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I would say at least every other day, get an iPod touch 5. It is so thin and light you don't even need a case. You drop that thing on all but the hardest surfaces from the highest heights and it will be fine. If the iPhone was that weight and thinness I would understand people arguing it doesn't need to be thinner but until then yes it is nicer to hold an iPod touch then an iPhone! Significantly better!

Thinness doesn't even matter by the time you have to lug around battery chargers, or put a thick, heavy battery case on it, or any case for that matter.
 
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I wish they'd spend their time working on displays that actually work outside and doesn't wash out when a little sun hits it.
Agreed. A screen that displays the color black instead of a washed-out gray would be nice too.

On the thinness/weight issue, I don't have a problem with Apple attempting to make the phone lighter and thinner (it's so thin today it's as if it's designed for a thick case already), but double the battery life would be good. I shouldn't need a battery case to make it through the day. Don't care how they accomplish this (larger physical battery, getting LTE and GPS chips that don't suck the life out of my phone, software enhancements so push notifications also don't drain it fast either) but it would be appreciated. A little function over form would be nice for once.
 
Sorry, but creating more energy efficient components does count as innovation. True innovation is actually making the iPhone thicker just for the sake of a bigger battery. Pack in the biggest battery you can because there are no trade offs to having a bigger battery. And thinness has no direct correlation to usability. It doesn't make one-handed use any easier. The MacRumors groupthink is strong on this.

No tradeoffs? Really? Increased weight, decreased usability due to weight, increased cost which ultimately flows to the consumer. I would not want my iPhone 6+ heavier or more costly,

"The MacRumors groupthink is strong on this."

Fortunately, those are not views Apple takes into consideration during product development.
 
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It's one of those things you don't realise or appreciate until you get it, then you get so used to the new status quo that you can't go back to anything worse.

I didn't think my iPhone 4s was too thick or heavy...until I laid my hands on an iPhone 5 / 5s and after some time with my 5s, I picked up a 4s and was like "gosh, didn't remember this thing being so heavy before".
Good point except that it had little to do with the size or thinness and much to do with the switch to aluminum.
 
So that's what the Apple Campus 2 donut looks like with the reality distortion field switched off.
 
"The thinnest iPhone yet"

leaked-video-of-what-could-be-the-iphone-6s-flexible-sapphire-screen-cover.jpg
 
Just stop this obsession with thinness already.

Why? What harm comes from a thinner, more efficient, and brighter display? Thinner displays has been the major focus for all display manufacturers for many years. It's one reason we have LCD screens instead of CRT. It's one reason we are moving towards paper thin flexible displays (think of having a TV the size of your wall that weighs maybe one pound and that you can just stick on your wall with light adhesive).

Objecting to thinness just because is like objecting to Moore's Law because you don't see the point of smaller transistors. If there are good reasons why thinner (miniaturization) is not better then clearly delineate them.

A thinner display allows the phone to be thinner (better when you have a case on it), it allows for the phone to remain the same thickness but have a larger battery, it likely reduces weight, it possibly allows for a sapphire display, etc.

Now, if a thin display came at the cost of image quality, efficiency, and reliability then it might not be worth it but research is being done to make sure that doesn't happen.
 
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Really? Every iPhone I've had, including my current 6+, has had increased functionality and features.

What ubiquitous and oft-used features have declined over time? What additional features will Apple be getting rid of in the future?

I would not want a heavier iPhone 6+, or even a 6.

What people don't understand is what's really being driven. It's not thinness per se. It's weight.

I agree with your whole post. Though the 6s is a tiny bit heavier than the 6. I like the increase in weight as it makes it feel more solid.
 
What a bunch of nonsense. There is definitely an optimal size for any device but it differs on a personal level. I had iPhones since 3G and each iteration it became better suited to my personal preferences. The difference between the 5 and 6 is huge and makes a big difference in a pants pocket or in any of my suit pockets.

The use case for one handed use is as much determined by the thickness, as the shape of the edges and the width of the device. Claiming that there is macrumors groupthink around this is a ridiculous statement, that completely ignores any actual logic thought about this matter.

All I can say is look around you. You will not find many people appreciating thinner iPhones. But many are clamoring for thicker phones with bigger batteries. They simply do not share Apple's obsession for ever thinner devices as it means sacrificing battery. Thinness should not be a design goal as it offers no practical benefit for the user. All it does is make those us wonder Where did the other half of my phone go?

Come on. Why is thinness a design ideal? Is developing smaller and more energy efficient components really more innovative than packing in a bigger battery? Concerns about bigger batteries interfering with radio signal strength, generating more heat, grafting more weight to the device, and taking longer to charge are all nonsense.

What problem does thinness solve? Answer: nothing. It's just an obsession. If one finds their iPhone too heavy, hit the gym. If one finds one-handed use a problem, grow a larger hand. A pity that MacRumors members understand innovation better than Apple's elite design group.
 
LOL thinner. So funny story. My friend got her son a new iPad Air 2 for his birthday (October), but he was "misbehaving," so he is to get it for Christmas. He's 12. So he knows he's getting it. However, he likes the iPad 3 he still has because of it's bulk and size (thickness), just it's slow to play the games he likes. So tonight he was complaining about how thin the Air was, and how "he could throw his grandmother's across the room" it's so light and thin. He want's his mother's original iPad Air because it's thicker than the new iPad Air 2 he's getting.

So I guess not everyone thinks thin is in!

I guess if you could get everything else super thin, but keep the phone thicker with larger battery that would be ok. But going thin at battery expense is dumb in my opinion, especially for a phone.


Kids are strange....Really thickness for the sake of being thick is 10000x worse than thin just to be thin. Thicker, slower, and less battery life is something less than 1 out of 7,000,000,000 people would be interested in.
 
All I can say is look around you. You will not find many people appreciating thinner iPhones. But many are clamoring for thicker phones with bigger batteries. They simply do not share Apple's obsession for ever thinner devices as it means sacrificing battery.
Frankly, I don't see people around me saying this. The main people clamouring for a larger battery appear to be a few extremely vocal critics online at tech sites and YouTube (like MKBHD).

And these tend to be more tech savvy users whose usage patterns are more atypical and not necessarily representative of the average consumer.

Is developing smaller and more energy efficient components really more innovative than packing in a bigger battery?
Is this a trick question? Of course it could be harder (and therefore more innovative, meaningful and rewarding) to invest in more efficient components. There is no finesse or skill involved in simply bundling a larger battery, and it just papers over the real problem of the rest of the phone not being as power-efficient as it could be.

I am not saying these two are mutually exclusive, but Apple has clearly decided on a list of "magic numbers" for usage times, and if they are sticking to it year after year, I take it they are comfortable with those values.
 
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Battery life depends on several conditions, true, but I never saw it below 6 hours, and it's a long time...
He has a point

He has a point for his usage and view of the world. For my use 6 hours is not a lot of time. Completely freshly charged 6s gets me about 7.5 hours of screen-on time. Take phone off the charger and catch train to airport - 1 hour ebook reading. Kicking around airside waiting to board - 1 hour ebook reading and maybe a few calls & texts. Waiting on plane for boarding to complete, pushback, taxi and takeoff- 1 hour ebook reading. There is now about 4.5 hours of life left, of which I want to preserve an hour so that I have some battery left on arrival, so my phone is essentially dead 3.5 hours into an 11.5 hour flight. Also, since this is travelling I prefer to use luggage space and weight for useful stuff like clothes, toiletries etc rather than battery extenders to compensate for the phone itself not having enough battery life.

I wouldn't say that this is exclusively Apple's problem, smart phone manufacturers in general should in my opinion aspire to better battery life than most of them provide at the moment, but I also wouldn't dismiss it as a non-issue just because some people only use a phone as a phone and/or don't have lifestyles that mean they are away from a charger for significant lengths of time. Some people do buy into the all-in-one concept. I really do want my phone to be my phone, my camera, my iPod, my ebook reader, my satnav, my games console, my video player and more besides. It already has the capabilies to perform all of those functions to my satisfaction except for battery life.
 
If you are an example of a "macrumors member understanding innovation" then Apple has nothing to worry about.

Innovation...you keep using that word but I don't think you know what it means...

All I can say is look around you. You will not find many people appreciating thinner iPhones. But many are clamoring for thicker phones with bigger batteries. They simply do not share Apple's obsession for ever thinner devices as it means sacrificing battery. Thinness should not be a design goal as it offers no practical benefit for the user. All it does is make those us wonder Where did the other half of my phone go?

Come on. Why is thinness a design ideal? Is developing smaller and more energy efficient components really more innovative than packing in a bigger battery? Concerns about bigger batteries interfering with radio signal strength, generating more heat, grafting more weight to the device, and taking longer to charge are all nonsense.

What problem does thinness solve? Answer: nothing. It's just an obsession. If one finds their iPhone too heavy, hit the gym. If one finds one-handed use a problem, grow a larger hand. A pity that MacRumors members understand innovation better than Apple's elite design group.
 
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How "secret" can the lab be if the whole internet knows about it and Apple post job listings on its own website...
 
Just stop this obsession with thinness already.

Apple is most likely trying to reduce the weight and thickness of the display so that they can add the 3D Touch material layer (which adds quite a bit of weight) to the rest of their devices, especially the iPads.
 
All I can say is look around you. You will not find many people appreciating thinner iPhones. But many are clamoring for thicker phones with bigger batteries. They simply do not share Apple's obsession for ever thinner devices as it means sacrificing battery. Thinness should not be a design goal as it offers no practical benefit for the user. All it does is make those us wonder Where did the other half of my phone go?

Come on. Why is thinness a design ideal? Is developing smaller and more energy efficient components really more innovative than packing in a bigger battery? Concerns about bigger batteries interfering with radio signal strength, generating more heat, grafting more weight to the device, and taking longer to charge are all nonsense.

What problem does thinness solve? Answer: nothing. It's just an obsession. If one finds their iPhone too heavy, hit the gym. If one finds one-handed use a problem, grow a larger hand. A pity that MacRumors members understand innovation better than Apple's elite design group.

I explained to you in my previous post what the benefit is of making elements thinner or smaller. What I wrote is fact and not opinion.

From your last paragraph it becomes clear that you are trolling (so I will put you on my ignore list) but I will indulge you on innovation: it is very clear from your comments that you do not have any idea what innovation is and how it works in an actual company. I challenge you to prove that you know what you think you are talking about.
 
And that's okay, because they already have the best or one of the best in class battery lives.

Despite everyone and their mothers complain about it, the reality is that iPhones have the best battery lives compared to the competition.
Xperia Z5 smashes the iPhone in battery life
 
Yes but what if you can do that plus put in a thicker battery.

You would have a battery lasting days or even a week on heavy usage.

Good point. I'm hoping that the Galaxy S7 is 50mm thick and has all month battery life. We shall then see how many battery whiners put their money where their misinformed opinion is, is and jump ship.

I'm really tired of...well...people. On the whole, no one likes anything. Everyone hates everything. Nothing is good enough. Everyone has an amazing technical solution to a problem that the best scientists in the world are struggling with. Everyone thinks they can do better, and build their own device, despite seemingly knowing NOTHING about ANYTHING.

Don't take offence, this post isn't aimed at you personally, but most people just need to shut the **** up, about everything.
 
If you are an example of a "macrumors member understanding innovation" then Apple has nothing to worry about.

Innovation...you keep using that word but I don't think you know what it means...

To be clear, with regards to my original post I assure you my tongue was firmly planted in cheek. It's maneuvers like these that makes me feel comfortable being in Apple's ecosystem. They seem to be the single company with a decisive road map whereas a certain Korean company seem capable of mostly short term thinking.
 
And that's okay, because they already have the best or one of the best in class battery lives.

Despite everyone and their mothers complain about it, the reality is that iPhones have the best battery lives compared to the competition.

Look. If you are going to attach battery tests, to try to prove the iPhone 6s has a better battery than the 6, the last thing you want to do is than turn around claim they are the best, when your own attachment says otherwise.

Two things. iPhone 6S does not have better battery life than the 6, and iPhone 6 does not have best battery in class.

It's not often someone produces evidence to contradict themselves . Look at the attachment you posted.

Post #70: is the attachment you added.
 
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He has a point for his usage and view of the world. For my use 6 hours is not a lot of time. Completely freshly charged 6s gets me about 7.5 hours of screen-on time. Take phone off the charger and catch train to airport - 1 hour ebook reading. Kicking around airside waiting to board - 1 hour ebook reading and maybe a few calls & texts. Waiting on plane for boarding to complete, pushback, taxi and takeoff- 1 hour ebook reading. There is now about 4.5 hours of life left, of which I want to preserve an hour so that I have some battery left on arrival, so my phone is essentially dead 3.5 hours into an 11.5 hour flight. Also, since this is travelling I prefer to use luggage space and weight for useful stuff like clothes, toiletries etc rather than battery extenders to compensate for the phone itself not having enough battery life.

I wouldn't say that this is exclusively Apple's problem, smart phone manufacturers in general should in my opinion aspire to better battery life than most of them provide at the moment, but I also wouldn't dismiss it as a non-issue just because some people only use a phone as a phone and/or don't have lifestyles that mean they are away from a charger for significant lengths of time. Some people do buy into the all-in-one concept. I really do want my phone to be my phone, my camera, my iPod, my ebook reader, my satnav, my games console, my video player and more besides. It already has the capabilies to perform all of those functions to my satisfaction except for battery life.
Understood your point, but I'm still thinking that spending more than 7 hours a day in front of a 4.7" display is not very wise.
My two cents
 
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