With the iPhone 17 lineup, Apple has canceled its Plus model in favor of the new iPhone Air. But how do these models compare to each other?
Physical size and thinness
Of course, the most immediate and impressive difference between the iPhone Air and the iPhone 16 Plus is the design difference. The iPhone Air is significantly thinner and lighter:
- Thickness 5.64 mm, 7.80 mm to lower
- 199 g (7.03 oz) to 165 g (5.82 oz)
The iPhone Air is shorter and narrower than the iPhone 16 Plus.
- 6.15 from 6.33 inches (160.9 mm) to (156.2 mm)
- 2.94 inch (74.7 mm) wide, starting from 3.06 inch (77.8 mm)
Unlike the iPhone 16 Plus, the camera plateau on the back is now completely wider. But it’s short.
Simpler colors
Part of the new design is a new palette of colour. Compared to the iPhone 16 Plus, the iPhone Air colours are much easier. iPhone Air is installed Sky Blue, Light Gold, Cloud White, Space BlackMeanwhile, the iPhone 16 Plus was ultramarine, teal, pink, white and black.
The iPhone Air has the same Super Retina XDR display feature on the iPhone 17 Pro, including promotions! This brings some great new features compared to the iPhone 16 Plus.
- Adaptive refresh rates from low 1Hz to 120Hz heights. This improves smoother emotional display and battery life.
- Always On Display: If your iPhone Air is sleeping, the display will show time, widgets, and notifications.
However, the display is a little smaller at 6.55 inches compared to the 6.69 inches. Specifically, the resolution is as follows:
- iPhone Air: 2736×1260 at 460 ppi
- iPhone 16 Plus: 2796×1290 at 460 ppi
The iPhone Air comes with Ceramic Shield 2. This brings some new features.
Finally, all new iPhone models this year feature 3,000 nits of peak display brightness outdoors since last year 2000. In combination with the new anti-reflective coating, Apple says this will provide twice as much contrast outdoors.
A19 chip
The A19 Pro chip delivers even better performance than the iPhone 16 Plus with the iPhone Air using the A18. The new features are focused heavily on improving AI capabilities. New neural accelerators significantly improve performance for machine learning and artificial intelligence tasks. Apple says it will provide Power for the MacBook Pro-Levels. Also, according to Apple, the A19 Pro’s GPUs will be improved by gaming, as stated that GPUs are “up to 3x peak GPU computing over the previous generation.”
The iPhone Air features 8 GB to 12 GB of RAM on the iPhone 16 Plus. The A19 Pro also features an increase in memory bandwidth, but Apple has not specified how much it has increased.
Battery life and charging
According to Apple’s testing, the iPhone Air offers roughly the same battery performance as the iPhone 16 Plus (in a specific scenario).
- Up to 27 hours of video playback (download), same as iPhone 16 Plus
- Streamed video playback from 24 hours to up to 22 hours
Apple also offers special Magsafe battery accessories. Here’s the results when using it:
- Video playback (download) from 27 hours to up to 40 hours
- Streamed video playback from 24 hours to up to 35 hours
The iPhone Air offers slightly faster charging, so if you use an adapter of 20W or more, you can get up to 50% charge in 30 minutes, rather than 35 minutes.
There are no super wide cameras
To make the iPhone air extremely thin, we had to make some compromises. One of them is that there are no ultra-width cameras. However, there’s the same amazing 48MP Fusion Wide camera from the rest of the iPhone 17 lineup! “fusion” here means that instead of relying on a low-quality digital zoom, you can get a full resolution 12MP photo with 2x zoom. This camera is not really new compared to the iPhone 16 Plus, but features improved processing. It also holds the same great portrait mode photos. However, you lose the cinematic mode due to video recording.
All-new center stage front camera
One of the headline features of the new iPhone lineup is the all-new center stage front camera. This camera now uses a square image sensor. This means you can switch between portrait photos and landscape photos without rotating your phone. The sensor is currently at 18MP, so the photos are always at high resolution.
The square sensor and high resolution make it possible to center stage your iPhone for the first time. Like the iPad, this means that the camera automatically adjusts the frame to make it visible on facetie time calls or other video calls. However, center stage also works when taking selfies. The camera automatically adjusts the frame and switches between portraits and landscapes depending on who is in the frame. When recording video, it is super-stabilized, just like the action mode of the rear camera.
Finally, the new dual capture mode allows you to ultimately record video simultaneously on both the front and rear cameras.
New N1 Wireless Networking Chip
Using the iPhone Air, Apple introduced its first in-house wireless chip. In addition to improving overall wireless performance and reliability for features that rely on this chip (such as personal hotspots and airdrops), this new chip on the iPhone Air is now Bluetooth 6 instead of 5.3.
The iPhone Air also has an accurate dual frequency GPS for more accurate and reliable GPS features, adding support for India’s NAVIC.
New Apple-designed C1X cellular modem
The iPhone Air is the first iPhone to acquire Apple’s new C1X modem. This is an enhancement to the C1 modem from the iPhone 16e. The C1 already offers better performance than existing Qualcomm modems, with Apple saying that the C1X is up to twice as fast as the C1, but uses 30% less energy than the previous Qualcomm modems.
However, there is one drawback. The C1X does not support MMWAVE 5G, so it is limited to 6GHz sub-speed.
Pricing and availability
The iPhone Air starts at $999 with 256 GB of storage. This comes in 256 GB of storage for the same price as the iPhone 16 Plus. However, there is no option for $899 128 GB, as was the case with the 16 Plus. Available for 512 GB for $1,199. This is the same as the 512GB iPhone 16 Plus. Finally, there’s also a $1,399 1TB option.
iPhone Air is available for purchase online and in store now.
My favourite apple accessories:
(TagStoTRASSLATE) iPhone 16 Plus
