What’s the Actual Distinction Between the iPhone Air and iPhone 16?

Skinny telephones are in. The iPhone Air (not the iPhone 17 Air, as rumors beforehand advised) would be the thinnest iPhone ever, or at the very least that’s what Apple claimed at its “Awe Dropping” product debut Tuesday. Whether or not that issues to you will depend on the dimensions of your pocket, although. If you happen to had been questioning simply how this compares to the last-gen iPhone 16, we have now most of the specs needed to supply some extent of comparability. The iPhone Air successfully replaces the standard Plus mannequin within the latest smartphone lineup. If you happen to had been enthusiastic about leaping on the improve, maybe you need to maintain your horses and think about in case you’ll be giving something up for the sake of a cake-cutting iPhone.

See iPhone Air at Apple.com

See iPhone 16 at Apple.com

The closest comparability to what you may get within the U.S. is the $1,100 Samsung Galaxy S25 Edge. That machine’s 5.8mm thickness is slim sufficient to chop a slice of pie, but it surely additionally provides up flagship-level battery life with its 3,900mAh battery. The primary iPhone Air can even miss out on the battery life Apple followers have come to anticipate from their telephones. It’s higher to consider the Air as a substitute machine, a telephone with a really particular use case (extraordinarily skinny pockets) and a person base with particular wants (eager to be the cool youngsters on the block with the most recent iPhone design).

However we’ll must put the brand new Air by its paces. Maybe, with time, it can show as landmark a tool because the original MacBook Air was near 20 years in the past. Or possibly China-based firms like Tecno will figure out slim devices with good batteries far sooner than the engineers in Cupertino. Time—as at all times—will inform.

iPhone Air Versus iPhone 16: Design

Your common iPhone 16 got here with a number of new options that will usually be relegated to the Professional fashions. For one, it featured an all-new Digicam Management capacitive button used for snapping photographs or modifying picture settings with out having to the touch the display. It included Apple’s A18 chip, which sported a beefed-up CPU and GPU with sufficient energy to deal with on-device ray tracing; being shut sufficient to the iPhone 16 Pro, the machine felt like a cut price. The excellent news is the iPhone Air nonetheless has the Digicam Management button in addition to the Dynamic Island on the principle show, reasonably than any type of notch.

The iPhone Air boasts Ceramic Protect 2 on the glass and again for higher scratch and crack resistance, plus titanium sides which are supposed to maintain the machine from bending beneath stress. Apple’s older telephone from 2024 was 7.8mm skinny, which is normal for a telephone that weighs in at simply 170g, or .37 kilos. Few folks would name that thick or heavy. In comparison with the Air, the 16 is a brick. The iPhone Air weighs in at 165g, or .36 kilos. The distinction in weight is so minimal, although at 5.6mm thick, the Air is many instances thinner than the 16. In order for you some extent of comparability, look at this video displaying off the S25 Edge at 5.8mm versus the Air.

iPhone Air thinned comparability with Samsung Galaxy S25 Edge #AppleEvent pic.twitter.com/BlujtA6wV1

— Ray Wong (@raywongy) September 9, 2025

The most important distinction between the outdated and new gadgets is what lies inside. Apple designed the Air from the bottom up with new in-house 5G modems and wi-fi chips. The iPhone 16, by comparability, makes use of a Qualcomm-made 5G modem. The brand new machine additionally comes inventory with 256GB of storage for its base value, whereas the iPhone 16 makes do with 128GB. Whereas the iPhone 16 and iPhone 17 sport a number of calming colours (pink, teal, and ultramarine blue), the bottom 17 additionally is available in calming lavender and sage hues. The iPhone Air will appear somewhat extra mundane with black, white, gentle gold, plus a “sky blue” hue, which I think about is just like the gray-blue of the MacBook Air with M4.

iPhone Air Versus iPhone 16: Battery

If you happen to’re searching for the principle distinction between Apple’s new telephone class and its battery. The iPhone 16 was rated for as much as 22 hours of battery life in video playback exams, however in actual life, we’ve seen the iPhone 16 go for greater than a full day after common use and nonetheless have some juice for the next morning. The iPhone 16’s battery capability sits at 3,561mAh, which doesn’t appear particularly excessive till you think about the restricted refresh charge and Apple’s good standby energy financial savings on the bottom iPhone.

Apple has but to share exact specs for the iPhone Air’s battery capability. As a substitute, the corporate repeatedly promised the machine would have a “full-day” battery life. On the specs web page, Apple stated the Air managed to hit 27 hours in video playback exams, although solely 22 hours when streaming. That’s higher than a base iPhone 16, although not almost pretty much as good because the iPhone 16 Plus, which the Air is successfully changing in Apple’s 2025 iPhone lineup. Apple emphasised all the additional work it did to maximise battery effectivity.

iPhone Air with battery pack pic.twitter.com/dSy3jy8LAx

— Carolina Milanesi (@caro_milanesi) September 9, 2025

The iPhone Air guarantees to assist a separate “iPhone Air MagSafe Battery” offered individually from the principle unit. This battery, which is three-quarters the dimensions of the particular telephone, ought to push the battery life additional at the price of the skinny body. At the least, the brand new machine is appropriate with the Qi2 normal as much as 20W in addition to MagSafe.

See iPhone Air at Apple.com

See iPhone 16 at Apple.com

iPhone Air Versus iPhone 16: Digicam

The older iPhone contained a 48-megapixel Fusion digital camera in addition to a 12-megapixel ultrawide. The principle sensor additionally enabled 12-megapixel 2x telephoto footage. The machine additionally made use of the TrueDepth digital camera for Face ID. The iPhone Air is notable because it comprises a single digital camera bump, similar to the iPhone 16e. The brand new machine sports activities the 48-megapixel Fusion essential digital camera that additionally permits for 2x, 12-megapixel telephoto photographs. Sadly, there’s no ultra-wide lens to talk of. The brand new machine may also deal with 4K video as much as 60 FPS, the identical because the iPhone 16.

The Air has one sensor that beats the 16. The slim machine sports activities an 18-megapixel “Middle Stage” entrance digital camera in comparison with 12 megapixels on the iPhone 16. Apple advised customers would find yourself spending extra time with the entrance digital camera with the inclusion of higher picture stabilization.

iPhone Air Versus iPhone 16: Show

With a 6.3-inch OLED show at 2,556×1,179 decision, the common iPhone was nonetheless a looker even in comparison with the bigger, higher-resolution Plus mannequin. The machine was restricted to a 60Hz refresh charge, which miffed some customers when evaluating their telephones to mainline Android gadgets. Nonetheless, meaning the machine lasts longer in comparison with different gadgets.

The iPhone Air is barely bigger at 6.5 inches, lower than the iPhone 16 Plus, although it sports activities an enormous, 2,736×1,260 decision display at 460 PPI, or pixels-per-inch—the identical because the older telephone fashions. Nevertheless, the Air contains a a lot sooner display at a 120Hz refresh charge that may go all the way down to 1Hz in case you get pleasure from an always-on show blazing out of your nightstand.

First have a look at how skinny the iPhone Air is #AppleEvent pic.twitter.com/0uMLAJayOi

— Ray Wong (@raywongy) September 9, 2025

The Air could have a brighter show at each HDR and SDR brightness for viewing outdoors, although the machine is just not designed to share screens over USB. In comparison with the iPhone 16, which supported DisplayPort over USB-C, the iPhone Air doesn’t.

iPhone Air Versus iPhone 16: Chip

The iPhone 16’s A18 chip was certainly one of Apple’s finest for the common iPhone, usually assembly benchmarks of the A18 Professional-level chip besides in intensive conditions, like ray tracing situations when gaming. The A18 was constructed on a six-core CPU and five-core GPU design with a 16-core neural engine.

Not a lot has modified in configuration, although Apple swears the Air’s A19 Professional is a real next-gen chip regardless of all of it. The A19 Professional makes use of a six-core CPU with two efficiency and 4 effectivity cores, alongside a five-core GPU (the iPhone 17 Professional gadgets make use of a six-core GPU, which can make them barely higher for graphics duties). The machine nonetheless helps hardware-accelerated ray tracing.

The A19 Professional is meant to make the telephone extra power environment friendly whereas enhancing on single-thread efficiency, which is how Apple is implying it ought to be capable of deal with easy duties sooner than earlier than. How properly it performs within the subject, particularly contemplating its awkward battery life specs, will decide if the skinny body is price all the opposite small trade-offs.

See iPhone Air at Apple.com

See iPhone 16 at Apple.com