Apple’s all-new, ultra-thin iPhone Air launches on Friday, and there are some smaller details about the device that you might have missed.
Below, we outline five things to know about the iPhone Air:
- As rumored, the iPhone Air only has a single speaker. The earpiece at the top of the device doubles as a speaker, but there is no speaker on the bottom of the device. The holes to the left and right of the USB-C port are for microphones. For stereo audio, use AirPods or a capable external speaker.
- On the iPhone Air, the Dynamic Island is positioned slightly lower on the screen compared to the iPhone 17 and iPhone 17 Pro models. This was likely necessary due to the device’s ultra-thin frame necessitating internal design changes.
- While the iPhone 17 Pro models support USB 3.2 Gen 2, for data transfer speeds of up to 10 Gbps, the iPhone Air is limited to USB 2 speeds of up to 480 Mbps.
- Apple says the iPhone Air can be charged to 50% in approximately 30 minutes, whereas the iPhone 17 Pro models can be charged to 50% in approximately 20 minutes. A higher-wattage charger and cable is required to achieve these speeds. In addition, MagSafe wireless charging on the iPhone Air is limited to up to 20W, compared to 25W for the iPhone 17 Pro models.
- In the iPhone 17 Pro models, the A19 Pro chip has a 6-core GPU. In the iPhone Air, it has a 5-core GPU, so graphics performance will take a slight hit.
Be sure to watch our iPhone Air hands-on video from earlier this week.
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