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This year, Apple likely surprised the crowd with its iPhone Air. Despite its 5.6mm thickness, it comes packed with top-end hardware and a gorgeous design without extensively compromising on features like other slim smartphones are forced to. Meanwhile, the iPhone 17 Pro and iPhone 17 Pro Max boast new aesthetics, fresh paint jobs, and some of the best internals for a 2025 flagship series. Naturally, it was going to be a conundrum picking between these two device classes.
According to The Wall Street Journal, Apple’s design team made this challenge intentional. One executive from the company, Molly Anderson (VP of industrial design), stated that creating such difficulty for customers to choose between an iPhone Air and an iPhone 17 Pro was something they had “dreamed about for a long time.”
Anderson explained, “I really think people will struggle with it. Because, you know, the Pro is a beautiful and incredible product as well. But I think the lightness, the lean towards style, the idea of not carrying so much weight, is just such a different experience.”
The iPhone Air features a stunning design but comes with its trade-offs. It only has a single rear camera, which, while versatile, still has limitations. Additionally, despite adding the improved C1X 5G modem, the iPhone Air continues to lack mmWave 5G and has USB-C ports capped at USB 2 transfer speeds.
However, Apple attempted to mitigate these compromises by incorporating its N1 wireless networking chip, standard on all iPhone 17 models. When working in conjunction with the iPhone Air’s C1X, it can deliver “better than expected” battery life. Despite this, charging $999 for a product that lags behind last year’s iPhone 16 Pro in some areas might leave potential buyers feeling disgruntled.
News Source: The Wall Street Journal
