My shiny new phone arrived this morning (technically I picked it up but that's for another post) and with 14 hours of use at this point I feel like I've got a pretty good handle on things.

I've seen a lot of "experts" dismiss the iPhone Air for a variety of reasons. Quite frankly the criticism is misplaced as long as you know what you're getting. So let's dig into that.

What the iPhone Air is not:

The iPhone Air is not a camera, but it has one.

I think most phones these days are almost more camera than phone. Three lenses, a camera "plateau" which consumes the top back of the device, a dedicated camera button – it might not be the primary purpose but it's a close second.

The iPhone Air has a camera but that's not the primary purpose. You don't get the range of zoom and you don't get macro mode. For some people this might be a deal breaker.

The iPhone Air is not a "Pro" phone, but it has style and purpose.

In order to get the sleek silhouette you are trading away battery life, a second speaker and losing a GPU core. The result is a device that's more comfortable in the pocket and lighter in the hand.

All this being said it's not intended to be the flagship device. It's intended to be a series of calculated trade-offs with the goal of reducing size and weight.

Why it doesn't matter to me.

Ultimately it comes down to this:

  • I'm willing to trade away some battery life to make the phone smaller. If I need extra battery (likely because I'm travelling) I will throw on a MagSafe battery pack.
  • I don't need my phone to be a camera. I will miss macro mode, but I probably took 10 pictur
  • If I am consuming media on my phone I toss in AirPods.
  • I am not playing a lot of games on my phone.