Looks uncanny at that screen size, my only hope for a mini replacement is probably a reality where glasses make screen size irrelevant.
iPhone Air
821–830 of 1001 posts
Re: iPhone Air
#822I 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.
Unfortunately both the 12 Mini and the 13 Mini did terrible numbers sales-wise. People say they want small phones but not enough of them actually buy them when they are available. :(
I was extremely interested in a small phone back when the 12 Mini came out, but I didn't dare to buy it without seeing how it feels. This was during the height of the COVID lockdowns, so I couldn't go to a store and feel it in person. Ended up buying the regular iPhone 12, since that seemed like the safer choice to buy blind.
When it was time for another phone upgrade in the iPhone 15 era (because phones really don't change enough anymore to warrant more frequent upgrades than that), there was no mini option anymore. I wonder if others were like me. The Mini came out at a time where people were hesitant to try a new form factor because they couldn't try it in stores.
Re: iPhone Air
#823Mini phones please. Thickness is not a problem, solved 10 years ago.
Re: iPhone Air
#824> "This is MacBook Pro levels of compute in an iPhone, perfect for GPU-intensive AI workloads."
Am I just an old man screaming at cloud here or is it unnecessary for a phone to be focused on GPU intensive tasks ? Impressive as it is and all.
> iPhone Air features an eSIM-only design that saves space internally, helping enable the unbelievably light and thin form factor.
Also this is frustrating..
Re: iPhone Air
#825The 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
Apple’s pricing structure is: X SE < X < X Air < X Pro.
Re: iPhone Air
#8265.6 mm? Pah! The Moto Z beat them by .4 mm almost 10 years ago: https://www.androidheadlines.com/2025/05/the-moto-z-was-so-a... And, more importantly, the Moto Z had a reason for being so thin: the ability to add "mods" that attached to the back of the phone magnetically. What I don't like about iPhones in terms of practicality is that the corner camera makes it impossible to lay them on a table without wobbling. Goo…
> The Moto Z beat them
The unfortunate part is that you can make anything better in a single parameter, but Apple has effectively no competitors. People who buy Apple will continue to buy Apple.
For people to switch, the competition has to come out with something that is visibly and unbeatably better than what Apple has.
I know many people in developing countries who'd rather have a 5 year old iPhone than a new android.
Re: iPhone Air
#827> "This is MacBook Pro levels of compute in an iPhone, perfect for GPU-intensive AI workloads." Am I just an old man screaming at cloud here or is it unnecessary for a phone to be focused on GPU intensive tasks ? Impressive as it is and all. > iPhone Air features an eSIM-only design that saves space internally, helping enable the unbelievably light and thin form factor. Also this is frustrating..
Phones are the main computing device for young people and hosted LLMs are eating the world right now. Not everyone will find a problem with this, but I am hoping for practical local LLMs sooner than later, and for maximum impact, they should also be able to run on phones. This amount of computing power in a phone is what could help make that happen.
Re: iPhone Air
#828Quite frankly ,I don't trust Apple with their battery claims. Esp. when they sell magsafe packs for this one.
Sorry, but no air. Yes it would be a cool second phone in case you go to events, but in that case, I'd prefer a mini with a better camera.
Re: iPhone Air
#829I don't really see the point of making phones so thin when the camera sticks out as much as much as the phone is thick. I would rather have a flat phone that is thicker
Re: iPhone Air
#830So basically: thinner, shinier, faster. Itэs impressive from an engineering standpoint but at what point does thinness stop being a feature and start being a liability? I feel like we’ve been here before with bendgate.