I have a small child. Imagine my excitement to catch that “instant pose” or “cuteness” with a raise-to-wake, swipe left on lock screen, landscape for video clip, click the shutter button, ...and the damn thing goes back to sleep.
Now I have an iPhone-shaped hole in my wall.
You wouldn't have put a video on your wall!
Kidding, lol. I was trying to follow along with your scenario and I totally get it: you think you have the volume buttons up and you don't. I agree that's going to be a pain. I am "fortunate" not to have a small child. When my daughter was small the efficiency of my phone camera wasn't at issue, lol. But now, as I work from home, right outside my sliding glass doors to my left is a bank of birdfeeders I maintain, and I get it: sometimes I need to be quick to get that great shot. But my SE just won't get it done, not from this distance and through the glass, so for me it's anecdotally moot anyway (I have my DSLR right here, lens cap off, for those bird pics). But I get it.
(also anecdotally, that's something I'm excited about: I expect the 2020 SE's camera to be MUCH better than the 2016 SE's camera, even without Night Mode).
I told the Apple Store associate that’s why I swapped my iPhone 6 for the SE and paid cash in full. I abhor that shell design. The designer should be raked over the coals for it, and whomever approved it past DVT should be fired. The camera bump just reeks of laziness for the design team. Yet it still remains in use today... I’ll never understand why.
I cannot and will not trade my SE for any new iPhone without a significant shell redesign. I know I’m one of 4 or 5 people on the planet who cares, but I’ll continue holding Apple accountable.
I'm not for raking anyone over coals. Design is a series of trade-offs, and I think the placement of the sleep button was probably a matter of some iteration and that's where it turned out to be best under the circumstances. I don't know why, I'm just confident that laziness isn't the reason.
As far as the camera bump, I was also dismayed at its appearance in the iPhone 6, and its continued presence. But I get why it has to be there: if they are going to have thinness as a design goal, then the camera bump must be there to provide some focal depth. The optics just won't allow the camera to be thinner than such-and-such a distance.
I also go case-less because the design is a thing of beauty and should be displayed proudly. With the SE design and square body, I can hold it with an easier grip than I ever could my iPhone 6. Plus, it lays flat and can hold stable on its edge for a remote photo shutter with my Apple Watch. You can’t do a remote photo with the Apple Watch and the iPhone 6-11pro design. That feature of the watch is useless otherwise. (I’ve done several remote photos and videos with my watch and SE, because I can).
I guess I’m “old” now.
I’ll be one of those renegade tech nerds from some bad tech movie that lurks in seedy bars and whines about “the grid”.. haha
So I used to go caseless as well. Up to and including my 5c (my beloved 5c...). I felt the 4 was the best-looking-and-feeling design they ever made, and though the 5 was based on it, I thought the thinness combined with the hard corners made it less comfortable in the hand than the 4 (and MUCH less comfortable than the 5c). But you can't argue with its ability to sit on its side with stability, that's actual function (which the 4 had as well, of course) and not just visual. But I found it uncomfortable anyway, so I started using a case (a clear one, because you're right, the phone looks great).
I like the 6-style bodies even less, as you do. I was never put off by their look, per se, but I definitely was not excited by it. And (caseless) it always felt like it was going to slip right our of my hands, especially when they were dry (they get very dry here in the Minnesota winters). Again, 5c all the way! Grippy plastic, never felt like I was going to drop it.
But here's the thing: given that I'm going to use a case ANYWAY, then I don't need to worry about those portions of the ergonomics any more. The phone doesn't need to look great, the case does. The phone doesn't need to be grippy, the case does. The case could even sit on its side if it's got good flat solid sides. And this is where the camera bump ceases to be an issue. In a case, it disappears. And what's more, if they had thickened the phone to flatten out the bump, then the case would make it thicker still! Now at least the thickness difference (camera thickness minus phone thickness) absorbs some of the case's added bulk.
That all doesn't fix the sleep button placement, or the different mechanics of holding and interacting with a phone this large. And I do have other issues with case physics, but that's for another really nitpicky post that no one will want to read. But it does eliminate some of it.
Got my case picked out and ordered and everything btw, lol, ymmv, wtf.
I'm not a renegade like you are, I'm the fearful adult hiding in the basement with a tinfoil hat on.
