Crazy to think I owned the only version of the iPhone Air Apple’s ever going to make.

I swear I wasn't trying to go for the record of most phones owned in a three-month period, but I think I hit it anyway. I swapped my iPhone 17 Pro for a Pro Max.

I realized I never looped back around and buttoned up the iPhone Air saga. Apple online support told me there would be no issue going into a store and doing an exchange outside of the 15-day return window, but the in-store support said this wasn't true. In the end, they did end up making an exception and let me swap for a silver 17 Pro.

Less than a month into owning the iPhone Air, I'm growing increasingly disappointed with it. It's the epitome of form over function: it's gorgeous but has by far the worst battery life of any iPhone I've ever used.

In my ~20 years using Apple hardware, iOS and macOS 26 might be the buggiest versions of Apple's OSes I've ever used. It's crazy that these were deemed acceptable to ship.

After much debate, I ended up pre-ordering an iPhone Air last week. This was unexpected for a couple of reasons. Originally, I assumed I'd want a Pro Max because of the size and new fabric cases, or maybe I'd stick with the less premium 17 Plus, but as I found out, this just wasn't possible.