Nelson Morales

Will the iPhone Air set the trend for smartphone design?

Article (news)

Arthur Fuentes

ABS-CBN News

<div><img src="https://od2-image-api.abs-cbn.com/prod/editorImage/1760233197936iphone air 1.jpg" class="fr-fic fr-dib" alt="The iPhone Air. Arthur Fuentes, ABS-CBN News"/>The iPhone Air. Arthur Fuentes, ABS-CBN News</div>SINGAPORE – The iPhone Air is unlike any smartphone I have held before, and it may just set the trend for smartphone design, in much the same way as the OG ‘Air’ set the tone on how laptops should feel and look. During the few hours I was able to try it, the iPhone Air really felt like a very different kind of beast. For starters, it’s incredibly thin–just 5.6 mm thick, excluding the ‘plateau’ at the top which houses the camera. And for a 6.5-inch phone, it also felt very light–just 165 grams, even lighter than the iPhone 17 and the iPhone 16e. But it’s not just about losing heft and girth, the iPhone Air also shows the freshest design that Apple has come up with in years. Previous iPhone designs had not really strayed from the template set in the iPhone 11, with just minor tweaks to the orientation of the lenses and the shape of the camera bump. The iPhone Air, however, seems to have ditched six years&#x27; worth of iPhone design orthodoxy for something much less familiar. And, like I said, it’s a pretty striking design, especially on the Cloud White and Light Gold variants.“So this is what the future feels like,” Apple says on its website in reference to the iPhone Air. Whether you agree or not, or dismiss this as another bit of marketing hyperbole from Cupertino, you can’t deny that the Air’s looks set it apart. <div><img src="https://od2-image-api.abs-cbn.com/prod/editorImage/1760233241575iphone air black edit.jpg" class="fr-fic fr-dib" alt="The iPhone Air. &lt;em&gt;Arthur Fuentes, ABS-CBN News&lt;/em&gt;"/>The iPhone Air. Arthur Fuentes, ABS-CBN News</div>I am not going to wax poetic about how sleek, svelte or stylish the phone is, because beauty is in the eye of the beholder, and I Would never claim to be an expert in industrial design. But yeah, those adjectives do seem to ring true with regard to the iPhone Air. I can easily see this phone becoming the new must-have for the fashion-conscious.<div>THIN BUT TOUGH</div>But all that style, thinness and lightness would count for nothing if the phone proved to be fragile. Fortunately, it’s not. As Apple and independent testers have demonstrated, it will take a lot to bend and crack the Air. With a frame that uses aerospace-grade titanium, the specially-developed Ceramic Shield 2 protecting the screen, and Ceramic Shield protecting the back, Apple has said that this is one of the toughest and most durable phones they have ever made. One YouTuber even put it to <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sQ56ve39l2I&amp;pp=ygUaaXBob25lIGFpciBkdXJhYmlsaXR5IHRlc3Q%3D" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">an extreme bending test</a> and found that it took 216 pounds or 97 kilograms of pressure to crack the Air. And even then the screen still worked.But, again, it’s not just about toughness either. The iPhone Air is also a powerful flagship-level smartphone. It features Apple’s latest A19 Pro chip, which is the same chip used in the iPhone 17 Pro and Pro Max.  So it is stylish and strong, but is its single rear camera enough? It depends on how you use phone cameras. I was surprised at how capable the single Fusion camera was. Apple did a lot of engineering to make sure that the single 48MP shooter at the back would be as versatile as possible.  You can change the focal length from 1x or 26mm, 1.1x or 28 mm, or 1.4x 35 mm. A 2x zoom is also available, which Apple said is “optical quality.” After playing around with the camera for a bit, I could say that the 2x zoom was almost as good as if the Air had another lens.<div><img src="https://od2-image-api.abs-cbn.com/prod/editorImage/1760250259117apple store mbs.jpg" class="fr-fic fr-dib" alt="Apple Store at Marina Bay, Singapore. Taken with iPhone Air by Arthur Fuentes, ABS-CBN News "/>Apple Store at Marina Bay, Singapore. Taken with iPhone Air by Arthur Fuentes, ABS-CBN News</div><div><img src="https://od2-image-api.abs-cbn.com/prod/editorImage/1760250347618mbs apple store inside.jpg" class="fr-fic fr-dib" alt="Apple Store at Marina Bay, Singapore. Taken with iPhone Air by Arthur Fuentes, ABS-CBN News "/>Apple Store at Marina Bay, Singapore. Taken with iPhone Air by Arthur Fuentes, ABS-CBN News</div><div> </div><div><img src="https://od2-image-api.abs-cbn.com/prod/editorImage/1760250937528mbs singapore 3.jpg" class="fr-fic fr-dib" alt="Skyscrapers at Marina Bay in Singapore. Photo taken with the iPhone Air. Arthur Fuentes, ABS-CBN News"/>Skyscrapers at Marina Bay in Singapore. Photo taken with the iPhone Air. Arthur Fuentes, ABS-CBN News</div><div>CENTER STAGE CAMERA</div>But the real innovation is in the front-facing camera, which uses a square instead of a rectangular sensor. By doing so, the Center Stage camera does away with the need to change the phone’s orientation from landscape to portrait when shooting landscape or portrait shots. You can hold the phone however you like and a simple tap on the camera will make it adjust its shooting orientation for you.When friends join you in the frame, the camera’s AI automatically expands the field of view and can rotate the frame to fit everyone in the shot–a very nifty trick.Content creators will also appreciate that both the front and back cameras can shoot video in 4K at 60 frames per second, and even do dual capture–with both cameras shooting simultaneously. Video is also stabilized for creators who do on-the-move selfies like runners and hikers.Another thing worth mentioning about the new iPhone’s camera system is its ability to put bokeh on photos even after the shot has been taken. Apple says the iPhone Air can automatically capture depth information for people, dogs, and cats, so their photos can be turned into portraits later.<div><img src="https://od2-image-api.abs-cbn.com/prod/editorImage/1760252145406iphone portrait.jpg" class="fr-fic fr-dib" alt="iPhone users can change the bokeh level for portraits. Arthur Fuentes, ABS-CBN News"/>iPhone users can change the bokeh level for portraits. Arthur Fuentes, ABS-CBN News</div>It’s pretty amazing when you get to try it, and the bokeh effect doesn’t look artificial like on other phones, which still struggle to tell the boundaries between a subject in the foreground and objects in the background.But yes, it is still just a single camera system at the back, and at times, I missed the use of an ultrawide lens somewhere in the 12mm to 14mm range.While shooting the Apple Store at Marina Bay Sands complex, I wanted to capture a floor-to-ceiling photo that includes the concentric circles of the building converging at the very top. But this wasn’t possible. So if you’re fond of shooting ultrawide-angle photos, you should keep this in mind.Another feature worth mentioning is the ProMotion display, which can now go up to 120Hz and Always-On, with an outdoor peak brightness up to 3000 nits. While other phones have long had 120Hz or higher displays, it’s nice to know that Apple has finally brought this feature to iPhones.<div>SMALL BATTERY?</div>Something that may raise eyebrows for Android users is the iPhone Air’s 3561mAh battery. It can make a lot of people wonder why Apple would choose such a seemingly teeny power pack when even midrange Android phones are already packing up to 7,000 mAh batteries.But you can’t underestimate the hardware-software optimizations Apple can do, even with such a seemingly small battery. Apple claims the iPhone Air can get up to 27 hours of video playback, and can be charged up to 50 percent in just 30 minutes.At least one YouTube tech reviewer actually put the iPhone 16 Pro Max with a 4685 mAh battery in a test versus Android phones with bigger batteries of up to 5,410 mAh, and the iPhone outlasted them. Other phones may boast of a bigger battery, but Apple can also make its gadgets more power-efficient.I can just imagine what can happen when Apple eventually embraces Silicon Carbon battery tech, which has a higher energy density than the Lithium Ion batteries it currently uses. Maybe they can make the Air even thinner and lighter than it already is?  <div>DESIGN OF THE FUTURE?</div>When the MacBook Air was introduced years ago, it killed off the netbook craze and redefined the look of laptops to come. Up to now, the “thin and light” category, blazed by the MacBook Air, remains the template for almost every non-gaming flagship or premium notebook being put out by PC vendors. Will the iPhone Air do the same for phone design?Maybe. But right now, it&#x27;s not hard to see how the iPhone Air can become the choice handset for the cool kids, fashionistas, social media content creators, and even busy businessmen who would rather have a simpler and less complicated device for daily use.While the Pro and Pro Max certainly have more advanced features, particularly in the camera department, the Air&#x27;s photo capabilities are more than enough for most people. And its design really stands out.Various Apple resellers in the Philippines are now accepting pre-orders for the iPhone Air as well as the iPhone 17, 17 Pro, and 17 Pro Max, which are set to arrive in stores on Oct. 17. The iPhone Air is listed to have a starting price of P72,990 for the 256GB version.

It's not hard to imagine the iPhone Air becoming the choice for the 'cool kids', fashionistas, social media content creators, and even busy businessmen.

It's not hard to imagine the iPhone Air becoming the choice for the 'cool kids', fashionistas, social media content creators, and even busy businessmen.