I upgraded from the iPhone 15 Pro Max to iPhone Air. It was a bold decision, and the best ‘mistake’ I’ve ever made. Let me explain.
Choosing the iPhone Air Felt like a Mistake, And it Turned Out to be My Best Decision Ever
The first iPhone I ever bought was the iPhone 4. I bought it at a time when Apple was about to announce the iPhone 4s in 2011, and I really didn’t care much about iPhones at the time.
It was supposed to be a fun experiment since I loved switching smartphones from time to time.
But little did I know, the iPhone 4 would turn me into an Apple fan, and I upgraded to the newest model every year ever since, until the iPhone 16 was announced.
With the iPhone 15 Pro Max in my hand, and the iPhone 16 announcement happening in front of me, it was the first time I didn’t feel the need to upgrade because Apple gave me no reason at all. Not even Camera Control would push me into upgrading.
It felt like a half-baked effort that I couldn’t justify, so I decided to stick around with the iPhone 15 Pro Max for a little longer.
With the subsequent announcement of iPhone 16e, my checklist of things my next iPhone should have changed too. My next iPhone must have Apple’s own modem; otherwise, the upgrade would feel incomplete.
When the iPhone 17 announcement was happening, I changed my checklist again – my next iPhone needs to have Apple’s N1 chip too.
Then after a few minutes, Apple announced the iPhone Air – it had the C1X and N1, both. It was perfect, it’s almost what I want, yet it felt so wrong, because it had lesser cameras than I’m used to, and it had a smaller battery. Who is this even for? Maybe not me, yet it had all that pro power, thanks to the A19 Pro chip and 12GB of RAM.
The iPhone Air felt like a mistake and an experiment from Apple, yet so tempting, because I got curious who this was for. Right next to iPhone Air, the iPhone 17 Pro stood in all its Cosmic Orange glory, but it loses its charm next to that ultra-thin chassis and design.
I couldn’t have both, because there’s room for one iPhone in my pocket. It’s either the Pro or the Air.
With the dust settled, reviews out, impressions etched in stone, I decided to give the iPhone Air a go with the worst-possible potential regret I could imagine. I set it up from scratch, scanned my eSIM QR code, and after a couple of days, every other iPhone I held in my hand felt ancient, like a relic from the past.
Do I miss the extra cameras from the iPhone 15 Pro Max? Not at all, because I mostly shoot in 1x or 2x modes, which is the primary camera anyway. Is the battery life worse? In my use case, I don’t see any difference. Because whenever I get the chance, I put the iPhone Air on a MagSafe charger, so the battery stays between 50% and 80% throughout the day.
The display is only slightly smaller than the iPhone 15 Pro Max, a downgrade that I was looking forward to: 6.7-inch on the iPhone 15 Pro Max and 6.5-inch on the iPhone Air. It’s not much, but it’s a great start, even though I wish it were 6.3-inches.
But, the one thing that makes the iPhone Air so good is how unreal it feels when you pick it up. It’s extraordinarily light at just 165 grams, compared to 221 grams of the 15 Pro Max. That much weight reduction shouldn’t even be real, especially when you realize that this is a phone with a 6.5-inch display.
The cellular performance of C1X feels miles better compared to iPhone 15 Pro Max. I’m not up for raw speeds; I need efficiency and a connection to the nearest cell tower that works, and iPhone Air nails it.
The amount of times I saw my iPhone 15 Pro Max latch onto a 3G network for no reason, even though LTE was available, felt like a punishment. The iPhone Air ensures I’m connected, and connected to a better network.
A lot of people returned their iPhone Air and got the iPhone 17 Pro because they said they made a mistake. And being an iPhone fan for a long time, this is the best mistake I’ve made, because the iPhone Air is refreshing and gives me a break from the same old design I’ve seen over the years.
If the iPhone 17 Pro had the C1X and N1 chips, I would still choose the iPhone Air. The amount of curiosity the new design offers is exactly what I needed. I’m completely done with two or more cameras, the same thick chassis, and weight that almost feels like a slim power bank in my pocket.
