This article gives me a different perspective on the potential battery life of the iPhone Air. I’m still likely to go for the Pro, but I will give the Air serious consideration. I’d like to reduce bulk.
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Whatever phone you choose, you’ll have two weeks to decide if you want to keep it. 
(If you buy it from Apple)
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Yes, I’ll go to the Apple Store and compare the new phones. If I purchase the Air, I’ll probably buy the battery pack for when I’m traveling. I’m not planning any future international trips, so all trips would be domestic. I’m not constantly on my phone, so I can probably get a full day of use.
Assuming that, I have to decide if I care that much about the camera. I’m an empty-nester, so I’m not taking that many photos, and my daughters send me so many pictures of the grandkids that I don’t need to take many myself. 
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The article does seem correct, in that the Air has better rated battery life than all prior iPhones except for 13 Pro Max and more recent Pro Max devices, or 16 Pro or 16 Plus devices, which I think can be summarised as any device that is 6.1" or smaller (and a few Plus devices) has worse rated battery life than the Air. Everybody on a 2, 3, 4 or longer year upgrade cycle might find it to be perfectly fine. And I feel like most Pro Max people will probably be tempted to just go again for the Pro Max anyway.
I wonder how much fixed-function hardware video decoders are helping recent battery life. I do note that every form of battery life metric they now use is based on a form of video playback.
Just crashing the thread to mention that based on what you’ve shown us here, you take beautiful photos of your grandkids. Don’t stop!
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Thank you, but I have beautiful grandkids. For those I used my nice DSL.
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This is great insight. If the battery life is anywhere similar to my 14 Pro (which this indicates is true), I will be just fine — even when traveling.
The only questions giving me pause on the Air vs the straight up iPhone 17 are the lack of stereo speakers and having only one camera. I’m strangely not even considering the 17 Pro. It’s the exact same weight as the 14 Pro which I find too heavy.
How often do you use the speakers? Or are you realistically somebody who has earbuds in most of the time?
That’s a great question. I don’t use the stereo speakers often, but when I do it’s often setting up a video for my kids if I don’t have an iPad with me. So honestly it’s probably not much to have an impact 80% of the time, but in specific less regular cases it would be annoying.