iPhone Air, but…

… an Air of what?

The new iPhones are here. See you next year, or whenever Apple can get back to the true spirit of the iPhone. An exciting new phone, an exciting design, and an easy way to pick one up. Sadly, that’s not happening.

Now, don’t get me wrong. There are exciting things happening to the iPhone, but most of it is just that, features, more features, even plateaus. I love these new plateaus, they’re going to get rid of that jittery thing my iPhone does when it’s flat on its back, but I digress.

The thing is that the iPhone, the 17 for that matter, is no different from, well, its predecessor, which isn’t much different from its predecessor. And that’s how this has all been. So the 17 is just that, a rather okay update. Now, the real new fancy piece of hardware is that beauty, the iPhone 17 Air. That excites me the most. It’s one of Apple’s most perfect designs. But that strikethrough (I struck off the 17 right before Air) tells it all, it’s not the 17th, it’s Apple’s first iPhone Air. And now you start seeing the problem. The new iPhone Air is an Air, but an Air of what exactly? Oh, the Pro model? But then, how does something that’s a Pro of something have an Air of its own? Isn’t the Air an Air of that something? You see the problem?

The iPhone Pro is a Pro version of the iPhone, so the Air ought to be the Air version of the iPhone. Though I don’t see how, because that’s what Apple hasn’t figured out for themselves. They have an Air for the MacBook and the iPad too. And absurdly, there’s no MacBook, just the MacBook Air and MacBook Pro. In which case, there’s the missing case of the MacBook. And in the iPads, well, it’s sad, because the iPad and iPad Air are essentially previous-year, stripped-down versions of the iPad Pros. So it’s not like Apple goes about designing an entirely new iPad every couple of years. Contrast this with the widely popular MacBook Air, it owns a place of its own, is fabulous, and has nothing to do with the Pro machines.

That brings me to the point I’m making. The iPhone on its own has lost its thing, its pizzazz, its place among a lineup that should be owned by, well, the iPhone. And it’s been all over the place with the mini, the plus, and the max (yes, I have a peeve with that name). Yet, this can all easily be fixed if Apple were to do things the right way, or the Apple way. Quoting Steve is one thing, having clarity like the man is another.

So here’s what the Apple lineup for 2026 should have been, yes, 2026, not 2025. The iPhone, the iPhone Air, and the iPhone Pro. One model each. The same colours, specs, and pricing as launched. That’s it. No number 17, and no Max (I’m coming to it, but really? Max sounds like a detergent!). That would leave us guessing about the screen sizes (diagonally), so 6.5 inches for both the iPhone and iPhone Air, and 7.1 inches for the Pro model. Easy? Quite.

That settles the issue of how many models an iPhone comes in. Now for the part where Apple needs to take bolder steps. To make everyone go crazy and let us all relive the past excitement of a truly new iPhone that we’d just want, Apple should have designed the iPhone and the iPhone Pro similar to the new iPhone Air. More part of one family. The iPhone having a full back, with a larger battery, two cameras, ideally placed in the middle of the plateau (my rendition is shown above). So those couple of changes, and of course the A19 chip, or possibly A26 (based on the model year, 2026, more on that soon)? That would be the iPhone. Then for someone who’d love the iPhone Air, for the design – sleeker, lighter, a single camera, and an A19 ‘Air’ chip, or A26 ‘Air’, not the A19 Pro chip label on an iPhone Air (even if it were the same damn thing under the hood minus one GPU)! And the Pro model, in its own, with all those lovely bells and whistles, super packed. You can see the specs if you want to be dazzled. Yet a neat design, not much different from the Air.

The Max? Well, given that somewhere in Apple HQ, someone’s working on a foldable iPhone model, a future 7.1-inch Pro foldable that would flip open to a 9.6-inch display iPhone, could very well be called just the iPhone Max. Eek, I still don’t like the name! Or, why not a completely new product line, the Apple iBook? Wouldn’t it fold like a book? It would. That’ll be a fantastic revisit to the past. Or if the iPhone name is so precious, which it is, why not the iPhone Ultra? Which, to me, is a very Samsung kind of a name. And I’d abhor it. So an iPhone iBook? Naah. I’d buy the Apple iBook. Still hard to describe to someone, oh, it’s an iPhone that opens like a book! Hmm… the Apple iPhone Pro Studio? I’d buy that.

The recap. iPhone Air is beautiful. I wish the iPhone had the same design, a full back with a large battery, and two cameras in the middle of a plateau. A Pro model that’d complete the series and break the 7-inch size barrier. Even the same design. It’s a nice design. A shiny titanium finish like the Air. And a someday maybe iPhone Pro Studio. Man!

That’d be iPhone for me all over. Easy to pick and choose. Oh, just buy the iPhone. If you need a fancy light-weight design and want to look hip, go with the Air. If it’s all power and muscle, or just that you have too much money, choose the Pro. And when you want to get a little more done, say Final Cut Pro on an iPhone, flip open the iPhone Pro Studio.

Ah, and for the model year, the chip number would do it for me. I’d say I have the A26, not the 17. And today, I have the A24, because it’s the 15, from the iPhone 15 Pro Max that I use. No more silly numbering, it lost its context, long ago. You’d have a brand new iPhone every year then. Apple would love to say, ‘The all new iPhone.’ And, it would be.

PS: I hadn’t planned to write this article. These thoughts came about during a late-night discussion about the new iPhones with my son. We all lost my father on August 26th, so I was planning to write a few things that were on my mind. In the end, what we write, what transpires, and what happens is all by the leave and permission of Allah. So the iPhone article came first. Though the last paragraph of my previous article did sum up what then happened! سبحان الله