iPhone Air is here, and I already can’t imagine going back

iPhone Air has arrived, and our full, in-depth review is here. But I’ve only had Apple’s ultra-thin model for half a day now, and my first impressions are clear: this feels like the new normal.

iPhone Air first impressions: the new normal

I picked up Apple’s new ultra-thin iPhone early this morning.

After only half a day of use, I don’t know what the battery life will be like. And I haven’t yet felt the pain of missing the Telephoto and Ultra Wide cameras.

Yet already, I can’t imagine going back to a thicker, heavier iPhone.

Funnily enough, my first impressions of the iPhone Air haven’t quite been what I expected.

I thought the new design would make it feel futuristic—the way iPhone X did.

Instead, iPhone Air just feels like…the new normal.

I’ve used the Air off and on for my usual, everyday things. Listening to music, browsing the web, chatting on Slack, and so on.

But I’ve also been preparing to travel this evening. And the mental distraction that’s brought has, in some ways, kept me from giving my shiny Sky Blue Air the special attention a new iPhone deserves.

I’ve just been using it like any other iPhone. No fawning over it. No trying to push it to its limits.

And rather than amazing me with how thin it is, the Air has sneakily, and very quickly, become my new internal standard for what an iPhone should be.

Setting a new base standard for iPhone

iPhone Air doesn’t feel like an iPhone from the future, the way I thought it would.

Rather, I see it as the new default iPhone of the present.

Apple’s Pro models, meanwhile, feel like specialized SKUs for heavy-use customers.

I love how our Editor-in-Chief, Chance, put it in his iPhone 17 Pro review:

The iPhone 17 Pro feels like the “2021 MacBook Pro-ification” of the iPhone.

Where iPhone 17 Pro bulked up to please power users, iPhone Air just feels like what should be the new standard iPhone.

In the iPhone’s early days, Apple only offered a single model. No Pro, Pro Max, Air, on so on.

If that strategy was still around, iPhone Air feels like the model Apple would sell.

Fortunately, there are plenty of options in Apple’s lineup. An iPhone for everyone. And I think that’s a great thing.

But just as the MacBook Air became the new go-to Mac over time, and the original iPad Air felt like the proper successor to prior iPad models, the iPhone Air feels set to become the new normal for all.

Not right away. It has too many limitations for that. But after a few years of iteration, with better battery and maybe more cameras? The Air could truly soar.

Did you buy an iPhone Air? What have your first impressions been? Let us know in the comments.

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