This is total speculation on my uninformed part, but to me, the Air seems like the result of their research into foldables. The way hardware is laid out in that upper area is very reminiscent of the Flip category from other manufacturers with their a-symmetric halfs and considering Apple is a very efficiency focused company these days, letting that effort linger till display tech catches up to whatever Apple is waiting for, would feel like a waste perhaps.

Also, as long as we retain an actual Pro version that is willing to be a bit chunkier, I don't see any issue in having an Air line for casual users, maybe that will be the way mainstream devices go with future efficiency gains, similar to the MacBook Air now being "good enough" for most people. Silicon-carbon batteries will likely enable some of that pretty soon, suspect that like with GaN, the supply chain cannot handle Apple level demands yet. Remember, the original three MacBook Airs were beyond compromised too.

Just don't fall into the trap of making the Pro thinner, akin to the 2016 MacBook Pro disaster. Keep the iPhone Pros like the current MacBook Pros chunky for those who actually use these devices and we are golden in my book.

> letting that effort linger till display tech catches up to whatever Apple is waiting for, would feel like a waste perhaps.

To add to this, it's often said that research can only take you so far, at some point you have to ship something to get the opinions and hands on from a wider audience of users to make further discoveries and improvements.

> My iPhone 11 still feels very much good enough (which I imagine must be terrible for Apple)

I think Apple has come to terms with the fact that people are no longer upgrading their phones every 1-2 years. They are probably happy just to keep you in the Apple ecosystem where they can sell you apps, services, accessories, other compatible apple products - and hopefully get your repeat business when you do one day feel the need to upgrade.

As someone who is still on 12 pro and probably won't upgrade to a 17 because of no real need - there really is no better way to ensure my repeat business than selling me a phone that lasted me this long.

I'm pretty sure they know people aren't upgrading every 1-2 years - they have some pretty extensive data on that front. There is a subset but there are some pretty sharp people working at Apple even if this thread likes to rip them every chance they get.

The issue with size I have with phones is that they are too high, so I cannot have it in my jeans front pocket and then sit down.

Thinness has not been an issue in the last 10-15 years.

A thin phone is also very hard to hold, it kind of flips in your hand.

The format the Samsung flips use I feel like solves your issue.

Nobody cares about how hard it is to hold, otherwise we'd have 4-5" screens rather than the phablets that are the norm and basically the only option.

Exactly. Remember when people, for years, complained that phones, for years, kept getting larger and larger?

It's the difference between stated and revealed preference. Phones kept getting larger and larger because larger phones sold better.

Though apparently we have hit the sweet spot a while ago, as phone size is stable now.

There is no point in history at which larger phones have sold better.

Sadly the iphone minis did not do well commercially, at least as we're told.

Must have been a conspiracy then.

Compare for any version. iPhone/Pro always sell better than iPhone Plus/Pro Max.

There is no year in which the larger size sold better than the mainstream size. Ever.

You are literally just making shit up.

You are comparing cheaper phones with substantially more expensive ones. For a meaningful comparison we have to compare phones with a similar price but different size.

False and irrelevant. The claim was "Phones kept getting larger and larger because larger phones sold better."

That claim is demonstrably false. Whether attendant facts like adjusting for price point lead to a subtler inference does not change the absolute fact that the proposition is not consistent with reality.

Price can decrease sales even if size increases sales and price and size are correlated. Causation doesn't always imply correlation.

Again, completely irrelevant.

The claim is "larger phones sold better."

That claim is flatly, objectively false.

I meant of course larger size causes more sales.

I’d very much prefer a phone that’s shaped like a slab (smooth back), no weird camera plateaus and no sad excuse for a battery, but something that can last days.

I have 14 Max, and it is so heavy. I don’t mind the thickness, but the weight is very annoying.

So while I didn’t say “I wish my phone was thinner”, I did say many times “this should weigh about half of what it actually weighs”.

Pixel user here, but I feel the same way. The fact that my phones are getting heavier instead of lighter seems counterintuitive on its face.

Pixel 1 (143g)

Pixel 3 (148g)

Pixel 5 (151g)

Pixel 8 (187g)

Pixel 9 Pro (198g)

Of course the displays of these models get bigger which presumably contributes to the weight increase. But still, you'd think parts get lighter over time, not heavier.

> you'd think parts get lighter over time, not heavier.

I'm just guessing, but I would assume that parts get _smaller_ (so, maybe lighter but not in a "less dense" way) but any space gained is taken up by new parts for new functionality or extra battery

Good point!

I would actually like a phone that is lighter but fatter. Having empty space inside. Letting a good enough camera be flush with the back and the wider sides could add sturdiness. But as others have pointed out, consumer choice is an illusion. It's "you want this".

It's not just about thin. It's also about weight. The Air has a bigger screen but weighs less than the iPhone 17.

By 12g…

And a bigger screen.

I have an XS and wanted to upgrade. But I still don't see a super appealing reason. Battery still decent at 72%. Photos still good enough. browsing fast, apps fast...

It is the best iPhone I owned (3, 6s).

But yeah, spotlight is slow and the phone constantly runs out of storage, so apps need to be deleted before installing updates and least used apps are constantly removed. Additionally the screens are way better now and you do see the difference with photos made on an iPhone 16. I guess I'll upgrade late this year when I am sure the 17 (pro?) is a reliable piece of hardware, like my iPhone XS is.

Agree. I don’t understand the teen of making the phones thinner but larger. I guess I’m part of the small demographics that love the mini, hope my mini 12 have a couple or more years of live in it.

In the same boat, the 12 mini is the perfect size. My hands are probably average or slightly above average size for a man and I find any phone larger than the mini difficult to securely hold while using it with one hand.

Just going to keep this one until they make something similar again.

There're dozens of us! Dozens!

I'll stick to my almost-4-years-old 13 mini as long as I can. Probably will change battery before original batteries are too hard to get hold of

Some people just want "the best" regardless of what it is. If you can improve a measurable spec on a luxury device, some people will covet it.

People who have no concept of material resistance who will come crying when their phone folds very easily with accidental day to day mishaps

I see people every day who have their iphone in their back pocket while sitting. I can’t imagine this model would handle that unless it’s made from pure unobtanium.

When you need to stack 2 phones together because you're oncall, because you're a streamer, etc.

Why would you need 2 phones for oncall?

One personal phone, one work phone.

100%, separate church and state.

especially if you're signed into an account that manages your phone. As we discovered its perfectly possible (or was) to remote wipe a personal android phone if they are signed in using your company google account.

but less paranoid-ly it means you can put your workphone physically else where so you are not tempted to "check in" or have out of hours fun ruin your time off.

Definitely not advocating for the same device used for work and personal stuff, but for on call I think extra work device (phone), if not really needed other than receiving a ping, is just useless. Apps that notify you about incidents are not really doing anything "outside" of on-call shifts.

But you still have to carry two phones, or using work phone during personal time (as part of on-call).

How is this better than just having PagerDuty/Incident.io/whatever and receiving pings there? You are disrupting your time anyway, but having an extra phone for that seems redundant.

for some of us, just logging in with a corp account into pagerduty / whatever on a personal device is a no go.

With a single case fitting two iPhone Airs back to back and rotated, like a long stick? :)

Honestly I do. I want it thinner and lighter. I don’t use my phone very much so I don’t care about battery very much nor do I about any kind of specs. Wait… yeah that’s why I won’t buy it I love my iPhone 13 mini