I will be honest: I don’t believe in this annual iPhone pilgrimage anymore. Those days are over. No sane person needs to swap their phone every September like it is the fashion season. My iPhone 14 Pro has been sweating it out in my cycling jersey pocket for the last three years, absorbing humidity like a sponge in a Dubai summer, and only now — after corroded speakers and occasional sulking at charging time — I gave in. That is the only reason I am holding the new iPhone Air. Not because I couldn’t resist, but because my old soldier drowned in its own sweat.

And you know what? I am glad.

Because the iPhone Air isn’t just another incremental update — it is a beautiful piece of hardware that feels like Apple finally embraced the elegance.

Let’s start with the obvious: the design is breathtaking. Slim, clean, feather-light, and mercifully free of the three-eyed monster camera bump that haunted the Pro line. One lens. Just one. I didn’t realise how refreshing this would feel until I put it in my hand. Finally, a phone that doesn’t look like it is spying on me.

The Air is thin enough to make you nervous at first — like it might snap if you breathe wrong — but it doesn’t. Apple’s engineers clearly put this thing through the wash, and it comes out durable. Yet it feels like jewelry, not machinery. For me, the design alone is a reason to pick it up.

Yes, the camera discourse. Every forum thread, every YouTube review: “Not as good as the Pro.” Sure. If you are Helmut Newton reincarnated and need to shoot glossy editorials straight from your phone, then please, buy the 17 Pro. For the rest of us mortals, it is just different.

I take photos of my bike (looking sleek as ever), the occasional coffee, the sunset I will never capture properly anyway, and blurry friends at dinner. The iPhone Air handles all of that brilliantly. The colours feel more honest, the style takes some getting used to, and the selfies? Out of this world. Apple quietly slipped in one of the best front cameras ever made, and it makes every FaceTime call feel like an audition tape.

I don’t pretend to understand Apple’s chips. A19, neural engines, teraflops, whatever — what I do know is that this thing moves faster than my brain. After three years on the 14 Pro, the leap is unmistakable: apps open instantly, scrolling is butter, editing a quick video doesn’t lag. The responsiveness almost feels like it knows what I am about to do before I tap. That is the kind of technical magic you don’t need a spec sheet to appreciate.

Thinness usually equals compromise, but not here. A full day on the Air — cycling, messaging, doomscrolling, maps, Apple Music — ends with juice to spare. I took it on a long Tokyo to Dubai flight, Netflixing shamelessly, and the screen didn’t feel cramped once. The size is the sweet spot: bigger than the Pro, lighter than the Max, perfect for actual humans.

If you are a professional content creator, stop reading — get the 17 Pro and enjoy your cinematic modes and telephoto lenses. But if you care about design, want a phone that feels like an object of beauty instead of a brick, and still expect top-tier performance, the iPhone Air is your upgrade.

It isn’t about replacing your camera, or editing feature films, or flexing on spec charts. It is about carrying something beautiful and fast that doesn’t remind you of work every time you look at it.

The iPhone Air is proof that Apple can still surprise — not by stuffing more cameras into the back, but by stripping things down to elegance. It is thin but tough, simple but powerful, understated but stunning. After three years with the 14 Pro, this feels like a reset: the phone I actually want to hold, not just the one I am supposed to have.

And yes, my beloved dog looks amazing in the photos.