack it’s the same price.
I don’t expect this model to continue more than a year or two, it’s a niche option only there to set the stage for a foldable that will take its place.
This is the worst of both worlds.
This will be a nice upgrade for bi / motor - cyclists who like to mount their phone / google maps on their handlebars!
Fiiiinally something thinner than X820 !
https://www.gsmarena.com/samsung_x820-1556.php
Ok, to not be totally glib, I think my reaction to this is coming from a place where, if I made a big list of every single thing I want in a phone, "thinner" would be at the bottom.
I want more freedom to do what I want with my phone, primarily to stop it from spying on my activity to give information to advertisers. I would get a phone twice as thick as my current phone if I could just use it to tell advertisers and information brokers and monopolies to f-OFF with it. I do not care about this and I hate that thousands of man hours and millions of dollars are going into this shit.
After more than a decade it's still an odd experience to observe how the market is self-adjusting to match Apple's portfolio...
Would be interesting to see if the iPhone Air isn't already a Polymer OLED panel, as a supply-chain ramp-up for a foldable design...
Am I just an old man screaming at cloud here or is it unnecessary for a phone to be focused on GPU intensive tasks ? Impressive as it is and all.
> iPhone Air features an eSIM-only design that saves space internally, helping enable the unbelievably light and thin form factor.
Also this is frustrating..
Somebody should sue him for contributing to making the world a worse place.
I really like the 15 camera I have and feels really good for a casual photo person. I feel that the 16e is more than enough for 99% of those not into social media. Like the phone without social media is just keeping in touch with close friends and family and occasionally taking pictures and making payments. And once in a while a few apps that help you track something like maps or health apps.
The 16e feels like a really enough phone if you don't want to get into the rat race.
LOL; fantastic would be several days.
all-day is better than gone by late afternoon.
I know Apple is super successful and will have another great set of quarters, but this is quite disappointing.
iPhone Air is 165g.
The new iPhone Pro 17 is 204g but the 15 Pro was only 187g. iPhone 17 is 7g more than the iPhone 16 which was 170g (only 5g heavier than the new Air).
Their pricing ladding places the Air above the regular 17 and below the 17 Pro.
If Apple didn't make the Air, then the 17 family would have been Apples "Heaviest range of iPhones they have every made".
That said, I am very happy about how Apple are adding more battery to all their phones - which might be were the extra weight is coming from.
Still looking for a phone as light as the Pixel 5 at 151 grams
I'd been more excited if they brought back the 3.5 mm audio jack.
What a joke. Recycled design from 6/11 is breakthrough in Apple world
Specs wise sure, I’d also love a bigger battery than it being thin*. But the iPhone has been an unbelievable fashion statement, and this insanely sexy iPhone will be the strongest yet.
I’m pretty sure when it comes out, people will actually hold it in their hands and the sentiment will turn. Not talking to you tech nerds, but for the other 99% of the world.
At the end of the day, I want future phones to be a A4 piece of paper that I can fold up like ... a piece of paper. If it means dumping stupid billions to shave sub millimeters of generations... then I guess that's the price to pay.
Thin, except for the top part.
It's not innovative -- innovative would be an "ALL WEEK" solution. This is worth looking at: https://youtu.be/WEmZpHXwu5k
Another data point, Googles own phone ad right now is literally along the lines of ‘feel like your existing phone never changes’, clearly a dig at Apple’s product atrophy.
what about next year will we get air 2 or air 2026 like the iPads?
TouchID is also still sorely missed, and I will die on that hill. I'm on a 2022 SE hoping they change their mind one day. FaceID is a repellent experience.
Just make the thing a uniform thickness and cram it with battery.
The iphone air costs more than a thousand dollars but it's thinner.
I have no idea why people pay for this shit.
Sorry, but no air. Yes it would be a cool second phone in case you go to events, but in that case, I'd prefer a mini with a better camera.
/s
---
### Scene: Apple Store, Santa Monica
*Larry* walks in, holding his old iPhone with a cracked screen. He approaches a blue-shirted *Apple Genius*.
*Larry:* So I hear you got this new iPhone Air. Thinnest phone ever, huh? Five-point-six millimeters. What is this, a phone or a Wheat Thin?
*Genius:* It’s our most advanced design yet. Stronger, lighter—
*Larry:* Stronger? If it’s so strong, why is it thinner than a Ritz cracker? You ever eaten a Ritz cracker? Crumbles right in your hand! That’s what I’m gonna be holding here. Crumbs! Phone crumbs in my pocket!
*Genius:* Actually, it’s titanium. Aerospace grade.
*Larry:* Oh! Aerospace. Yeah, good. Because when I’m playing Sudoku on the toilet, I really want NASA technology under my thumbs. Very important. “Houston, I got a number two problem.”
*Genius:* The new 48-megapixel Fusion camera—
*Larry:* Fusion? What am I, splitting atoms now? I just want to take a picture of a sandwich. I don’t need the Manhattan Project in my pocket. And the front camera’s square? Square! Cameras are round, wheels are round, even faces are round. You make it square, now I look like SpongeBob in every selfie.
*Genius:* Well, the square sensor lets you take landscape photos while holding your phone vertically.
*Larry:* Vertically? Vertically?! Oh, thank you, Apple, you’ve saved me from rotating my wrist. What a terrible burden it’s been. Centuries of humanity struggling, and finally Apple says, “Don’t move your wrist, Larry, we’ll do it for you.” Unbelievable.
*Genius:* It also has all-day battery life.
*Larry:* All-day? What’s “all day”? My day? Your day? A raccoon’s day? Be specific! At 11:58 p.m. the phone dies and you go, “Oh, sorry Larry, guess your day’s over!” I still got two episodes of Columbo left, pal!
*Genius:* It’s also eSIM only.
*Larry:* Oh, fantastic. No physical SIM. So if I lose signal, I can’t even take it out, blow on it, do the old Nintendo trick. I just stare at my \$1,000 “air” sandwich and pray. That’s the feature? Praying?
*Genius:* It starts at \$999—
*Larry:* Nine-ninety-nine! For a phone that could slip between two couch cushions and vanish forever. You should sell it with a metal detector. “Find your iPhone Air before it suffocates under the ottoman!”
(Larry storms out, muttering.)
*Larry:* Thin phone, thick price. What a world.
---
Want me to *write another one where Larry’s actually at the launch keynote*, interrupting Tim Cook from the audience like a heckler?
For the demanding blowhole. Now available in pink.
I'm sure Apple's official word on this is battery life is sufficient for more than a couple of hours of untethered stand-by. I'm just questioning the wisdom of the naming convention. They trained their user community to understand that "air" means low-CPU power / low battery life / thinner package. Are there enough potential customers who will prioritize thin form factor over usability?
Nevermind. I just answered my own question.
[Edit: I understand the Apple fanbois will want to down-vote this, but look at the second sentence of the second paragraph. I am not saying the iPhone Air will be bad. I am saying that the "Air" name has, in the past, been applied to some pretty sub-standard products. I am asking if it's wise to apply a name that has been used for lower-end products to new products that aren't "lower end."]
Apple is cooked.
As far as I can tell from the announcement, they're focusing on content creators. Since I don't stream and am not an Instagrammer, it's irrelevant to me. Selling me one of these cameras is just a waste. I don't even know how to make the phone use the second (or third) camera.
I'm curious who needs more battery life than the iPhone air will provide? Every single person I know of commutes to and from work daily either in a car where they can charge their phone or to a desk that has a charger (wired or wireless).
The iPhone Air is rated for 27 hours of videoplayback. Let's say it works for a QUARTER of that, its still 7 hours of playback.
What kind of people are away from a charger for more than 7 hours who also only consume content for those 7 hours on a regular basis?
What kind of individuals are these? Please explain