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I kind of doubt it was planned. Just a happy and real coincidence. Their goal was to reduce weight, and it just happens that the edge is the easiest place on a phone to reduce weight without getting rid of all that glass.
Hmm maybe. But I guess people are just happy to see this nice coincidence and all the benefits that goes with it. Easier to manoeuvre I think is a great thing to have.
 
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Then Apple will hike the price by $500 because of that.
Any time real market disrupting innovation is introduced, and the critical customer segments agree that the innovation is needed and it is worthwhile… people will line up, find a way to absorb the cost and scream “take my money!”

When innovation is light, marginal or just incrementally better than what was introduced 12 months ago, people are justified in examining every penny of value or cost.

We may have 2-3-4 more years of Apple milking incrementality before the next big WOW!-inducing iPhone innovation. (I think when the Vision goggles are perfected and shrunk, there will be a huge transformation in what we call an iPhone.) Until then we will suffer through more true and real discussions of price vs value provided at the customer level. From a corporate perspective, we will suffer through more magical Apple price increases for marginal actions that are marketed as must haves.

So I think your comments and logic are right.
 
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Yep. Smaller items feel heavier than larger items of the same mass when held. This is well known.

It sometimes has to do with the physics involved as described, but also the psi required to hold it, and the psychological effect of larger things looking like they should weigh more.

With your eyes closed and with the item suspended on a string with an identical handle, you would cancel out this phenomenon. But hold a lead ball in your hand the same weight as the iPhone and the ball will feel heavier.
 
As a physicists, the thing about moment of inertia is not wrong, but seems like such a stretch. Not like iPhone usage consists of spinning it on your finger. At least not for the majority.
 
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Don’t think it’s a stretch, it just wasn’t their intention. It makes sense regardless.
It makes sense only if one is constantly rotating the phone while using it. If you hold it steady, this "moment of inertia" is irrelevant. This claim is just absurd.
 
I think this is now the nerdiest story in MacRumors history, and I’ve been reading since around 2004. I never thought we’d be discussing the moment of inertia in a titanium iPhone frame.

Imagine how much lighter this thing would be if they would stop putting glass on the back. Or only put glass or ceramic where the MagSafe charger is.

I would love to see a race towards how light they can make a phone. Thinness doesn’t matter as much to me unless it’s a foldable.
 
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I have:
S21 ultra (229g)
iPhone 12 Pro max (228g)

They're roughly the same weight but the S21 ultra "feels" a lot lighter. So yes, I do believe this does carry some merits
 
its design ensures that its mass is distributed in a manner that makes it resist rotational motion less strongly. This results in a device that feels more agile and nimble, giving an amplified impression of lightness.

"It's not just a better camera, have you heard of the moment of inertia ..."

6db_3.jpg

The funny thing is, having less resistance to rotational motion actually makes the camera system worse, because that means it's more difficult to hold the phone steady during longer exposures.
 
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As a physicists, the thing about moment of inertia is not wrong, but seems like such a stretch. Not like iPhone usage consists of spinning it on your finger. At least not for the majority.
I think that, for those that have actually handled the phone, they’re just trying to make sense how such a small change in mass appears to have had an outsized impression on their feel for the device. It could be that these people are more sensitive to this OR, by Friday, there will be a ton of new YouTuber videos explaining “moment of inertia” and “The TRUTH about the mass of your iPhone”. :)
 
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The funny thing is, having less resistance to rotational motion actually makes the camera system worse, because that means it's more difficult to hold the phone steady during longer exposures.
And we see that the OIS of this phone has improved somewhat. Interesting!
 
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