iPhone Air is the future of everything.

Tech Nerd

4 months ago

Transcript

00:00It's not often that Apple releases a new product that genuinely feels important,

00:04and I think the iPhone Air is one of those moments. We're coming off an eight-year streak,

00:09where frankly, it felt like the days of an actually interesting iPhone were behind us

00:13at this point. Since 2018, we've been getting a new version of the same thing, iteration after

00:18iteration, one that might look a bit different or run a bit faster, but never anything that would

00:22make you stop and feel curious again. I think all of that changes with the iPhone Air. It has a

00:28design that looks impossible. It's packed with the most change we've seen in decades, and it does

00:33all of this while competing at a pro level. See, I don't think the iPhone Air is just the future of

00:38the iPhone. I think this is the future for everything at Apple. Let me explain. When Apple

00:44unveiled the original iPhone almost 20 years ago in 2007, Steve Jobs said something at the very end

00:50of the announcement that feels extremely relevant right now. Just as Steve is about to exit the

00:55stage, he reads one of his favorite quotes by Wayne Gretzky saying, I skate to where the puck is going

00:59to be, not where it has been. Probably something you've heard before and something that Steve

01:03mentions has always been his goal for Apple. And this was true for some time. Back to back,

01:08Apple released the iPhone and then the iPad and the Apple Watch and AirPods and the iPhone 10.

01:14But as far as everything else, it started to feel like the products didn't have as much soul as they

01:19once did. So when I saw Apple announce the iPhone Air 18 years after the original model, it felt like

01:25they were reaching for something again. The design of the iPhone Air is incredibly simple, and it looks

01:30pretty stripped down. I mean, I can't help but see some of the original iPhone in this, especially

01:35considering it does only have one camera on the back. But where I think the real significance of the

01:40iPhone Air sits is everything that Apple was able to pack inside of this look. It doesn't look

01:46complicated, but the engineering below the surface is just wild. Inside, most of the body on this phone

01:52is literally just the battery, but a new kind of high-density pack that Apple is putting in this

01:57product first. And while I was expecting the battery life on this phone to be awful, Apple says it has

02:02the same battery life as the iPhone 16 Pro, the phone I have in my hand. That's fine. I'm not sure why

02:09they didn't make that clear in the unveil video, because showing off a battery pack definitely scared a lot

02:13of people, but it seems like Apple's figured it out. In fact, good battery was so important that

02:18they basically optimized 100% of everything around that. So then where do you put the processor and

02:23everything else? Well, you actually put it in the camera bar on the back. It's in this tiny little

02:29area at the top that the cameras, the speaker, and even the silicon is located. It's a pretty cool

02:34layout trick, and one that Apple borrowed from the iMac, where pretty much the entire computer on that

02:39device is placed below the display here in that bottom bezel. So it's interesting to see Apple

02:44applying what they've learned on other products to this Air as well. The reason I'm highlighting this

02:49first is that I want to illustrate the iPhone Air is not just something Apple started work on two or

02:54three years ago. It really is the culmination of so much Apple engineering over the years, and that's

02:59especially attributed to the huge bet Apple made on building their own silicon, which began back in

03:042010 on the iPhone 4, where Apple didn't want to rely on any third parties for parts of the iPhone.

03:10They wanted to do it themselves to work on designs that just wouldn't be possible otherwise. Since

03:14then, we've seen Apple use their chips in things like Macs, but only recently have we seen Apple

03:19extend their ambitions to other parts of the iPhone, other silicon that they were previously outsourcing,

03:25and on the iPhone Air, we see two more chips come to fruition. The first chip is the Apple N1,

03:31and it's a new Wi-Fi, Bluetooth, and Thread combo processor that handles all of these things more

03:36efficiently than what Apple was using before. It further boosts the battery, and it improves the

03:41reliability of existing features like AirDrop. Second up is the C1X modem, which is a direct

03:45follow-up to their first in-house 5G modem, the C1. This one is now up to twice as fast and even more

03:52energy efficient. At the event, Apple just kind of glossed over both of these, but they are genuine

03:57breakthroughs by themselves, and I think it's telling that of all the times Apple could have

04:01introduced the stuff, they did so on the Air. It's because it was the only way the Air would be

04:06possible. That being said, calling this the iPhone Air makes it sound like it's way different than the

04:11Pro iPhones, and the more I've looked at this, I just don't really think that's the case, but more

04:16there just a second after a quick word from today's sponsor. Now, on my iPhone 17 Pro, I definitely want

04:22to keep it protected, and that's why I parted up with ESR, who sponsored today's video. This is ESR's

04:27CyberTough magnetic case, and it offers the ultimate protection for your iPhone 17 Pro.

04:32Featuring up to 23 feet of drop protection, I've run this through its paces and was very impressed

04:37every time how it held up. On the back, there's a new zinc alloy camera guard that folds out into

04:42a stash stand. You can set it up and enjoy content wherever you're at, and below that, MagSafe is

04:47incredibly strong, about twice the strength of the competition, with 1500 grams of magnetic force.

04:53Plus, to protect your display, there's the new ESR UltraFit Amorite Pro screen protector.

04:58You just prep your phone and then pop it into this custom fit tray, and the installation is

05:02one step, pulling a tab, and it's also one of the most satisfying installs I've ever done.

05:07And the quality here is unmatched. It's accessory glass made by Corning, who has been Apple's screen

05:11supplier since the original iPhone. It has up to 10x the impact absorption compared to other screen

05:17protectors, and it looks clearer than ever. When you look at your phone, you can barely tell you have a

05:21screen protector installed. So protect your iPhone with ESR, and use my link down below in the

05:26description to get these accessories for yourself. A huge thank you to ESR for sponsoring this one,

05:32and now let's get back to it. But the point I'm really trying to make on the iPhone Air is it

05:36doesn't just look cool on the inside and outside. It doesn't just take a lot of what Apple has learned.

05:40I think it's essentially a pro iPhone in disguise. For the first time ever, the screen is 120Hz Pro

05:47motion on a device outside of a pro iPhone, and it's just as good as a pro model. The screen is

05:53one-to-one between the two. And the same is basically true for the chip inside as well. The

05:58A19 Pro chip just has a single GPU core less on the Air, but that's something you'll never notice

06:03in regular use. Even the front-facing camera that supports the new wide-angle selfies is something

06:08available on both the Air and the Pro at the same time. Like, obviously, the iPhone Air isn't a pro

06:14model, but I do find it interesting that it's priced like one. At $999, it's clear that internally,

06:21Apple does not see this as an entry-level iPhone. This is its own thing in its own category. And it's

06:28shown me that we're not that far off from an actual pro model that looks like this. Because I don't

06:33know if you've noticed this trend with an Apple over the past few years, but we are going full circle

06:37on everything getting thinner again. The new iPad Pro became the thinnest Apple product ever last year

06:42at 4.9 millimeters, with the Apple Watch Series 10 following shortly after, and it also shrunk down

06:48a bit. Now we have the thinnest iPhone ever, and there are a lot of rumors about the upcoming MacBook

06:53Pro and other things that are getting thinner as time continues. Like I said, I don't think the

06:59iPhone Air is just the future of the iPhone. I mean, it's obvious Apple can go in that direction.

07:03The Air is almost a pro model already. I'm talking about everything that Apple makes is going to

07:08continue to get thinner and lighter as we go forward. And the cool thing this time is that

07:13we don't have these crazy compromises we had in the past. When that original MacBook Air was unveiled

07:18back in the day, it looked unlike any other product on the market. But what people don't talk about is

07:23that it was crazy slow and the reliability was awful. We're entering an era now where Apple's products

07:28are not just as thin as that, but even thinner with the reliability and the power of their own

07:34silicon. This is an entirely new era, and that is why the iPhone Air is so exciting and so

07:40interesting. Listen, right now the iPhone Air isn't all the way there. It's not this perfect device

07:45without any compromises. But man, it is close, and it is way closer than I thought Apple would be able

07:51to hit in 2025. I'll say it, this feels like a big moment for Apple, and I think it's something we're

07:56going to look back on a few years from now and point to the iPhone Air as the start of this new chapter

08:02for Apple industrial design. And I see it as a pretty cool full circle thing, that this is what

08:07they always wanted to make, just the slab of glass and nothing else. And man, I'm a sucker for it.

08:14This thing looks cool as hell, all right? That's really why I'm making this video. It looks cool.

08:20I want to buy it. I'm going to buy it. It's a very cool product. All right, I hope you enjoyed this

08:25video. Drop a log if you did. Hit subscribe for more, and I hope you learned something new. I'll see you in the

08:30next one. Bye-bye.

iPhone Air is the future of everything.

Category

Transcript

Be the first to comment

Recommended