Now that I’ve spent time with the Galaxy S25 Edge, I’m more nervous than excited about the iPhone Air. The ultra-thin phones look the business on a desk and feel almost sci‑fi in the hand but there’s a high physics tax. The S25 Edge helped teach me which bills come due, and Apple’s ultrathin play is on track to pay many of the same ones.
I’m not talking about theoretical gripes. The S25 Edge has been on my person every day of late and if the iPhone Air reflects its values—paper-thin casing, lighter-than-light feel, and jettisoned-back camera hardware—then buyers beware.
Thin isn’t weak — but thin can be awkward
Credit where credit’s due: the hysteria about fragile ultra-thin phones is overblown. The S25 Edge didn’t bend, creak, or go all banana in my pocket. A phone has a shorter span by design and is therefore inherently stiffer than a tablet, while modern frames — including Apple’s Grade 5 titanium in here — keep torsion under control. IP68 on both phones means a splash or getting some sand in your pocket isn’t going to be the end of the world.
The true ergonomic risk, in fact, is balance. On the other hand, ultra-thin phones with big camera peninsulas tend to be top-heavy. That was the S25 Edge, which made the handset easier for you to knock off the arm of a couch or slide out of loose shorts at the beach. The iPhone Air’s screen should make it easier to control flex and hence minimize impacts, but if the camera island raises the center of gravity too much, beware additional spontaneous mid-air somersaults.
Battery math that gives me insomnia on ultra-thin phones
There’s no getting around volume. A 5–6mm bezel doesn’t allow much space for a battery or cooling. The 3,900mAh pack on the S25 Edge couldn’t keep up with even thicker siblings in standardized tests and this is on a platform that’s notorious for aggressive power preservation. Apple is supposedly aiming for a few hours less than an average iPhone 17 on the Air, but small cells live stressful lives.
It’s never the problem that it takes all day to open a new pack of batteries and insert them into Christmas toys.
Day one is never the problem. Most modern devices make it through a day on release; the cliff comes months down the line. As features crowd in and background services mature, marginal batteries lose the cushion they once had. That’s why you see independent labs like DXOMARK regularly show larger capacity phones leading the pack in endurance numbers — it’s not because software is dumb, but rather because watt-hours still win.
Thermals amplify the issue. Thin machines release heat slowly, and when skin temperature rises, chipsets throttle to ensure that bodies are protected from discomfort and death. That means you burn power faster under load and take longer to complete tasks. It’s a one-two punch that can emerge during extended camera sessions, GPS navigation, or marathon gaming. IEEE Spectrum has covered the thermal challenges of super-thin electronics for years; smartphones are no exception.
Charging can function as a very good disguise — until it doesn’t. Smaller batteries are quick to fill even at modest power, but when your routine is increasingly plugging into a wall every afternoon, it’s the habit that’s the feature. Apple’s efficiency is top-of-the-line, but you’re asking a cell of somewhere around 3,200mAh-ish to lug two days’ worth of punishment while on-device AI and 4K video at look-see-Tim-Cook-on-his-travels temperatures are applied.
One camera does not make a complete imaging system
The new iPhone Air, it’s believed, harbors a lone 48MP wide camera that boasts a 2x in-sensor crop. That’s smart, and Apple’s computational pipeline can make 1x shots and 2x ones sing. But versatility suffers. No ultrawide and you have to step back, or else you miss the shot. And then there’s the way everything falls apart after maybe about 8–10x digital zoom — it really depends on your optical hardware more than anything else.
And I say that as someone who used the S25 Edge — a phone which includes two rear cameras and a 200MP main sensor — and still felt capped. Ground detail is lovely at 1–2x but long-range reach quickly hits a hard computational ceiling, with excessive processing required to close gaps. Google’s Super Res Zoom and Apple’s Photonic Engine are impressive, but none can substitute for specialized optics when light wanes or subjects shift.
There’s also the soft-skill stuff: consistent subject separation, reliable pet portraits, and ultrawide-macro fun. These are little joys that end up carrying you through the day, and they’re hard to summon from a single lens, no matter how sharp the sensor or clever the math.
Sustained performance is the secret test
Benchmark peaks are great in a keynote, but stability wins the day. Tools like 3DMark’s Wild Life Stress Test demonstrate how much performance a phone can keep up over 20 loops. Ultra-thin devices generally have lower stability because they have less thermal mass and smaller vapor chambers. The upshot: quicker initial bursts followed by steeper falloff under continuous load.
That falloff has a tangible impact for real jobs — batch photo edits, extended video capture, turn-by-turn navigation while you’re also streaming music. Should the iPhone Air’s cooling be restricted by its framework, you could anticipate even more throttling — and ironically, even more energy consumed per task.
What Apple has to prove — and what buyers should look for
Three actions would allay my concerns.
- Endurance: a solid day of heavy usage with some overhead, and not only day-one metrics.
- Camera versatility: an ultrawide or a handsomely persuasive computational stand-in, plus reliable portraits for both people and pets.
- Thermal response: consistent behavior under load; no mere cool-to-the-touch marketing baloney.
People hang onto their phones longer — over three years in many markets, according to industry analysts such as Counterpoint Research. That’s why long-term battery health and software update efficiency are more important than ever. If Apple can curve those curves in a body that’s 5.6mm deep, then I’ll eat my hat.
For now, my interaction with the Galaxy S25 Edge should serve as a warning. Slim can be beautiful, but the iPhone Air would need more than polish and streamlining to avoid those same compromises. I’m ready to be impressed. I’ve got a charger at the ready, too.
