iPhone 17 Air vs Samsung Galaxy S25 Edge | TechTalkTown
iPhone 17 Air vs Samsung Galaxy S25 Edge
iPhone 17 Air
Apple
7.1
Beautiful, but compromised
Samsung Galaxy S25 Edge
Samsung
6.8
Gorgeous compromise
iPhone 17 Air
What Reviewers Agree On
At 5.64mm thick and 165g the iPhone Air's hand-feel is the most genuinely new thing about any 2025 iPhone — almost every reviewer says you have to hold it to understand why people pay the premium.
The titanium grade-5 frame plus Ceramic Shield 2 makes it the most durable iPhone yet, surviving 130-pound Apple bend tests and JerryRig-style torture without bending or cracking.
The 6.5-inch ProMotion OLED with 3,000-nit peak brightness, anti-reflective coating and always-on display is identical in quality to the 17 Pro panel and gets praised across the board.
The A19 Pro chip with 12GB of RAM delivers Pro-tier performance in normal use — Geekbench multi-core lands around 9,600-9,800 and apps stay in memory noticeably longer than 8GB phones.
The new 18MP square Center Stage front camera is the year's standout iPhone feature — you can shoot landscape selfies while holding the phone vertically without rotating, and group shots auto-frame.
Pros & Cons
iPhone 17 Air
Pros
At 5.64mm thick and 165g the iPhone Air's hand-feel is the most genuinely new thing about any 2025 iPhone — almost every reviewer says you have to hold it to understand why people pay the premium.
The titanium grade-5 frame plus Ceramic Shield 2 makes it the most durable iPhone yet, surviving 130-pound Apple bend tests and JerryRig-style torture without bending or cracking.
The 6.5-inch ProMotion OLED with 3,000-nit peak brightness, anti-reflective coating and always-on display is identical in quality to the 17 Pro panel and gets praised across the board.
The A19 Pro chip with 12GB of RAM delivers Pro-tier performance in normal use — Geekbench multi-core lands around 9,600-9,800 and apps stay in memory noticeably longer than 8GB phones.
Detailed Comparison
Design & Build
iPhone 17 Air
The iPhone Air is the most physically distinctive new iPhone in years — 5.64mm thick (down from 7.95mm on the iPhone 17), 165g (12g lighter than the iPhone 17, 41g lighter than the 17 Pro), grade-5 titanium frame with polished mirror-finish sides, and a horizontal 'plateau' across the top that houses the A19 Pro, single camera and speakers because the rest of the body is occupied by the battery. Apple says it's the most durable iPhone ever (Ceramic Shield 2 front, Ceramic Shield back, 130-pound bend test) and so far real-world durability tests agree — no bendgate 2.0. The polish does come with one consistent caveat: it's slippery and feels precarious without a case, and the optional case partly defeats the thinness.
It's 5.64mm thick versus 7.95mm for the iPhone 17 — challenge anyone to pick it up without being surprised at how much lighter it feels.
Initially the lighter weight makes the Air seem 'cheap', but that notion quickly disappears — the phone feels strong, durable, and rigid thanks to the titanium frame.
Apple is setting new highs for mobile design with the iPhone Air — it's a 'sci-fi space pebble' that's a marvel of engineering you really have to hold to appreciate.
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Battery life is better than the rumours suggested before launch — most reviewers can scrape through a normal day on the 3,149 mAh cell, though heavy travel days will need a top-up.
Deal Breakers
Single 48MP rear camera with no ultrawide, no telephoto and no macro is the most-cited compromise — even reviewers who like the phone admit they consistently miss the second lens, and Reddit owners flag it as the one regret six months in.
Mono speaker in the earpiece (no bottom speaker) sounds thin and bass-light for movies, music and podcasts — multiple reviewers and Reddit users call it the deal-breaker that ruled the phone out for them.
Battery life trails every other phone in the iPhone 17 lineup — 27h Apple video rating, 6h 43m in The Tech Chap's real-world battery test (12 minutes behind the iPhone 17, 76 minutes behind the 17 Pro Max), and heavy users hit 20% before dinner.
$999 price is widely flagged as the single biggest problem — for $200 less you get a more-versatile iPhone 17 (two cameras, stereo speakers, longer battery), and for only $100 more an iPhone 17 Pro with vapor chamber, three cameras and 4x/8x optical zoom.
USB-C port is limited to USB 2 (480 Mbps) data transfer speeds and there's no mmWave 5G support — odd corner-cuts on a $999 phone in 2025.
Aggressive thermal throttling under sustained GPU load — the lack of a vapor chamber means Genshin Impact and similar games measurably slow down within an hour, and the camera-bar plateau heats up noticeably.
Samsung Galaxy S25 Edge
What Reviewers Agree On
At 5.8mm and 163 grams the Edge genuinely feels transformatively lighter and thinner in hand than any other current flagship — picking it up is repeatedly described as a surprise even by reviewers skeptical of thin phones.
Build quality is premium and durable for the form factor — titanium frame, Gorilla Glass Ceramic 2 on the front (first phone to use it), Gorilla Glass Victus 2 on the back, IP68 rating intact.
The 6.7-inch 1440p LTPO AMOLED is one of the best smartphone displays in 2025 — 2,600-nit peak brightness, 120Hz, sharp and bright in any lighting.
Short-burst performance from the Snapdragon 8 Elite for Galaxy + 12GB RAM matches or beats the S25 Ultra in single-shot benchmarks, with no noticeable lag in everyday use.
The 200MP main sensor (inherited from the S25 Ultra) takes genuinely strong photos with crisp detail, and the new wider 12MP selfie camera is a small upgrade for group shots.
Samsung commits seven years of OS and security updates, matching the industry's best long-term support window.
Deal Breakers
The 3,900 mAh battery is the smallest in the entire Galaxy S25 lineup — smaller even than the base S25's cell — and real-world endurance trails the S25+, S25 Ultra and most rivals by a meaningful margin.
There is no telephoto camera at all — only the 200MP main and a 12MP ultrawide — making it the only S25 phone without optical zoom and a hard sell for anyone who shoots distant subjects.
Under sustained 3DMark stress tests Notebookcheck measured GPU performance dropping to roughly half its initial score (46.3% Wild Life stability), confirming the slim chassis can't dissipate enough heat for long gaming sessions.
Wired charging is capped at 25W and wireless at 15W — well behind the OnePlus 13 and Xiaomi rivals, with a full charge taking about 1 hour 20 minutes from the wall.
Samsung skipped the new silicon-carbon battery chemistry already shipping in the OnePlus 13, Xiaomi 15, Vivo X200 and other competitors — the single technology that could have made the thin form factor work, repeatedly flagged by MKBHD, Dave2D and Mrwhosetheboss.
The new 18MP square Center Stage front camera is the year's standout iPhone feature — you can shoot landscape selfies while holding the phone vertically without rotating, and group shots auto-frame.
Battery life is better than the rumours suggested before launch — most reviewers can scrape through a normal day on the 3,149 mAh cell, though heavy travel days will need a top-up.
Cons
Single 48MP rear camera with no ultrawide, no telephoto and no macro is the most-cited compromise — even reviewers who like the phone admit they consistently miss the second lens, and Reddit owners flag it as the one regret six months in.
Mono speaker in the earpiece (no bottom speaker) sounds thin and bass-light for movies, music and podcasts — multiple reviewers and Reddit users call it the deal-breaker that ruled the phone out for them.
Battery life trails every other phone in the iPhone 17 lineup — 27h Apple video rating, 6h 43m in The Tech Chap's real-world battery test (12 minutes behind the iPhone 17, 76 minutes behind the 17 Pro Max), and heavy users hit 20% before dinner.
$999 price is widely flagged as the single biggest problem — for $200 less you get a more-versatile iPhone 17 (two cameras, stereo speakers, longer battery), and for only $100 more an iPhone 17 Pro with vapor chamber, three cameras and 4x/8x optical zoom.
USB-C port is limited to USB 2 (480 Mbps) data transfer speeds and there's no mmWave 5G support — odd corner-cuts on a $999 phone in 2025.
Aggressive thermal throttling under sustained GPU load — the lack of a vapor chamber means Genshin Impact and similar games measurably slow down within an hour, and the camera-bar plateau heats up noticeably.
Samsung Galaxy S25 Edge
Pros
At 5.8mm and 163 grams the Edge genuinely feels transformatively lighter and thinner in hand than any other current flagship — picking it up is repeatedly described as a surprise even by reviewers skeptical of thin phones.
Build quality is premium and durable for the form factor — titanium frame, Gorilla Glass Ceramic 2 on the front (first phone to use it), Gorilla Glass Victus 2 on the back, IP68 rating intact.
The 6.7-inch 1440p LTPO AMOLED is one of the best smartphone displays in 2025 — 2,600-nit peak brightness, 120Hz, sharp and bright in any lighting.
Short-burst performance from the Snapdragon 8 Elite for Galaxy + 12GB RAM matches or beats the S25 Ultra in single-shot benchmarks, with no noticeable lag in everyday use.
The 200MP main sensor (inherited from the S25 Ultra) takes genuinely strong photos with crisp detail, and the new wider 12MP selfie camera is a small upgrade for group shots.
Samsung commits seven years of OS and security updates, matching the industry's best long-term support window.
Cons
The 3,900 mAh battery is the smallest in the entire Galaxy S25 lineup — smaller even than the base S25's cell — and real-world endurance trails the S25+, S25 Ultra and most rivals by a meaningful margin.
There is no telephoto camera at all — only the 200MP main and a 12MP ultrawide — making it the only S25 phone without optical zoom and a hard sell for anyone who shoots distant subjects.
Under sustained 3DMark stress tests Notebookcheck measured GPU performance dropping to roughly half its initial score (46.3% Wild Life stability), confirming the slim chassis can't dissipate enough heat for long gaming sessions.
Wired charging is capped at 25W and wireless at 15W — well behind the OnePlus 13 and Xiaomi rivals, with a full charge taking about 1 hour 20 minutes from the wall.
Samsung skipped the new silicon-carbon battery chemistry already shipping in the OnePlus 13, Xiaomi 15, Vivo X200 and other competitors — the single technology that could have made the thin form factor work, repeatedly flagged by MKBHD, Dave2D and Mrwhosetheboss.
The iPhone Air is the radical redesign of the iPhone I have been wanting for years — perfectly balanced at 165g and the most fun I've had with an iPhone since the iPhone X.
Apple performed a bend test with 130 pounds of force and the iPhone Air showed no damage at all — Ceramic Shield 2 on the front and Ceramic Shield on the back make this the most durable iPhone yet.
The thinness is genuinely impressive, but the polished titanium edges are slippery — without a case I felt the phone could fly out of my hands, and it did once during testing.
The thin profile makes it harder to feel like you have a good grip on the phone, and holding it can feel precarious — adding a case helps but partly defeats the thin-and-light effect.
At 165g it's the lightest full-screen iPhone Apple has made, but it's still heavier than the iPhone 12 mini (135g) and 13 mini (141g) — so 'lightest ever' has caveats.
The frosted glass back resists fingerprints, isn't slippery once you adjust, and looks even better without a case — though it's still all-glass so AppleCare+ is recommended.
It's been five months and I still love the design — comfortable to pick up, hold, and use for long periods. Up there with the iPhone 7 and iPhone 12 mini as one of my favourite iPhones ever.
I'm disabled with a progressive illness and as my hands weaken, the Air has been a game changer — so light and easy for me to hold one-handed now.
The 'sexiest phone ever made' — I smile every time I pick mine up. It's the sexiest phone ever made.
Samsung Galaxy S25 Edge
At 5.8mm and 163 grams the S25 Edge is the thinnest and lightest Galaxy flagship ever, and nearly every reviewer concedes that picking it up changes their opinion of thin phones — even those who came in skeptical. The frame is grade-5 titanium with Gorilla Glass Ceramic 2 (a smartphone first) on the front and Victus 2 on the back, IP68 rating preserved. The camera bump protrudes enough that the phone wobbles noticeably on a flat surface, and several reviewers point out a case immediately negates the thin-phone benefit.
After living with the Edge for two weeks, the lighter weight repeatedly tricked the reviewer into thinking she'd left her phone at home — the slimmer dimensions make a tangible difference in pockets and small bags the way no other modern big phone does.
At 5.8mm it is 2mm thinner than the iPhone 16 Plus and weighs 36 grams less despite the same 6.7-inch screen — picking it up genuinely feels strange and, surprisingly, not cheap.
Samsung kept the titanium frame and IP68 rating, and the Gorilla Glass Ceramic 2 panel is a smartphone first — the Edge is undeniably enchanting in sheer feel and aesthetics.
The titanium frame meets the glass at a minutely chamfered edge that banishes the sharp digging-into-the-palm sensation of the S25 Ultra — for an hour straight it never once felt fatiguing.
The Edge ruined the reviewer's previously positive experience with the S25 Ultra in 24 hours — the Ultra suddenly feels thick and noticeably heavy by comparison.
Even on video of his own hands holding it the difference looks subtle, but it is very noticeably thinner to hold — the kind of feel-it-to-believe-it engineering you don't get from a spec sheet.
Picking up the Edge was very reminiscent of his first time picking up a MacBook Air or a new iPad — 30% thinner and 25% lighter doesn't sound transformative on paper but absolutely feels it.
Just under 4mm thick, the camera bump on the back is quite prominent — including the lenses the Edge is almost as thick as the S25+, and on a table it wobbles back and forth considerably.
The phone rocks a lot on a table due to the camera bump and even with a case the Edge won't stop wobbling because case-makers want to preserve as much thinness as possible.
Display
iPhone 17 Air
The 6.5-inch LTPO Super Retina XDR OLED is identical in spec to the iPhone 17 Pro Max panel — same 1-120Hz ProMotion, same 3,000-nit peak brightness, same anti-reflective coating, same Dolby Vision HDR support, same always-on display. It sits exactly between the 6.3-inch iPhone 17 and the 6.9-inch iPhone 17 Pro Max in size, which most reviewers consider the sweet spot for a one-handable big-screen phone. The Dynamic Island sits slightly lower on the Air to accommodate the camera plateau, and a few apps haven't adapted, but the visual quality itself is universally praised. No reviewer found a real complaint with the display.
The 6.5-inch OLED screen feels improbable in this thin and light design — bright enough to read in direct sunlight, with a 120Hz refresh rate that finally brings the regular iPhone family up to Android-standard smoothness.
Peak brightness is 3,000 nits with ProMotion 1-120Hz, and putting a display this good in a body this thin sometimes really does look like a magazine page floating in your hand.
The iPhone Air screen is glorious — there's not much separating it from the Pro models in screen terms. Both hit 3,000 nits peak and 1 nit minimum, fantastic in bright and dark conditions.
I have no complaints about the Super Retina XDR display — great viewing angles, the new anti-glare coating actually reduces reflections, and it's as good as a phone screen gets.
A 6.5-inch screen is the perfect Goldilocks size — big enough to watch Netflix comfortably on the train, but small enough to use in one hand, something I couldn't do with the 6.9-inch Pro Max.
After a year on the 6.3-inch iPhone 16 Pro, holding the Air's 6.5-inch panel in a 5.6mm chassis feels like holding the future.
The screen is wider and taller than the 6.3-inch phones, but a little of that size is wasted on the no-man's-land above the Dynamic Island, which iOS apps can't really use.
In GSMArena's lab the panel hit 998 nits in auto mode and 780 nits in manual mode, with exceptional sunlight legibility in real-world use.
The Dynamic Island sits slightly lower on the iPhone Air to accommodate the camera plateau, and some notifications expanding from it haven't been updated to accommodate that change.
Samsung Galaxy S25 Edge
The 6.7-inch QHD+ LTPO AMOLED is essentially the same panel as the S25+ — 120Hz, sharp, very bright. Samsung says it skipped the S25 Ultra's anti-reflective Gorilla Armor 2 coating because the coating itself would have added thickness, so the Edge gets the glossier finish back. PWM dimming only reaches 480Hz which Notebookcheck flags as a potential issue for sensitive eyes.
The 6.7-inch panel is just as vibrant and wonderfully colourful as the S25+ — same OLED, same 120Hz refresh rate, no compromise on screen quality.
With auto-brightness enabled the panel exceeded 2,600 nits in HDR content and regularly cleared 1,000 nits, with even the manual SDR brightness boost hitting 700–800 nits in real testing.
Slimmer bezels on an absolutely gorgeous display make the Edge feel like holding a portal — and the 2,600 nit peak brightness is right in line with the S25 Ultra's spec.
The display is also fantastic, and the QHD+ AMOLED is one of the highlights of using the phone — battery aside, the screen alone makes the Edge a treat.
Samsung skipped the Ultra's anti-reflective coating because — and this is on the record — Samsung says the coating itself would have increased the phone's thickness.
Camera
iPhone 17 Air
This is the iPhone Air's single most polarizing area. There is exactly one rear camera — a 48MP f/1.6 Fusion Main with sensor-shift OIS, the same sensor as the iPhone 17's main camera. There's no ultrawide, no telephoto, no macro, no ProRAW, no ProRes, and no spatial photos. The phone offers 'optical-quality' digital crops at 28mm, 35mm and 52mm (2x), then digital zoom up to 10x. Photo quality from the main camera is excellent — vibrant, sharp, strong low-light performance — and the new 18MP square-sensor Center Stage selfie camera is broadly considered the best new iPhone camera feature in years. But the missing lenses come up in nearly every review as something owners notice. Reviewers split sharply on whether the absence is a deal-breaker or a manageable trade-off, with the telephoto loss flagged more often than the ultrawide.
The single 48MP rear camera feels like a real concession on a $1,000 phone — even Samsung managed to fit an ultrawide on the similarly thin Galaxy S25 Edge. Some shots just call for the drama of a 13mm view.
The single 48-MP camera felt extremely limiting — even Samsung managed to fit an ultrawide on the similarly thin Galaxy S25 Edge, and in some low-light shots the iPhone 17's main camera delivered sharper images than the Air.
Despite only having a single rear camera, the Air still takes portrait photos that look practically as good as iPhones with two — Apple reengineered the portrait pipeline to work without stereo cameras.
After six months the one thing I genuinely miss is the telephoto camera — at a function trying to capture a candid moment or shooting landscape photos, the lack of a dedicated telephoto lens is a real limitation.
The iPhone Air feels like jumping back a decade in iPhone camera versatility — having a £999/$999 phone with one camera on the back will be an instant turn-off for many looking for the best camera phone.
The 2x advantage fades quickly once you go beyond it — even the 3x telephoto on the iPhone 15 Pro is clearer and more detailed than the iPhone Air's 2x shot digitally zoomed to 3x, and the gap grows ridiculously wide at 8x.
The new 18MP square-sensor Center Stage selfie camera might be the next big photo revolution other companies will copy — it switches between portrait and landscape orientations without rotating the phone, and auto-frames groups.
Center Stage is the best new iPhone camera feature in years — selfies look so much better because your eyes align closer to the centre of the screen instead of off to the side.
After 10 days in Crete photographing a family vacation on a single rear camera, I realised I'd only twice missed the 0.5x ultrawide — the iPhone Air's main camera at times outperformed my iPhone 15 Pro Max.
Video quality on the iPhone Air remains excellent — comparison clips against the Pixel 10 Pro XL and Galaxy S25 Edge consistently came out on top with better stabilization and brighter, sharper footage.
iPhone Air owners flag the missing telephoto as the regret they keep coming back to — 'rumours suggest the next iPhone Air will include a secondary camera. I genuinely hope it's a telephoto and not an ultrawide.'
Apple says the iPhone Air has the equivalent of four lenses — clever marketing speak for 1x Main, 1.1x Custom Main, 1.4x Custom Main, and 2x Telephoto. Prepare to have serious Telephoto FOMO.
Samsung Galaxy S25 Edge
Two cameras only — the 200MP main from the S25 Ultra (slightly flattened to fit the chassis) and a 12MP ultrawide. There is no telephoto lens, optical zoom is gone, and the 2x and beyond are pure digital crops from the 200MP sensor. The Verge and Engadget defend the trade and say the high-res crop works at 2x; Wired, Digital Trends and GSMArena call missing zoom the camera's biggest disqualifier on a $1,099 phone.
The Edge inherits the same top-of-the-line 200MP main camera that previously only the Ultra phones got — a real win for image quality on a non-Ultra Galaxy.
Samsung included a top-shelf 200MP main camera to make up for the missing telephoto, and the 2x crop zoom works fine for a little extra reach — colors are punchy as always.
Despite the slim body the Edge still uses a large 1/1.3-inch sensor on the main camera and a 12MP ultrawide — pictures up to 2x crop are sharp and image quality is solid in good light.
There is no telephoto zoom camera at all — rare for a $1,000-plus phone today, and zoom quality deteriorates quickly past 2x digital, making this an uncomfortable choice for anyone who shoots distance.
Battery & Charging
iPhone 17 Air
Apple's biggest engineering challenge: fitting useful battery life into a 5.64mm chassis. The Air ships with a 3,149 mAh cell (the smallest in the iPhone 17 lineup), rated 27 hours of video playback versus 30/33/39 hours for the 17/17 Pro/17 Pro Max. The Tech Chap's real-world battery test pegged it at 6h 43m — about 12 minutes behind the iPhone 17 and 76 minutes behind the 17 Pro Max. Reviewers split between 'better than I expected, fine for a normal day' and 'this is the lineup's weakest battery and you'll need to top up before dinner on travel days.' Charging tops out at 20W wired (USB-PD 2.0) and 20W MagSafe/Qi2 — slower than the 40W wired and 25W MagSafe on the iPhone 17. Apple sells a $99 dedicated MagSafe battery pack that adds ~65% charge and is sized specifically for the Air; whether you 'need' it depends entirely on usage and routine.
Battery life is just okay — heavy use brought the battery into the 20s before dinnertime with around five hours of screen-on time, and Apple's recent track record on battery longevity isn't stellar either.
Battery life is better than I expected — five hours of screen-on time with 18% left by 10:30pm. I didn't feel as battery-anxious as I did with the Galaxy S25 Edge.
Streaming video rundown lasted 23h 39m — barely an hour less than a base iPhone 17 — and on a day with over seven hours of screen-on time I still had 25% left in the tank.
After a week I can confidently say I can't make it through a full day on a single charge — on a good day I make it just past dinner, on a bad day I'm on the charger by late afternoon.
The Tech Chap's real-world battery test had the iPhone Air last 6 hours 43 minutes — 12 minutes behind the iPhone 17 (6h 55m) and 76 minutes behind the 17 Pro Max (7h 59m).
Six months in, battery life has not been a problem — the iPhone Air consistently delivers around four hours of screen-on time, comfortably covering my daily needs. For mostly-communication usage it lasts a full day without issue.
Five months on the verdict has stood the test of time — I almost always get through the full day with a 90% charge limit set, typically finishing with over 30% remaining, sometimes 40%.
The iPhone Air is not an endurance champ. It's also not an endurance also-ran — I'm fairly sure it slept through its alarm and forgot there was a race. I never had a full day off the charger.
The Air contains a very small 3,149 mAh battery, but the phone can just about squeak by an 11-hour day for me on a single charge — enough for a normal work day, not a full-on all-day-outside type of day.
Apple's $99 MagSafe Battery is more than erases the size and weight advantage of the Air, spoiling its light weight and thin profile — paying for Apple's particular solution feels sort of silly and only medium-elegant.
Charging is slower than the iPhone 17 line — 50% in 30 minutes instead of 20 minutes — and the USB-C port is limited to USB 2 speeds (480 Mbps) versus 10 Gbps on the iPhone 17 Pro.
Real-world battery from an early adopter: 7:10am to 3:42pm before dropping to 4% — 'not an all-day battery but passable if you don't mind the range anxiety.'
Samsung Galaxy S25 Edge
The 3,900 mAh cell is the smallest in the entire S25 family — even smaller than the base S25's 4,000 mAh battery. Engadget's local video rundown clocked 25 hours 59 minutes (about 3.5 hours less than the Ultra and two hours less than the standard S25); Notebookcheck reached almost 18 hours of simulated web browsing. Real-world experience is split: The Verge survived a heavy Google I/O day with 20% left; Wired needed mid-day top-ups; Trusted Reviews hit 5% by midday after only two hours of screen-on time. Wired charging caps at 25W. The single most-flagged complaint is Samsung's decision not to use silicon-carbon battery tech that competitors already ship.
A full day covering Google I/O with three hours of screen time and an hour-ish of hotspot use ended with 20 percent left — not amazing, but fine for a heavy use day if you can plug in by evening.
Engadget's local video rundown lasted 25 hours 59 minutes — about three and a half hours less than the S25 Ultra and two hours less than the base S25.
Almost 18 hours of simulated web browsing and over 25 hours of HD video playback in lab testing — sufficient for a day of intensive use even if it doesn't quite beat similarly priced rivals.
Software & AI
iPhone 17 Air
The iPhone Air ships with iOS 26 and Apple's controversial new Liquid Glass UI — a layered, glass-like design that distorts content behind interface elements. Reviewers like the visual refresh but flag readability issues in places and a higher learning curve. Apple Intelligence is the same as on every other iPhone with 8GB+ of RAM and continues to underwhelm versus Google Gemini. The Air specifically uses Apple's new C1X cellular modem (no mmWave) and N1 networking chip (Wi-Fi 7, Bluetooth 6, Thread). Reddit threads on r/iphone and r/OnePlus call out iOS 26 as a step backward — some longtime iPhone owners have used iOS 26 + the Air's design as a reason to test-drive OnePlus 15 or other Android flagships.
The iPhone Air uses the new Liquid Glass interface in iOS 26 — I like the design overall, but for every helpful update I find five more I hate.
Apple Intelligence – the brand's first AI – isn't even a year old and already feels like an afterthought. It falls so far behind Google's Gemini that it shouldn't have any bearing on whether you buy this phone.
Liquid Glass has potential to be problematic with readability, but I never ran into a situation where I had trouble reading the screen — the Music app's slide-behind-buttons effect adds nice immersion.
Liquid Glass has more to do with marketing than usability — shiny visuals help keynote demos pop, but 'a feature called Liquid Glass sounds sexier than refinements to Safari's tab bar.'
Liquid Glass feels designed specifically for the iPhone Air — you literally just tap on a thin piece of glass with no borders, and the effect lands perfectly on this hardware.
iOS 26 destroyed the experience — the closed ecosystem gets boring after a while. After using iOS 26 on a 17 Pro Max I'm switching to the OnePlus 15.
Apple updated iOS 26 with new AI tricks like pointing your camera at an invitation to add it to your calendar, which works — but Siri still stumbles on requests like 'navigate by bike to Wrigley Field' that Gemini gets right from the jump.
Apple Intelligence still mostly stinks, but that may not be the case starting next year — performance headroom from the A19 Pro could come in clutch when Apple gets its AI plans back on track.
Samsung Galaxy S25 Edge
Same One UI 7 on Android 15 as the rest of the S25 lineup, same Galaxy AI feature suite (Now Brief, generative photo editing, Gemini integration), same seven-year OS and security update commitment. No platform differentiator over the cheaper S25 or S25+ — software is identical, so the Edge's pitch lives entirely on hardware design.
Same One UI 7 on Android 15 as the rest of the S25 lineup, with the full Galaxy AI feature set including Now Brief, generative editing and Gemini as the default assistant.
Seven years of major Android upgrades and monthly security patches until 2031 — matches the best long-term support in the industry.
Very pleasing and fluid One UI experience, DeX support, seven major OS updates — listed as a pro across the verdict even by reviewers cool on the hardware.
Shout-out to the realtime visual Gemini Live feature — you can be on a video call with the AI and point at an object and have it answer contextual questions, real-world impressive AI even if execution isn't perfect.
Selfie camera supports log video recording — a small but real software differentiator the rest of the S25 series doesn't currently have.
Value & Verdict
iPhone 17 Air
At $999/£999 the iPhone Air is sandwiched in the middle of Apple's lineup in a way no reviewer can comfortably justify on paper — $200 more than the iPhone 17 (which has more cameras, more speakers, longer battery, faster wired transfers) and only $100 less than the iPhone 17 Pro (which adds 4x/8x telephoto, vapor-chamber cooling, ProRes recording, and Apple ProRAW). The value proposition rests entirely on whether you assign meaningful price to thin-and-light design alone. Most reviewers conclude the Air is for a specific shopper, not the typical buyer. Apple's own results back this up: MacRumors reported in February 2026 that sales were so soft Apple delayed the Air 2 model. Reddit threads cite price as the single most common reason buyers chose the iPhone 17 or Pro instead. Owners who do buy it tend to love it disproportionately — phrases like 'best iPhone since the X' and 'best phone I've ever owned' recur in Reddit and MacRumors comments — but the catalogue of compromises (camera, speaker, battery, USB 2, no mmWave) make this hard to recommend for most people.
For most people the iPhone 17 will be a better choice — it has a better balance of power, battery life, and a more versatile camera system. The Air's asking price is too high.
For anyone who puts a premium on style and sleekness, the iPhone Air is without a doubt Apple's coolest handset in years — even if it's not the most affordable iPhone or the one with the most cameras.
For the right person, this iPhone Air is the most enjoyable phone experience I have had in the past decade — but most people are better off with the iPhone 17 ($799) or iPhone 17 Pro ($1,099).
Sales have reportedly been so low that Apple is delaying the next-generation iPhone Air model — the biggest thing wrong with the iPhone Air is its $999 price tag.
Considering the iPhone Air is priced at $999, the standard iPhone 17 starts at $799, and the Pro iPhones at $1,099, I find it very hard to recommend the Air. Get the Pro instead — it's tremendous this year.
There's nothing about the iPhone Air that's objectively better than the cheaper iPhone 17, except the A19 Pro chip — and that's only marginally better here. You're paying for what many will find subjectively way cooler.
If it were closer to the base iPhone 17 on price, or closer to the 17 Pro on features, I'd happily recommend the iPhone Air to anyone. As it is, it's not hugely surprising it is missing the mark for many people.
If you want an iPhone that looks incredible and feels even better in the hand, the iPhone Air is for you. Just know that experience will come with tradeoffs.
Why pay $1,000 for a bad phone when you can either pay an extra $100 or save $200 for a better phone? — the top-voted MacRumors comment captures the dominant value criticism.
The Air's price is the dealbreaker — at $200 more than the base iPhone 17 with LESS to offer (1 camera, 1 speaker, subpar battery), the design and build quality become moot for most buyers. If priced lower than the 17, it'd be a success.
I've had it for a month and I LOVE THIS PHONE — it feels and works way smaller than other iPhones, doesn't take up my entire pocket, doesn't take two hands to use, still has a large screen, and it feels better than any phone I've ever had.
After three days of unbroken use the iPhone Air has sold me on the value of a 'heftless' phone — but it's not a slam-dunk and I wish it didn't cost $1,000.
Samsung Galaxy S25 Edge
At $1,099 the Edge sits $100 above the S25+ ($999) and $200 below the S25 Ultra ($1,299) — but the Ultra is frequently discounted to within $50–100 of the Edge, which collapses the value pitch. Reviewers across The Verge, Wired, GSMArena, Ars Technica and 9to5Google ask the same question: who is this for? Reddit user sentiment on r/gadgets and r/Android is outright hostile — the dominant view is that the phone trades capability for fashion and that nobody asked for it. The optimistic case: an alternate flagship for fashion-led, non-techy buyers who want luxury hardware without S Pen, telephoto or thickness.
The S25 Edge makes sense for someone who prizes a large screen without the bulk and weight of a typical big phone — and is easy on a battery and lives near outlets. Those are some pretty serious caveats.
As an alternative to the humdrum S25+, the Edge gets interesting — same $1,100 starting price as the Plus but with the titanium frame and 200MP main from the Ultra plus a thinner stylish chassis, and a real identity that stands on its own.
We shouldn't accept a phone with this kind of battery life today — instead of a thin phone with a small battery, the industry should be making a thin phone with a big battery, and the Edge just doesn't live up to the hype.
Steep pricing at launch — the Edge starts at €1,250/$1,100/INR 110,000 and third-party resellers will sell you both the S25+ and the S25 Ultra for less, so for most users it may not be a sensible choice.
At $1,099 the Edge sits between the cheaper S25+ ($999) and the only-$100-more S25 Ultra ($1,299), and reviewers across The Verge, Wired, GSMArena and Ars Technica agree neither end of that bracket is a comfortable place to land given what you give up.
Wireless charging works through a 'Qi2 Ready' label rather than built-in magnets — you need a separate magnetic case for MagSafe-style accessories, the same issue Engadget called out on the S25 Ultra.
There is no S Pen support and no S Pen slot — the Ultra's signature feature is gone, removing the one reason you'd traditionally pay over $1,000 for a Samsung flagship without compromise.
At $1,099 the Edge sits between the cheaper S25+ ($999) and the only-$100-more S25 Ultra ($1,299), and reviewers across The Verge, Wired, GSMArena and Ars Technica agree neither end of that bracket is a comfortable place to land given what you give up.
Wireless charging works through a 'Qi2 Ready' label rather than built-in magnets — you need a separate magnetic case for MagSafe-style accessories, the same issue Engadget called out on the S25 Ultra.
There is no S Pen support and no S Pen slot — the Ultra's signature feature is gone, removing the one reason you'd traditionally pay over $1,000 for a Samsung flagship without compromise.
The Ultra's anti-reflective glass is missing on the Edge — losing that anti-glare property is genuinely a downgrade if you've used the S25 Ultra outdoors.
The AMOLED flickers at a comparatively low 240Hz at minimum brightness rising to 480Hz at higher levels, and the amplitude isn't particularly flat — PWM-sensitive viewers may notice eye strain.
Missing telephoto is a serious downside even mid-range phones now include — the Edge is essentially banking on its thinness to drag buyers away from rivals that all have one.
The Edge lacks a telephoto camera and low-light photography is suboptimal — listed as a con in the final verdict despite the 200MP headline number.
Samsung flattened the main camera lens structure to keep the phone slim, which makes the output slightly softer than the S25 Ultra — the same shot taken multiple times consistently came out a touch less sharp.
Coming from the S25 Ultra he genuinely missed the periscope zoom while travelling at Computex — for trip photography the missing telephoto is a real loss.
After only four hours of screen-on time the phone hit 15% — only light-to-average use will get you a full day, and travelling I/O coverage required mid-afternoon charging anxiety.
Off a full charge at 3pm, the phone hit 30% by morning and 5% by midday with only two hours of total screen time — Trusted Reviews calls this 'the phone that reintroduces battery anxiety' for the modern era.
Wired charging tops out at 25W and a full charge takes 1 hour 20 minutes — pedestrian numbers for a smartphone in this price category.
The Edge sticks with regular lithium-ion battery tech, not the silicon-carbon anode chemistry rivals like the OnePlus 13, Xiaomi 15, Vivo X200 and several Honor phones already ship — a 15–20% battery boost left on the table.
Skipping silicon-carbon was 'a big miss' — if Samsung had used it, the same thin chassis could have held meaningfully more capacity and the battery debate would have evaporated.
If this were a more energy-dense silicon-carbon battery the conversation would be entirely different — but it isn't, and within a few years as the cell degrades buyers may regret prioritising thinness over capacity.
Wireless charging is 'Qi2 Ready' rather than fully Qi2 compatible — there are no magnets inside the phone, so MagSafe-style accessories require a separate magnetic case or adhesive ring.
This $1,099 smartphone is incredibly slim at just 5.8mm but also steps down in the camera department and packs an anaemic battery that may struggle to last all day — most manufacturers could never justify making such a strange, niche device.
Even though price-wise the Edge is closer to an Ultra, feature-wise it's way closer to the Plus — you're paying more for an aesthetic and a vibe rather than getting more tech, similar to Samsung's Z Flip pricing logic.
The Verge link to a sale showed the Galaxy S25 Ultra discounted to around $1,050 — cheaper than the Edge, which collapses any 'price-vs-Ultra' value pitch the Edge had at launch.
It's more than just super thin, it's also a Galaxy phone that no one asked for — top r/gadgets comment with 283 upvotes captures the dominant user-voice take: gladly trade thinness for a beefy battery.
'What a dumb device. Compared to the Ultra you get a smaller battery, no telephoto cameras, no anti-reflective screen, and a price that isn't much lower. Just spend the $150 extra and go with the ultra.' — 133-upvote r/Android summary of community sentiment.
The Edge is form over function — at the moment a slim Xiaomi, Oppo or Vivo with silicon-carbon battery is the more sensible thin-phone option; Samsung shouldn't try to lead the category until the battery tech is ready at its scale.
