Understanding the iPhone Air Isn’t Difficult
Matt Birchler believes the iPhone Air belongs to the nerds. His blog post, published over the weekend, comes following a report from Hartley Charlton at MacRumors about smartphone makers being “spooked” by the lackluster sales of the iPhone Air—so much so Apple’s rivals are abandoning plans for their own thin-and-light versions.
“We [enthusiasts] are not buying the Air because it represents the best value in the lineup or because it has the best specs you can get in an iPhone,” Birchler wrote. “You buy it because you believe that phones in the future will be thinner and lighter, and this specific device makes some significant sacrifices just to get you that feeling today.”
Birchler’s piece caught my eye because he hits on something I’ve been thinking about for awhile regarding the Air. To wit, I deliberately chose to upgrade to the Air last September—the sky blue, 1TB model on AT&T—precisely because it was appreciably thinner and lighter than, say, the iPhone 17 Pro. Intellectually, I understood the Air was not at all a bad phone, yet undeniably a worse one compared to the higher-end Pros; but that makes sense, and it explains why Apple’s product lines are stratified. Of course the most expensive iPhone is gonna be the best one from a technological standpoint. Again, though, for my use as a person with disabilities, the tradeoff for an ostensibly inferior phone was gaining the Air’s hallmark thinness and lightness—which, in everyday, practical use is an eminently sensible decision given the chunkiness of the 17 Pro. The Air is much easier to hold and carry around in my pocket, and it has a nice big screen to boot. I love my Air, despite still having misgivings over the single camera versus the three on the Pro. The Air is great for accessibility in my opinion, and it’s a great value if you consider it’s greater than the sum of its parts.
The Air’s svelte stature is the reason you choose it over the other iPhones, full stop. That’s why I don’t understand the “I finally get the iPhone Air” trope. What is there to get? The Air is actually a fucking good phone—but you don’t buy it looking for better battery life or, as I mentioned, better cameras. You buy it because it’s almost incomprehensibly thin and light and you want to lean into that attribute. In other words, buy something else if you can’t, or won’t, do so. Indeed, Birchler rightly acknowledges the majority of mainstream buyers can’t comprehend paying more for less for the Air versus something like the base iPhone 17. That’s a reasonable stance, but it reaffirms the notion you pick the Air with the utmost intention of loving its form over its function.
