iPhone Air hands-on

Apple just announced the iPhone Air, which, as you might guess by the name, is something Apple is marketing as extremely thin and light. It’s 5.6mm thin and has a ProMotion display, one camera, Apple’s Ceramic Shield 2 glass on both sides, and an A19 Pro chip.

But what does it actually feel like to hold? I (Allison) got to actually pick up the phone at Apple’s launch event today, and it sure is light. The profile is as slim as it looks in photos, and it has more rounded edges reminiscent of previous iPhone designs. The elongated camera “plateau” mitigates a little bit of the wobble when you tap on the screen with the phone on its back, but not all of it. The camera bump flows smoothly into the back of the phone, and despite a bit of a frosted treatment the back panel, the black demo units here are picking up fingerprints pretty quickly.

There’s obviously plenty we can’t see here that we have questions about. Apple is making some big claims about its durability and battery life, despite the thin profile. But it says a lot about the new design that it’s garnering at least as much interest here at the hands-on area as the freshly redesigned Pro phones.

Photography by Allison Johnson / The Verge