Here’s why I’m passing on the iPhone Air and going for the iPhone 17 Pro Max

I’m sure a lot of folks will be ordering the iPhone Air when it’s available for pre-order Friday morning, but I won’t be among them. 

If the thinnest iPhone ever is your kind of product, that’s fine and dandy. But for my needs, it’s form over function. Since I use my smartphone for LOTS of family photos and videos, I’m splurging for the iPhone 17 Pro Max.

For one thing, I prefer the battery life of that model to the battery life of the iPhone Air. The iPhone 17 Pro Max purportedly offers up to 39 hours of video playback and 35 hours of streamed video playback in the United States, representing a significant increase from the iPhone 16 Pro Max due to its largest-ever internal battery and new internal design.

For standard offline video playback, the iPhone Air is rated for 27 hours. For streamed video playback, which is the most real-world test Apple offers, iPhone Air achieves 22 hours. When it comes to battery life, the iPhone 17 Pro Max comes out way ahead. 

The iPhone 17 Pro Max has a 6.9-inch Super Retina XDR display with a resolution of 2868 x 1320 pixels at 460 ppi. The iPhone Air has a 6.5-inch Super Retina XDR display with a resolution of 2736 x 1260 pixels at 460 ppi. Again, the iPhone 17 Pro Max comes out ahead in this comparison. (Both feature an all-screen OLED display, the Dynamic Island, and ProMotion technology with adaptive refresh rates up to 120Hz.)

However, the deciding factor for me is the camera systems. Both models boast the new 18MP Center Stage selfie lens. The Center Stage front camera features the first square front camera sensor on iPhone, offering a wider field of view and higher resolution — up to 18MP for photos — to capture more detail. Users can now take photos and videos in portrait or landscape while holding their iPhone vertically. 

For group selfies, Center Stage for photos uses AI to automatically expand the field of view and can rotate from portrait to landscape to include everyone in the frame. The Center Stage front camera also enables ultra-stabilized video in 4K HDR, and users can now record on the front and rear cameras simultaneously with Dual Capture — perfect for speaking directly to camera while documenting behind-the-scenes action. During calls over FaceTime or third-party apps, Center Stage for video calls keeps users stable and positioned in frame.

The iPhone Air “only” has a 48Mp main rear camera and 18MP front camera. The iPhone 17 Pro Max boast more rear cameras (48MP main, 48MP ultrawide, 48M 4x telephone) as well as. 18MP front camera, so it’s certainly got the best camera system.

The iPhone 17 Pro Max also provides professional-grade video. It supports ProRes RAW, a video codec that better preserves data for high-quality footage, the Log 2 format for wider color gamuts, and genlock. Genlock is software that synchronizes “video across multiple cameras.” For content creators, tools like these allow the iPhone 17 Pro Max to double as a capable filmmaking camera.

Now you may not need all the bells and whistles of Apple’s most powerful iPhone. If that’s the case, you’ll probably be happy with the gorgeous, classy iPhone Air.

However, it’s definitely a premium handset and you’re paying for its incredible design. The iPhone 17 Pro Max and the iPhone 17 Pro are the more versatile devices.

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