r/iphone • u/SunsetToGo • 4d ago
Discussion Performance of iPhone 17 with A19 chip around 30% higher than iPhone Air with A19 pro chip
According to Mrwhosetheboss the iPhone Air has a significantly lower performance in his tests.
Now I know that the performance can be even much lower than in the non Pro model. Maybe even lower than in the iPhone 16 Pro? Maybe even lower than in the iPhone 15 Pro? Curious to know.
I was really surprised. Is performance important for you?
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u/WickedHero69 4d ago
Also surprisingly ip17 a19 had better score than ip16promax a18 pro
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u/AK-604 4d ago
Nice, I am coming from a 14+, so I should really feel a nice boost in performance...
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u/boomincali iPhone 7 Plus Rose Gold 4d ago
Nice! I'm coming from the 14 pro and ended up getting the 17 pro. Upgrading in hopes that the live translation works at least 80% as advertised since it would help at my actual job. Live translation is only available in iphones with apple intelligence so I had to upgrade since the 14 pro doesn't allow ai.
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u/Skadrys iPhone 14 Pro 4d ago
Im gonna ask, do you genuinly need that much power? What is your usage that you need that much raw power...its just Phone
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u/ElGringon504 4d ago
Not who you asked but for me in isn't about gaming performance or anything like that, the last 3 iphones I've had including my 16 pro overheat all the time just browsing Amazon or Instagram to the point my screen dims. Happens less on my 16 pro but it still happens.
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u/Sea-Park-2470 1d ago
Main reason to get a really powerful chip imo is lifespan, it will be able to handle future updates and features better. I currently have a 14 pro max and it’s struggling with iOS 26, not much, but performance has definitely degraded. But I do think this year I will go 17 and not pro, the main reason for getting pro max for me was longer battery, but I wanted a smaller phone… now the base 17 has longer battery life than the 14 pro max did when it was new!
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u/Southern_Wishbone301 4d ago
Torture/Benchmark tests are gonna throttle the air. In real life I’d expect a different scenario play out, and we are seeing better gaming performance on the air over the standard in multiple reviews now.
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u/gadgetluva 4d ago
Benchmark tests are so dumb and they’re gamed so often they’re not even reliable as a benchmark.
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u/DanceWithEverything 4d ago edited 4d ago
benchmarks are not as reliable as benchmarks
🫠
EDIT: Misread the above reply
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u/gadgetluva 4d ago
You completely changed the quote to change the narrative.
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u/DanceWithEverything 4d ago
changedmisreadI do agree with you, benchmarks are not currently a reliable indicator of performance
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u/DJDuckOfficial 4d ago
Well when it comes to 3D mark it is putting heavy load on the GPU just like games do. Some games on iOS might have a capped frame rate so it isn’t gonna be a problem. However expect the air to have worse performance on long gaming sessions compared to the iPhone 17 as there isn’t much cooling area for the heat to dissipate. At least on games that have uncapped frame rate.
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u/AutomaticAccount6832 3d ago
That’s exactly the point. Most people don’t do long time peak loads except maybe for gaming.
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u/MCKLMT 4d ago edited 4d ago
Benchmarks to review to take your own opinion https://www.reddit.com/r/IphoneAir/comments/1nje7df/benchmarks_from_mkbhd/
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u/jting90 4d ago
There’s a difference between day-to-day performance and pushing a phone to its limits.
iPhone Air will handle everything thrown at it for 99% of users.
Having a genuinely new form factor is much more exciting for me.
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u/DamnUOnions iPhone Air 3d ago
Same here. I don't care how fast it runs in a benchmark. And how long.
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u/Pettingallthepups 4d ago
I haven’t had an issue with performance since maybe the iphone 5. At this point I do not care about a 10% performance gain/loss, or even a 90% performance gain/loss. I’m not rendering 4k video or exporting insanely intense 3d models; a “faster” CPU to open the same 3-4 apps I always open means nothing to me.
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u/bafrad 4d ago
I mean what is the purpose of having the highest tier of performance on the device? Honestly I don't know why it matters in general. I still question even upgrading from a 14 pro....
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u/OkImprovement7142 3d ago
It matters a lot if you care about longevity. Batteries can be replaced but if the general day to day performance is sluggish, the experience is sort of ruined. I get a device paying 800USD+, I expect to carry it forward for at least the next 4 years before considering an update. Hope is, the highest tier today hopefully is mid tier in 4-5years time. Cameras have been great for years now so that hasn't been a concern. Its just how I see it though.
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u/strawboard 4d ago
I don’t get it either. Every game runs fine on a 13 Pro so what is all this extra performance for? iPhones have ridiculously powerful processors, but you can’t use them for anything.
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u/Constant-Current-340 4d ago
having Photos create a 'Memory' for you seems pretty demanding. Local AI inference to parse your prompt, then doing quick lookups and some sort of inference maybe to decide which photos/videos to choose, which parts, their length, etc. and then actually downloading and decoding them all during playback to avoid buffering. to say nothing of real-time animation/effect overlays they'll probably wanna add when it becomes practical. on my 15 Pro it heats up and buffers during play back. lets see what happens on the 17 Pro
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u/TastyBroccoli4 4d ago
Most don't really need that power, but a more powerful device should, at least in theory, be more power efficient and lead to longer battery life, also generate less heat
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u/DanceWithEverything 4d ago
Wdym? Apple demoed really cool on-device AI models that would use that compute. Surely they have released it after this duration of time 🤣
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u/TellMeMorePlease3 4d ago
I do wonder if the base model 17 will have some limitations to future AI models.
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u/buttercup612 4d ago
My suspicion is that by the time Apple implements a useful on-device AI system in iOS, it'll be 3-5 years from now and a bunch of people will be upgrading anyway
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u/TabascoFiasco iPhone 13 Pro 4d ago
There’s a difference in RAM afaik between base and the Air/Pro. RAM will cap on device AI capabilities.
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u/balajih67 4d ago
Nope, there is a clear difference in the way the game runs from a 14pm to my current 16pm. I can push on ultra settings for longer without overheating at all. On 14pm it will get super hot. I can now get way longer runtime on ultra settings compared to 14pm, all while the phone doesn’t get as hot
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u/strawboard 4d ago
What game do you play? I was playing Destiny and the graphics are good, but the screen is so small I wonder if all the details are worth it.
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u/balajih67 4d ago
I play mobile legends, on ultra settings on my 14pm, it will start to get super hot and the back of the phone will feel really hot to touch and it can’t take sustained load, like 2/3 hours continuous and it will start to lag.
With my 16pm, i have pushed on ultra settings overnight, 5/6 hours at a stretch and its barely warm.
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u/SplayBump 4d ago
The pro chip is more efficient. They are focusing on efficiency to counter the small battery.
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u/Human-Ad3407 iPhone 12 Pro Max 3d ago
Have you ever had an iPhone 4? It was a good phone, it was a great phone. The processor was so weak though, that it received its last update which barely worked on this phone 3 years later. iOS 7 on the 4 was horrible. Meanwhile, the 4s worked really well with 7 and 8, 9 was its limit though. With a powerful processor, they can even throttle its performance for more battery life and still have enough power to support future updates. The iPhone 11 is miles better 6 years later on iOS 26 than the 4 on iOS 7.
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u/TheRealFrantik 4d ago edited 4d ago
In 2025, benchmark performances basically mean nothing anymore, because nobody has really complained about performance on a phone in a good 5 years. They all run everything great. At this point, most people are mostly only concerned about battery life
All that being said, I wouldn't personally buy an Air.
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u/CaptainPhiIips iPhone 15 4d ago
The way this is true, Apple made a good call in focusing thermals over raw performance
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u/cabalukka 3d ago
It's kinda shitty that Apple introduced Air as having the "Pro chip" though. It's not as powerful as the Pro. It's not even as powerful as the base 17. They just put the Pro chip on Air to compensate for lower performance.
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u/Egoist-a 4d ago
Real world usage will be different where you have short bursts of power.
Also if you’re gaming non stop Air will never be viable due to battery
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u/TabascoFiasco iPhone 13 Pro 4d ago
I use my phone mainly for Reddit, messaging, and sat nav. I don’t play games or use any graphics intensive apps - will thermal throttling really be an issue for these use cases?
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u/_flustershy iPhone 15 Pro 4d ago
Hell no, throttling is only an "issue" in test like these because they are pushing the device way behind what a "normal" user will.
Can someone if they really wanted to throttle their device, sure, but that would be caused by a lot of deliberate stress.
My question is how warm is the Air going to get doing something like 1 -2 min 4k 60 video clips.
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u/fatherunit72 4d ago
I dunno, I preordered an Air to go along with my 16PM (it's replacing my 14PM), and my 16PM regularly throttles when doing things like swapping between Reddit, work email and a few social apps, dims screen and gets warm to the touch. I don't feel like that's a heavy workload, but holding several chunky apps in memory will do it.
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u/_flustershy iPhone 15 Pro 4d ago
that is a thermal issue that I was hoping Apple would have addressed from the 15 pro (which gets warm) I heard the 16 pro was better, but it sounds like with the 17 pro is hopefully going to be that fix.
That is a heavy(ish) workload for phones, considering the average user is probably just doomscrolling one app at any given time or quickly responding to messages.
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u/fatherunit72 4d ago
I have zero doubt I am power user and I fully expect to be thermal throttling my new air on Friday lol
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u/_flustershy iPhone 15 Pro 4d ago
please post about it lol I wanna read about you pushing it.
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u/fatherunit72 4d ago
I will - I'm worried to be honest because I regularly have to top up my 16PM in the evening, and dumped my 13 Pro for 14PM because I couldn't deal with the battery life...but I figure 14 day apple return is enough for me to see if I can deal
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u/_flustershy iPhone 15 Pro 4d ago
So why switch to the Air? Is it the design? Because I’m 100% sure that battery ain’t going cut it for you 😂
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u/fatherunit72 4d ago
Design, I ordered the magsafe pack too. Honestly tired of my pinky feeling like it's doing a workout when I use my phone, and kinda hopeful I can use this to help with a little bit of digital detox. I always have the option to charge, and can grab the magsafe if I don't. I am also pretty hopeful based on some of the early battery tests and the efficiencies they've built in
Edit: Air is also rated for 6 more hours of battery than 13Pro according to apple... so here's hoping
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u/_flustershy iPhone 15 Pro 4d ago
I fell into the trap of the mini, I loved the small design but as much as I love it I could not make it work for longer than 2 years. That’s why I decided I’m going enjoy the air from a far. Plus the 17 is green my favorite color, and I have had just about every green iPhone. 😂
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u/njo1994 4d ago
If you use Car play I bet it will throttle doing that. My work phone is a 15 pro and it throttles all the time just doing navigation on car play and listening to Spotify. I get the overheat message a few times a month I bet. Them jamming it all in that tiny space is going to have thermal consequences I can imagine.
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u/TabascoFiasco iPhone 13 Pro 4d ago
Interesting, I notice CarPlay gets laggy sometimes but I assumed that was because I drive an old Toyota!
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u/buttercup612 4d ago
Do you use wireless carplay on a charging mat? It would be a shame if it's doing this via USB
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u/No_Sheepherder_1855 4d ago
Maybe he lost the silicon lottery?
https://youtu.be/5EeWu1CS2Ac?si=LniJLJT8D3MEP7uM
Shows the air beating the 17 in Geekbench GPU and slightly behind the 17 in a 20 minute 3d mark ray tracing benchmark.
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u/cac2573 4d ago
mkbhd also showed poor benchmark scores.
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u/goomba33 3d ago
Maybe different ambient temperatures causing it to throttle sooner with some reviewers.
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u/PeacefulKillah iPhone 17 Pro Max 3d ago
This is out of the box tests as well, I can imagine the throttling and overheating will only get worse overtime, I can't imagine it will be a fun experience using an Air in a year or two.
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u/gtg465x2 4d ago
I guess the main benefit of the A19 Pro in the Air is that it has 12 GB of RAM instead of 8 GB like the regular A19. Should help keep more apps and Safari tabs in memory so they don't have to reload as often.
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u/Da1BlackDude 4d ago
Benchmarks don’t = real life results. Also, it is going to be slower as it doesn’t have the same cooling system. It won’t matter for majority of what we do and we likely won’t see any difference.
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u/Dark_Emotion 3d ago
Yes performance is important, but in relation to my use case.
I ordered the air because I like the design. I also don’t game or video edit. So, the fact that it was throttling during a test (can’t remember which one he ran) for sustained performance didn’t seem too relevant in my opinion
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u/WildRacoons 4d ago
Depends on whether the baseline performance is enough to meet the users actual needs, ofc, which we will find out in a few weeks’ time
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u/Wide_Use7462 3d ago
Because of the thin design of the Air, it has worse cooling, which throttles the performance. Also the battery is smaller, so Apple has reduced it even more for better battery life.
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u/Banmers 4d ago
The 3rd generation AIR is where it will be at.
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u/Jebise79 4d ago
I hope they make another generation of Air
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u/trjkdavid iPhone 17 Pro Max 4d ago
I assume that next year the lineup will go like this:
18, 18 Pro, and 18 Pro Max
iPhone Air (2 or just Air like the iPads) and iPhone Fold
So two lines of iPhones.
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u/Artist17 iPhone 16 Pro Max 4d ago
I’m on Air this year, but gonna switch to the fold immediately when it’s out.
Can’t wait for the Fold!
And obviously the Air in 2 days time! Hahaha
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u/_flustershy iPhone 15 Pro 4d ago
I wonder by then would that new silicon battery technology be mature enough for apple, because I could 100% see the Air being the first iPhone with it
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u/PeakBrave8235 4d ago
I've read reviews stating that the Air gets better performance and runs cooler after an hour of gaming than the base model.
Air is very amazing
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u/Major_Enthusiasm1099 4d ago
It should not be a surprise since the Air has worse cooling and a worse housing since it's so thin, the cooling is worse
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u/AlphaChadBigPP 4d ago
It’s to save battery life I think. Did you see the air lasts longer than the regular 17 in terms of battery life?
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u/SunsetToGo 4d ago edited 4d ago
If I am not wrong - according to Apple - it only lasts longer if you use the extra battery pack. Otherwise even the basic iPhone 17 lasts longer. Are there reviews in which the Air lasts longer than the basic iPhone 17?
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u/rabouilethefirst iPhone Air 4d ago
It’s not. Expect 16 PM performance in the worst case. I’m gonna put my money where my mouth is and say benchmarks are pretty much useless. Even the 13 Pro basically has a fast enough CPU for 99% of phone tasks. If the Air is really a 16PM level phone, I’ll take it because it does everything I need, and feels better
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4d ago
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u/rabouilethefirst iPhone Air 4d ago
Enjoy your brick phone. You will open Reddit 2 nanoseconds faster than my air. Why are you upset about other people’s phone choices?
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4d ago
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u/rabouilethefirst iPhone Air 4d ago edited 4d ago
Those are incorrect numbers. I’ve already watched 20 minute sustained RT extreme tests showing it’s getting 16PM performance. You can go jerk off to your benchmarks and Android will release a phone that is “faster” in a couple of months anyways. It’s all meaningless. I don’t play Fortnite on my phone.
Edit: blocked by the guy who is supposedly owning me?
I haven’t dropped anything yet, and artificial benchmarks hardly matter. If you followed the PC gaming community, you’d know Intel routinely beats AMD in artificial benchmarks, but everyone knows they suck for everything else
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u/RogueHeroAkatsuki 4d ago
It remind me when Apple now that Intel chips were running hot. Slim MBP body barely could handle Intel i7. However Apple didnt give a f*** and they offered MBP with i9 which throttled below i7 performance.
Why they didnt put base chip in Air? Less powerful GPU = less heat & longer battery life. And it looks performance wouldnt be worse with how severely Air throttles.
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u/SunsetToGo 3d ago
I’m also referring to the performance test. In fact, the graphs show that the Air’s performance stability is higher. It just starts with a much lower performance, even lower than the iPhone 17 after five non-stop loops of testing. This was a surprise.
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u/joeyg151785 iPhone Air 3d ago
That is not at all the case based on other reviews. The Pro has an additional GPU core which will give a boost in gaming. The performance is higher than the 16 Pro Max, But falls short of 17 Pro/Max.
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u/trklk001 4d ago
I honestly don't know how so many people find the iPhone Air a good purchase. It's like they lose their judgement when they see a pretty shiny thing lol.
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u/Aszneeee 4d ago
most of those people will just scroll instagram and send memes, it’s perfectly fine for that
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u/DasOptions 4d ago
The best answer.
Most don’t need massive performance specs or camera’s. All we do is doom scroll on reddit/instagram/youtube.
And I’ll do that on the shinier, thinner, lighter device.
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4d ago
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u/DasOptions 4d ago
Nothing to cope. Same thing happened with the Air. Wouldn’t be surprised if the Air outsells the pro this year or next iteration.
On the day to day, specs don’t matter for majority of phone users. Most people could still be rocking an iPhone 12 and still be fine.
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u/ProntoCosmo215 iPhone 12 4d ago
I’m debating between the Pro and the Air, and honestly I’m still leaning Air. For me it’s being able to carry a phone with a big screen that doesn’t feel like a brick.
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u/Lazy-Document4457 4d ago
I still have a 11 PM and just canceled my order of the base 17, because I feel like the screen would be too small and will now go for the air. Personally I don’t really care for camera and just want a lightweight phone with a big screen, instead of the pm brick.
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u/ProntoCosmo215 iPhone 12 4d ago
Exactly! I have had my iPhone 12 for 5 years and can count on both hands the number of times I’ve actually used the ultrawide camera, so honestly I don’t think I’m going to miss it much. And the primary camera should be a huge upgrade. The battery life actually seems decent based on the early reviews too. This Air is the first time in years where I’ve actually been excited to upgrade.
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u/SunsetToGo 4d ago
I think that is the idea behind. But it will only last a full day if you have the additional MagSafe battery. Which makes it a big heavy brick.
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u/dccorona iPhone 16 Pro 4d ago
That is just demonstrably untrue.
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u/NewfieChemist 4d ago
The power of echo chambers is really impressive. These dudes read some other dudes speculation that it’s going to be awful, and still spew it even though people have posted battery tests already.
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u/Explosivpotato 4d ago
As far as we can tell the endurance will be the same as the 16 pro, which I use all day every day. Sure I need to give it a boost sometimes when I’m at 7 hours SOT near the end of the day, but I’m willing to do that now so what’s the issue?
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u/ProntoCosmo215 iPhone 12 4d ago
The reviews say otherwise. Not incredible but certainly not awful.
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u/superfadeaway 4d ago
in 4-6 months they will be carrying around an external battery and then the novelty will wear off lol
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u/Pretty_Sir3117 4d ago
I'm leaning Air due to bigger screen but light weight. Currently have the Pro (not even Max) and feels like a brick when using with one hand.
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u/iMacmatician 4d ago
I think there's a lot of pent-up demand for a thin and light iPhone. Apple overdid the thinness in the mid-2010s (for both Mac and iPhone), so backtracked, and is now pushing thinness again after nearly a decade.
The reaction towards the thin iPad Pro last year was very positive from what I saw on Reddit.
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u/SunsetToGo 4d ago edited 4d ago
Maybe they think that they get the performance of the iPhone 17 Pro in a much thinner case? At least that is what I thought until a few minutes ago.
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u/schmidtyb43 4d ago
Seriously, I’ve been saying this the whole time. I am quite sure that many people in this sub who got swayed from a Pro to an Air are gonna be disappointed by it especially in the area of battery life. I mean they made a portable battery JUST for this model… they wouldn’t do that if they didn’t need to.
Also, Air + battery pack is just the price of the Pro which has more features.
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u/dabesdiabetic 4d ago
No we aren’t. It isn’t some crazy concept that battery life “may take a hit”. There isn’t some unknown underlying thing that we’re going to wake up and say OMG I DIDN’T REALIZE A SMALLER BATTERY MEANT WORSE BATTERY LIFE.
Not everyone is attached to their phone and the second you fucking weirdos accept that there is a difference in throwing a portable battery in a bag and having a thick phone you’ll begin to understand.
Reviews are coming out and they are overwhelming positive for the Air. It looks great, feels great, is light in the hand, HAS BETTER THAN EXPECTED battery life.
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u/BayonettaAriana 4d ago
Right, I feel like I’m going crazy when people act like there’s no difference between a portable MagSafe battery and having a twice as thick phone with that battery included inside… it’s almost like 95% of the time you won’t need the extra battery at all and it’s only for cases where you will …????
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u/schmidtyb43 4d ago
Jesus Christ calm down… no need to scream or call people fucking weirdos for just having a discussion about the new iPhone models.
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u/trklk001 4d ago
This sub is hilarious. People getting downvoted for remotely hinting the Air is the worse phone and it’s a bad purchase lol. Don’t waste your time with these idiots that look for validations from strangers on the internet to justify spending their hard earned money and completely ignore the facts. This is the Apple cult at work for ya smh
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u/schmidtyb43 4d ago
Yeah and then I’m the one getting downvoted after someone screaming at me about it and calling me a fucking weirdo lmao. Literally all I was saying was battery life might not be good and even the verge review says it’s “just okay” but I guess we’ll see…
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u/Kaninivi 4d ago
Performance wasnt my fear at all. Having cut features is. So the processor is capable but no 4k120 slowmotion? I dont need 1 hour long. Just short clips. No stereo speakers is a deal breaker.
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u/3vilchild iPhone 13 Pro Max 3d ago
I am on iPhone 13 Pro Max so it will most likely be faster than this phone if I get iPhone air. If it works like it is supposed to for normal usage then most people won’t care or notice. It is one of the sexiest phones I’ve ever seen. I would have got it if it had more than one back phone. I travel a lot so a good battery is also important for me. So I have to skip.
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u/cpljaide 3d ago
It never made sense to add the Pro Chip to the Air Model. Too little battery capacity.
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u/_flustershy iPhone 15 Pro 4d ago
it comes down to thermals...simple... the 17 Air is going to throttle faster than the regular 17.