Don't worry, the iPhone Air has 'great' battery life according to Apple boss Tim Cook

The iPhone Air on a fingertip
There's an iPhone Air in this picture – can you see it? (Image credit: Apple)

  • Apple CEO Tim Cook promises 'great' iPhone Air battery life
  • The phone is the thinnest iPhone ever launched
  • Officially, battery life for the phone goes up to 27 hours

Earlier this week, Apple unveiled the iPhone Air, alongside three other new iPhones: it's the slimmest iPhone to date, measuring just 5.64 mm, and Apple CEO Tim Cook has been addressing concerns about what that thinness might mean for battery life.

"The battery life is great," Cook told CNBC's Jim Cramer in a new interview. "You're going to love the battery life." The phone has been engineered "from the inside out" to get as much time as possible between charges, according to the Apple boss.

Cook then went on to further explain how the phone has been designed to maximize battery capacity, mentioning how the phone was eSIM only – with the space saved by the removal of the physical SIM card slot used to make the battery even bigger.

"It's like you're holding the future in your hand," enthused Cook at an earlier point in the news segment, maybe an indication that we're going to see more Air models in the future – perhaps alongside an all-glass, curved iPhone.

Up to 27 hours

Jim Cramer speaks with Apple CEO Tim Cook at Corning plant in Harrodsburg, KY - YouTube Jim Cramer speaks with Apple CEO Tim Cook at Corning plant in Harrodsburg, KY - YouTube
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Apple has certainly taken a fresh approach to iPhone design with the iPhone Air, and most of the key components have been placed up at the top of the casing. That leaves all the rest of the internal space available for a battery.

As per Apple's official figures, you can get up to 27 hours of video playback between battery charges on the iPhone Air. That compares to 30 hours for the standard iPhone 17, 33 hours for the iPhone Pro, and 39 hours for the iPhone Pro Max.

It's also notable that Apple has also chosen to launch a MagSafe-compatible battery pack charger specifically for the iPhone Air – suggesting that you won't necessarily get a whole lot of use from the smartphone from a single battery charge.

We haven't been able to test the iPhone Air battery life for ourselves yet, though we have had some hands-on time with the new handset. As the device makes its way out to users from next Friday, we'll know more about its battery life potential.

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David Nield
Freelance Contributor

Dave is a freelance tech journalist who has been writing about gadgets, apps and the web for more than two decades. Based out of Stockport, England, on TechRadar you'll find him covering news, features and reviews, particularly for phones, tablets and wearables. Working to ensure our breaking news coverage is the best in the business over weekends, David also has bylines at Gizmodo, T3, PopSci and a few other places besides, as well as being many years editing the likes of PC Explorer and The Hardware Handbook.

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