> iPhone Air features an eSIM-only design that saves space internally, helping enable the unbelievably light and thin form factor. I've only ever had phones with at least one (regular/physical) eSIM, and a 'slot' for an eSIM for travel. What are the pros/cons of only eSIMs? Edit: I'm not questioning eSIMs, which I know can be handy: my iPhone SE3 is physical+eSIM. I'm curious about no physical SIM. If you can support…
iPhone Air
441–450 of 1001 posts
Re: iPhone Air
#442Re: iPhone Air
#443It's more the other two dimensions that I want shrunk. Did anyone think their phone was too thick to fit in their pocket?
I’ve been a little concerned that the (non-transparent) back is “protected” by glass. I understand that Marketing has to work with what they’re given, but that’s a bit much.
Re: iPhone Air
#444I would prefer my phone to be operable by one hand.
Re: iPhone Air
#445"Impossibly thin" is right in line with Patrick McGee's "Apple in China" who argues that the main reason for Apple's designs is to keep imitators at bay by introducing manufacturing challenges that only they can meet. Indeed impossible at the time of release. One generation after the other. He estimates this gains them about 6 months of headway. Tough world. (Yes, to be fair, there is more to this new phone than just…
The Samsung S25 Edge, which has already been on the market for a while, seems to be pretty popular. It's 0.16mm thicker than the Air. I've got to admit it was surprisingly pleasant to hold. I even did a low key bend test and it did not bend, but I literally had store security walk up to me and ask me not to do that. https://www.samsung.com/us/smartphones/galaxy-s25-edge/
Are you suggesting they did this because they expected it to bend because it was thin? If so, I doubt it. Regardless of thickness, I suspect security would ask someone not to physically damage their devices.
Re: iPhone Air
#446This has a couple of up sides. 1. Biggest is that Apple can finally tell if people really want a thinner phone (I don’t). Maybe once they find out the answer, they can finally start using the space more productively. 2. They mentioned local LLM in passing, but this is the biggest possible selling point of the executives actually back real work on making them consumer-level easy. Have a LLM marketplace. Let users sub-…
Sigh. I can't stand the camera bump. I would run not walk to the nearest Apple store with all my savings if they made a phone where the camera bump is made flush by adding thickness elsewhere to match, filled with extra battery. Thing would last for weeks. Ah well back to reality.
Cant a case do this for you?
Re: iPhone Air
#447Can someone that is actually interested in this explain the appeal? Thin on its own I get but thin with a giant bump 100% defeats the whole point for me. Seems clear at this point there is little hope of them engineering their way into thin cameras.
There's nowhere to go with phones than thinner if you aren't doing folding. Thinness has practical value but past a certain point, probably not very much. Marketing will create hype and desire and the feeling of exclusiveness. Those will lead to sales. Not every big change is an actual innovation. A lot if just engineering sales via these methods, which aren't very different than fashion, jewelry, or luxury cars. I m…
Umm, smaller? We don't need thinner, we need smaller.
Re: iPhone Air
#448Who actually wants a thinner iPhone?
Supermodels who wear really tight jeans. We care about minority here sir.
HN is mostly male. We need the opinion of the women that put a lot of effort into their appearance. Not wishing to over-generalise, but they need a thin phone that takes awesome selfies and shows that they are higher status than those with old fashioned bulky phones. Apple have ticked the boxes and they have probably booked out all the prime advertising spots to reach this demographic.
Re: iPhone Air
#449At least air is titanium. Pro returning back to aluminum is very-very bad for durability. Aluminium is very soft: it just deforms to a splash on every drop. I really hope they go back to steel.
They also said that this was the first unibody iPhone. Can titanium be made the same way? The unibody MacBooks are really nice though I’m not sure if the same rigidity issues are at play in such small devices.
Re: iPhone Air
#450"Impossibly thin" is right in line with Patrick McGee's "Apple in China" who argues that the main reason for Apple's designs is to keep imitators at bay by introducing manufacturing challenges that only they can meet. Indeed impossible at the time of release. One generation after the other. He estimates this gains them about 6 months of headway. Tough world. (Yes, to be fair, there is more to this new phone than just…
Is anyone buying an iPhone because it's slightly thinner than other phones? I've never heard anyone say the width of the phone was their reason for picking an iPhone, or any phone for that matter.
Yes. I have at least two co-workers that have stated (we will see if they follow through) that they are going to move from their current phones (13 Pro and 15 Pro) to the Air because of the thinness.