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I'm wondering about the plastic back

M

macflurry

macrumors member
Original poster
Jul 15, 2007
36
0
I've been wondering about the Iphone's redesign an want to ask;
is the reason behind the Iphones plastic back was to
a)save costs
b)accomodate the 3g chipset in the event that the metal back would interfere with the chips
c)just the mood Jobs was in

Along with that, do you think we'll ever see a metal behinded iphone again?
discuss?
 
yeah i think it was really dumb of apple to go plastic on the back... they been preaching of how great their company is for their lines of computer going aluminum, and now they took a step back with one of their products...


either way, i think it was to cut costs, doubt it to accomodate space. You can make a aluminum backing to fit the dimension it needs.


either way though, despite my huge disappointment, ill be in line to get a new iPhone regardless of whats on the back
 
laws of physics

The 3G radio uses more of the lower (under 1 GHz) frequency bands, requiring a bigger antenna that's farther away from any metal shielding than do the 1.8/1.9/2.4 GHz antennas, for the same antenna gain. (Antenna size is related to the reciprocal of the frequency.) The higher 3G data rates may also work more reliably with a less shielded antenna, and a bigger antenna may also allow using less transmit power. Thus a big plastic back instead of a little plastic cover over a small hole in a metal back.

It's physics. Can't do too much about that (except maybe require more battery power for worse data rates at a higher manufacturing cost...)
 
wako said:
yeah i think it was really dumb of apple to go plastic on the back... they been preaching of how great their company is for their lines of computer going aluminum, and now they took a step back with one of their products...


either way, i think it was to cut costs, doubt it to accomodate space. You can make a aluminum backing to fit the dimension it needs.


either way though, despite my huge disappointment, ill be in line to get a new iPhone regardless of whats on the back
Click to expand...

wow you really don't know what you are talking about.
 
firewood said:
The 3G radio uses more of the lower (under 1 GHz) frequency bands, requiring a bigger antenna that's farther away from any metal shielding than do the 1.8/1.9/2.4 GHz antennas, for the same antenna gain. (Antenna size is related to the reciprocal of the frequency.) The higher 3G data rates may also work more reliably with a less shielded antenna, and a bigger antenna may also allow using less transmit power. Thus a big plastic back instead of a little plastic cover over a small hole in a metal back.

It's physics. Can't do too much about that (except maybe require more battery power for worse data rates at a higher manufacturing cost...)
Click to expand...

Always wondered why they didn't run the antennas around the edge of the phone and keep a glass front and metal back.

Also wonder why they don't do this with the MacBooks - which reportedly suffer poor WiFi reception
 
wako said:
well thanks for clarifying things for me... oh wait you didnt, so back to what i was saying then...
Click to expand...

Ok. The reason for the plastic back is not only to cut costs (although it probably did a bit) but because of the 10 antennas it houses. It needs a bigger 'plastic' area for better reception and for everything like GPS and the 3G chip to operate correctly. The half aluminum half plastic would not work very well.
 
MacsAttack said:
Always wondered why they didn't run the antennas around the edge of the phone and keep a glass front and metal back.

Also wonder why they don't do this with the MacBooks - which reportedly suffer poor WiFi reception
Click to expand...

They DID keep a glass front for the 3G.
 
yode said:
Ok. The reason for the plastic back is not only to cut costs (although it probably did a bit) but because of the 10 antennas it houses. It needs a bigger 'plastic' area for better reception and for everything like GPS and the 3G chip to operate correctly. The half aluminum half plastic would not work very well.
Click to expand...



well thanks for summarizing what you learned from the above post
 
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