MacRumors

It's been two days since iOS 26 was released, and Apple's new Liquid Glass design is even more divisive than expected.

Any major design change can create controversy as people get used to the new look, but the MacRumors forums, Reddit, Apple Support Communities, and social media sites seem to feature more criticism than praise as people discuss the update.

Complaints

There are a long list of complaints about Liquid Glass, from the impact on readability to lag caused by animations. Here are some of the main critiques:

• Animations run slow, and the interface feels sluggish on older iPhones.
• The constantly changing colors, shapes, and shading are distracting.
• The animations make no sense.
• It looks like a Barbie phone with battery wasting features.
• Basic actions require too many taps.
• The bubbles and floaty icons are cartoony.
• The contrast is awful.
• Some app icons look blurry.
• The design is inconsistent, and some things are flat while some are glass.
• Highlights on UI elements are inconsistent.
• It's hard to read things like notifications.
• The effects are too subtle for the system overhead costs.

Some People Like It

On the MacRumors forums, complaints about Liquid Glass are interspersed with responses from people who have been using it during beta, and the consensus is "you'll get used to it."

It does always take time to get used to a new look, and Liquid Glass will become less jarring as people become accustomed to the new animations and the behavior of buttons and other interface elements.

Not everyone hates Liquid Glass, and there are also many positive comments from people who prefer the new design. Some of that sentiment:

• It makes the iPhone feel faster.
• It feels modern and clean, and makes a boring smartphone a little more fun.
• It's bright, bouncy, and just plain cool to use.
• Getting notifications is satisfying, and the Lock Screen keypad is like bubbles.
• It's fresh and easy to get accustomed to.
• iOS 18's flat UI was depressing, so ‌iOS 26‌ is an improvement.
• It's technologically impressive with the light refraction and diffusion of chromatic aberration.
• The icons are slick and it harkens back to the OG Apple UI design.

Media Complaints

• The unbearable sameness of Liquid Glass
• Liquid Glass Could Be One of Apple's Most Divisive System Designs Yet
• This Liquid Glass Optical Illusion on iOS 26 Is Driving Me Insane
• Apple's Liquid Glass: The liquid works, but the glass is broken

iOS 7

Everyone remembers iOS 7, because it was the first big design change that Apple made to iOS. Apple did away with skeuomorphism in favor of a "flat" design, and it was not a change that people were prepared for. A lot of the comments shared when iOS 7 came out mirror the comments we're seeing now about Liquid Glass.

• iOS 7 Interface Design is so UGLY!
• The real problem with iOS 7 Design
• Does anyone dislike IOS 7 as much as I do?
• iOS 7 Bugs: Will They Ever be Fixed
• The biggest complaints about iOS 7 so far
• The design of iOS 7: simply confusing

Despite the complaints about iOS 7, Apple stuck with it. There were ongoing refinements to fix bugs and to tweak the overall design, but Apple didn't reverse course. Design updates in iOS 8, iOS 9, and iOS 10 didn't change the fundamentals, but it got better and better, and people got used to it.

Liquid Glass could follow the same path. Apple will make updates and optimizations, but it's probably going to inform the next decade of software releases. In discussion threads on Liquid Glass, you'll see a lot of comments from people recalling iOS 7 and reminding us all that we've been here before.

Tone Down Liquid Glass

If you're having a hard time adjusting to the Liquid Glass design, there is no opt out, but you can toggle on Reduce Transparency.

• iOS 26: Reduce Transparency of Apple's Liquid Glass Design

You can also increase your display contrast, and the two settings together will eliminate most of the translucency that was introduced with Liquid Glass.

Chime In

What do you love or hate about Liquid Glass? Let us know in the comments.

Apple is planning to release a fix for an iPhone Air and iPhone 17 Pro camera bug that causes black boxes and white squiggles to appear in photos. CNN Underscored's Henry Casey discovered the issue in an iPhone Air review when snapping photos at a concert.

He said that one out of every 10 images taken with the ‌iPhone Air‌ or the ‌iPhone 17 Pro‌ had "small blacked-out portions, including boxes and parts of white squiggles" that showed up from the LED board at the event.

Apple told Casey that it's an issue that can occur in "very rare cases when an LED light display is extremely bright and shining directly into the camera." Apple has a fix, and plans to release it in an upcoming software update.

Apple did not provide a timeline on when the software update might be released, but the new models are set to launch on Friday, September 19.

While the iPhone 17 series and the iPhone Air are still a few days away from launching, there are already some early rumors about the iPhone 18 Pro's design.

Overall, the iPhone 18 Pro models will feature a similar design as the iPhone 17 Pro models, according to Digital Chat Station, a previously-accurate leaker with more than three million followers on Chinese social media platform Weibo.

In a post today, the leaker said the devices will have the same rear camera system design as the iPhone 17 Pro models, with a "plateau" housing three lenses in a triangular arrangement. He also expects the iPhone 18 Pro and iPhone 18 Pro Max to have the same 6.3-inch and 6.9-inch display sizes used since the iPhone 16 Pro and iPhone 16 Pro Max.

Notably, the leaker claimed that the Ceramic Shield area on the back of the iPhone 18 Pro models will feature a "slightly transparent design," without elaborating.

The post also said the iPhone 18 Pro models will be equipped with a stainless steel vapor chamber cooling system. On the iPhone 17 Pro models, Apple says the vapor chamber is laser-welded into the aluminum unibody, but it is not entirely clear if it uses any other types of metal. Teardowns will provide a closer look at the vapor chamber in the coming days.

In related news, Taiwan's Commercial Times this week reported that iPhone 18 Pro models will be equipped with an A20 Pro chip, fabricated with TSMC's latest 2nm process. The devices will also feature Apple's C2 modem, rather than a Qualcomm modem, the report said. Both of these changes have been widely rumored already.

Like all sources, Digital Chat Station has some hits and misses. We are still a year out from the iPhone 18 Pro models, so expect plenty more rumors to follow. Even if early rumors are true, designs and specs can change before they are finalized.

Earlier this week, another leaker claimed the iPhone 18 Pro models will feature a smaller Dynamic Island, but they do not expect the devices to have under-screen Face ID.

iPadOS 26 introduces a whole new multitasking system that provides a Mac-like experience on the iPad. You can open multiple app windows at once, arrange them how you like, and even use Mac-style buttons and features to get work done.

There are several useful tips that might be helpful if you're new to ‌iPadOS 26‌ and aren't sure where to start.

Opt-In or Opt-Out

When you first install ‌iPadOS 26‌, you can choose how you want your ‌iPad‌ to work. You can continue to use full screen apps as the default if you don't need to have more than one app open at a time, or you can choose the new Windowed Apps option.

If you prefer Stage Manager, you can also select that option to arrange your windows across multiple groups.

Quick Swapping

You can swap between Windowed Apps and ‌Stage Manager‌ mode by opening up the Control Center and long pressing on the multitasking Control Center button.

Resizing and Repositioning Windows

In Windowed Apps mode, an app will open at full size when you first tap it. You can grab the little handle in the right hand corner of the window and use drag gestures to adjust its size.

Drag at the top of the app to reposition a window. Windows will remember where they were placed even when you close an app.

Flick Arranging

When you have an app window open, if you give it a quick flick to the right or the left, it will neatly arrange itself to one side of the display. You can stack multiple app windows on top of one another this way.

Button Controls

‌iPad‌ windows use Mac-like "traffic" buttons that work just like Mac apps. Red closes a window, green expands a window to full screen, and yellow collapses it down to the dock.

Split Your Screen

If you long press on the traffic light buttons, you'll bring up options for arranging your windows. You can choose an arrangement that tiles two, three, or four app windows on the display, or use Move and Resize to move your window to the bottom, top, right, or left of the screen.

Exposé

If you swipe up and hold from the bottom of the ‌iPad‌'s display, you can get into an Exposé view that shows all of your open apps or app groups if you're also using Center Stage.

Swipe up without holding to get to your desktop. At your desktop, swipe down from the top to get to the search interface if you need it.

Menu Bar

‌iPad‌ apps have a menu bar in ‌iPadOS 26‌. It's hidden, but you can get to it if you swipe down from the top when an app is in full screen mode. Alternatively, you can hover the mouse over it if you're using a mouse or trackpad with your ‌iPad‌.

Menu bar options vary by app, but include controls for window management, closing a window, accessing tools, and getting to app settings.

No More Split View and Slide Over

The ‌iPadOS 26‌ multitasking changes replace Split View and Slide Over, so that functionality is no longer available.

Dock Visibility

The option to have the Dock automatically be hidden when you're using apps is on automatically, but if you want to turn it off, you can do so in the Multitasking section of the Settings app.

Close All Windows

If you want to be able to close all of your open windows when you swipe to the Home screen, you can toggle that on in the Settings app under Multitasking. The option is not turned on by default.

If you have a Mac Studio with an M3 Ultra chip and can't get macOS Tahoe to install, you're not alone. There is a bug that is preventing the update from installing properly on machines that have the M3 Ultra.

Affected users go to install macOS Tahoe, wait through the installation process and see the ‌Mac Studio‌ reboot, and then end up with macOS Sequoia 15.7 still running instead of macOS Tahoe. The macOS Tahoe update fails again and again.

A discussion thread on the Apple Support Communities suggests that the bug is impacting all Mac Studios with an M3 Ultra chip, and we have a ‌Mac Studio‌ that is unable to be upgraded. A Mac user who dug into the error messages suggests that the installer loads the macOS Tahoe driver for the Apple Neural Engine, but then a hardware check fails, and the installation process is aborted.

‌Mac Studio‌ owners say that attempting to install via standard software update, safe mode, and recovery mode have all failed. There is no known fix right now, and M3 Ultra ‌Mac Studio‌ users will need to wait for Apple to release a fix to solve the issue.

Apple is aware of the problem, so hopefully the problem will be resolved shortly.

Apple has updated its iPhone User Guide, and published a series of support documents, with more details about a wide range of new iOS 26 features.

Here are some of those guides and support documents:

• Adaptive Power mode
• Apple Games app
• Apple Intelligence (Reminders)
• Apple Preview app
• AutoMix (Apple Music)
• Call Screening (Phone)
• Live Translation
• Log Blood Pressure (Health)
• Recovery Assistant
• Screen Unknown Senders (Messages)

Make sure to check out our ultimate iOS 26 guide for an in-depth overview of everything you need to know about the software update, released on Monday.

It turns out that Apple's new Adaptive Power mode extends beyond the iPhone.

Starting with watchOS 26, Adaptive Power is enabled by default on all compatible Apple Watch models set up via Apple Watch For Your Kids, formerly known as Family Setup. This includes an Apple Watch that is already set up and updated to watchOS 26.

Apple Watch For Your Kids lets parents set up an Apple Watch — a model with cellular connectivity is required — for a child who does not have their own iPhone.

On the Apple Watch, Adaptive Power can help to extend battery life by adjusting the performance of certain features, according to an Apple support document. Apple says Siri may take longer to process requests, and some animations and scrolling might appear less smooth on the screen, but it is unclear how often this will happen.

Parents can turn off Adaptive Power on the child's Apple Watch, by opening the Settings app on it, tapping on Battery, and scrolling down to Adaptive Power.

Adaptive Power is only available on Apple Watch units set up via Apple Watch For Your Kids.

Adaptive Power mode is also available on iPhone 15 Pro models and newer running iOS 26, and it is on by default on the iPhone 17 series and iPhone Air.

On the iPhone, Apple says the optional setting can make "performance adjustments" when necessary to extend battery life, including slightly lowering the display brightness, allowing some activities to "take longer," and automatically turning on Low Power Mode when remaining battery life reaches the 20% mark.

The website ChargerLAB today published a teardown of Apple's new 40W Dynamic Power Adapter with 60W Max, which has a key advantage over one of its other chargers.

Specifically, the teardown shows the new 40W to 60W charger is roughly the same size as Apple's 20W charger, despite its higher wattage for faster charging speeds. In other words, you are getting more power from a smaller charger, although the 40W to 60W model costs $39 in the U.S., while the 20W option costs $19.

To achieve this, the charger supports USB-C Power Delivery 3.2 with SPR AVS (Standard Power Range Adjustable Voltage Supply), according to ChargerLAB.

The teardown confirms the charger can approach its 60W limit, but this will only be in short bursts, due to the thermal limitations of its compact design.

In addition to the U.S., the 40W Dynamic Power Adapter with 60W Max is available to order in Canada, China, Japan, Mexico, Taiwan, and the Philippines. It appears to be the spiritual successor to Apple's discontinued 30W adapter, which is still included with the base-model 13-inch MacBook Air and the Apple Vision Pro for now.

iPhone 17, iPhone 17 Pro, and iPhone 17 Pro Max models can be charged up to 50% in 20 minutes with a compatible charger, including the 40W to 60W one.

Apple supply chain analyst Ming-Chi Kuo today reiterated that a more affordable MacBook powered by an iPhone processor is slated to enter mass production in the fourth quarter of 2025, which points towards a late 2025 or early 2026 launch.

Below, we recap the rumors about the lower-priced MacBook so far.

Kuo was first to reveal that Apple is allegedly planning a more affordable MacBook. In late June, he said the laptop would have around a 13-inch display, and an A18 Pro chip. Kuo said potential color options include silver, blue, pink, and yellow, so the laptop could come in bright colors, like 2021-and-newer models of the 24-inch iMac.

This time around, he only mentioned the MacBook will have an unspecific iPhone processor. Apple recently introduced the A19 Pro chip, which has 12GB of RAM, so it will be interesting to see if the lower-cost MacBook uses that chip instead. The entire Mac lineup has started with at least 16GB of RAM since last year, with the only option with 8GB being the MacBook with an M1 chip, which is sold exclusively by Walmart for $599.

The A18 Pro offers similar performance as the M1 chip, so Apple might opt to save the A19 Pro for the second-generation lower-cost MacBook. Kuo anticipates that follow-up model will be released in 2027, with specs still not finalized.

Taiwanese supply chain publication DigiTimes expects the laptop to have a starting price of between $599 and $699 in the United States.

The publication said the lower-cost MacBook will be equipped with a 12.9-inch display, and a version of the A18 Pro chip that debuted in the iPhone 16 Pro models last year. It would become the first Mac to ever use an A-series chip from an iPhone.

The lower-cost MacBook could launch in late 2025 or early 2026, that report said.

Notably, the A18 Pro and A19 Pro lack Thunderbolt support, so the MacBook would likely be equipped with regular USB-C ports. They would look the same as Thunderbolt ports, but data transfer speeds would be limited to up to 10 Gbps. The laptop would natively support only a single external display, but that limitation can be overcome with DisplayLink adapters.

The lower-cost MacBook could have a lot in common with the discontinued 12-inch MacBook, including an ultra-thin and lightweight design. It would slot in below the MacBook Air, which has a slightly larger 13.6-inch display, an M4 chip, and a starting price of $999. However, the latest MacBook Air is sometimes on sale on Amazon for as low as $799.

Apple often announces new Macs in October, so perhaps the lower-cost MacBook will debut next month. Otherwise, March 2026 is the next likely timeframe.

With an ultra-thin design that measures just 5.6mm at its thinnest point, Apple's new iPhone Air tops the iPhone 6 as the thinnest iPhone ever released.

With a 6.9mm frame, the iPhone 6 was prone to bending, although the most egregious examples were often seen in YouTube videos that used excessive force.

The big question: Will the iPhone Air bend?

In a video that Apple provided to Tom's Guide, Apple subjected the iPhone Air to a machine that simulated "130 pounds of pressure" on the middle of the device. The publication said the video shows the device "springs back remarkably well and doesn't show any lasting curve from the experience." You can watch it for yourself in their report.

It appears the iPhone Air should be bend-proof in most if not all real-world scenarios, but we still have to wait for independent, third-party tests.

It does seem pretty safe to say that the iPhone Air will not bend in the same way the iPhone 6 did, and a big reason for that is the device has a titanium frame, whereas the iPhone 6 was made with aluminum. Apple said the iPhone Air "exceeds" its "stringent bend strength requirements," and touted it as the most durable iPhone ever.

The report also includes a few other durability test videos from Apple, including one that tests the Ceramic Shield 2 front cover on iPhone 17 models, which is promised to offer 3× better scratch resistance compared to the previous generation. Another video subjects the iPhone 17 Pro to simulated drop tests. Unsurprisingly, given these videos are from Apple, the results are favorable. Real-world tests will confirm things soon.

The first reviews of the iPhone 17 Pro and iPhone 17 Pro Max have now been published by selected media outlets and YouTube channels, offering a closer look at the device ahead of Friday's launch.

The iPhone 17 Pro models feature one of the biggest design changes to the device in years, moving to an aluminum unibody frame and a full-width rear camera plateau. New color options include Silver, Deep Blue, and Cosmic Orange.

A completely new front-facing camera features an 18-megapixel square sensor, facilitating automatic rotation and Center Stage. There is also a 48-megapixel telephoto camera for the first time, enabling 4x and 8x optical zoom.

The A19 Pro chip enables better performance with Neural Accelerators. A vapor chamber cooling system is built-in for even better heat dissipation.

Other new features include noticeably longer battery life, an improved anti-reflective coating, Ceramic Shield 2, a brighter display, Genlock support, and more.

The two key advantages the Pro models have over the ultra-thin iPhone Air include roughly 20% to 40% longer battery life, and a Telephoto rear camera with 4x and 8x optical zoom. The devices also have an Ultra Wide camera, if you use it.

The iPhone 17 Pro and 17 Pro Max can be pre-ordered now. Below, we have rounded up some of the reviews.

Tom's Guide on the iPhone 17 Pro's battery life:

This results in a longer battery life for the iPhone 17 Pro according to our battery drain test, reaching a time of 15 hours and 32 minutes. That's a marked improvement over the iPhone 16 Pro’s average run of 14 hours and 7 minutes.

I'm also seeing solid all-day battery life with my real world use. Most of my time on the phone has been spent surfing the web, taking tons of photos with all its cameras, watching videos on YouTube, and getting in a few sessions with Diablo Immortal and Age of Origins throughout my day. I've made a point to not top off its battery during the day, only to find it at about 20% battery life by the end of the night.

CNET took a closer look at the new Telephoto camera:

I thought I'd notice the difference between 4x and 5x, but unless I had the phones side-by-side, I was unaware. The 17 Pro Max's telephoto images are brighter and have better details and resolution than ones from the 16 Pro, which is likely the result of the larger sensor.

And similar to the wizardry Apple uses to make 2x photos look good, the telephoto camera is able to achieve 8x images. Telephoto images at 4x taken under good lighting (like a nice sunny day) can stand toe-to-toe with images from the main camera. But when I took telephoto images in less than ideal lighting, the 4x images held up OK, whereas the 8x images had more noise and softness.

WIRED praised the improved thermals:

I played one of the most demanding games on the iPhone right now—Assassin's Creed Mirage—and performance was significantly smoother than when I played it on the iPhone 16 Pro last year. The iPhone 17 Pro still got hot, but the heat was spread out over the entire back of the phone, so it didn't feel as uncomfortable to hold while gaming (unlike the iPhone 17 and Air). I maxed out the graphical settings, and the frames per second were noticeably more stable, and I rarely saw stutters at all.

Engadget said the A19 Pro's Neural Accelerators make a meaningful difference to AI tasks:

I do want to commend Apple for the improved performance in Image Playground and Genmoji. It used to take ages for AI-generated pictures or emoji to appear (especially those based on a picture of someone in my photo album), but on the iPhone 17 Pro I was able to get several options in succession before things slowed down. Pictures where I opted to use ChatGPT’s more realistic styles took a lot longer, but by and large I saw a marked improvement in speed here. Those neural accelerators in the A19 Pro’s six-core GPU are certainly pulling their weight.

Videos

The first set of reviews are out for the new 6.3-inch base iPhone 17 model ahead of the full ‌iPhone 17‌ lineup launching on Friday.

As noted in our buyer's guide, the ‌iPhone 17‌ features Apple's biggest display upgrade to a non-Pro model in years, with a larger 6.3-inch display (up from 6.1 inches) and a 120Hz ProMotion display for refresh rates up to 120Hz. There are also some major camera improvements, faster performance, and big battery life gains. So what do these enhancements mean for users in real terms?

According to The Verge's Jacob Kastrenakes, the new display is a game changer:

In size, resolution, and specs, the iPhone 17's display is the same as what you’ll find on this year's Pro. And the most notable thing about the change is that the iPhone 17 finally has an always-on display. The feature works exactly the same as it does on the Pro phones, too. When you set the iPhone 17 down, the screen dims, showing a faint version of your wallpaper, widgets, clock, and notifications.

Being able to quickly glance at your phone for information is extremely handy and instantly makes the device a whole lot more useful.

TechRadar's Jacob Krol also had only positive things to say about the new 6.3-inch Super Retina XDR display, calling it "the star of the show."

Yes, the iPhone 17's 6.3-inch Super Retina XDR OLED display now supports ProMotion, meaning it delivers a buttery-smooth experience for scrolling, swiping, gaming, streaming, and even general navigation, as it will adjust on the fly from 1Hz all the way up to 120Hz depending on what you're doing. The iPhone 16, 15, and 14 before it were all locked at 60Hz, which wasn't a big deal if you weren’t coming from a 120Hz device, but this is a really nice upgrade.

The iPhone 17's display story is really about the sum of its parts. ProMotion, Always-On, and a slightly larger screen make for a great experience, and there's a serious amount of value to be found through this display alone. Oh, and it's also coated in Ceramic Shield 2, which makes it three times as scratch-resistant as the screen on the iPhone 16 – that's a win, especially if you're prone to dropping your iPhone.

The ‌iPhone 17‌ features two rear cameras consisting of a 48-megapixel Wide camera and a 48-megapixel Ultra Wide – an upgrade over the 12-megapixel Ultra Wide lens on the iPhone 16.

CNET's Abrar Al-Heeti particularly welcomed the camera upgrades and noted how the new features allow the ‌iPhone 17‌ to punch above the iPhone Air:

It's interesting to have more photo-taking flexibility on a less expensive iPhone model, since the iPhone Air can't take 0.5x photos or Cinematic mode videos. It's another way this baseline device makes a case for itself. Like the iPhone Air, the iPhone 17 takes 12-megapixel 2x telephoto images, which maintain a solid level of detail as you punch in. Photos default to 24 megapixels, but you can switch to 48 megapixels to capture a bit more detail.

The ‌iPhone 17‌ features 8GB of RAM – the least of all new iPhones – and Apple's base A19 processor, including a six-core CPU, a five-core GPU, and Apple's Neural Engine. The GPU cores also each have their own Neural Accelerator, which Apple says boosts the chip's ability to process AI calculations.

PC Mag's Eric Zeman put the phone through its paces and came away impressed:

I ran the phone through the typical battery of benchmark tests to see how it fares against the competition. Surprisingly, it runs a bit faster than the iPhone Air, which becomes much hotter than the 17 under load. Meanwhile, the Pro iPhones are about 10% faster, which isn't as big a difference as I expected.

The iPhone 17 buries the Pixel 10's Tensor G5 processor in testing, though Google tells us it designs its chips to run AI calculations, not perform well on benchmarks. The iPhone 17's A19 also bested the Galaxy S25's Snapdragon 8 Elite for Galaxy chip in CPU performance, though it fell behind in GPU calculations.

Ultimately, the iPhone 17 and its combination of memory and A19 power are more than enough to handle all your apps, daily tasks, and Apple Intelligence requests. In my tests, the phone had no trouble generating AI images, conjuring up new Genmoji, and powering Apple Photos' editing tools.

Apple claims that the ‌iPhone 17‌ offers an additional 8 hours of video playback compared to the ‌iPhone 16‌. But how does that translate to real world gains? Tom's Guide's John Velasco reported a subtle improvement in his tests:

Our battery drain test reveals an improvement, albeit a small one. It reaches a time of 12 hours and 47 minutes, an improvement of 34 minutes over the iPhone 16. That might not sound like a whole lot, but it's worth remembering that the iPhone 17 has a larger 6.3-inch display this time.

I can affirm that I'm getting all-day battery life with a full charge. Roughly speaking, I'm seeing 15% battery life right before bed time. Most of my time was spent on checking emails, watching a few videos on my break at work, and looking through all of my social feeds. It's undoubtedly nowhere as close to offering the endurance I’ve been having with my iPhone 16 Pro Max for just about the last year, but most people will suffice getting through a work day.

I'm excited to report that Apple also upgrades the iPhone 17's charging speeds, with its 35W wired charging getting its battery to 39% in 15 minutes — and then to 71% in 30 minutes. That's a marked improvement over the iPhone 16, but Apple didn't stop there as it also adds 25W Qi 2.2 charging support.

Like the ‌iPhone Air‌ and iPhone 17 Pro models, the base ‌iPhone 17‌ can be pre-ordered now, starting at $799.

Videos

The first reviews of the iPhone Air have been published by selected media outlets and YouTube channels, offering a closer look at the device ahead of its launch on Friday.

The main attraction of the iPhone Air is its ultra-thin 5.6mm design, but the device has a handful of compromises compared to the iPhone 17 Pro models, so is it still worth buying? The reviews set out to answer that question.

The compromises compared to the Pro models include shorter battery life, no Telephoto camera with up to 8× optical zoom, one speaker instead of two, a slower USB-C port for wired data transfer speeds, slightly lower maximum USB-C and MagSafe charging speeds, and a slightly slower 5-core GPU instead of a 6-core GPU.

On the other hand, the iPhone Air has some Pro features, including a ProMotion display with up to a 120Hz refresh rate, and an A19 Pro chip with the same 6-core CPU. The device also has a sleek, premium design with Ceramic Shield glass and titanium.

iPhone Air can be pre-ordered now. Below, we have rounded up some of the reviews.

Apple says the iPhone Air offers up to 27 hours of video playback per charge, compared to up to 33 hours on the iPhone 17 Pro and up to 39 hours on the iPhone 17 Pro Max.

The Verge's Allison Johnson on battery life:

Now for the less-good news: battery life is just okay. And honestly, that's a pretty good outcome for the Air; the situation could have been worse. If you're a light user and you spend most of your time on Wi-Fi, you might never have a problem with the battery.

Personally, it makes me a little too anxious to see that battery indicator drop into the 20s before dinnertime, though in fairness I was going pretty hard on the battery with around five hours of screen-on time. On a much lighter day on my home Wi-Fi, three hours of screen-on time took the battery down to around 40 percent by bedtime. I'd call that within the bounds of acceptable, if a little on the low end for a $1,000 phone.

WIRED's Julian Chokkattu on battery life:

The battery life of the iPhone Air is better than I expected.

The Air was generally able to last a full day with average use for me. I hit around five hours of screen-on time with around 18 percent left by 10:30 pm. This worked for me, but my expectations were also very low. I had to baby the battery so much on the last ultrathin phone I tested, the Samsung Galaxy S25 Edge, and I was surprised to find that this was not the case with the Air.

Heavy users will undoubtedly need to top up this phone during the day. On one travel day, I took the phone off the charger at 5:30 am and used it extensively for navigation, music streaming, phone calls, and Instagram Reeling, and I hit 2 percent by 4:30 pm. If that sounds like a very normal day for you, you'll most certainly feel the limits of this phone's battery life. For the most part, I didn't feel as battery anxious as with Samsung's thin phone.

Like the iPhone 17 Pro models, the iPhone Air has an A19 Pro chip, with the same 6-core CPU but a slightly reduced 5-core GPU. Geekbench results for the chip already surfaced last week, and now one review has subjected it to additional testing.

Tom's Guide's Mark Spoonauer on sustained performance and thermal management:

How about sustained performance? To test that, we used the 3DMark Wild Life Extreme Stress Test, which simulates gaming for about 20 minutes. We ran it once and recorded the results, then did a second run right after that to really stress test these phones.

The iPhone Air performed quite well, with stability scores that beat the Galaxy S25 Edge by a fair margin in both rounds.

More surprisingly, the iPhone Air turned in cooler temperatures than the Pro Max when we measured the back of the phones using a laser thermometer in 5 locations and averaged the results. Though the S25 Edge was even cooler.

Notably, Spoonauer was unable to bend the iPhone Air with his hands in a recent interview, but we will see how the device holds up in pockets over the long term.

CNET's Abrar Al-Heeti tested the iPhone Air's single 48-megapixel rear camera — the review contains a gallery of photos shot with the device:

It felt surprisingly limiting to not have an ultrawide camera, especially when I wanted to capture more sweeping landscapes. Not to turn this into a thin phone showdown, but I couldn't help but think of how the Galaxy S25 Edge does have a 12-megapixel ultrawide-angle camera, alongside a 200-megapixel wide-angle camera, which makes it feel like less of a compromise in that regard.

Otherwise, the rear camera on the iPhone Air consistently delivered. In the many pictures I took of waterfalls, tea times and urban landscapes, shadows and highlights are well balanced, colors are true to life, and there's an overall sharpness and clarity. Portrait shots (my go-to camera mode) capably blur backgrounds to help subjects -- whether it's a decadent tea tray, an art installation or CNET's talented Jesse Orrall -- stand out.

Videos

iOS 26's new Liquid Glass interface has been criticized for making some content illegible in certain circumstances, and now the UI design is reportedly causing another unusual visual problem for some users.

Liquid Glass adds subtle glowing effects to the corners of app icons, creating a dynamic glass-like appearance with depth and parallax effects. However, as noted by Gizmodo, this design choice can produce an optical illusion that makes icons appear tilted. Users impacted by the phenomenon report feeling disoriented, with some experiencing dizziness from the perceived slanting effect.

The issue has gained attention on Reddit, with one post receiving over 3,000 upvotes. "The frame glow effect makes apps look tilted, and it's really distracting," complained one user, while another said the update made them "feel drunk."

"All of iOS 26 is an optical nightmare," added another user. "It's horrible."

The tilting effect is most pronounced when icons are set to "Dark," "Clear," or "Tinted" modes against dark or black backgrounds, while colorful wallpapers seem to help mask the illusion by drawing attention away from the refractive corners.

Apple's transparency reducing options and the "Reduce Motion" setting (Settings ➝ Accessibility ➝ Motion ➝ Reduce Motion) don't seem to help minimise the illusion, with reports indicating most users fail to see a difference. Hopefully, Apple adds a dedicated control in a future update to adjust the icon effect that's causing the issue.

Are you suffering from the Liquid Glass optical illusion? Let us know in the comments.

Apple in October 2024 overhauled its 14-inch and 16-inch MacBook Pro models, adding M4, M4 Pro, and M4 Max chips, Thunderbolt 5 ports on higher-end models, display changes, and more. That's quite a lot of updates in one go, but if you think this means a further major refresh for the ‌MacBook Pro‌ is now several years away, think again.

Bloomberg's Mark Gurman has said he expects only a small performance boost for the next ‌MacBook Pro‌ refresh when new models with M5 chips arrive likely early next year, while the "true overhaul" for the laptop will come further down the line – either in late 2026 or early 2027. So if you are planning to skip the M5 ‌MacBook Pro‌, or you're just plain curious about what's two generations away, here are the biggest changes rumored to be coming to Apple's premium laptop line.

OLED Display

Goodbye, mini-LED

Several rumors have indicated that Apple is developing MacBook Pro models with OLED displays. Research firm Omdia in May 2024 claimed Apple is "highly likely" to introduce new MacBook Pros featuring OLED displays next year, while display analyst Ross Young in September 2024 said that Apple's supply chain is expected to have sufficient notebook-optimized OLED display production capacity in 2026 to bring the technology to MacBook Pro. Bloomberg's Mark Gurman has said he expects the MacBook Pro to gain an OLED display "between the end of 2026 and early 2027." Compared to current MacBook Pro models that use mini-LED screens, the benefits of OLED technology would include increased brightness, higher contrast ratio with deeper blacks, improved power efficiency for longer battery life, and more.

Thinner, Lighter Laptop

Major Redesign

The switch to OLED displays could allow future MacBook Pro models to have a thinner design, and rumors suggest that is indeed what Apple intends. When the M4 iPad Pro was unveiled in May 2024, Apple touted it as the company's thinnest product ever. Bloomberg's Mark Gurman subsequently called the iPad Pro the "beginning of a new class of Apple devices," and said Apple was working to make the MacBook Pro thinner over the "next couple of years." Apple is reportedly focusing on delivering the thinnest possible device without compromising on battery life or major new features.

Notably, the MacBook Pro got thicker and heavier with its most recent redesign in 2021. A major highlight was the reintroduction of several ports that were removed in previous iterations in favor of chassis thinness. How Apple will make its redesigned MacBook Pro thinner without removing the functionality it reintroduced fairly recently is the big question.

Punch-Hole Camera

No More Notch

If you are fed up of the notch intruding on your Mac display, here's some good news. Apple plans to remove the notch from the redesigned MacBook Pro, according to a roadmap shared by research firm Omdia. The roadmap indicates that redesigned 14-inch and 16-inch MacBook Pro models will have a hole-punch camera at the top of the display, rather than the notch we've become accustomed to. A MacBook Pro without a notch would offer additional visible pixels on the screen, creating a more uninterrupted and cohesive display design.

Such a move would mirror Apple's iPhone evolution, since the iPhone's notch became the current Dynamic Island starting with the iPhone 14 Pro models in 2022. It's unclear whether the MacBook Pro would include Dynamic Island functionality or simply adopt the visual design, but the change would at least address long-standing user complaints about the notch, which physically ingresses into the macOS menu bar.

5G Modem

Cellular Connectivity

Earlier this year, Apple introduced the C1, its custom-built 5G modem chip which debuted in the entry-level iPhone 16e. More recently, Apple debuted the ‌iPhone Air‌ equipped with a new C1X chip, which is up to 2x faster than the C1. According to Apple, the C1X is the most power-efficient modem in an iPhone. According to Bloomberg's Mark Gurman, Apple is considering bringing cellular connectivity to the Mac lineup for the first time. The company is said to be "investigating" the possibility of adding a second-generation C2 modem chip to a future Mac as soon as 2026, teasing the potential for a cellular MacBook Pro in the same year. The C1 and C1X modem chips are limited to sub-6GHz 5G speeds, but the second-generation version will support faster mmWave technology, according to Gurman.

M6 Series Chip

2nm Process

Before the MacBook Pro's major redesign, Apple plans to update the lineup with M5 series chips, likely in early 2026. The chips will be manufactured with TSMC's third-generation 3nm process, known as N3P, resulting in typical year-over-year performance and power efficiency improvements compared to the M4 series of chips. However, Apple's redesigned MacBook Pro models are expected to boast M6 chips, which could adopt a completely new packaging process.

According to one rumor, Apple's A20 chip in next year's iPhone 18 models will switch from the previous InFo (Integrated Fan-Out) packaging to WMCM (Wafer-Level Multi-Chip Module) packaging. WMCM integrates multiple chips within the same package, allowing for the development of more complex chipsets. Components such as the CPU, GPUs, DRAM, and Neural Engine would therefore be more tightly integrated. While we don't know for sure, this could see Apple develop the M6 using the 2nm process while taking advantage of WMCM packaging to make even more powerful versions of its custom processor.

Touch Screen Display

On-Cell Touch Technology

Apple's first OLED MacBook Pro will feature a touch screen display, according to the latest from Apple analyst Ming-Chi Kuo. The analyst says the panel will use on-cell touch technology. On-cell touch technology integrates the touch sensors directly into the display panel's top layer (the "cell") rather than requiring a separate, dedicated touch layer. Kuo says that the shift "appears to reflect Apple's long-term observation of iPad user behavior, indicating that in certain scenarios, touch controls can enhance both productivity and the overall user experience." The analyst says the OLED-equipped MacBook Pro with touch screen is set to enter mass production next year.

Apple's first OLED MacBook Pro, set to enter mass production next year, will feature a touch screen display, according to Apple analyst Ming-Chi Kuo.

In his latest post on X (Twitter), Kuo writes that Apple's much-rumored OLED MacBook Pro will incorporate a touch panel using on-cell touch technology. On-cell touch technology integrates the touch sensors directly into the display panel's top layer (the "cell") rather than requiring a separate, dedicated touch layer.

Kuo says that the shift "appears to reflect Apple's long-term observation of iPad user behavior, indicating that in certain scenarios, touch controls can enhance both productivity and the overall user experience."

Unsurprisingly, the analyst believes that the recently rumored low-cost MacBook, slated for mass production in the fourth quarter of this year, will not feature a touch panel, though specifications for a second-generation model could include touch support. Kuo anticipates the second-gen affordable MacBook model to arrive in 2027.

According to a recent report by Korea's The Elec, Samsung will supply the displays for Apple's first OLED MacBook Pro. What's less certain right now is the chip architecture that Apple will adopt for its OLED models.

It was previously rumored that MacBook Pro models with M5 chips would launch in late 2025. In July, however, Bloomberg's Mark Gurman reported that Apple was "considering" pushing back the release of the next MacBook Pro models with the M5 series of chips until early 2026.

Gurman has since said he expects the MacBook Pro to gain an OLED display "between the end of 2026 and early 2027."

That would mean Apple updating the MacBook Pro line twice in the same year. However, there is precedent for such a scenario. Apple released models with M2 Pro and M2 Max chips in January 2023, followed by models with M3, M3 Pro, and M3 Max chips in October 2023. So we could get the M5 generation in January 2026, followed by the OLED panel-equipped M6 generation in October 2026.

Either way, the OLED MacBook Pro models are expected to feature more significant changes, including a thinner design and a smaller notch. Apparently we can now add touch screen support to that list, too.

The AirPods Pro 3 use an Acoustic Seal Test to check the fit of ear tips, according to a new Apple support document. Apple says that the Acoustic Seal Test will ensure that you're using the proper ear tip size for the best sound quality and noise cancellation.

The AirPods Pro 1 and the AirPods Pro 2 have an Ear Tip Fit Test, but Apple updated the process for the ‌AirPods Pro 3‌. Apple suggests starting with the medium size ear tip. If you can't achieve a good seal, switch to the larger tip. If the ear tip feels too large, switch to a smaller tip.

Apple designed new foam-infused silicone ear tips for the ‌AirPods Pro 3‌, which it says are softer and less stiff than the AirPods Pro 2 ear tips. ‌AirPods Pro 3‌ ear tips come in five sizes, including XXS, XS, S, M, and L. XXS is new for this generation.

For heart rate sensing, the ‌AirPods Pro 3‌ need skin contact. Apple warns that the best ear tip size for heart rate sensor accuracy could differ from the best size for acoustic seal. The ‌AirPods Pro 3‌ should be positioned toward your face at a 45-degree angle, with the heart rate sensor resting against the ear.

If heart rate recordings seem inconsistent, Apple recommends trying a different ear tip size.

The Acoustic Seal Test can be initiated by connecting the ‌AirPods Pro 3‌ to an iPhone with iOS 26 or an iPad with iPadOS 26, going to the AirPods Settings, and selecting the Acoustic Seal Test option.

The ‌AirPods Pro 3‌ will launch this Friday.