The ultra-thin iPhone Air is better than you’d expect, but it’s still too high a price to pay for a slim frame.

I’ve enjoyed using the iPhone Air more than I expected to, but there are too many downsides to recommend it to most people. Unless you love the ultra-slim design, the regular iPhone 17 is a much better buy.

The iPhone Air is Apple’s most interesting, fun and likely divisive phone in a decade. It’s surprisingly durable, designed with such flair that it feels wonderful to pick up and does what it sets out to do very well. But, there are sacrifices here – and for some, they will simply be too much.

The Apple iPhone Air is an exciting phone that favors design and aesthetics over features and raw performance. It looks terrific and is a joy to use, but lacks some capabilities of other models.