AsianFin -- Apple Inc. CEO Tim Cook is visiting China as his company is gearing up launch of the thinnest and lightest iPhone ever made in the world’s largest smartphone market.
Credit:Apple
Cook on Monday surprisingly appeared during an Apple Store livestream on Douyin, announcing iPhone Air would be available in mainland China on October 22, and pre-orders start this Friday, October 17. That was Cook’s debut livestream on the TikTok’s Chinese sister platform since Apple’s flagship store on-boarded Douyin Mall in August.
Cook also posted the rollout date of iPhone Air on China’s social media website Weibo. The chief executive visited an Apple store in Shanghai, and in another post disclosed his meeting with Labubu-creator Kasing Lung. “Wonderful to meet the incredible Kasing Lung, whose imagination and artistry have brought joy to so many. Loved seeing how he designs these characters on iPad Pro — including Labubu, who now has her own new iPhone 17 Pro in Cosmic Orange!” he wrote.
Apple at its annual event on September 8 introduced iPhone 17 lineup and iPhone Air. IPhone Air features an eSIM-only design that saves space internally, helping enable the unbelievably light and thin form factor.
Customers in more than 30 countries and regions including the U.S., Japan and India were allowed to pre-order beginning at September 12, with all availability beginning a week later, or September 19. Apple has to sell iPhone Air in China more than a month later until the country’s major wireless carriers obtained regulatory approval for eSIM service.
China Mobile, China Telecom and China Unico, the top three telecom companies, announced on Monday the Ministry of Industry and Information Technology (MIIT) has approved their commercial service trials of eSIM, a digital SIM that allows users to activate a cellular plan from the network provider without having to use a physical nano-SIM. iPhone Air, starting at RMB7,999 ($1,121) became the first model in China to have these providers’ eSIM service support.
With a strong grade 5 titanium frame, iPhone Air packs at a 6.5-inch display. It has a high-gloss mirror finish and a new plateau on the back that is precision-milled on both sides to house the cameras, speaker, and Apple silicon. This maximizes space for the battery to deliver remarkable all-day battery life. The thin design also features the Action button, so users can easily access a variety of functions with just a press, and Camera Control, to quickly launch the camera or enable visual intelligence.
Apple uses its Ceramic Shield protection around iPhone Air. On the front, the device introduces the Ceramic Shield 2 cover, which is tougher than previous iPhone glass or glass-ceramic with a new Apple-designed coating, providing 3 times better scratch resistance and improved anti-reflection to reduce glare. On the iPhone Air, Ceramic Shield for the first time protects the back of iPhone, including the plateau, delivering 4x better resistance to cracks than the back glass on previous models.
Just as the iPhone 17 series, iPhone Air also introduces an all-new Center Stage front camera that advances the photo and video experience. The Center Stage front camera features the first square front camera sensor on iPhone, offering a wide field of view and capturing photos up to 18 megapixel (MP). Center Stage allows users to capture landscape and portrait photos without rotating their camera. The Center Stage front camera enables ultra-stabilized video in 4K HDR, and users can record on the front and rear cameras simultaneously with Dual Capture.
Apple said the new 48MP Fusion camera system offers iPhone Air users the equivalent of four lenses in their pocket.Center Stage front camera. The custom main lens enables the popular 28mm and 35mm focal lengths, so users have more options to frame their shot, and the large 2.0µm quad-pixel sensor with sensor-shift OlS excels in low light. Users can also get closer to their subject with the optical-quality 2 times Telephoto, which features an updated Photonic Engine that captures more lifelike details and color.
Inside, the iPhone Air boasts the design that is only possible with Apple silicon. It is powered by A19 Pro, just like the premium iPhone 17 Pro and Pro Max, as well as N1 and C1X chips, making it the most power-efficient iPhone ever.
A19 Pro, the most powerful chip for iPhone yet, features a new 6-core CPU that improves performance and efficiency for the tasks users do every day, delivering the fastest CPU in any smartphone. The 5-core GPU has an upgraded architecture, delivering next-level mobile gaming, including AAA titles. Neural Accelerators are built into each GPU core, bringing up to 3-time the peak GPU compute over the previous generation, excellent for powering generative AI models running on device.
N1, a new Apple-designed wireless networking chip that enables Wi-Fi 7, Bluetooth 6, and Thread. C1X, a new cellular modem designed by Apple,is up to 2 times faster than C1, and for the same cellular technologies, it is even faster than the modem in iPhone 16 Pro, while using 30 percent less energy overall.
Apple said iPhone Air delivers “remarkable all-day battery life”, thanks to advanced Apple silicon, an internal architecture that maximizes space for the battery, and software optimizations. The new Adaptive Power Mode in iOS 26 also gets to know a user’s typical battery consumption and anticipates when they might run low, intelligently conserving power to help get them through the day.