iPhone Air Review One Week In

I wrote my iPhone 13 Pro exit interview a year too early. I ended up keeping it for another 12 months and only now upgraded to the new iPhone Air. Was the delay worth it? Here are my quick first impressions after one week of mostly regular use.

This is a light phone for a light user. Pro users and doomscroll addicts should look elsewhere. I think of the Air as the Leica of phones: it commands a premium price but doesn’t deliver state‑of‑the‑art specs in return. (If you’re chasing the best bang for your buck, the Air isn’t it.) Instead, what it offers is a delightful everyday experience and best-in-class build quality.

Speaking of Leica, let’s stay with the camera. Don't believe the naysayers. This is a phone for a camera enthusiast — as in: someone who already owns a “real” camera.

Before deciding which iPhone to get this year, I looked through my photo library. Most of my phone shots are just snapshots: receipts, funny photos of my cat that I must immediately send to my wife, and the occasional food snap. For the photos I actually care about, I use my Leica. On top of that, over 80% of my phone photos are taken with the main camera. For my needs, one main lens on the Air is perfectly enough.

What’s not perfectly enough is the battery. It gets me through the day, sure — but with battery anxiety. I’m keenly aware of the ticking percentages at all times, which isn’t great. It feels only slightly better than my outgoing 13 Pro with 86% battery health. I was hoping for more of an improvement.

There are ways to mitigate this, of course: topping up at work (easier now with USB‑C compared to my 13 Pro with Lightning) or carrying a battery pack. But it all adds a little inconvenience.

Granted, I don’t know if the new Adaptive Power Mode has kicked in yet — it apparently needs time to learn your usage patterns. Let’s see if things improve. But if this is as good as the battery gets, that’s a little concerning.

What else... Single speaker? A non‑issue for me. I rarely blast sound from my phone. Outside, I use AirPods (I’m not a barbarian who plays sound in public). At home, I have my iPad Pro for watching videos or listening to podcasts.

So, of the three big concerns raised by most reviewers, only one really applies to me.

Now to the positives:

1. It simply feels great to use. For a device you interact with dozens of times a day, that’s an important consideration.
2. It’s the interesting one this year. The standard 17 is boring. The Pro is what most people get. The Air is the outlier — and there’s some fun in that.

So, yeah: feel and fun. Two key things you won't find on the spec sheet.

Beyond that, it’s just an iPhone — good screen, fast performance, iOS, all the usual.

My early verdict: If your phone is your main device, the Air isn’t for you. But if you have other devices to offload certain use cases to (e.g., a camera for photography, a tablet/laptop for media consumption), the Air can fit nicely into that setup. And if you’re a runner (who runs with their phone), Air's lightness and thinness are great to have and you'll feel the difference immediately.

But let’s be honest: this isn’t going to be a rational purchase. You’ll get better value (spec‑wise) from the regular 17 — or by skipping another year. Yet... the heart wants what the heart wants.