When Apple announced the iPhone Air, most people saw compromises. Thinner means less battery. A single camera instead of the multi-camera Pro kit we’re all used to. A phone that, without a doubt, looks more like a fashion statement than a power user’s dream. But when I saw it, I saw something I don’t usually feel with new phones anymore. A minimalist phone that serves my essential needs and nothing more. As a millennial with Gen Z tendencies, it’s pretty clear that I’m the audience for this phone.Every September, iPhones get bigger, heavier, and more stuffed with specs. It’s the progression of tech, and by and large, people value a phone by its hardware-to-dollar quotient. But with the iPhone Air, Apple has gone in the opposite direction. The phone is built impossibly slim, almost delicate, like a product designed as much as the set piece of a fashion-forward futuristic movie as for the Apple Store. It reminds me of the first-generation iPod nano. I scoffed at it when it launched. Then got my hands on it. It quickly became my favorite EDC kit. And that’s exactly why I didn’t scoff at the iPhone Air. Hindsight is 20/20.