When Apple announced the iPhone Air, most people saw compromises. Thinner means less battery. A single camera instead of the multi-camera Pro kit we’re all used to. A phone that, without a doubt, looks more like a fashion statement than a power user’s dream. But when I saw it, I saw something I don’t usually feel with new phones anymore. A minimalist phone that serves my essential needs and nothing more. As a millennial with Gen Z tendencies, it’s pretty clear that I’m the audience for this phone.
Every September, iPhones get bigger, heavier, and more stuffed with specs. It’s the progression of tech, and by and large, people value a phone by its hardware-to-dollar quotient. But with the iPhone Air, Apple has gone in the opposite direction. The phone is built impossibly slim, almost delicate, like a product designed as much as the set piece of a fashion-forward futuristic movie as for the Apple Store. It reminds me of the first-generation iPod nano. I scoffed at it when it launched. Then got my hands on it. It quickly became my favorite EDC kit. And that’s exactly why I didn’t scoff at the iPhone Air. Hindsight is 20/20.