My iPhone Air secret
I have a confession to make. A few weeks ago, I published my iPhone Air review and in it, I declared that the iPhone 17 Pro was the better phone for me. My plan was simple: finish the review, move my eSIM back to the 17 Pro, and carry on with my life.
Except I didn’t.
I kept using the Air for another day…then another…then another. Before I knew it, weeks had gone by, and this extended time with the device revealed something I hadn’t anticipated.
To be clear, I stand by everything in my original review, but there’s one additional downside that only became apparent with prolonged use: comfort.
This surely sounds counterintuitive. Are your eyebrows raised? After all, one of the Air’s biggest selling points is how incredibly thin and light it is. It’s noticeably lighter than my iPhone 17 Pro, which should be a good thing, right?
Here’s the catch: when I use my phone, I rest it on my pinky, which bears much of the device’s weight. You’d think the lighter phone would be easier on that finger, but I found the opposite to be true.
If the iPhone 17 Pro is a butter knife, the iPhone Air is a steak knife.
Yes, it’s lighter, but it digs into my finger far more than I expected, and there are two reasons for this, as far as I can tell.
First, even though the total weight is lower, that weight is concentrated on a smaller contact point on my finger. The pressure per square inch is actually higher, despite less overall mass in the phone.
Second, the bottom edge is a problem. Because the Air still needs all the standard cutouts (USB-C port, grilles, microphone, screws), nearly every part of the bottom edge is sharper, more jagged, and more uneven.
One of my favorite aspects of the new iPhone 17 Pro design is how smooth the corners are and how soft the aluminum feels to the touch. That’s the contrast that makes the Air feel more harsh in the hand to me.
It’s a weird phenomenon, and one I didn’t expect or even notice right away. I’m open to the possibility that I’m the only person in the world experiencing this, but it’s significant enough that it became the deciding factor that pushed me to switch back to the 17 Pro.
To recap the issues I outlined in my original review, the speakers are worse, the single camera is usually fine but occasionally annoying, and the battery life, while better than you might expect, isn’t quite as good as I always need it to be.
Now, unexpectedly, comfort has become a fourth downside for me. I gotta say, I didn’t see this coming.
And just to be super clear, I think the iPhone Air is pretty cool, and I totally get why other people love it…hell, I apparently like it enough to use it after the review was done! I only say this because, for some reason, a decent number of people seem to have plonked me into the iPhone Air Haters Club. This post isn’t going to help that reputation, but hey, what the hell am I doing here if I’m not being honest?
One final note: If you use a case, this comfort issue likely disappears entirely. But I only put a case on my phone when traveling, so for my day-to-day use, it matters to me.
