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I have similar SOT with my iPhone. My problem is it's in a no wifi, 1-2 bars area 9-10 hours a day. Plus tasks like CGM, Home, Find My and Siri drain a ton of the battery in the background. I plan on trying out the Air for a week. If that doesn't work out, I'll just grab the regular 17.
Oh yes, low cellular signal connection and no Wifi will definitely draw down the battery.

You might be a candidate for the Pro Max with the larger battery ?
 
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I’ve traditionally always gone Pro Max. I’ve always enjoyed the premium materials and bigger screen. I’m currently testing both the 17 Pro Max and the Air and, I’m torn.

The Air for me, would be perfect with a 6’9 display and a slightly bigger battery. The other concerns for me is the speaker and the single camera, although I’m not a pro photographer, some of the pro camera features are nice to have for the odd time I use them. Decisions, decisions.

Same exact situation here. Bought a 17 Pro Max because that’s what I’ve always done in the past. Then I realized how exciting the Air was and bought one on a whim.

The 17 Pro Max feels way better in-hand than I thought. I prefer the feel of aluminum over the Air’s titanium bezel. On the other hand, the Air feels incredible in every other way.

Ended up activating the eSIM on the Air and will try to use it exclusively over the next 1-2 weeks since I know exactly what to expect from the Pro Max.

It feels silly sacrificing so may Pro features for from factor, but at the same time I’m not really sure how much I care about them.

It’s also nice to get so much on trade-in from the Pro Max every year. The Air will probably be worth a bit less at trade-in but it also costs less to begin with.

All that said, I’m still incredibly torn on which to keep.
 
I went from the 15PM Blue titanium to the Sky Blue Air. It will arrive on Tuesday but I saw a demo unit today and I was impressed with how thin it was. Unfortunately you cant pick them up so I am still curious how it feels.

I mainly decided to go with the Air based on screen size. TMobile changed their plans with 5GPlus and I wouldn't get a decent deal on the PM, so I put $100 down and got a phone payment of $4.13 a month so I am thrilled.
 
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Oh yes, low cellular signal connection and no Wifi will definitely draw down the battery.

You might be a candidate for the Pro Max with the larger battery ?

Big NO on the Pro Max. My brother has a 15PM and when I use it, I tend to drop it 3-5 times in a 1-hour period. The 17PM is even heavier and chunkier.

I have the 15 Pro (187g) as a second phone and even that's heavier than I'd like (using a 144g SE3 as my DD).
 
15 pro max. I enjoy how thin and light the Air is but it feels like something is missing. I don’t care about the speaker or even battery, I think one lens is bugging me. The pro max would probably feel more premium to me because of its abilities. I absolutely hate aluminum and I’m not crazy about the colors but I might consider an exchange in a few days
 
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I’ve been using my Air for two days now and I think it’s awesome. Like, quite literally I was in awe taking it from the box and holding it for the first time. Really don’t think the reviews have done it any justice at all.

For me, this represents an engineering marvel. Something so powerful yet is barely perceptible in my pocket. It is delightful to hold in the hand and so much more ergonomic than the Pro Max it replaces.

The battery life has been absolutely fine for me and I don’t mind the single camera at all as I only use my phone for quick snaps so the slight compromises don’t affect me.

Did I mention it’s just incredible to hold and use? 😆
 
Good to hear I can’t wait to get my air. I held my wife’s 17 pro and it didn’t really wow me. I can’t even imagine liking the thicker and heavier pro max when I’ve been hoping they go thinner for a while now. She’s a content creator and I’m terrible at taking photos. The air will be a welcome change for me! For years I’ve always got the best iPhone and upgraded yearly but this year just didn’t feel the same type of excitement for the pm.
Thats great.
Youll love the air.

There is a LOT of online chatter about it and YouTube videos as its the model that is really turning heads this year and rightly so.

TL;DR - the Air's durability claims are very true - the Pros scuff and dent and scratch easily (theres that aluminium build problem!) but the air hold up well.

The battery is not an issue of course depending how you use your phone.

I used it a lot yesterday and on my first full day starting at 100% at 7.30am I made it to 10.30pm with 10% remaining.

Now, my pro max 16 sometimes performed the same - around 10% at night - though to be fair sometimes it was on 30.


No regrets whatsoever about the air over the pro.
 
15 pro max. I enjoy how thin and light the Air is but it feels like something is missing. I don’t care about the speaker or even battery, I think one lens is bugging me. The pro max would probably feel more premium to me because of its abilities. I absolutely hate aluminum and I’m not crazy about the colors but I might consider an exchange in a few days
Im in the exact same spot. I was taking a video yesterday of our 6 month old and forgot how much I use the ultra wide.
 
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I’ve been using my Air for two days now and I think it’s awesome. Like, quite literally I was in awe taking it from the box and holding it for the first time. Really don’t think the reviews have done it any justice at all.

For me, this represents an engineering marvel. Something so powerful yet is barely perceptible in my pocket. It is delightful to hold in the hand and so much more ergonomic than the Pro Max it replaces.

The battery life has been absolutely fine for me and I don’t mind the single camera at all as I only use my phone for quick snaps so the slight compromises don’t affect me.

Did I mention it’s just incredible to hold and use? 😆
This, exactly and word for word from me too! Switching from a 16 Pro.

I think Steve Jobs is smiling right now 😍
 
This week will be the test when people start using them on 5G and not wifi on the lounge ;)
Yes!
Starting Monday I will be in my normal weekday routine and will find out how the Air compares to my previous phone.

Still loving the battery life over the weekend - it's been a super battery miser - can't believe how much it has at the end of the day!
 
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Yes!
Starting Monday I will be in my normal weekday routine and will find out how the Air compares to my previous phone.

Still loving the battery life over the weekend - it's been a super battery miser - can't believe how much it has at the end of the day!
I can already confirm that the Air has good/decent battery in a work day/outside environment. I did an 8 hour shift on Friday evening and the battery is more than fine on 5G. It actually makes no difference whatsoever.
 
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I can already confirm that the Air has good/decent battery in a work day/outside environment. I did an 8 hour shift on Friday evening and the battery is more than fine on 5G. It actually makes no difference whatsoever.
But the true test if after all the app optimizations, settings are finalized and battery leveling this weekend.....

Can't wait for work (.....wait, did I say that ) ???
 
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I think the Air will ..absolutely get slaughtered by fast core tasks. Kind of what others are already starting to see.
you think? do you know about chip and GPU on the phone? it ain't much different from other 17s.


Apple iPhone Air

Apple iPhone 17

Apple iPhone 17 Pro
Samsung Galaxy S25 Edge
Geekbench 6 single-core3,6213,6343,8043,077
Geekbench 6 multicore9,1879,2569,8679,598

https://edition.cnn.com/cnn-underscored/reviews/iphone-air

For comparison, Air is faster than fastest 16 pro

iPhone 16 Pro Max Benchmarks​


CPU Benchmark Scores​

3428
Single-Core Score
8503
 
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you think? do you know about chip and GPU on the phone? it ain't much different from other 17s.

Apple iPhone Air

Apple iPhone 17

Apple iPhone 17 Pro

Samsung Galaxy S25 Edge
Geekbench 6 single-core3,6213,6343,8043,077
Geekbench 6 multicore9,1879,2569,8679,598

https://edition.cnn.com/cnn-underscored/reviews/iphone-air

For comparison, Air is faster than fastest 16 pro

iPhone 16 Pro Max Benchmarks​


CPU Benchmark Scores​

3428
Single-Core Score
8503
Good scores. However I have to point out that those are CPU scores and not the GPU one.
 
Good scores. However I have to point out that those are CPU scores and not the GPU one.
I don't think there is big difference in GPU scores but ymmv. I don't game on phones or edit videos on them, so I really don't care about phone's GPU.

The iPhone 17 Pro’s A19 Pro with a 6-core GPU revved a multi-core score of 9,746, as we have previously covered, while the iPhone Air’s 5-core A19 Pro chip landed at 9,737. The score sits just slightly below the performance level of the iPhone 17 Pro, which roughly shows an 8 to 10 percent decrease in performance.
 
15PM. The 15PM genuinely feels old and silly when I pick it up now. Absolutely no way I could go back.

So far battery life seems fine. Battery life sucked on my 15PM anyway, for such a large phone.

The only concern for me is just the lack of a telephoto camera. I never used the Ultra wide as I strongly dislike the distortion, but the lack of zoom is something that worries me a little.

The single speaker, I don't care at all because I use my AirPods all the time anyway. I'd still rather it have two speakers but it doesn't affect me.
 
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48h using the Air, coming from iPhone 15 Pro.

- battery life significantly better (but was at 88% battery health on 15 Pro)
- speaker noticeably worse, acceptable for what I use it for
- haven’t been bothered by single camera
- first time since iPhone X new iPhone excitement has lasted more than a day
- love the way it feels in my hand, pocket
 
I’ve been using my Air for two days now and I think it’s awesome. Like, quite literally I was in awe taking it from the box and holding it for the first time. Really don’t think the reviews have done it any justice at all.

For me, this represents an engineering marvel. Something so powerful yet is barely perceptible in my pocket. It is delightful to hold in the hand and so much more ergonomic than the Pro Max it replaces.

The battery life has been absolutely fine for me and I don’t mind the single camera at all as I only use my phone for quick snaps so the slight compromises don’t affect me.

Did I mention it’s just incredible to hold and use? 😆
I'm coming from my 15PM which I have had since the preorder phase for this iPhone. I preordered my 1TB Space Black Air and took delivery of it on Friday and have been using it in conjunction with my 15PM. I have watched several reviews from content creators on YouTube and am aware of the shortcomings of the Air. For my use case, those shortcomings have not been an issue during my two days of use. For one thing I'm never far away from a power source to keep the new iPhone charged and the single camera system surprised me with how well the camera takes pictures.

Everything mentioned above is how I have felt using my new Air and I feel for me this has been a great choice for a new iPhone. I also love the Space Black color of this new phone :)
 
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