The iPhone Air is Apple’s thinnest smartphone, but still promises all-day battery life

Apple is expanding its smartphone lineup this year – instead of launching three new phones this fall, the company has four new models. The new iPhone Air is the company’s thinnest phone to date, measuring just 5.6mm at its thinnest point. But it’s a premium phone that actually has a faster processor and bigger display than the entry-level iPhone 17, while still offering all-day battery life.

The iPhone Air goes up for pre-order on Friday for $999 and up, and it should be available September 19th, alongside the new iPhone 17 (starting at $799), iPhone 17 Pro ($1099), and iPhone 17 Pro Max ($1199).

The new phone has a titanium frame and Apple’s scratch-resistant Ceramic Shield protection on the front and back. It sports a 6.5 inch ProMotion display with support for refresh rates as low as 10 Hz or as high as 120 Hz.

The iPhone Air is powered by an Apple A19 Pro chip with a 6-core CPU and 5-core GPU that features neural accelerators on each GPU core, which Apple says allows it to offer 3 times better GPU performance than an Apple A16 Pro.

Apple did have to make some compromises in order to make a slimmer iPhone. There’s no physical SIM card slot: the phone is eSIM-only. And there’s only a single rear camera, although Apple makes the case that it’s a high-quality 48MP camera that’s sort of like having two separate cameras, since it can also function as a 12MP telephoto lens with 2X zoom.

Apple’s hardly the first company to promise lossless zoom using a high-res primary camera: my Google Pixel 8 Pro has a similar capability… but it also has a 5X telephoto camera.

Anyway, I’m more intrigued by the new Center Stage selfie camera that Apple is using for all of its 2025 smartphone lineup. Apple says the 18MP camera has a larger image sensor, and it’s a square sensor instead of the 4:3 aspect ratio sensors that are more typically used.

Among other things, this allows you to either shoot full-resolution square images or switch between landscape and portrait shots without actually rotating the phone by cropping the image appropriately. This lets you hold the phone vertically while snapping a landscape selfie or shooting video. Apple points out that not only does this give you a better grip on the phone, but it also makes it more likely that your eyes will be lined up with the camera for landscape selfies than they would if the phone was on its side.

Other features include support for WiFi 7 and Bluetooth 6 and Apple’s MagSafe system for use with accessories including a new iPhone Air MagSafe Battery, which is a slim battery that snaps onto the back of the phone to enable up to 40 hours of continuous video playback.

The new iPhone 17, meanwhile, has a 6.3 inch ProMotion display, an Apple A19 processor that the company says brings a 20% GPU performance boost over the A18, and the same 18MP Center Stage and 48MP Fusion rear cameras, but it also has a 48MP ultra-wide camera.

Meanwhile the new iPhone 17 Pro and iPhone 17 Pro Max are 6.3 inch and 6.9 inch phones with a higher-performance A19 Pro chip with 6 CPU cores and 6-core graphics, vapor chamber cooling, longer battery life, and a more robust camera system that includes 48MP Fusion, 48MP telephoto (4X), and 48MP ultra-wide cameras.