Slim iPhone Air might be a design win for Apple, analysts say

The iPhone Air is about 0.2 millimeters thinner, and priced $100 lower than the competing Samsung S25 Edge, and basically replaces the Plus mannequin within the lineup

 Apple CEO Tim Cook dinner seemed to be channeling his predecessor and design genius Steve Jobs on Tuesday when he unveiled the iPhone Air, the corporate’s slimmest handset but and the largest change in eight years to a lineup that followers and analysts complained was stagnating.

Cook dinner kicked off the corporate’s annual product launch occasion at its Cupertino, California, headquarters with a Jobs quote: “For us, design goes past simply how one thing appears or feels. Design can be the way it works.”

Inside its 5.6-millimeter-thick (0.22 inch) body — thinner than Samsung Electronics’ S25 Edge at 5.8 mm — the iPhone Air’s circuitry has been shrunk to the scale of some postage stamps, clearing the way in which for as a lot battery capability as potential.

Going into the occasion, many analysts had predicted a ho-hum reception to the product launches, however on Tuesday some stated the 4 new iPhones — iPhone Air, iPhone 17, iPhone 17 Professional and iPhone 17 Professional Max — supplied a lineup prone to attraction to prospects with diverse budgets.

And doubts nonetheless linger about whether or not the brand new smartphone will match its promised battery capability, and whether or not shoppers will accept one fewer digicam.

It is going to have Apple’s greatest and latest A19 Professional processor chip, which is tuned to deal with synthetic intelligence duties, and two new customized Apple communications chips.

“I heard loud claps the second it was introduced,” stated Gaurav Chaudhary, a YouTuber with practically 24 million followers, popularly referred to as “Technical Guruji.” He praised the Air’s titanium body and “ceramic protect” glass, which Apple stated make the machine extra sturdy.

Chaudhary stated that regardless of listening to quite a few leaks in regards to the machine forward of time, he was nonetheless impressed after dealing with it within the Steve Jobs Theater at Apple headquarters, even when he nonetheless needs to see if Apple’s battery life claims maintain up.

Seventeen years in the past, Jobs famously launched the corporate’s first MacBook Air by pulling the ultra-thin laptop computer from an interoffice envelope, to spotlight how moveable it was.

The iPhone Air, which borrows its identify and design language from the laptop computer, could also be what Apple followers have needed for years: A tool that appears completely different from others available on the market and is filled with feats of {hardware} engineering in each sq. millimeter.

“I believe in an period the place we’ve seen a big diploma of sameness, it’s nice to see Apple carry a brand new product to the market. It type of reinvigorates the entire phase of iPhone,” stated PP Foresight analyst Paolo Pescatore.

On the draw back, nonetheless, the iPhone Air has just one digicam, in contrast with two separate cameras on the bottom iPhone 17 and three on the Professional fashions.

Ben Bajarin, CEO of expertise consultancy Inventive Methods, stated it’ll even be essential to verify whether or not it might dwell as much as Apple’s battery life claims. He stated Apple’s customized chips ought to assist, as a result of the corporate has spent greater than a decade designing its personal chips with a relentless deal with power effectivity and dimension.

The brand new product launches introduced no new bulletins, nonetheless, on synthetic intelligence options that may assist Apple to shut the hole with the likes of Alphabet’s Google, which has used its newest flagship telephones to showcase the capabilities of its Gemini AI expertise.

However analysts stated the iPhone Air, particularly, was prone to spur many upgrades, boosting Apple’s gross sales within the essential vacation buying season.

It may additionally assist Apple win again prospects in China, the place Apple has misplaced market share to rivals who’ve launched slimmer smartphones, analysts stated.

“It’s miniaturization at its best in a cellphone,” Bajarin stated.

The iPhone Air is priced in the course of the iPhone lineup and at $100 lower than the debut value of Samsung’s Galaxy S25 Edge, which hit markets earlier this yr and shipped 1 million items within the second quarter, in keeping with IDC. The worth ought to make it a powerful vendor, stated Nabila Popal, senior analysis director with IDC’s Worldwide Quarterly Cell Telephone Tracker unit.

Popal predicted higher gross sales for the iPhone Air, “not solely as a result of it’s priced higher, however as a result of the (iPhone) Plus — which basically the Air is changing — already did between 5-7% of Apple’s shipments.”

“Apple’s late, however once they do it, they do it larger or louder or higher than anybody,” Popal stated. – Rappler.com