Why I bought another iPhone Air before iPhone 18…
⭐️Featured
Tomorrow’s going to be the iPhone Day as Apple will supposedly unveil the new iPhones series 18… and knowing that, summer before September is the worst time to get a new iPhone. Yet two and a half months ago I bought a new iPhone Air which is going to replace my 1-year old iPhone Air which I totally love. Why would I do that? Well, 5 reasons really:
- 1. I’m not sure about the iPhone Ultra/Fold… but I love the Air!
- 2. The iPhone Air will NOT launch tomorrow, so there’s time!
- 3. I needed more space - 512GB vs 256GB
- 4. I got a new iPhone Air at a 36% discount… when everything is getting more expensive!
- 5. I wanted a device for iOS27 testing…
- I still love the iPhone Air form factor even if nobody else is buying it!
1. I’m not sure about the iPhone Ultra/Fold… but I love the Air!
On one hand I’m very excited about the launch of the first foldable iPhone as it’s going to be like having both an iPhone and an iPad in a pocket.
However, I have quite a few concerns:
- Price - this new iPhone is supposed to be very expensive ($2000-$2500 base price rumored).
- Touch ID - it is rumored NOT to have Face ID which I have now on both the iPhone and the iPad and don’t want to live without.
- Cameras - well, I don’t need a telephoto camera as I don’t have one on the Air, but paying so much for a phone, I’d want one… I hope at least they’ll keep the same square selfie camera that I love right now…
2. The iPhone Air will NOT launch tomorrow, so there’s time!
According to the rumors, tomorrow’s event will be only about the iPhone 18 Pro and Pro Max, as well as the new foldable iPhone. No base iPhone 18 and no iPhone Air 2… so for me to upgrade to “Air 2” there’s time and until next Spring I want to be rocking my favorite slim iPhone…
The new iPhone Air I got is “gold” version of the white color and it fits my new Pitaka case even better than the old, blue one.
3. I needed more space - 512GB vs 256GB
Which brings me to the space I ordered. Turns out, that despite iOS optimizing storage, 256GB is no longer enough for me. Having a 1TB iPad Pro does that to you. Yes, I could live with it for another year and keep deleting some apps and optimizing space, but I don’t want to. So I decided to get a 512GB model this time.
With the 512GB model I can get more apps, download movies and just have more space for testing things. Now I know that 512GB size is the new base size for me going forward in case I change this phone for a different one at some point…
4. I got a new iPhone Air at a 36% discount… when everything is getting more expensive!
With RAM prices going bonkers, Apple has already raised prices of most Macs and even Apple TV… and tomorrow supposedly they’ll announce a higher pricing for the entire iPhone lineup. However the only iPhone that’s getting cheaper is the Air that apparently nobody wants. Turns out my new iPhone Air that I bought in June was manufactured just one month after my old iPhone Air which means… it was stored somewhere on a shelf the entire year…
To give you an idea a retail net price (without a 23% VAT tax) of a 512GB iPhone Air today at Apple.com in Poland is 5121 PLN (~$1381 at today’s exchange rate) and I bought it new from an official Apple retailer for a meager 3251 PLN (~$877) + VAT so at 36% discount. In the USA this iPhone Air is cheaper than in Poland and priced today at $1199 (without the sales tax) yet I still saved over $300 bucks!
I took this photo after a little over a month of using the new iPhone Air so it has only 39 cycles… and my old one has 282 cycles and the battery health on both is 100%! So I think keeping the iPhone Air charge at max 90% does conserve the battery health! Today, the new Air at 88 cycles is still at 100%.
5. I wanted a device for iOS27 testing…
I was curious about the “refined Liquid Glass” this summer so having a spare iPhone for testing was an added bonus.
Over the course of the summer I was hoping to install the iOS27 beta on my new iPhone Air, but I couldn’t because there is a regression with Shortcuts functions support. I’m pretty scared as tomorrow the Release Candidate will ship and if it doesn’t fix it, I’ll have to stay with iOS26 for a longer while…
I still love the iPhone Air form factor even if nobody else is buying it!
If in June of 2026 I bought a new iPhone Air that was manufactured in September of 2025, turns out really nobody (but me and few other folks) is buying the Air. I’ve been rocking an iPhone Air for almost a year now and I saw very few of them out and about. Most people got either the PRO or the base 17 which is finally recommendable.
I get the fears - only one camera and a smaller battery. People are not wrong about it. I sometimes wish the battery life would be better… however in my home and in the car I’m using MagSafe chargers so it’s not a big deal.
Yet using the iPhone Air every day is glorious. It’s so thin, so light and such a joy to use, that I’m happy its price went down so that for the first time in my life I upgraded my iPhone mid-cycle.
Now, let’s see about that folding iPhone tomorrow…