Hacker News Board Hacker News, browsed like a classic message board
Live data from Hacker News

iPhone Air

apple.com

Post reply on HN
Print view View original

661–670 of 1001 posts

Re: iPhone Air

#661

Post by SerCe »

nakamoto_damacy wrote: post #465

I have an iPhone 13 mini, just replaced the battery. If you want my money, give me an iPhone 17 mini with small width and height, I don't care about it being thinner like the Air. Also, no AI ruining the image quality of the expensive camera. I saw examples of a consumer-grade digital camera vs an iPhone 16 and the latter introduced "hotdog skin" effect and other effects that made the photos look over-processed.

I own a 12 mini, and I'm planning to upgrade my phone this year, it's time. If there were an iPhone 17 mini, I'd buy it, but because there isn't one, I'll probably go for the Pro to get a bigger battery. Apple knows that many folks like me would buy a cheaper mini if there were one, and not spend as much on Pro.

Re: iPhone Air

#662

Post by bapak »

ManBeardPc wrote: post #328

I want an extra thick model instead, let’s call it iPhone Travel (or Ultra?). Just thick enough so the cameras are no longer sticking out. Give me an all-week battery instead of an all-day one. Slim down the power usage and give a power saver mode that actually does make a difference. Let me go on a weekend trip in nature or festival without having to carry extra hardware or having to look for public charging station…

I don’t think many people would like a phone that is twice as heavy all the time. At least battery packs can be taken off.

If few people would buy it, Apple won't produce it. I think the Air will flop for this reason.

Re: iPhone Air

#663

Post by surajrmal »

layer8 wrote: post #256
dzink wrote: post #208

This 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-…

It's thinner, but at 165 grams it's not appreciably lighter than a regular-sized iPhone (the 16e in particular at 167 grams). People generally want a more lightweight phone more than they want a thinner phone. So it's only for people who also want a larger-than-regular iPhone screen.

6.1 inch display vs 6.5 inch display. Not quite apples to apples here.

Re: iPhone Air

#664

Post by nchase »

CephalopodMD wrote: post #581
nakamoto_damacy wrote: post #465

I have an iPhone 13 mini, just replaced the battery. If you want my money, give me an iPhone 17 mini with small width and height, I don't care about it being thinner like the Air. Also, no AI ruining the image quality of the expensive camera. I saw examples of a consumer-grade digital camera vs an iPhone 16 and the latter introduced "hotdog skin" effect and other effects that made the photos look over-processed.

Also still rocking a 13 mini. There are dozens of us! Dozens! (Also to those who say not enough people wanted a mini phone to be worth producing: I submit the case of Prego chunky pasta sauce. Not many people want a chunky pasta sauce, but you sell a whole lot more pasta sauce in total if you sell both regular and chunky pasta sauce. Malcolm Gladwell has a TED talk about this.)

Agree, and as an ex-mini user, I wish this was the world we lived in.

I presume the problem is that iPhones are a lot more expensive to produce than tomato sauce, and it's a lot more difficult to get rid of the ones that people don't buy.

Re: iPhone Air

#665

Post by rtpg »

SerCe wrote: post #661
nakamoto_damacy wrote: post #465

I have an iPhone 13 mini, just replaced the battery. If you want my money, give me an iPhone 17 mini with small width and height, I don't care about it being thinner like the Air. Also, no AI ruining the image quality of the expensive camera. I saw examples of a consumer-grade digital camera vs an iPhone 16 and the latter introduced "hotdog skin" effect and other effects that made the photos look over-processed.

I own a 12 mini, and I'm planning to upgrade my phone this year, it's time. If there were an iPhone 17 mini, I'd buy it, but because there isn't one, I'll probably go for the Pro to get a bigger battery. Apple knows that many folks like me would buy a cheaper mini if there were one, and not spend as much on Pro.

Apple still has 12 mini batteries in stock, and will for a while.

Might be worth trying to get the battery replaced at Apple.

Extra bonus: while it does cost money in theory, every time I've gotten Apple to replace the battery they end up breaking the screen, so I get a battery and phone replacement for free. 12 mini battery replacements _might_ be de facto free.

Re: iPhone Air

#666

Post by johanyc »

rifty wrote: post #651

The 16e is 167 grams, where the Air is 165 grams. It feels like the Air is to the 16e what the Pro is to the standard titled iPhone — the expensive version. Which makes the marketing feel a bit incongruent with what we've gotten here. It's not noticeably more lightweight than what is currently offered, it's less featureful than the 17, but more expensive than the 17 (albeit perhaps prettier). It seems like engineerin…

It's also a bit weird that iPhone Air being an Air is more expensive. MacBook Air and iPad Air are the cheaper options in contrast

Re: iPhone Air

#667

Post by p1necone »

giarc wrote: post #645
p1necone wrote: post #642

Can I get regular thickness but twice the battery life instead? "All day battery life" is the bare minimum dressed up as a feature - I get at least two out of my cheap android.

Unless you can deliver multi-day battery, it's useless to provide anything more than all day battery. If the battery can only last 1.5 days for example, then the user is stuck trying to find a charge in the middle of the day. All day battery means they just need to charge overnight (which most users already do).

> Unless you can deliver multi-day battery

Do you really think they couldn't?

The magsafe battery thing is actually pretty neat, but not using it to instead have a thinner phone feels pointless because you still have the giant bulge from the camera.

Re: iPhone Air

#668

Post by rr808 »

Price isn't too bad, esp now that the Pixel 10 is expensive, the base iphone is the same price for more storage which is kinda unexpected for Apple!

Re: iPhone Air

#669

Post by tqi »

jdprgm wrote: post #187

Can 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.

Some people will like the way it looks, have money, and don't care as much about overall performance/utility. Much in the same way a Rolex and Timex both tell time.

Re: iPhone Air

#670

Post by mrheosuper »

crazygringo wrote: post #564
ManBeardPc wrote: post #328

I want an extra thick model instead, let’s call it iPhone Travel (or Ultra?). Just thick enough so the cameras are no longer sticking out. Give me an all-week battery instead of an all-day one. Slim down the power usage and give a power saver mode that actually does make a difference. Let me go on a weekend trip in nature or festival without having to carry extra hardware or having to look for public charging station…

Just get the MagSafe battery, then you've got your extra-thick. It already exists. It's not going to last you all week though. That's not going to just be thick, it's going to be a cube heavy enough to double up as a weapon.

magsafe is not even close, wireless charging has terrible efficiency. Honestly the whole idea "wireless powerbank" is ridiculous. You are in need of energy; would you like to waste extra energy as heat?
Post reply on HN