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wizard

macrumors 68040
May 29, 2003
3,854
571
I agree, but I highly doubt it'll end up looking like that...maybe the top/bottom will be painted?
Now paint would make it look cheap. However I don't see any problem at all with a little design effort to break up what would be a plain aluminum back. In fact it is preferable.
September is when my iphone 5 two-year contract ends. If they release it sooner, it's going to be an even more painful wait for many of us on that schedule.

Give me a break! My iPhone 4 went off contract years ago and I feel no pain because of it. Yep, purchased that iPhone 4 when they first came out and it has been a champ ever since.
 

Rogifan

macrumors Penryn
Nov 14, 2011
24,149
31,205
Jony was noticeably absent from the WWDC Keynote. I was expecting one of his white-background videos.

Because Apple knows how ridiculous it would have been to stick him in a video talking about OSX design. That keynote was wall to wall software and Craig is a great presenter. Hence why there was no Jony or Phil. Or video of a retail store opening. Too much software stuff to pack in to 2 hours.

What's really ridiculous though is the over reaction to a leaked alleged iPhone shell. One, we have no idea if this the real deal or just a prototype. If it is the real thing, we don't know what stage it's in, what the exact purpose of those bands are, what color they will be on the final product, etc. I remember when the iPhone 5 leaked like crazy and everyone was hating on it, until people saw the final product and then it was beautiful (I believe John Gruber called it the nicest thing he owned). And of course we can't forget all the #vomit posts when the gold 5S rumors heated up. Of course once again the final product was nothing like the silly bling bling gold mockups posted everywhere.

I'll go out on a limb and say the final product will look much better than the leaked mockups. And who knows maybe Apple is messing with us. Let's not forget the "healthbook" leaks with the passbook style UI which turned out to be completely wrong.
 
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wizard

macrumors 68040
May 29, 2003
3,854
571
Nope, they look ghastly. To be fair, iPhone leak pictures have often looked kinda nasty only for the final product to look nice, but those do look pretty bad. I'm not a fan of that aspect of the iPhone 5 - I think it looks cheap and amateurish (as do the big breaks on mobile-ready iPads), and this looks worse!
First off those aren't breaks. Seriously guys they show both sides of the device. As to the iPad you do realize there is a reason for the plastic strip right? It is there for the antennas. Sometimes form and function collide. It could be worst, iPad could be using a shortwave antenna.
But if the rumours about size are true then I don't need to worry about it, as I won't be buying a new iPhone anyway (too big) :(

Yeah this is a huge �� concern of mine too. I will have to upgrade because iOS 8 isn't currently headed to iPhone 4. However I would love an A8 powered iPhone sized replacement. My iPad has so overtaken my mobile communications needs that my iPhone is only a light duty solution now.
 
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jasonklee

Suspended
Dec 7, 2007
623
746
I can recall when forum members were expressing their aversion for the design of leaked iPhone 4. Seems like the iPhone 6 will join its ugly companion.
 

wizard

macrumors 68040
May 29, 2003
3,854
571
So no dual led flash? I really got used to it, hopefully they don't go back to the old mono flash

There is always the possibility that the flash LED is dual in nature. That is it can be set for multiple color temperatures. I'd wait to see what Apple delivers before getting disappointed.

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I don't think the antenna breaks will be that thick. Also the lines aren't even in the picture, this is probably an early prototype or a dummy for case makers.

I would call the features breaks, it is pretty obvious that the chassis rim remains unbroken. If they are for antennas, a good possibility, the antennas would have to be insulated from the chassis. That would imply a plastic feature that either slips over or is glued on. Right now though it looks like a bit of design effort as I see no way to couple an antenna.
 

polterbyte

macrumors 6502
Sep 24, 2012
353
538
Brazil
I'm not loving it, but I'm not hating it either. it does make the design look a lot more like the Sammy designs, which i don't care for. But it also does bring them close to the iPads, which are the best looking tablets on the market, by far.
 

Viper2005

macrumors 6502
Dec 2, 2007
459
283
Canada
Who cares about those rear breaks? Most of you will cover the rear with some ugly huge case anyways that'll completely obliterate whatever esthetic form factor Apple had for the 6!
 

selfsilent

macrumors regular
Apr 9, 2014
148
131
the circular LED flash light still confuses me.

Yeah because despite the fact that LED companies can easily put red, blue and green into a single LED, there is no way Apple could get a single LED made with a pure white and off white die inside one package.
 

wizard

macrumors 68040
May 29, 2003
3,854
571
Those antenna breaks look so awful... Like the clean cut on 5/5S. But seriously..... Apple spends so much money on R&D. Why can't they figure out how to get rid of those? -.-

I know this might be difficult for Mac Rumors readers to understand but the world of RF communications is bound to the reality of physics. Apple can't rewrite the laws of the universe to satisfy your perverse need for a plain jane back on the iPhone. Besides who are you fooling here, 99% of the iPhones out there end up in a rubber case.
 

wizard

macrumors 68040
May 29, 2003
3,854
571
if those plastic breaks are for signals to pass through, how come the inside view doesn't show the same plastic break, but rather a continuous metal sheet?

can anyone explain this?

They aren't breaks! The problem is you have a bunch of people here that can't decipher what is in a simple picture! It is really really pathetic! It looks more like a feature machined into the back side.
 

mazz0

macrumors 68040
Mar 23, 2011
3,132
3,579
Leeds, UK
First off those are breaks. Seriously guys they show both sides of the device. As to the iPad you do realize there is a reason for the plastic strip right? It is there for the antennas. Sometimes form and function collide. It could be worst, iPad could be using a shortwave antenna.

I know why they did it, I just think it's ugly (relatively).

Yeah this is a huge # concern of mine too. I will have to upgrade because iOS 8 isn't currently headed to iPhone 4. However I would love an A8 powered iPhone sized replacement. My iPad has so overtaken my mobile communications needs that my iPhone is only a light duty solution now.

I'm still holding out hope that they won't scrap the smaller line, given how well it sells I think that would be absurd of them, and highly unlikely. I'm guessing they're going to introduce the new, bigger ones, keep selling the 5S, then update the smaller line at a later date, so we end up with staggered new iPhone releases throughout the year, in different sizes.
 
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jkichline

macrumors 6502
Aug 25, 2010
362
190
You're right but...

Is it just me that thinks that the back would look much better without those breaks?

You're right, but there are engineering considerations, like where to put the freaking antennas, you know? I like the idea of a solid metal back, but the design has to give somewhere to allow the antennas work.
 

acslater017

macrumors 6502a
Jul 25, 2006
716
123
San Francisco Bay Area
The design of iOS 8 and the hardware of iPhone seems to be getting uglier. I think Jony has lost his touch. Those breaks on the back make the iPhone look cheap.

I agree that these breaks look ugly. But this is far from a finished model. Who knows if there will be another treatment or polishing or something?

And Jony Ive is still a brilliant designer. News flash - Aqua, gloss, wood and casino felt were not necessarily the most refined designs either. Aesthetics are subjective, and not everyone believed iOS 1-6's design was unimpeachable either. (12 icons per folder? Really?) I look at old screenshots of my phone and it looks heavy, tacky, and outdated.
 

Cougarcat

macrumors 604
Sep 19, 2003
7,766
2,553
Because Apple knows how ridiculous it would have been to stick him in a video talking about OSX design.

Well, it's no more ridiculous than him talking about iOS design, which he did last year. He's in charge of it, after all. I'm guessing they didn't do one because they already had way too many things to discuss (there were way less videos than last year overall), and the design principles are similar to iOS so it wasn't as necessary.
 

SgtPepper12

macrumors 6502a
Feb 1, 2011
697
673
Germany
I think you are right. Rather than antenna breaks, those May be actual antennae and could be an application of LiquidMetal that we were not expecting. Essentially, they would be putting the antennae on the outside of the phone.
These breaks seem to have contact with the metal case. Even if made from Liquid metal, they still could not be used as antennae. To me it looks like those breaks are separating those small rounded rectangular parts of the case from the rest to be used as antennae. Makes more sense to me, as a similar idea has been used before in the iPhone 4 (although I still think the iPhone 4 design is the best thus far).
 

wizard

macrumors 68040
May 29, 2003
3,854
571
I know why they did it, I just think it's ugly (relatively).
Not as ugly as those auto correct typos that keep showing up in my posts.

In the case of this supposed iPhone chassis the thing is we haven't seen the finished product as such we don't know what the features are for nor do we really know what they will look like in the finished iPhone. Honestly I think people are jumping to conclusions here.

The flips side of this is that I work with metals and other materials everyday and frankly plain surfaces are boring. As such I don't know why people would want their iPhones to look like a slab of aluminum sitting in a drops bin. A little art goes a long ways, which by the way is where the Apple logo helps a lot.
I'm still holding out hope that they won't scrap the smaller line, given how well it sells I think that would be absurd of them, and highly unlikely.
The problem is they don't update it. It is a rather foolish bit of marketing in my mind and makes about as much sense as Ford offering only one truck.
I'm guessing they're going to introduce the new, bigger ones, keep selling the 5S, then update the smaller line at a later date, so we end up with staggered new iPhone releases throughout the year, in different sizes.

I'm really hoping for an iPhone 4 sized device with the latest CPU hardware! It is a far more convenient size for my needs.

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Come on look at the photos and ignore the crap posted here. Nothing in the photos implies a break. The case is solid on the front side so the features you are seeing on the back side can't be breaks in the sense of what we see on iPads.

These breaks seem to have contact with the metal case. Even if made from Liquid metal, they still could not be used as antennae. To me it looks like those breaks are separating those small rounded rectangular parts of the case from the rest to be used as antennae. Makes more sense to me, as a similar idea has been used before in the iPhone 4 (although I still think the iPhone 4 design is the best thus far).
 

groovyd

Suspended
Jun 24, 2013
1,227
621
Atlanta
the casting on top and bottom between the mid section and the antenna regions looks like a bridge piece. What I mean is it is screwed into the center piece but not necessarily touching it electrically. It looks like it is attached through insulative bushings of the black plastic. I don't think they are electrically connected to the center body piece. It even looks like the top piece has a much smaller screw boss where the actual signal wire will be connected to establish the signal across the entire of the casted top and bottom inserts without conducting through to the middle chassis.
 

7thson

macrumors 65816
May 13, 2012
1,358
1,472
Six Rivers, CA
Those thick bands/breaks make me think this is the first iPhone that will look better in a case. I hope this design element isn't what we see in September.
 
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