Highly anticipated: Apple has introduced its thinnest and most durable iPhone to date. The new iPhone Air is made from grade five recycled titanium and measures just 5.6mm at its thinnest point, although there is a significant camera bump – which Apple now refers to as the "plateau."
Apple's new iPhone Air features a 6.5-inch Super Retina XDR display (2,736 x 1,260 pixel resolution, 460 PPI) with a 120Hz adaptive refresh rate and always-on functionality.
The screen boasts up to 3000 nits of peak brightness and according to Apple, improved anti-reflective capabilities. It utilizes Ceramic Shield 2 tech on the front and original Ceramic Shield protection on the rear.
The Air is driven by Apple's own A19 Pro SoC packing six CPU cores (two performance cores, four efficiency cores), five GPU cores with neural accelerators, a 16-core neural engine, and hardware-accelerated ray tracing.
Apple's redesigned iPhone utilizes a single rear-facing camera, a 48-megapixel shooter with f/1.6 aperture lens and sensor-shift optical image stabilization. It also functions as a 12-megapixel camera with "optical-quality" 2x telephoto, and has a digital zoom that goes up to 10x.
Around front is an 18-megapixel Center Stage camera with f/1.9 aperture, autofocus, image stabilization, and more. Both front and rear cameras can capture 4K Dolby Vision video at up to 60 frames per second.
The iPhone Plus replacement puts its thin profile front and center, meaning Apple had to maximize internal space to keep battery life respectable.
According to the company's own numbers, the iPhone Air gets up to 27 hours of local video playback on its own or up to 40 with the optional MagSafe battery pack attached.
Apple also went with a new version of its in-house modem for the iPhone Air. The C1X is said to be up to 2x faster than the original C1 found in the iPhone 16e, and uses 30 percent less energy than the Qualcomm modem in the iPhone 16 Pro.
Other noteworthy features include IP68 splash, water, and dust resistance, fast-charge capability, Face ID authentication, Wi-Fi 7, Bluetooth 6, NFC, eSIM, and a programmable Action button.
Dual Capture allows users to simultaneously record from the front and rear camera at the same time. An accessory-free iPhone Air weighs 165 grams, although the company is happy to sell you a branded case or even one of their new crossbody straps.
The iPhone Air will be available to pre-order from September 12. Pricing starts at $999 for 256GB of onboard storage, but models are available with 512GB and 1TB of space as well. Color choices include space black, cloud white, light gold, and sky blue. Look for them to launch a week later on September 19.