iPhone Air vs iPhone 16 Plus: How does the new option stack up?

With the iPhone 17 lineup, Apple has ditched the Plus model in favor of the new iPhone Air. But how do these examples compare?

Body size and body weight

Of course, the most immediate and striking difference between the iPhone Air and the iPhone 16 Plus is the difference in design. iPhone Air is very thin and very light:

• 5.64 mm thick, down from 7.80 mm
• 165 g (5.82 oz), down from 199 g (7.03 oz)

The iPhone Air is also shorter and smaller than the iPhone 16 Plus:

• 6.15 in (156.2 mm) long, down from 6.33 in (160.9 mm)
• 2.94 in (74.7 mm) wide, down from 3.06 in (77.8 mm)

The rear camera platform is now full-width, unlike the iPhone 16 Plus. It’s short though.

Simple colors

Part of the new design is a new color palette. Compared to the iPhone 16 Plus, the colors of the iPhone Air are much lighter. The iPhone Air enters Sky Blue, Light Gold, Cloud White, and Space Blackwhile the iPhone 16 Plus comes in Ultramarine, Teal, Pink, White, Black.

The iPhone Air has the same Super Retina XDR Display features from the iPhone 17 Pro, including ProMotion! This brings some great new features compared to the iPhone 16 Plus:

• Variable refresh rate, from as low as 1Hz to as high as 120Hz. This will result in both a better sounding display and better battery life.
• Always-on display: now, when iPhone Air is asleep, the display can show the time, widgets, and notifications.

However, the display is smaller, at 6.55″ compared to 6.69″. In particular, the decisions are:

• iPhone Air: 2736 × 1260 at 460 ppi
• iPhone 16 Plus: 2796 × 1290 at 460 ppi

The iPhone Air also comes with Ceramic Shield 2, which brings several new features:

Finally, all new iPhone models this year feature 3000 nits of maximum display brightness when outdoors, up from 2000 last year. Combined with a new anti-reflective coating, Apple says this will provide 2x better contrast when outdoors.

A19 chip

The A19 Pro chip will give the iPhone Air better performance than the iPhone 16 Plus with the A18. The new features are mainly focused on increasing the power of AI: The new Neural Accelerators will significantly improve the performance of machine learning and artificial intelligence tasks. Apple says it will provide “MacBook Pro levels” of power. Also, things like gaming will be improved, as Apple says that the GPU of the A19 Pro reaches “3x the maximum amount of GPU compute in the previous generation”.

The iPhone Air features 12 GB of RAM, up from 8 GB on the iPhone 16 Plus. The A19 Pro also has increased memory bandwidth, although Apple has not yet specified how much it has increased.

Battery life and charging

According to Apple’s tests, the iPhone Air will provide the same battery performance as the iPhone 16 Plus (in certain cases):

• Up to 27 hours of video playback (downloaded), same as iPhone 16 Plus
• Up to 22 hours of streaming video playback, down from 24 hours

Apple also offers a special MagSafe battery accessory. Here are the results if you use it:

• Up to 40 hours of video playback (downloaded), up from 27 hours
• Up to 35 hours of streaming video playback, up from 24 hours

iPhone Air also offers fast charging, so you can now charge up to 50% in 30 minutes instead of 35 minutes if you use a 20W or higher adapter.

No camera is too wide

To make the iPhone Air so small, a few compromises had to be made. One of those is the lack of an Ultra Wide camera. However, it has the same large 48MP Fusion Wide camera that appears in the entire iPhone 17 series! “Fusion” here means you can get full-resolution 12MP photos at 2x zoom, instead of relying on low-quality digital zoom. Although this camera is not really new compared to the iPhone 16 Plus, it features improved processing. You also get the same portrait mode photos, including the ability to take a portrait of any subject. However, you lose Cinema Mode for video recording.

The new Center Stage front camera

One of the best features of the new iPhone lineup is the new Center Stage front-facing camera. This camera now uses a square image sensor, which means you can switch between portrait and landscape photos without rotating the phone. The sensor is also now 18MP, so your photos will always have high resolution.

The square sensor and high resolution take center stage on the iPhone for the first time. Just like on the iPad, this means the camera will automatically adjust the frame so you’re always visible on a FaceTime or other video call. But Center Stage also works when taking selfies: the camera will automatically adjust the frame and switch between portrait and landscape depending on who’s in the frame. When you record a video, it will also be enhanced, similar to the Action Mode on the rear camera.

Finally, the new dual capture mode finally lets you record video from both the front and rear cameras at the same time.

Mono speakers

Another addition Apple had to make was removing the bottom speaker. This means that the iPhone Air is limited to mono audio, and that the maximum volume is not that high. If the speakers on your phone are of high value to you, this will be something to keep in mind.

The new N1 wireless network chip

With the iPhone Air, Apple introduced its first wireless home chip. In addition to improving the overall wireless performance and reliability of features that rely on this chip (such as Personal Hotspot and AirDrop), this new chip in the iPhone Air now has Bluetooth 6 instead of 5.3.

iPhone Air also now has dual-frequency precision GPS for more accurate and reliable GPS performance, and adds NavIC support in India.

The new Apple-designed C1X mobile modem

The iPhone Air is the first iPhone to get Apple’s new C1X modem, which is an upgrade to the C1 modem from the iPhone 16e. The C1 already offers faster and better performance than existing Qualcomm modems, and Apple claims the C1X is up to 2x faster than the C1, all while using 30% less power than previous Qualcomm modems.

There is one downside, however: The C1X doesn’t support mmWave 5G, so you’re limited to speeds below 6GHz.

Price and availability

The iPhone Air starts at $999 for 256 GB of storage, the same price as the iPhone 16 Plus with 256 GB of storage. However, there is no $899 128 GB option like there was with the 16 Plus. You can get 512 GB for $1,199, which is also the same as the 512 GB iPhone 16 Plus. Finally, there’s also a 1TB option for $1,399.

iPhone Air is available for purchase online and in stores now.

My favorite Apple accessories: