My experience is "air" in an Apple product's name means battery life is measured in tens of minutes and the fan makes a horrible racket because the CPU is underpowered and intended for only short suprts of activity. That's fine for a laptop because you can keep it plugged in and use your other computer to do tasks that require CPU, but not appropriate for a mobile phone that you may want to operate untethered for hours at a time.

I'm sure Apple's official word on this is battery life is sufficient for more than a couple of hours of untethered stand-by. I'm just questioning the wisdom of the naming convention. They trained their user community to understand that "air" means low-CPU power / low battery life / thinner package. Are there enough potential customers who will prioritize thin form factor over usability?

Nevermind. I just answered my own question.

[Edit: I understand the Apple fanbois will want to down-vote this, but look at the second sentence of the second paragraph. I am not saying the iPhone Air will be bad. I am saying that the "Air" name has, in the past, been applied to some pretty sub-standard products. I am asking if it's wise to apply a name that has been used for lower-end products to new products that aren't "lower end."]

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potwinkle 6 days ago | parent | next [-]

It's been long enough that this doesn't seem true anymore. The current Macbook Air is fanless, and has around 18 hours of battery life with an 8-core M4.

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wfme 6 days ago | parent | prev [-]

Did you uhhhh read any of the announcement, or just jump straight to writing this comment?

The 17 Air reports 27 hours of video playback - the same as the 16 Pro.

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OhMeadhbh 6 days ago | parent [-]

Did you read my comment? I did not say the iPhone Air has 2 hours of battery life. I said previous apple products that had the "Air" name were "less capable." I was wondering aloud why a company would apply this sobriquet to a new product, regardless of it's capabilities.

	▲	wfme 5 days ago \| parent [-]
		Ah, fair enough! I read this as saying almost exactly that, but yeah, I get what you mean. > but not appropriate for a mobile phone that you may want to operate untethered for hours at a time. I do think this shifted a little when the first M1 Air came out. Anecdotally, many now associate it with being more than capable unless you’re an actual professional.