The iPhone Air is a hint at the iPhone’s future, which could include foldables

The iPhone Air looks great with its sleek, thin new shape, but you may not want to choose this phone as your daily driver just yet.

The new device announced at Apple’s hardware event on Tuesday is thinner and lighter than other models, at 5.6 mm with a 6.5-inch display. But for the time being, it’s also less capable in some areas than the base model iPhone 17, which could deter potential buyers.

For instance, the Air’s battery lasts up to 27 hours, while the iPhone 17 lasts up to 30. It also lacks the iPhone 17’s ultrawide camera and doesn’t support macro photography. Meanwhile, the Air’s price point of $999 is 22% more expensive than the 17 base model, which starts at $799. And for just $100 more, you could upgrade to the iPhone 17 Pro ($1,099).

Despite these disadvantages, there’s something compelling about the Air: It hints at where iPhone hardware design is going, including new form factors, like foldables.

After all these years, Apple is still chasing a thinner iPhone — and not just because it makes for a better-looking device. Apple needs to experiment on a platform that uses its own technology to improve the hardware design and the phone’s performance.

As Apple explains, the iPhone Air has the most Apple-designed chips in an iPhone, including the A19 Pro (CPU with a 5-core GPU), N1 (wireless networking chip), and new C1X (cellular modem). The latter is faster than the modem in the 16 Pro but uses 30% less energy, Apple points out. By architecting the phone’s design around its own silicon, Apple can work on challenges like performance and battery life — things that remain important as phones become more capable in terms of photography, videography, and even AI.

Battery life, in particular, is a stopping point for how powerful these devices can become, since battery tech is improving at a slower rate than that of other iPhone components and technologies. Unfortunately, the debut version of the iPhone Air didn’t make things better on this front, as its battery life is worse than that of the other models.

Instead, the Air should be seen as a starting point in terms of iPhone design that could help the company better understand how to optimize the battery life for its other devices going forward.

In the meantime, Apple suggests consumers use the MagSafe battery attached to the now-thinner phone to maximize battery life. Previously, people may have balked at using a battery attached to their phone all day, but Apple actually encourages it, saying that the Air will get better battery life when the battery remains connected.

Everything about the Air’s presentation suggests that efficiency is a key focus; references to the term appear a half dozen times in Apple’s press announcement. For instance, as Apple notes, the iPhone Air is the most “power-efficient” iPhone the company has made. It goes on to point out exactly why: the new modem, a new way of housing the cameras to maximize space for the battery, redesigned internal architecture, an adaptive power mode option in Apple’s iOS 26 software, and other optimizations.

The learnings from the Air and its future iterations will ultimately be translated throughout Apple’s iPhone line and could even pave the way for new form factors, like the rumored foldable iPhone.

The Air is already influencing design choices in Apple’s iPhone Pro.

Apple added Ceramic Shield 2 to the back of the iPhone Air for the first time — a design choice it also made for the iPhone 17 Pro. The Air’s horizontal camera “bar,” similar to Google’s Pixel, also seemingly inspired the iPhone 17 Pro’s camera layout.

Over time, Air could perhaps even become Apple’s base model, while the Pro remains the upgraded version for power users and professionals. That would make room for new devices, like a foldable or whatever else comes next.