The iPhone Air is so light that I forgot I had it in my pocket.

After using the iPhone Air for the past 10 days, I can confirm what everyone was wondering. Yes, it’s really light and thin. But what’s more interesting is whether Apple’s thinnest phone ever, at just 5.64 millimeters, is worth the required trade-off.

I’ve been using an iPhone 15 Pro Max as my primary phone for over 18 months, and my secondary phone is often my flagship Android phone, so I know what a full-on smartphone looks like. On the other hand, the iPhone Air is so light that when I first picked up the iPhone 17 Pro Max after using the Air, the Pro Max suddenly felt heavier. The contrast speaks volumes about what Apple has accomplished here and what you’re willing to give up.

Friends who’ve had the iPhone Air say it looks and feels great in the hand, even though it’s only 12 grams lighter than the iPhone 17. I also empathize with that feeling. I found myself picking up my phone from the table, wanting to experience that feeling again. Sure, the novelty of the phone’s construction will wear off, but for now I’m enjoying it.

The phone is not small. It’s thin so it’s easy to hold. (Sorry, iPhone Mini fans.) But if you have trouble operating a large-screen phone with one hand, this device with a 6.5-inch screen isn’t much different.

As the headline suggests, when your iPhone Air is in your pocket, you often forget it’s there. If you can’t fit a larger phone in your pocket, the iPhone Air might fit. If nothing goes wrong, it will just make your pocket lighter.

Although the phone is thin, it is quite sturdy. I dropped my phone from the height of the bedside table, but it was fine. I accidentally sat on it once, but it didn’t lose its shape. There are plenty of videos that suggest it works fine in most everyday situations.

I usually use most of my phones without cases, and I didn’t want a case on my iPhone Air to add bulk or thickness. However, if you plan on using Apple’s new shoulder strap, you’ll need one. If you want even more protection, you can use Apple’s bumper case without adding too much weight.

Given the iPhone Air’s slim build, there’s been a lot of talk about its battery life. After intense gaming or video streaming, I noticed that my phone started to get hot, especially near the camera plate, and I started checking the battery level more often than I should have.

The phone has a processor that allows you to play games with advanced graphics, but if you plan on using your phone a lot during the day, you’ll want to have Apple’s $99 MagSafe battery pack that fits in the back of your phone to get you through the day with ease. Another benefit of carrying a pack is that you can refill the battery of your MagSafe-enabled AirPods when needed.

Overall, the iPhone Air’s battery life is adequate if you plan on making a few calls, watching videos, scrolling through your feed, replying to emails, and other tasks while connected to a Wi-Fi network. I took my phone on a two-hour flight and watched a downloaded movie on Netflix, and I didn’t notice any significant drop in battery level. However, please note that this is a new phone and the battery will drain over time. If you plan on keeping this phone for more than a year or two, that might be a concern.

Another drawback of the iPhone Air is in the camera department, with an SLR camera setup. The phone features a 48-megapixel sensor with f/1.6 aperture, just like the base iPhone 17. The 26mm focal length camera has sensor shift stabilization to capture good images in most lighting conditions. The detail in the photos is fine, but I noticed that the iPhone camera’s post-processing often makes the background much brighter than it appears to the eye.

There is no dedicated telephoto camera and you have to make do with a 2x crop from the main sensor. However, except in low light, the zoom works well. I have three pets and over the years I have really appreciated the great zoom feature that allows me to capture goofy and cute poses of my pets without moving from my spot. I missed that iPhone Air had that option.

If you travel often or go to places where you want to take pictures of vast landscapes, you may find yourself at a loss without a wide-angle lens.

Apple has changed the selfie camera sensor across its new lineup, with a new square 18-megapixel sensor. This allows you to take selfies in different formats without having to hold your phone in landscape mode. Thanks to Center Stage, the camera automatically selects a wider aspect ratio when more people are crammed into the frame. However, you can also manually control zoom in/out and orientation. If you’re shooting videos for different creative channels, the new iPhone also gives you the option to shoot clips using feeds from both the front and rear cameras at the same time.

Side note: the Air has camera control buttons, like previous iPhones, but I didn’t really care for them.

There is a third drawback, albeit a smaller one. It’s just one speaker. The iPhone Air is designed in a way that Apple couldn’t put a speaker on the bottom. When you play games, listen to music, or make calls using the speakers, you will hear audio only from the speakers at the top of the screen. I personally use AirPods most of the time, but I missed having dual speakers when watching the odd video without earphones.

Apple has succeeded in the hard part of creating an amazing mobile phone, but now comes the hard part of convincing people to buy it. The Air will fill the fourth slot in the company’s four-year iPhone lineup, previously occupied by the Mini and Plus. For Apple, Air’s job is to do better than that. But the question is, who is the phone for?

As my colleagues Amanda Silberling and Julie Bolt wrote on the day of its release, the iPhone Air is easy to sway because of its appearance. If you actually hold the phone in your hands, it might make more sense. When I got the iPhone Air, I told one of my friends that it was a “vibe phone” that was more about charm and feel than practicality.

It’s not a phone that you can fully trust to charge in the morning and go through the day without additional battery support. But if aesthetics and portability are more important to you than all-day battery life or a multi-lens camera system, the iPhone Air is for you. If not, the rest of the iPhone lineup is for you.