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Serious question here...when it comes to hardware, how do any of you honestly get excited about new iPhones anymore? I have always been a fan of Apple's design aesthetic, for the most part. But, this new design looks like pure garbage.
I don't like the big camera bumps either, but not for appearance's sake. I have an issue with how they make it a little tougher to fit them into my front pants pocket, along with my wallet. I don't get excited or particularly disappointed about the outward appearance of each year's iPhones since that's not what I buy them for.

Plenty of smartphones have had these bumps for some years, not just Apple's. It's a matter of optical physics for cramming in the types of cameras that are in the higher-end models. Until flat, high resolution metalenses are developed, this is what we'll have.
 
That's just light reflecting on the curved corner.
Could be, but zooming in on the photo on the right, it looks like the case that's on the 17 might have a cutout at the upper right corner, and if so, that might be for accessing the new button.
 
Could be, but zooming in on the photo on the right, it looks like the case that's on the 17 might have a cutout at the upper right corner, and if so, that might be for accessing the new button.
That doesn’t look like a plausible cutout to me. The image is also heavily artifacted at that detail level; look at the person’s mouth right above for example.
 
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I don't like the big camera bumps either, but not for appearance's sake. I have an issue with how they make it a little tougher to fit them into my front pants pocket, along with my wallet. I don't get excited or particularly disappointed about the outward appearance of each year's iPhones since that's not what I buy them for.

Plenty of smartphones have had these bumps for some years, not just Apple's. It's a matter of optical physics for cramming in the types of cameras that are in the higher-end models. Until flat, high resolution metalenses are developed, this is what we'll have.
Oh, I'm with you 100%. Personally, I'd rather have the highest megapixel cameras across the board that they can fit in these phones without having a camera bump at all. I cannot stand the camera bumps. I will never understand how society became so obsessed with cameras to the point where we have these giant camera tumors on our phones. It's really sad.
 
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Oh, I'm with you 100%. Personally, I'd rather have the highest megapixel cameras across the board that they can fit in these phones without having a camera bump at all. I cannot stand the camera bumps. I will never understand how society became so obsessed with cameras to the point where we have these giant camera tumors on our phones. It's really sad.
If the background of the phone was completely flat and smooth, these threads would be very short. 😂
 
Oh, I'm with you 100%. Personally, I'd rather have the highest megapixel cameras across the board that they can fit in these phones without having a camera bump at all. I cannot stand the camera bumps. I will never understand how society became so obsessed with cameras to the point where we have these giant camera tumors on our phones. It's really sad.
It stems from the social media-induced narcissism, isolation, and insecurity that’s permeated our culture. If you don’t take a picture of yourself and post it, you don’t exist. 🥲

Now it’s totally cyclical. Every year, we get better and better cameras on our phones encouraging us to post more and more. And on it goes…

Sorry to depress everyone, that’s just where I’m at today 😅
 
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Personally, I'd rather have the highest megapixel cameras across the board that they can fit in these phones without having a camera bump at all.
As I understand it, the number of megapixels in an image sensor, and the dimensions of those sensors (thickness and width), doesn't seem to be the major contributor to the ever-increasing thickness of the camera bump. The bump's thickness is mostly the result of cramming in more sophisticated, larger-diameter multi-lens stacks and their supporting hardware for better photos, more light-gathering, better zoom/telephoto figures, etc. An 8 megapixel image sensor isn't that much thinner than a 12 or 48 megapixel sensor as to account for much of the differences in bump thickness, though the higher the megapixels generally the larger the width of the sensors, but it's still the increasing sizes of the better lens systems that are more responsible for the increasing bump thickness. For periscope lens stacks which are laid out horizontally inside the bump, in the same plane as the screen and the back of the phone, their diameter is about the same as the width of the image sensor at the end of the lens stack, so while both the lens stack and the width of the sensor in periscope arrangements dictate the thickness of the bump, if the sensor were significantly less wide than the diameter of the lens stack, the bump would still have to be thick enough to house the lens stack.

Maybe thin metalenses, once we know how to make them produce images comparable to traditional high-end lenses, will have smaller diameters, and if so, that might reduce the bump thickness, but the current estimate for when we might see metalenses replace the large diameter (for a smartphone) lens stacks is somewhere in the range of 2030-2033.
 
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There's no reason for them to keep the flash and lidar uncovered, those arent key components. If they really wanted to hide it, they could have put an iphone 16 lookalike case on it, like they did with the iphone 4, which would make it far less obvious in the wild.
 
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This really feels like an intentionally staged and leaked pic by Apple. It's exactly the kind of thing they'd do to generate excitement about the iPhone launch without looking like they're trying to generate excitement about the launch. Bet on it.
Not something Apple would do
 
There's no reason for them to keep the flash and lidar uncovered, those arent key components. If they really wanted to hide it, they could have put an iphone 16 lookalike case on it, like they did with the iphone 4, which would make it far less obvious in the wild.
agree
 
Um...if they're testing photo with flash and Lidar functions, there are a couple big reasons to keep them uncovered.
 
Not something Apple would do
Exactly the kind of thing Apple marketing would do-- leak a seemingly authentic photo to drum up interest and confirm design changes. They leaked the headphone jack removal leak beforehand in 2016
 
It’s too bad we can’t get a clear enough view of the front to get some kind of indication about the size of the Dynamic Island. As for the back, won’t having the flash so far from the main lens elements cause there to be more shadows on the edge of subjects in low light?


I was recently in Rocky Mountain National Park and it was pretty chilly up there. Was wearing a jacket.
The last time i visited RM National Park, i did not see any office buildings and people dressed un suits 😊
 
Um...if they're testing photo with flash and Lidar functions, there are a couple big reasons to keep them uncovered.
I'm fairly certain that they could very easily test flash or lidar functions inside some secret basement in apple park, or in fact anywhere there. The only reason i see for them to be outside in the open is perhaps to test their new cellular modem and how it works, or something like that - something they need to be in the public for. They dont need to test the lidar or flash in public.
 
Exactly the kind of thing Apple marketing would do-- leak a seemingly authentic photo to drum up interest and confirm design changes. They leaked the headphone jack removal leak beforehand in 2016
The whole reason that no one gets excited for apple launches anymore is that everyone knows every excruciating detail 6 months prior. There's no surprise, there's no more 'wow-factor' during the event. Thats why every year at the iphone launch no one cares. Leaking your own products or soft launching them two months before they're released is not a way to build excitement. What apple needs to do is crack down on the leakers and go back to holding their secrets extremely well. We won't know whats coming, but thats good, because it builds suspense and excitement way better than intentionally leaking ur device will do.
 
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If it's real that is a good spot, you would struggle to tell them apart from the iPhone 16 pro side by side in an Apple store!
 
The whole reason that no one gets excited for apple launches anymore is that everyone knows every excruciating detail 6 months prior. There's no surprise, there's no more 'wow-factor' during the event. Thats why every year at the iphone launch no one cares. Leaking your own products or soft launching them two months before they're released is not a way to build excitement. What apple needs to do is crack down on the leakers and go back to holding their secrets extremely well. We won't know whats coming, but thats good, because it builds suspense and excitement way better than intentionally leaking ur device will do.
Agreed that they should get back to greater secrecy if they can but A) selective leaks can be a good strategy to alert the public to changes when necessary (similar to how politicians leak to "float" ideas) and B) Apple and their supply chain is simply too big now to prevent all leaks.
 
I'm fairly certain that they could very easily test flash or lidar functions inside some secret basement in apple park, or in fact anywhere there. The only reason i see for them to be outside in the open is perhaps to test their new cellular modem and how it works, or something like that - something they need to be in the public for. They dont need to test the lidar or flash in public.
True, which is why it was probably a deliberate leak...or a careless employee getting a "true to life" pic for the presentation.
 
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