Review: Apple’s iPhone Air is a bunch of small changes that add up to something big

If you'll indulge me for a moment, here's some ancient history.

In 2008, when Apple took the very first MacBook Air out of a manila envelope, it was not positioned as Apple's new entry-level Mac laptop. The innovative but flawed system started at $1,799, far above the $999 price of the entry-level plastic MacBook and well into MacBook Pro territory.

In those early, formative years, the "Air" branding denoted not a midrange or entry-level model but an alternate branching path from the baseline MacBook. Paying Apple more money could get you more computer—the Pro model, with more processor, more screen, more storage, more everything—or it could get you a different kind of computer, with fundamentally different benefits and trade-offs.

I bring up this ancient blip in Apple's history because that early MacBook Air is the "Air" product that the iPhone Air reminds me of the most. Starting at $999 unlocked—$200 more than the basic iPhone—it's priced into iPhone Pro territory. But like that old MacBook Air, the focus on size and weight actually makes it a downgrade from the basic iPhone in some fundamental ways.

I landed on the iPhone Air as the first of these three iPhones to sequentially review because it's the only one where I don't already have a pretty good idea of what it is. I know what using an iPhone feels like. I know what using an iPhone Pro feels like. But this is a kind of new-feeling third thing. Maybe I'll like it!

Out-of-the-box observations

As I set the phone up, I jotted down a few notes about changes from my 15 Pro and what the default settings were, and a few of those notes didn't end up fitting anywhere else in the review.