Apple Rumored to Redesign the iPhone Every Year Through to 2027

[FlyingTexan]

Bring back the mini.

 

[Matsamoto]

I don’t believe this for a second.

Most likely scenario is that Apple keeps the design in the iPhone to 2027, and then change.

 

[ChrisMac47]

Bring back the mini.

Yes, but not as an incremental update. Let's make it the same size, but weighing less than 100g and a battery life of 1 week at least. It can be done, it's not rocket science, and it would sell like hotcakes. But Apple are so incremental nowadays, all the innovation has gone, all we can is larger, heavier phones that do not fit in the pocket.

 

[mjs916]

Now also add underscreen touch-id and I'm happy. I'll wait until they finished "upgrading" the design.

It would be more cost effective for Apple to use the Touch ID sensor they’ve already developed and put it in the Sleep/Wake button but I think you’ll be waiting a very long time (forever) to see a device that uses Touch ID and Face ID.

For example, this combo could be easily implemented on an iMac and I doubt it’s coming. Seems like one or the other is the rule.

 

[drrich2]

More options. If you want to use face ID, you use face id. For those who want to use touch ID, there should be an option like all other phone in the world that let you use touch based authentication. Better yet, enable both will allow you to use face id and touch id at the same time.

* More options = better. Everyone can choose whatever they like. As a matter of fact, almost all other phone in the world let you use both except iPhone. They give you options.

It would be more cost effective for Apple to use the Touch ID sensor they’ve already developed and put it in the Sleep/Wake button but I think you’ll be waiting a very long time (forever) to see a device that uses Touch ID and Face ID.

For example, this combo could be easily implanted on an iMac and I doubt it’s coming. Seems like one or the other is the rule.

Smart phones incorporate such much tech. into such a miniatured form factor under such pressure to minimize cost and maximize profits that I question the feasibility of either putting both Facial Recognition I.D. and touch I.D. into all iPhones across the board, and offering an 'either/or' option means supporting 2 separate product lines.

We are talking about a product where historically concerns about audio jacks and USB-C vs. Lightning connectors were considered important. Enabling a technology takes some internal space and has a cost.

From Apple's perspective, facial recognition seems to be the predominant preference of the user base, so adding touch I.D. would be about added cost to accommodate what I suspect would be a small minority.

I wonder what % of iPhone users, having facial recognition, would still choose to use touch I.D.? Is this cost vs. benefit analysis sufficient to justify it?

 

[sleeptodream]

For the front-facing/selfie camera, I might be fine with one in which the area of the screen above it becomes transparent enough, when the camera is in use, that it doesn't interfere with the camera, and when the camera isn't in use this area of the screen would be indistinguishable from the rest of the screen. But maybe Apple finds that an inelegant solution.

The problem for me is it isn’t indistinguishable, it’s an obvious low-resolution area so that it doesn’t degrade the photo quality too much (it still does to some degree as I said, but it would be worse if the pixel density was higher).

This would be pretty obvious if it was the size of the whole dynamic island. Not up to Apple’s standards of elegance for sure.

The under display camera is more acceptable on the Fold where this isn’t the main selfie camera, but I think too many people care about selfie quality for them to do it on the front of the iPhone. Personally I’d rather they just keep the dynamic island, and shrink it as much as possible.

Here’s what it looks like up close on a Fold, and an example of what the the “haziness” looks like with the camera. The quality is not great, I think they’d get a lot of complaints. My guess is, bare minimum, they keep a pinhole cutout for the camera but maybe use a transparent display over the FaceID portions, if they can get it to be accurate enough (Idk what the resolution of FaceID is but it’s probably pretty low, maybe they’ll be able to manage it through a retina pixel density?)

 

[sdugoten]

Smart phones incorporate such much tech. into such a miniatured form factor under such pressure to minimize cost and maximize profits that I question the feasibility of either putting both Facial Recognition I.D. and touch I.D. into all iPhones across the board, and offering an 'either/or' option means supporting 2 separate product lines.

We are talking about a product where historically concerns about audio jacks and USB-C vs. Lightning connectors were considered important. Enabling a technology takes some internal space and has a cost.

From Apple's perspective, facial recognition seems to be the predominant preference of the user base, so adding touch I.D. would be about added cost to accommodate what I suspect would be a small minority.

I wonder what % of iPhone users, having facial recognition, would still choose to use touch I.D.? Is this cost vs. benefit analysis sufficient to justify it?

You can take a look at Google pixel 8 pro which I also own along with my iphone 16 Pro max, it comes with both touch and face unlock, and the whole phone is 15 gram lighter. Technically it can be done and it's been done by Samsung S25 and Google Pixel. What keep Apple from doing it? The cost. So, that means Samsung and Google are both indeed a better deal and technically better because they are willing to sacrifice the cost a bit to make the phone have MORE options.

 

[drrich2]

What keep Apple from doing it? The cost. So, that means Samsung and Google are both indeed a better deal and technically better because they are willing to sacrifice the cost a bit to make the phone have MORE options.

'Better' here is a value judgment by the end user more so than an objective fact. For someone who wants to and will use both facial and touch I.D., yes, you have a point.

But to someone who, having and liking facial I.D. would never use touch I.D., any added cost is waste. It's also one more thing to potentially malfunction.

There's a tendency to view having more options on a device as a good thing, and it can be, but options a person has no desire or use for simply add to complexity without a payback (over-engineered). It's like when someone fairly new to computing sits down to learn to use Microsoft Word for the first time, and the plethora of detailed menus is bewildering to them.

Apple has a minimalist functional aesthetic approach; the impression I've gotten from reading about Samsung is their approach leans a bit more toward the 'everything but the kitchen sink' approach.

I'm no absolutist on this; I'm one of the people who argued in favor of keeping the M4 series Mac Minis with the old Mac Mini form factor with more port variety and wasn't enamored with miniaturization.

Here's an analogy to reinforce my point. In nature, when an animal population that previously had vision moves into long term residence in a lightless cave environment, over time they tend to lose vision and even eyes. There are costs of an animal having eyes/vision (e.g.: eye infection risk), so if there's no practical benefit to a feature, nature tends to get rid of it via selective pressure. 'Use it or lose it.'

The question then becomes what % of iPhone users would, if they had both face and touch I.D. options, use touch I.D., and how inconvenient/irksome is it to the large majority of iPhone users to lack touch I.D.? Is the touch I.D. juice worth the squeeze?

Any idea how prevalent substantial use of touch I.D. amongst Android users whose phones support both? That would be good to know.

 

[thebart]

Sounds more like Apple has already redesigned the iPhone, they're just spreading out the changes across 3 years. Apple drip feeding features...again. It's like Peter Jackson turning The Hobbit into a 3 movie trilogy.

Too bad Samsung already took the Edge moniker. Apple should call one of their phones the Edge, because they're so good at edging their customers.

 

[johnsawyercjs]

The problem for me is it isn’t indistinguishable, it’s an obvious low-resolution area so that it doesn’t degrade the photo quality too much (it still does to some degree as I said, but it would be worse if the pixel density was higher).

This would be pretty obvious if it was the size of the whole dynamic island. Not up to Apple’s standards of elegance for sure.

The under display camera is more acceptable on the Fold where this isn’t the main selfie camera, but I think too many people care about selfie quality for them to do it on the front of the iPhone. Personally I’d rather they just keep the dynamic island, and shrink it as much as possible.

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Here’s what it looks like up close on a Fold, and an example of what the the “haziness” looks like with the camera. The quality is not great, I think they’d get a lot of complaints. My guess is, bare minimum, they keep a pinhole cutout for the camera but maybe use a transparent display over the FaceID portions, if they can get it to be accurate enough (Idk what the resolution of FaceID is but it’s probably pretty low, maybe they’ll be able to manage it through a retina pixel density?)

Thanks, I didn't know that the current state of the art for under-display cameras was still that bad.

 

[FlyingTexan]

Yes, but not as an incremental update. Let's make it the same size, but weighing less than 100g and a battery life of 1 week at least. It can be done, it's not rocket science, and it would sell like hotcakes. But Apple are so incremental nowadays, all the innovation has gone, all we can is larger, heavier phones that do not fit in the pocket.

You sound like someone saying “tax the rich” who doesn’t understand unrealized gains.