'iPhone Air' unboxing ceremony, finally released, we took a closer look at the appearance of the thinnest iPhone ever and compared its thinness with the previous model

The iPhone Air , which was announced as the thinnest iPhone ever, was released on Friday, September 19, 2025. GIGAZINE quickly purchased one and got hold of it, so we took a closer look at its appearance before preparing for a full review. The second half of the article also compares its thinness with previous iPhones.

iPhone Air - Apple (Japan)

This is the packaging for the iPhone Air. The iPhone Air comes in four colors: Space Black, Cloud White, Light Gold, and Sky Blue. I bought the Space Black.

Peel off the sticker on the back.

When I opened the lid, the iPhone Air appeared.

In addition to the iPhone Air itself, the box contained a USB Type-C cable and a piece of cardboard with the word 'iPhone' written on it.

The back of the cardboard says, 'No physical SIM card required.' The iPhone Air only supports eSIM, eliminating the SIM card slot, and the extra space is used for battery capacity.

Let's take a closer look at the iPhone Air's exterior. The display is a 6.5-inch OLED display with a resolution of 2736 x 1260 pixels and a maximum refresh rate of 120Hz. The maximum brightness in standard mode is 1000 nits, and the peak brightness outdoors is 3000 nits.

The display is equipped with a Dynamic Island, which also houses an 18-megapixel center-frame camera.

The bezel width is approximately 1mm.

The back looks like this. It has a smooth texture, and only the Apple logo is smooth.

The phone features a 48-megapixel Fusion camera system on the back, which is said to offer a 12-megapixel 2x optical telephoto lens by cropping the center of the frame, even though it only has one camera.

The area around the camera is wide and raised horizontally, and it seems that the main components are packed into this raised area.

There are no buttons on the top.

The USB Type-C port on the bottom is USB 2.0 standard and supports data transfers at 480Mbps.

On the left side are the action button and volume control button.

The right side features side buttons and camera controls.

The dimensions are 74.7mm wide x 156.2mm high x 5.64mm thick, excluding the camera area, and the thickest part is actually 11.3mm thick.

The actual weight is 164g.

This is what it looks like when you hold it in your hand. It's quite thin. The camera part doesn't touch your hand, so you won't notice the thickness. Although the parts are concentrated at the top, the center of gravity is in the middle, making it easy to hold.

I tried bending it with a lot of force. It bends a little while I'm applying pressure, but it goes back to its original shape as soon as I release the pressure.

Even if you twist it like you're wringing out a rag, there's no sign of it breaking.

Let's compare the thickness with the previous model. First, let's compare the iPhone Air (left) and iPhone 16 (right). The iPhone Air is overwhelmingly thinner.

The camera part of the iPhone Air is also thinner.

The iPhone Air (left) and the third-generation iPhone SE (right) are side-by-side. The third-generation iPhone SE is a relatively thin iPhone, but the iPhone Air is still thinner.

However, the second-generation iPhone SE has the advantage in terms of the thinness of the camera section.

Compared to the iPhone 5s (right), the iPhone Air is thinner when held in the hand.

The camera on the iPhone 5s is not protruding, so the iPhone 5s is thinner including the camera section.

When placed next to the iPhone 4s (right), the iPhone Air's thinness is striking.

The iPhone 4s is thinner when you include the camera.

When compared to older iPhone models, the iPhone Air isn't the thinnest, even including the camera section, but the part you hold in your hand is by far the thinnest. Once you get used to the thinness of the iPhone Air, it feels strange to touch other models.

The 256GB iPhone Air is available for 159,800 yen (tax included) from Amazon.co.jp.

Amazon.co.jp: Apple iPhone Air (256GB): Thinnest iPhone Ever, 6.5-inch Display with ProMotion up to 120Hz, Powerful A19 Pro Chip, Center-Frame Front Camera, All-Day Battery Life; Sky Blue: Electronics & Cameras

We plan to publish a review article examining the iPhone Air's camera performance, battery performance, and more at a later date.

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Review of the iPhone Air's photography capabilities, which has a single camera instead of a thin one - GIGAZINE