Apple finally made the thinnest iPhone ever. It’s called the iPhone Air, and at just 5.6 millimeters, it feels impossibly light in your hand.
But you don’t need to look far to see the compromise: the battery. Apple put a 3,149 mAh cell inside this thing. That’s basically the same size battery the iPhone 13 had back in 2021.
Meanwhile, the regular iPhone 17 has 3,692 mAh, the 17 Pro comes in at 4,252 mAh, and the 17 Pro Max pushes past 5,000 mAh.
Apple’s thinnest phone also ships with the smallest battery, which means you’re paying for design with endurance.
Apple says you’ll get up to 27 hours of video playback and 22 hours of streaming. Sure, that sounds fine on a spec sheet, but it’s still the lowest of the lineup.
And the timing is hard to ignore: Apple launched a new MagSafe battery pack alongside the Air. It feels less like an accessory and more like an admission. If you buy this phone, you should probably buy the pack too.
It’s a move straight out of Apple’s playbook. The company has been chasing thinness for years, often at the expense of practicality.
Remember the butterfly keyboard MacBooks? They were impossibly slim, and also impossibly frustrating to type on. The iPhone Air isn’t a disaster on that scale, but the pattern is the same.
Here we are in 2025, with a $999 iPhone that looks futuristic but runs on battery technology from four years ago.
Apple can tout high-density cells and Adaptive Power mode all it wants, but physics is physics. A smaller battery is still a smaller battery.
The iPhone Air is going to appeal to people who care most about looks. It’s gorgeous, no doubt. But if you want an iPhone that lasts all day without a charger in your bag, the Air probably isn’t it.
