This is iPhone Air — a brand-new addition to the iPhone lineup with an ultra-slim design.
At just 5.6mm, this is a seriously skinny smartphone. To put that thickness — or lack thereof — into perspective, 5.6mm is roughly the same as seven credit cards stacked on top of one another. For context, the iPhone 16 Pro measured 8.25mm in thickness, making the iPhone Air around one-third slimmer.
Like the MacBook Air, which was famously pulled from an envelope by Apple co-founder Steve Jobs, the iPhone Air has a lightweight design with just enough space for the USB-C charging port
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Apple has achieved that svelte profile despite this new handset boasting a ProMotion display, a faster A19 Pro system-on-a-chip, and new Ceramic Shield toughened glass on the front and back to protect against scratches, scuffs, and accidental drops.
Discussing the slim new arrival, Apple Senior Vice President of Hardware Engineering, John Ternus said: "The all-new iPhone Air is so powerful, yet impossibly thin and light, that you really have to hold it to believe it’s real. This huge leap in design and engineering is only made possible through Apple innovation, especially Apple silicon.
"iPhone Air is a brand-new member of the iPhone family that delivers advanced features our users will love, like pro performance, a versatile 48MP Fusion camera system, our innovative Centre Stage front camera, and great all-day battery life — all in a breakthrough design that feels like you’re holding the future."
Apple isn't the first to release a svelte smartphone this year, but it has released the slimmest yet — beating the Galaxy S25 Edge from Samsung by just 0.2mm.
It's not just thin, but it's also light. iPhone Air tips the scales at just 165g. That's lighter than one of those More To Share bags of Malteasers you'll find in your local supermarket or cinema (175g).
The chassis of iPhone Air is made from titanium — the same metal that Apple used for iPhone 15 Pro and 16 Pro. Despite the slim size, Apple says the titanium ensures iPhone Air "exceeds" the company's "stringent" bend test requirements, so there shouldn't be any issues popping this iPhone in your pocket.
Speaking of durability, iPhone Air is equipped with the new Ceramic Shield 2 toughened glass, which Apple claims is tougher than any smartphone glass or glass-ceramic. It boasts 3x better scratch resistance, so you won't need to worry about keeping your iPhone Air in your bag with your keys. There's also an improved anti-reflection coating to reduce glare when using your iPhone outdoors.
For the first time on any iPhone, Ceramic Shield now protects the back of an iPhone too, offering 4x better resistance to cracks than the back glass on any previous models.
Despite its featherweight design, Apple has packed its iPhone Air with many of the trimmings found across its other new smartphones. Under the bonnet, you'll find the same A19 Pro system-on-a-chip found inside the powerful new iPhone 17 Pro and 17 Pro Max.
That means you should expect speedy performance during day-to-day tasks.
In fact, Apple described the power of the A19 Pro as "MacBook Pro levels of compute in an iPhone, perfect for GPU-intensive AI workloads."
With so much processing power, you'll be able to run the latest Apple Intelligence features, including real-time translation during FaceTime and phone calls, automatic screening of spam calls, the ability to remove unwanted people and objects from the background of your photos, and dozens more.
Many of these features run on-device, with the powerful chipset doing most of the heavy lifting, so you aren't reliant on an internet connection to use features like Writing Tools and auto-summarisation of your notifications.
Aside from the A19 Pro, there are two other custom-designed chipsets inside the iPhone Air.
Like the iPhone 17, you'll find a new Apple-designed N1 wireless networking chip that unlocks Wi-Fi 7, Bluetooth 6, and Thread. According to Apple, N1 also improves the overall performance and reliability of features like Personal Hotspot and AirDrop.
There's also a new modem called C1X, which is also designed by Apple. C1X is up to 2x faster than C1, which launched inside the iPhone 16e earlier this year, and faster than the modem in iPhone 16 Pro, while using 30% less energy overall. This makes C1X the most power-efficient modem in an iPhone.
On the front, iPhone Air sports a 6.5-inch Super Retina XDR display, which is a fraction smaller than the 6.7-inch screen on the iPhone 16 Plus it replaces in the lineup.
At the top of the screen, you'll find the same Dynamic Island design found across the iPhone lineup, which updates with real-time updates from the apps you're running in the background.
Apple has fitted its trim new handset with a ProMotion display, which doubles the maximum refresh rate from 60Hz to 120Hz. This makes system animations, like swiping and scrolling around the operating system, look much smoother.
Since the panel is refreshing more frequently, taps on the touchscreen feel more responsive — perfect if you like to play fast-paced games on the go. Since it's an always-on display, you'll be able to check important information at a glance when you're not using the iPhone Air.
The panel on the iPhone Air will intelligently adjust down to 1Hz to preserve power.
Until now, Apple has always reserved its ProMotion technology for its Pro-grade devices. That isn't limited to the iPhone either, with only the iPad Pro and MacBook Pro boasting this perk too. However, the iPhone Air and entry-level iPhone 17 break the mould this year.
Apple has made some sacrifices to achieve that oh-so slim design.
On the back of the iPhone Air, you'll find a single camera housed in a pill-shaped bump that resembles the new elongated design on the iPhone 17 Pro and 17 Pro Max. Yes, Apple has ditched the ultra-wide camera found in the dual system on the back of the iPhone 17, which starts from £799.
Not only does that mean iPhone Air doesn't support artsy ultra-wide shots, but you'll also miss out Spatial Video — not ideal if you've treated yourself to an Apple Vision Pro.
iPhone Air isn't thick enough to house a traditional SIM tray either, so the device relies entirely on eSIM.
This digital SIM card works like any other, so you'll be able to switch mobile networks at the end of your contract and keep your mobile number. However, if your mobile carrier doesn't yet support eSIM, you won't be able to pocket an iPhone Air.
iPhone Air is available in four colours: Space Black, Cloud White, Light Gold, and Sky Blue.
Prices start from £999. For that, you'll enjoy 256GB of storage. Models with 512GB and 1TB are also available.
Preorders begin on September 12, with the first smartphones arriving in stores on September 19.
Battery life is the biggest unknown surrounding the iPhone Air. Apple says this barely-there handset will should last all-day, thanks to the efficiency of its A19 Pro chipset. The latest software update, iOS 26 also plays a role. This new operating system boasts an Adaptive Power Mode that learns your typical battery consumption and anticipates when they might run low, intelligently conserving power to help get them through the day.
Of course, we'll need to spend some time with the device to see whether you'll need to use that extra space in your pocket freed up by the oh-so-slim design to pack an external battery pack.
Charging is handled via USB-C, so you'll be able to pack a single charging cable on your next holiday and top up the battery in your iPhone, iPad, Nintendo Switch 2, MacBook, Kindle, and dozens of other devices.
iPhone Air arrives on store shelves with iOS 26 installed, the latest mobile operating system from Apple. It introduces an entirely new design to the software, known as Liquid Glass, which Apple called its "broadest design update ever" when it was unveiled during its Worldwide Developers Conference earlier this summer.
Apple's new Liquid Glass design is the first major shake-up to the appearance of iOS in over 12 years | APPLE PRESS OFFICE As the name suggests, Liquid Glass adds translucency throughout iOS, preventing icons and menus from drawing attention away from whatever you're doing on-screen. The design team at Apple has also added light refractions and springy animations throughout, which makes iOS feel more alive.
The new-look arrives across all Apple devices at the same time, including iPad, Mac, Apple Watch, Vision Pro, and Apple TV — so iPhone owners should feel familiar with these other platforms. Apple has been unifying its operating systems for some time, but this is the first time everything has changed at the same time.
Elsewhere, Messages borrows a few features from WhatsApp, including typing indicators for every person in a group chat. You'll also be able to send polls and set a custom backgrounds to your conversations and group chats, picking between a slew of preinstalled options, photos from your library, or generating a never-before-seen image with Image Playground.
Plugging your iPhone Air into a compatible infotainment will bring its new Liquid Glass appearance to CarPlay too. New features in Apple Maps, which tracks Visited Places with end-to-end encryption and intelligently learns your daily routes to preemptively provide delay notifications and alternative suggestions, will also be accessible via CarPlay.
As you'd expect, Apple's software engineers have packed iOS 26 with smaller adjustments too, like new ringtones, the ability to adjust the snooze duration, fullscreen animated album artwork from Apple Music on the Lock Screen, and a new Hold Assist feature that keeps your spot in a queue so you don't have to stay on the phone when you're put on hold.
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