Apple has announced the iPhone Air, the company’s first smartphone in the new AIR series at its event, as expected. It is the thinnest iPhone ever at just 5.6mm.
This gets a large 6.5-inch Super Retina XDR display with ProMotion offering up to 120Hz, has peak brightness of 3000 nits, and comes with Always-On display since the display efficiently adjusts down to 1Hz.
The phone uses a grade 5 titanium frame and has a high-gloss mirror finish. A new plateau on the back that is precision-milled on both sides to house the cameras, speaker, and Apple Silicon that maximizes space for the battery promising all-day battery life. The thin design also features the Action button, and Camera Control.
Similar to the iPhone 17, this also has Ceramic Shield 2 front cover offering 3x better scratch resistance and improved anti-reflection to reduce glare, and also comes with Ceramic Shield for the back cover for the first time, promising 4x better resistance to cracks than the back glass on previous models.
Apple A19 Pro
The phone is powered by an Apple A19 Pro 3-nanometer SoC with 6-core CPU and a 5-core GPU with Neural Accelerators built into each GPU core, bringing up to 3x the peak GPU compute over the previous generation, said Apple.
iPhone Air features N1, a new Apple-designed wireless networking chip that enables Wi-Fi 7, Bluetooth 6, and Thread. This also improves the overall performance and reliability of features like Personal Hotspot and AirDrop.
The iPhone Air also features C1X, a new cellular modem designed by Apple that promises up to 2x faster than C1, and for the same cellular technologies, it is even faster than the modem in iPhone 16 Pro, while using 30 percent less energy overall, said the company.
For the first time, Apple the iPhone Air features an eSIM-only design globally, which the company says is to save space internally.
Camera
The iPhone Air has a single 48MP Fusion camera with 12MP optical-quality 2x Telephoto. A new image pipeline built for iPhone Air enables next-generation portraits with Focus Control at the same level as multicamera systems, automatically capturing depth information, so users can turn photos into portraits later in the Photos app, said the company.
The new 18MP Center Stage front camera features the first square front camera sensor on iPhone, offering a wider field of view and higher resolution.
Users no longer have to rotate their iPhone to take a landscape selfie — they can now take photos and videos in portrait or landscape while holding their iPhone vertically, said Apple. For group shots, Center Stage for photos uses AI to automatically expand the field of view and can rotate from portrait to landscape to include everyone in the frame. The Center Stage front camera enables ultra-stabilized video in 4K HDR, and users can now record on the front and rear cameras simultaneously with Dual Capture.
Even with a sleek design, it promises all-day battery life and up to 27 hours of video playback.
Apple iPhone Air specifications
- 6.5-inch (2736×1260 pixels) OLED 460ppi Super Retina XDR display, ProMotion technology with adaptive refresh rates up to 120Hz,
1000 nits max brightness, 1600 nits peak brightness, up to 3000 nits peak outdoor brightness, HDR, True Tone, Ceramic Shield 2 protection - Six-Core A19 Pro (2 performance and 4 efficiency cores) 3nm chip with 64-bit architecture, 5‑core GPU, 16‑core Neural Engine
- 256GB, 512GB, 1TB storage options
- iOS 26
- Water and dust resistant (IP68)
- Dual SIM (eSIM + eSIM)
- 48MP wide-angle (f/1.6) camera, second-generation sensor-shift optical image stabilisation for video, 2x Telephoto, 100% Focus Pixels, Photonic Engine, True Tone flash, HDR video recording with Dolby Vision at 4K 60 fps, Slo‑mo 1080p at 240fps, Cinematic mode up to 4K Dolby Vision at 30 fps
- 18MP (ƒ/1.9) centre stage front camera, Autofocus with Focus Pixels, Retina Flash, HDR video recording with Dolby Vision up to 4K at 60 fps, Slo‑mo 1080p at 120fps
- TrueDepth camera for FaceID facial recognition, Top-ported speakers
- Action button – Silent mode, Focus, Camera, Flashlight, Voice Memo, Recognise Music, Translate, Magnifier, Controls, Shortcut or Accessibility
- Camera controls – Exposure, Depth, Zoom, Cameras, Styles, Tone
- Dimensions: 156.2×74.7×5.64mm; Weight: 165g
- 5G (sub‑6 GHz) with 4×4 MIMO, Gigabit-class LTE, 802.11be Wi-Fi 7 with 2×2 MIMO, Bluetooth 6, Second-generation Ultra Wideband chip for spatial awareness, Thread networking technology, NFC with reader mode, dual-frequency GPS (GPS, GLONASS, Galileo, QZSS, BeiDou and NavIC)
- Built-in rechargeable lithium-ion battery with MagSafe and Qi2 wireless charging up to 20W, USB-C fast charging, 50% charge in 30 minutes with 20W adapter or higher, up to 27 hours of video playback
Pricing and availability
The iPhone Air comes in Space Black, Cloud White, Light Gold, Sky Blue
colours in 256GB, 512GB and 1TB storage options. The pricing is now higher than the iPhone 16 Plus model.
- iPhone Air 256GB – Rs. 1,19,900
- iPhone Air 512GB – Rs. 1,39,900
- iPhone Air 1TB– Rs. 1,59,900
The iPhone Air will be available through apple.com/store and in the Apple Store app, with availability in stores beginning next Friday, September 19th with pre-order starting from this Friday, September 12th at 5:30PM IST.