To Air or go pro

I'm not the biggest fan of the air anyways.

Yes I find myself wondering the same. I have a 14 Pro now so planned to upgrade. The Air does sound impressive. All of them should have screens that work well with braille screen input, which I use a lot. I guess we have until Friday to decide!

I would not get it just because of this reason, especially when that one speaker is the earpiece speaker. Not sure how that’s going to sound with voiceover.

My mind was already set on the Pro (not Max), and that's what I'm likely to get, because as of now I can't really tell whether the Air has lidar, and that's a feature that I'm interested in. I'm also going all-in on MagSafe now, as I bought a very compact 3-in-1 charger supporting fast charging iPhone, Apple Watch, and has a base for a third device of any kind, plus I also ordered another from the Apple Store earlier to put on my desk or somewhere more convenient than my nightstand, and finally I also ordered a MagSafe wallet so that I don't have to carry yet another thing in my pockets; my regular wallet is relatively small and has shielding against NFC and RFID cards, but most times I don't really need to carry it or any of its contents around.

Now it's just a matter of waiting to preorder the iPhone itself on Friday, which I can either do from Apple or from my carrier since the phone will be unlocked in both cases.

i like the pro because it's a bigger screen and which is great for braille screen input.

I am perfectly happy with my base model iPhone 15, which is pink and 512 GB storage. I also kept my product red iPhone SE third generation at 256 gig because that’s the highest storage available for that phone. I kept it as an iPod. I wouldn’t go for a pro phone in my case because I have small hands and I really don’t want a phone to be any bigger than what I currently own. But yes, if there’s an iPhone with only one speaker and it happens to be the one near the earpiece I definitely wouldn’t buy a phone for that reason. I think if you’re thinking For a screen size if you need a bigger screen or for the sound, I’d probably go for a profit where my situation. I hope that’s helpful for you. As I said, I’m keeping the current phone that I have. Still being supported. Do we know if the iPhone air or the new iPhone 17‘s come with an action button or a switch? That was the other reason that I went with an iPhone 15 because Apple had already taken away. I used a home button, and I didn’t want them to take away my meat switch. So I had to go for the last phone that I knew for sure how to switch. I knew the regular 15 and 15+ did. I knew those were the only phones left. the Apple was still currently selling that would have a meat switch. Since I don’t need a big screen as I am totally blind since birth I got a regular base model iPhone 15 and I’m perfectly happy with that. I actually got it maybe three or four weeks ago not even bought out from my regular local Apple Store and they were able to transfer everything from my SE third generation to my 15 successfully. I am really lucky that people in my local Apple Store no voiceover so they were able to set up everything And make sure everything worked great with voiceover. I’m just happy that both of these ones are still being supported. I probably won’t update the first day because I tend to make sure there’s not some major voiceover bugs and I also use voice control so I wanna make sure everything works as well as possible before I update. And when I do decide to update the iOS 26 I’m pretty sure I will be updating my iPhone SE first as that’s my iPod device and not my find my phone. Odd Apple would’ve put one speaker on the iPhone and put it near the earpiece. I forgot my voice very muffled. I also don’t see how that’s gonna be with Music either they’re probably sound like crap. So yeah good luck to anybody wanting to get an iPhone air. I think I would go with a profile in your situation. Hope that helps.

I will either go with a 17 standard, or a 17 E, if that becomes a thing.

it's a new track record of making a phone that thin. I don't recommend it, it likely has a lot of issues that need polishing. E.G. Overheating because of the tiny internals. Apple claimed they made it so that doesn't happen but it's all marketing fluff and I won't trust it, especially said that vaguely, planning to go 17 pro max from a bass iphone 15, mainly because battery, my iphone 15's battery drains incredibly fast especially when I leave home and it auto uses 4G, yes 4G, not even 5G which is supposed to be more draining lol. I set it that way to save battery. But yes it sometimes drains even when the screen is locked, and overall it was an awful experience, battery copacity is supposedly 85% and I guess I can replace it but the phone is slowing down anyway.

the marketing fluff didn't mention one speaker? isn't that well, not very good especially as they boast about the best phone for this and that, when its sound will be naff?

i like the sound of the 17 pro and max but the features that we use are already in the air so to speak. the pro max is heavy in my pants or trouser as we say here in the UK, pocket though that's my concern. i am so used to hearing 2 speakers how will that work for people say watching things on public transport surely the audio would be sub-par.

literally apple's answer will be, do not worry deer customer, we have the perfect answer for you, the airpods pro, with noise cancellation, transparancy, and battery life that will last you the whole trip, order now, terms and condissions apply. Airpods pro is owned by apple inc.
so... Yeah, I guess it's a win win scenario for them. But that's also worrying. Apple's track record of removing important things isn't spotless by any spread of the word. I sure hope they don't get tempted to make a one speaker thing something that happens in all of their phones in 2 or 3 years. I won't be surprised. Under some dumb excuse like for more space or whatever probably.

That's the only reason I want to upgrade. It sounds obnoxious.

I've heard a lot about these cross body straps for the air and pros when using specific apple own cases. What is it? Does it mean we can have it at our chest for things like be my eyes or AI etc or am I getting the wrong end of the stick... Again.

Hello. the iPhone air did not interest me because I love a bulky and larger phone. I will sure go for iPhone 17 pro max, since it will be my very first pro phone.

Worry when Apple makes a special battery for the Air. What is that telling you? If you are going to spend your hard earn money, go for the pro.

If it were my situation, which obviously isn’t, I would still go for a pro. I am somebody who has been totally blind and sparse, and as of June 16 this year, has now also become a hearing aid. So anything that can give me more sound Would be beneficial to me if I were to upgrade a new phone. I’m really surprised the Apple went with one speaker on the air phone. And they put it up near the earpiece so there’s gonna be all kinds of issues with hearing that phone correctly for the voiceover speech and sounds, and probably Music as well. It’s also gonna be the speaker that’s near your ear when you get a call and I’ve already had issues with the voiceover speech being really loud on my ear one time because of that but definitely more than once. I think you’re better off of the phone with two speakers. If you have the money for it then I would definitely go for a pro. I don’t think I’ll ever get a pro because I don’t want anything any bigger than what I currently own. My primary phone is the iPhone 15. Just a regular base model Which I bought the pink 512 variant. It’s kind of sad that none of the new phones come in pink or even product red. I also kept my product red 256 gig iPhone SE second third generation sorry. I kept this is my iPod. I figured since it was still being supported and it’s the last phone left for the home button on it I would go ahead and keep it. I’m actually using the SE right now to post this comment. I honestly don’t think the area is going to be that big of a seller. I could see somebody possibly wanting a slim phone, but if it means having less power, then I can’t see how that’s going to be beneficial, especially for our situations. If anybody doesn’t end up with one, I’d be very curious to see what your thoughts are about it as you’ve had experience with it when it becomes available. I will be keeping what I currently have and I’m very happy with both devices. I just got the iPhone 15 August 15 I believe so not long ago at all. I was able to go directly to my regular Apple Store and buy outright and I am lucky that people in my Apple Store no Voice and they were able to transfer everything from my SE third generation directly to my iPhone 15 and make sure that everything worked great with voiceover and everything seems great on both devices so far. When I decide to update iOS 26 I will update the SE first because it’s not my primary device. I’d rather play with it on my iPod device and then when I feel like I’m ready I will update my iPhone 15. Thanks for reading and sorry for the long post.

Good catch on the single speaker. According to this article from Mac Observer, the iPhone Air has the speaker on the bottom. Given that I think I will go with the pro again.
https://www.macobserver.com/news/why-does-the-iphone-air-have-a-single-speaker/

Wasn’t the whole point of the iPhone 7 is being such a big deal with the head stereo speakers? If we go back to one speaker in iPhone, even if it isn’t the bottom, it feels like it’s going backwards. The only phone that I have ever used with a single speaker and the bottom was an iPhone 5. Yes, an iPhone 5 that is still running and has access to web browsing and things like that still. And yes, that only runs iOS 10.3.4, but it is still in full working order other than the power button itself not working properly anymore. I can still get 100% battery charge out of it. If something that my sister gave me that had been laying around in her room for about three years. She didn’t even realize she still had the device. She was cleaning her room one day and found it And she told me that she had something for me if she could get the battery charged. Well, she got the battery charged and she turned on voiceover and handed it over to me and said here you can have us have fun. I asked her how much money for it and she said nothing cause I’m gonna give it to you. And that time it was running iOS 8 point something. I had to actually hook it up to my Windows 10 PC and update the phone through iTunes and now it is running the high software available to the iPhone 5 which is iOS 10.3.4. It works completely correctly like I said other than the power button not working. So the only work around for that is that you have to run the battery completely down and then get a full charge and it will turn the device back on and it’s completely usable for browsing. As long as it has Wi-Fi which it does, it’s totally capable of playing music and web browsing. Because even able to recognize Apple Music. You can even download music to the device still, and it will still play it without use of Internet obviously if it’s downloaded music. I am also still able to tell Siri to play music Because that device is still able to recognize Apple Music. It works. But that’s the only device that I’ve ever used with one speaker on the iPhone. I mean that one speaker on that thing is pretty darn good. But if I were getting a brand new phone right now, I would never go for a phone with one speaker because I’m so used to the phone having two speakers. My first primary phone was an iPhone 8. I got that back when it was iOS 13.3 something was late to operating system at the time I kept that all the way through support cycle, which was iOS 16 was the last thing that that supported. I went from an iPhone 8 to an iPhone SE third generation. And then iPhone SE third generation kept iPod and went to my my phone now which is the 15. I’m just happy that my last phone now if my primary phone is actually pink. The iPhone SE did not come in pink, so I got the closest color to it which was the product red variant. It is at the highest store available for that device, which is 256 gig. I kept that as my iPad. My primary iPhone 15 is the pink color in the highest storage available for that which is the 512 inch. This is just the regular standard iPhone 15. It is not a plus, pro, or pro max. I really don’t want anything bigger than this phone. I may have to at some point, but I got this for two reasons. I wanted a phone to be pink, and I also wanted a phone that I knew how to switch. Do we know whether the iPhone air, iPhone 17 standard, iPhone 17 Pro, or iPhone 17 Pro Max, with an action button, or the switch? This is not mentioned in the blood post or any other things that I could find online that I’ve looked at on this website anyway. Just curious. So I knew Apple had already taken away the use of a home button and that was the other reason that I kept my essay third generation. I wanted the last device the home button. I also knew the only phone that I could still get from Apple that would still have a mute which was either a regular 15 or 15+. So I’m the regular 15 and I’m very happy with that device. I gained two new voices since I got that phone. The iPhone SE does not have available the voice of Zoe premium or a Leap premium. And I got my iPhone 15 those were all of a sudden available for download. The only Zoe that the iPhone SE has a regular Zoe in enhanced Zoe. The same as the case with Lee as well. I’m not sure if there’s not much of a difference to not support the voices, but here we are. Sorry for the long post again. I will get off of here now. I will go onto look at other forms and post comments, other places. Thanks for reading all my ramblings.

I would go pro. I was impressed by the pro.

I bet that iPhone 5 runs voiceover better than the current iPhone models. Focus probably runs heaps better as well. 😛

You’re darn right. That iPhone 5 runs amazingly fast for the processor that it is and everything it actually runs voiceover really well. I honestly haven’t had any focusing issues with it. The speaker on that thing is still fully functional. And the Music that comes out of that thing sounds pretty darn amazing. The only thing it doesn’t have honestly is more of the voices because it is iOS 10, but it’s got everybody that I want in there. There’s no Alex because it’s only an iPhone 5 and I didn’t have the processing power to handle Alex it has all the cool people that I like. It’s got Karen and Kait and then if I was gonna use anybody American, it’s got Samantha and I like her I like her and both variance. The only thing is that phone had up with. It was the way that the Samantha enhance voice is the B, but thank goodness that’s been fixed since that software. I’ve literally showed Apple that I have an iPhone 5 and I let them hear it over the phone and they were just like so amazed that it was still working. Honestly, I’m kind of amazed it still working. The only thing that battery can’t do anymore is the phone completely runs down once it gets to like 20% battery so it won’t really go completely down to 10% anymore, but I mean that’s pretty good. Good thing how old thing is. If you got the old volume sounds, which I think is so weird and the round volume buttons instead of those longer skinny ones. The power button is on top of the phone which like I said before doesn’t actually work, but Apple thinks to work around that I have is pretty good so they basically just go ahead and keep using it until you get anymore so that’s what I’m doing. I mean, ha, that mechanical home button even still fully functions. I got the old series beat which I really really miss. It’s so funny because American Siri on that phone is Nikki. I knew it right away as soon as like I heard the way that the voice button I was like wait a second I just did Nikki on the SE phone that had the time and I was like it’s the same voice. On that phone I’m actually using default Samantha Voice. Cause she sounds pretty darn good coming on that phone. I’m using her with the American series female and that’s what they called it at the time.

Like the subject says, the original Siri activation sounds were so much more responsive and clearer. The new sound scheme they use for Siri these days—half the time it doesn't even work. Sometimes the phone vibrates when you go to activate Siri manually, sometimes it does nothing, and your phone locks up.
I have no idea what Apple is doing with their iPhone hardware these days, but there's so many broken things in iOS, that adding faulty hardware on top of it just leads to one giant headache. 😫

Thing is with the air, and probably the main thing, is it's very light. I get the optional battery, love the idea, in fact. The air will get you through a day but, if you are away for a couple of days, the battery is there for a top up. The max, though it does have a great battery, is one beastie mass.

I wouldn't go for the Air, but I won't be going for any of them this year. My iPhone 15 is perfectly fine, I'd just not discount it until it's in your hand. Weight shouldn't be under estimated. Even my iPhone 15 Pro is heavier than I'd like if I'm using it in a hovering hand sort of a way.

like, you buy a phone and buy an extra battery, which is $100 btw, so technically you pay $1099. Isn't that the normal pro's price? Ok, lets assume you're fine with that, if you'll grab the extra battery and keep it slapped on all the time, will the thickness factor really not cross to normal iphone taratory in that case? Like to me it reads like a big huge trick, unless if the battery is good enough that lots of people will just not use the extra one.
but also another question, how does charging the extra battery work, does it somehow get charged by the phone when the phone reachs 100% and it keeps charging it with the excess wirelessly, because if you'd need to unplug the phone, then plug the thing after, well that'll get kinda tedious and easy to forget fast, not to mention it'll make the extra battery feel like an awkward excessary. Basically I'm just doubtful of the effectiveness and smoothness of the extra battery in it's entirety. It sounds like small inconveniences but added together and over time they get annoying and might make it a bit redundant.
but one extra bonus to those who previously complained about replaceable batterys it means you could literally just buy an extra battery whenever and slap it in if you want. It might even be possible for third party batterys. Which when I put it that way yes it does sound appieling. Assuming the seemlessness isn't lacking, like what I said above, if it's a convenient just slap it on and forget it exists then nice. But if not... Well it's just a cheap trick.

I think the air will last all day and, if I were to get one, would fit into my usual usage. The new magsafe is for uncommon situations, travelling, for example.

Look at it the other way around. It's a pro with the ability to remove weight.

Charging is a very good point though. I use magsafe charging which, I assume, the magsafe battery doesn't use as input. IE, one needs to plug it in.

I think there are alternatives out there too, anker have just released a slim 5 k battery too which might be an option.

No. Is not a pro. Samsung did same but they have 2 speakers.

Check this out about each iPhone that will help with your choice. Got it from youtube. I listen to him all the time, he is good. If link does not work, copy and do a search on youtube.
iPhone 17 vs 17 Pro - 14 KEY Differences!

146K views
14 hours ago

Brandon Butch

If we go by the chipset, it is closer to pro than to standard. It's got the 19 Pro chip and the same RAM as the Pros. True, it is probably restricted due to heat and power restraints, but it will still be an incredibly powerful phone.

So, let me rephrase: declarative statements are always wrong... It's like the Pro but where you can remove the battery, or add it on.

Maybe one of the points of the Air is to be divisive. It's certainly got people talking.

Check the video I posted or copy and do a search on youtube.

certainly sounds like it haha. It's divisive for sure. But in either case I'd like to see anyone's review on the iphone air when it comes out. I'm honestly being very tempted to preorder the air instead of the pro max, but speakers are a pretty big deal to me plus the battery factor, not to mention the fact it's a first iteration of that type of device from apple. So I'm worried there might be some hidden manifacturing problems because of the size, maybe overheating, or easier than expected damage.

If weight is a factor, the 17 base model is only a little heavier than the air, longer battery, smaller footprint, better camera setup and $200 cheaper. The $300 leap to the iPhone 17 Pro, to me, is just too much of a gap for too little benefit.

All of the base model phones I’ve had have given me everything that I need. I’ve never seen any reason to GoPro. Hey if people can afford it and they really feel like there’s something they absolutely need a pro go for it. I wouldn’t go with the air just because there’s only one speaker. I think that would be a big dealbreaker for me. I’m somebody who has to use hearing aids now and I’m totally blind since birth so I definitely need good. Sound coming out of my phone. I feel like one speaker will really muffle voiceover as well as any music. But if somebody has one, I can’t wait to hear their experience from it. I know pre-orders start today for the new balance. I’m keeping exactly what I have now cause I’m perfectly happy with it and it’s all fully functioning and still getting updates. I know the pre-orders start today for the new phones. Good luck to anybody getting anything new and I’d love to hear your experiences with whatever device you choose.

One difference about the iPhone 17 base model is that, According to MacRumors, it has only 8GB of ram; whereas the iPhone Air, iPhone 17 Pro, and iPhone 17 Pro Max all have 12gb. Given that VoiceOver runs very well on the current-generation iPhone 16 series with iOS 26, this isn't a huge deal, but IMHO it's something to consider especially if one is planning on keeping their phone for more than a couple years.

My 15 Pro is still going gang busters, so unless a very good deal is dangled in front of me, it’s unlikely I’ll get a new phone.
The Air, because of its new form factor is somewhat tempting, but too many question marks, such as the speaker. That said, if anyone is watching videos on public transport and using the speakers rather than headphones, I’m throwing their phone out the window.
I’m sure I could live with the battery though. I was watching a video the other day where it was pointed out that the first MacBook Air was not very good, but look at it now. So maybe the iPhone Air is in my future, just not the first generation. I don’t like that it has a larger screen though, I really miss the mini.
I 100% agree with Oliver on the colour, I want that obnoxious cosmic orange!
Dave

Using speakers on public, how rude. Only place I use speakers is at home to listened to podcasts, music, or videos or audiobooks.

In youtube. If no link, copy and paste on search on youtube.
The ONLY iPhone 17 You Should Buy! (iPhone 17 Buyer’s Guide)
Brandon Butch

I preordered the iPhone 17 Pro Max. On paper the iPhone 17 Pro has the same battery life as last year's iPhone 16 Pro Max, which is quite an accomplishment in and of itself. But you can never have too much battery IMHO.

FYI, 17 pro max is 5080 MG.

Is it just me or is hours of video playback, and I’m sceptical about the claims by the way, a rather odd way to describe battery capacity?
I like my battery to last well of course, but I’m definitely not as focused on it as a lot of people, certainly not enough to lug around a Pro Max! One handed use is my dream scenario.

Always wander about that.

To Air or Go Pro?, Good question, But the answer’s simple: if you can afford the Air, you can afford the Pro. Ergo, skip the Air.

Save videos on the phone or online? Most use online!!