Transcription
What's up? Josh here.
So, I've been living with the iPhone Air for almost a year now. Just like this, without a case and without a screen protector. So, as one of the few genuine iPhone Air users, I want to answer some important questions that you might have about this phone. How has the iPhone Air held up over the past year in terms of build quality and battery life? Is there anything [music] that I would change about this phone? And most importantly, who is this phone actually for? Let's answer [music] these questions.
Now, first up, how has the phone held up over the past year? So, here are some close-up shots of this phone. And over the past year, I've intentionally been using it [music] without a screen protector and without a case. And after a whole year, I think it's held up incredibly well. Now, I'm not going to say that it's perfect. There are some scratches here and there, mostly on the edges of the screen. And there's also some deeper chips, but I will say you really only notice these scratches and chips when you're intentionally looking for it and when the screen is off. When the screen's on, you really can't see anything, so I'm going to give the screen an eight out of 10.
Now, as far as the titanium edges go, they are nearly perfect. I don't really see any scratches at all apart from some really light scuffing on the bottom of the phone. Titanium really is the best material that can be used on the edges of these phones for its strength-to-weight ratio. And not only does the titanium look great, it also feels great in the hand. I'm going to give the titanium a nine out of 10.
And then, flipping it around to the back, the back glass is actually pretty much perfect. I really couldn't find a single scratch, especially on the lighter colors like white, blue, and gold. Uh on the black ones, I did notice that even in the store models, there were scratches already. So, uh definitely the lighter colors are a little bit better as far as scratch visibility. And then, even the camera lens, I couldn't find any scratches at all on it, which is surprising because most of the time, I'm putting my phone down like this. So, So, back glass gets a 10 out of 10. So, really, I have no complaints as far as the build quality. Even after a year, it still looks amazing.
>> [music] >> Now, first of all, I want to talk about battery health. You can check your device's battery health by going into settings, battery, and then battery health. And right here, you can see my max capacity is about 94%, which means over the past year, my battery has degraded about 6% over 347-ish cycles. Now, in a recent thread I posted, it seems like a lot of you guys are having the same sort of statistics with the iPhone Air. It seems like it's about 6 to 7% degradation uh over 300-ish cycles. Versus, if you compare that to iPhone 17 Pro users, they're only seeing about a 3% degradation, or in some cases, even a 1% degradation. So, what's going on? Well, this is all due to the iPhone Air having a much smaller battery, about 25% smaller than the 17 Pro's battery. What this means is, if you're somebody who buys their phone and then keeps it for a while, if you go with the iPhone Air, the battery's going to degrade a lot faster than if you maybe went with the 17 Pro or even the base 17. Now, my hunch is that most people buying the iPhone Air are pretty tech forward, meaning people who are probably going to upgrade every year or maybe every 2 years at most. But yeah, not a huge deal, just an observation that I made.
But then, as far as my actual battery life, here's where it gets interesting. In my 30-day review of the iPhone Air, I mentioned that my regular usage hovered between 70 and 100% each day, which I basically concluded was good enough for an all-day battery. So, what about now, a whole year later? Has my usage changed? Well, as you can see, as I tick through each day, it seems like my usage has gone up significantly. With my most used day on Saturday at 152%. Now, there is a reason for this. So, if I scroll down, you'll see that FaceTime actually took up 28% on Friday. When I used 133% FaceTime, also took 23%. Now, when I did my 30-day review, I was not on these FaceTime calls. These are anywhere between 1 to 3-hour FaceTime calls because of my new long-distance relationship. So, it is draining my battery quite a lot. But, basically, what I want to say is everybody's use case is different, and your battery life can vary wildly based on how you use your apps, whether it's FaceTime or Google Maps or YouTube. All of these apps drain your battery really quickly, and it just depends on how much you're using them. But, looking at my total usage, if you were to subtract about 30%, I think my usage is still hovering at about 100%, which is reasonable. But, yeah, battery life, I think, is something that can always be improved. People are always going to find a way to complain about it. So, take that for what you will.
Now, by the way, you might be wondering what this icon on my home screen is, and that is the sponsor of this video, Grainola. Grainola is an AI meeting assistant. And for me, the worst part about meetings is taking notes. With Grainola's new Apple Watch app, I can simply open the app and hit start Grainola, close my laptop, and actually focus on the conversation. Grainola then uses microphones to record the entire conversation. And after the call, it automatically syncs to my account and gives me organized notes, action items, and a full transcript with speaker labels. It just makes meetings a lot more efficient and a lot more action-item oriented because [music] a lot of the times after a meeting, I have no idea who needs to do what, and kind of just gets lost. I've been using it for work stuff like brand calls and product briefings, but also personal stuff like group calls for trip planning. And the watch app is the best part because it allows me to start it from anywhere. If you want to try Grainola for yourself, new users can get their first month for free by using my link down below. And a big thank you again to Grainola for sponsoring this video.
>> [music] >> Okay, next up, let's talk about design. How do I feel about the design 1 year later? In my 30-day review, I did mention that the thin factor sort of goes away and that is still true. I feel like this phone is just normal to me. But yeah, basically as far as design, I think Apple completely killed it with the design of this phone. I really think that this is just how phones should be. And it really is the one reason that shocked me. I thought I was going to be using the 17 Pro, but then iPhone XR just surprised me and I decided that this was going to be my phone. Just how light this phone is. It is so comfortable in the hand. Maybe that's why it's contributing to my increased screen time. It's just so easy to just pick this up and start using it and not feel fatigued. The iPhone XR also has a larger screen compared to the regular 17 and 17 Pro. And for me, just that 0.2 inches makes this viewing experience just that much better. It's better for watching videos, reading, typing, and it just gives you that big screen experience without it feeling like a big screen. Like it's not heavy, it's not cumbersome. And yeah, still to this day, 1 year later, I think the form factor and the design is the best thing about this phone.
But all right, enough about the good stuff. Let's talk about what would I change about this phone? For starters, the singular camera. I talked about this in my 30-day review. I said that the singular camera was enough for most people and I kind of missed the 0.5x. And now, 1 year later, I still sort of feel the same way, but I miss the 0.5x even more. After a whole year, I just found that there were some situations where you really can't get the same perspective with the 1x as you can with a 0.5x. And at this point, that 0.5x has just become a basic creative tool. Not just for content creators, but just for anybody, for everyday life, for posting on Instagram stories, for capturing special moments, or POV shots. You really just can't get the same feeling with the 1x camera. But yeah, definitely the 0.5x, I think for the iPhone XR 2, if that comes out, uh definitely would love to see that.
Now, apart from having one extra camera, the other things that I would change are pretty minor. So, for one, I would love to have more microphones. Sometimes I find that when I'm recording a video, the audio just completely gets cut out because I'm holding the phone like this. >> [clears throat] >> So, if we're able to get the same studio mic array that the 17 Pro has, that would be great. The other thing is the singular speaker. I don't mind that the Air has one speaker, but I do wish that that one speaker got louder because a lot of times when I'm on FaceTime, FaceTime audio, I can't hear the other person if I'm maybe doing dishes or just doing something else. And I just wish that that speaker was at least twice as loud. And then last but not least, battery life could be bigger, but that's about it. I really wouldn't change that much about this phone.
>> [music] >> Okay, so after a year of living with this phone, the iPhone Air, who is this phone for? Now, my answer might surprise you, but I think logically nobody should get this phone. Because on paper, if you look at the base iPhone versus this iPhone, this iPhone is $200 more and you're getting one less camera, one less speaker, worse battery life. You're basically paying more for less. So, honestly, I think it makes sense why a lot of people didn't choose this phone. Uh, you really just have to hold it and feel it and live with it. Really, I think the people that are going to gravitate towards these phones are people who are tech forward and people who appreciate simplicity and design.
But, I actually have a crazy theory and that is that in a few years or maybe even this year, everybody is going to be using [music] the iPhone Air. Let me explain. So, in 2008, Apple unveiled the MacBook [music] Air. It was this huge moment. You might remember Steve Jobs pulling out the Manila folder. And when Apple released the MacBook [music] Air, it was obviously very thin, but that was about the only thing that it had going for it. It had some really terrible trade-offs like battery life and overheating, [music] not enough ports. Basically, enough trade-offs that it made sense for Apple to have three of the same products. So, the Air, the regular MacBook, as well as the Pro. However, over the years as tech improved, Apple slowly began upgrading the Air. It got better battery life, better thermals, more ports, and eventually, 3 years later, the Air actually became so good that it just overshadowed the MacBook, the [music] base MacBook. So, then the base MacBook was discontinued and Apple only offered the MacBook Air and the MacBook Pro.
My theory is we're seeing a pretty similar trajectory with the iPhone. As Apple improves the iPhone Air, [music] it will actually just become better than the base iPhone. At that point, Apple might as well just discontinue the regular base iPhone and just move forward with the iPhone Air, the iPhone Pro, and then similar to how Apple just released the MacBook [music] Neo, Apple might just rebrand their E line of iPhones, the budget line, to the iPhone Neo. And I think that would just be an insane trend-setting move. Like, imagine Apple just getting rid of their base iPhone and just saying, "Hey, the iPhone Air is the future." Plus, with the rumored iPhone Fold, realistically, you can't have two really cool iPhones stealing the spotlight. So, yeah, that is my crazy theory. I think Apple is going to discontinue the regular iPhone and just replace it with the iPhone Air.
Subscribe to the channel if you aren't already, leave a like on your way out, and let me know in the comments, what do you think will happen this year? Do you think we'll get an iPhone Air 2 with better battery life and maybe an extra camera? Or, what do you think Apple will do with their lineup this year? I'm really curious. All right, [music] I'll catch you guys in the next one. Peace.
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