After a series of leaks, Apple has finally officiated the iPhone Air. Yes, this thin phone doesn’t get a number attached to it. Not to worry though, the base model is still called the iPhone 17. While both get a suite of new features, the former naturally gets more.
Lets start with what the numbered model brings to the table. On the outside, nothing much has changed. The screen is still 6.3 inches, but now it has thinner bezels and gets ProMotion. Variable refresh rate goes up to 120Hz when speed scrolling, but it can slow down all the way to 1Hz for the always-on display. Peak brightness is rated at 3,000 nits.
Inside, Apple has armed it with the 3nm A19 chip, which consists of a six-core CPU and a five core GPU. It’s also powering a lot of the on-board Apple Intelligence functions. As before, the bitten fruit brand is being shy about battery details, from actual capacity rating to use time. Beyond the usual claim of “all-day battery life”, of course.
Out back, the camera setup here is still a pair, but now made up of a 48MP main and 12MP 2x telephoto units. Though probably more importantly, the 18MP front camera is now a square, which will be helpful for image stabilisation. It also gets the Centre Stage that uses AI to not only put you in the centre of an image, but also fit everyone else you’re taking your selfie with. Worth noting that this was previously exclusive to the various iPad models.
Now, we get to the highlight that is the 5.6mm iPhone Air. Apple says it’s given it a mirror-finish titanium frame. For the screen, it measures 6.5 inches, but most of everything else that applied for the iPhone 17 applies here as well. At the back, there’s only one 48MP camera in a massive camera bump, which the company calls the plateau.
The reason for it is because many components have been moved here to let the rest of the phone be thin. Not mentions specifically if the chipset is also here, but the chipset in question is the A19 Pro. This has a six-core CPU and five-core GPU. Despite this though, there isn’t enough space for a SIM tray, so it’s eSIM only worldwide, including Malaysia.
Both the iPhone 17 and Air will be available starting 19 September, but pre-orders start 8PM on 12 September. The former starts from RM3,999, while the latter starts from RM4,999.
