My iPhone Air is back in its box. Here’s why

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Recently, I came to a realisation – the iPhone Air just isn’t enough for me and my sample is back in its box. That’s not to say it’s bad, because as I said in my review last year, there is much to love.

It’s got a great design, it’s super light. It’s strong. It has Pro-level hardware. The display is bigger than all current iPhones aside from the Pro Max line.

But there are some critical downsides aside from the not insignificant $999/$999 price point that puts it at a massive premium over the standard iPhone 17, which offers a better experience in most ways.

But let’s talk about the phone itself. There are two key downsides. The first is that the single camera is super restrictive. There’s no ultrawide like on the iPhone 17. I repeatedly found that group shots were a challenge as you simply can’t fit everyone in without having to physically move. Landscapes are also more difficult to shoot. I repeatedly found myself having to compensate when takng pretty standard shots.

The big downsides

The other big negative is the battery life. Time and time again I’ve seen people on Threads or Bluesky protest that the battery life is FINE and not a problem. I can only surmise that these people either carry decent-sized power packs around or don’t leave the house. If you use your phone for work on the go it just doesn’t cut it. One guy claimed it had a 48 hour battery life…. perhaps the phone is off?

As I said in my review: “The capacity is 3149mAh compared to the Pro’s 4252mAh and it shows. After a long day, you will need to charge it – or face being in the red during the evening. On one day, after a few hours of work away, it was down to around 20% – rather disappointing yet expected.

“Perhaps the biggest indication that battery life is a bit of an issue came from Apple itself – it sent all iPhone Air reviewers the MagSafe battery pack accessory as well.”

My views haven’t really changed and it got to the stage where…

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