'iPhone 17 Slim' Could Move Rear Cameras to Top Center in Biggest Redesign Since iPhone X

[Rychiar]

About time they fix the hideous abortion that is the current camera design. I really thought it was a joke when they first released it

 

[Victor Mortimer]

Not trying to silence anyone, and the opinions go both ways. My opinion is that the whining made the Macbook Pro thicker unnecessarily for those who whined about it. I have no issue with using Thunderbolt or dongles for ports I rarely or ever use instead. I doubt Steve Jobs who mandated getting rid of unnecessary or outdated ports would have succumbed to the whiners. The problem is that if you do not keep moving forward and keep building on the old crud such as with Windows making sure all types of old outdated stuff stay compatible, you end up end up slowing progress. You need to keep moving forward.

No, the whining made the MacBook Pro thicker NECESSARILY so we could have the FAR more important ports instead of the IDIOTIC thinness.

'Progress' isn't getting rid of the good stuff, it's adding cool new stuff to it. Instead of having dongles for stuff most people use every day, it's better to have ports. I'd like to see a return of USB A ports, not because USB C is bad, but because the VAST majority of USB devices still use it and will for at least another decade.

Steve Jobs was fired for a very good reason in 1985, and as far as I'm concerned he should have been fired again in 1998, or at the very most brought back in marketing and NEVER allowed to run the company again.

I wish Steve Wozniak was more interested in management, he'd have been a FAR better choice to run Apple.

 

[transpo1]

But it could have been had it been coded to do so like the dynamic island. The DI is literally a notch further down the screen.

No, it could not have been with the space Apple likely then needed for the elements— the notch was a single hardware screen element. The DI is two elements, two cutouts which allow for a graphic UI element to sit between (instead of one as most Android phones now have).

But it does nothing that the notch didn't achieve, except eat further into the screen.

Again, objectively not true. It gives you a real time status for apps you may have running. This is Apple’s iterative approach to eventually putting all of the FaceID and camera elements under the screen when it becomes economically feasible.

 

[bassjunky]

I'm sure I'm in the minority, but I want a smaller screen with the same Pro/Ultra features.

 

[MrGimper]

No, it could not have been with the space Apple likely then needed for the elements— the notch was a single hardware screen element. The DI is two elements, two cutouts which allow for a graphic UI element to sit between (instead of one as most Android phones now have).


Again, objectively not true. It gives you a real time status for apps you may have running. This is Apple’s iterative approach to eventually putting all of the FaceID and camera elements under the screen when it becomes economically feasible.

Now explain to me what functionality of the Dynamic Island would be lost if it was moved 2mm upwards and reattached to the top bezel, becoming a notch?

 

[transpo1]

No, the whining made the MacBook Pro thicker NECESSARILY so we could have the FAR more important ports instead of the IDIOTIC thinness.

'Progress' isn't getting rid of the good stuff, it's adding cool new stuff to it. Instead of having dongles for stuff most people use every day, it's better to have ports. I'd like to see a return of USB A ports, not because USB C is bad, but because the VAST majority of USB devices still use it and will for at least another decade.

Steve Jobs was fired for a very good reason in 1985, and as far as I'm concerned he should have been fired again in 1998, or at the very most brought back in marketing and NEVER allowed to run the company again.

I wish Steve Wozniak was more interested in management, he'd have been a FAR better choice to run Apple.

Haha, wow, are you in the minority. Yeah, Steve Jobs really ran Apple into the ground. What a terrible CEO. 🤣

I’ve met Woz— very nice guy, but if he were in charge we would probably all still be carrying huge brick laptops around.

 

[aParkerMusic]

I wonder how that would impact spatial video recording in landscape orientation, since you need to turn iPhone 15 Pro now to make sure the cameras are side by side to record it. If the cameras on this iPhone are side to side in portrait orientation, when you turn to landscape they won’t be…..

 

[Tr55]

Hmmmm.

Within a year or so the EU will force Apple, and all other phone makers, to make ALL their phones sold there have a user replaceable battery. Knowing how Apple hates to have different hardware models this should become interesting.

At the very least the IPhone 17 Slim cannot be sold in the EU.

 

[transpo1]

Now explain to me what functionality of the Dynamic Island would be lost if it was moved 2mm upwards and reattached to the top bezel, becoming a notch?

I don’t think you understand that a notch is one piece and the DI is two cutouts. It’s actually pretty brilliant that Apple found a way to use it. Would you prefer the notch? I don’t miss it at all. And Apple probably needed there to be screen space above it in order to make the DI work….

 

[MrGimper]

I don’t think you understand that a notch is one piece and the DI is two cutouts. It’s actually pretty brilliant that Apple found a way to use it. Would you prefer the notch? I don’t miss it at all. And Apple probably needed there to be screen space above it in order to make the DI work….

And I don’t think you get that a notch is a black section of screen enclosing the TrueDepth camera system. Whether the gap between the elements is black OLED screen or not is irrelevant.

The Dynamic Island eats into the screen more than the notch did. Now you have a hole in the screen which is worse than a notch, and the time and status icons have been lowered to align with the DI, reducing the safe useable screen area below them.

If I recall, nothing ever appears in the middle of the DI in the piece of blacked-out OLED, so that’s just a gimmick to make it look good. So ultimately it’s just a lower down more intrusive notch.

 

[wbeasley]

Yep. The placement of the camera has always felt strange to me, I figured it was because of space constraints.

battery maybe. L shaped rather than U shaped?

 

[Greenmeenie]

Whats the point of having a “Pro“ iPhone if you’re gonna come out with an even more expensive phone with better features? Kinda defeats the purpose of a Pro line if you ask me. Just give the Pro iphone those features & keep the regular iPhones as the less expensive models. Having three tiers just smacks of money grab. I dunno. That’s just how i feel. Apple gonna do what they gonna do. But i hope this isn’t true,

 

[mrr]

I’ll get excited when the iPhone Pro Max supports the Apple Pencil.

 

[transpo1]

And I don’t think you get that a notch is a black section of screen enclosing the TrueDepth camera system. Whether the gap between the elements is black OLED screen or not is irrelevant.

The Dynamic Island eats into the screen more than the notch did. Now you have a hole in the screen which is worse than a notch, and the time and status icons have been lowered to align with the DI, reducing the safe useable screen area below them.

If I recall, nothing ever appears in the middle of the DI in the piece of blacked-out OLED, so that’s just a gimmick to make it look good. So ultimately it’s just a lower down more intrusive notch.

I totally get that, and this is clearly an iterative, evolutionary approach to Apple making the camera cutouts disappear under the display entirely but some people don’t seem to get the necessity of letting that technology get more cost effective and accessible for the everyday consumer first.

The Dynamic Island may be lower now but it’s actually useful if you care to use it correctly, and so it is not just useless space as the Notch was. Whether there is space between it when using those UI elements or not, it is two physical cutouts in the screen and it feels dynamic. The Notch did not.

The only minor annoyance for me personally is less screen real estate when watching movies but I don’t do that too often on the iPhone anyway.

The DI is not just a gimmick because it actually holds value for people (kind of acting like a mini Stage Manager on the iPhone). YMMV.

 

[transpo1]

Whats the point of having a “Pro“ iPhone if you’re gonna come out with an even more expensive phone with better features? Kinda defeats the purpose of a Pro line if you ask me. Just give the Pro iphone those features & keep the regular iPhones as the less expensive models. Having three tiers just smacks of money grab. I dunno. That’s just how i feel. Apple gonna do what they gonna do. But i hope this isn’t true,

If they make an Ultra version of the phone, I believe it should be more rugged with longer battery life than the Pro models (like an Apple Watch Ultra version of the phone). This would serve a person for a certain demographic who want the very best of everything. If Apple instead makes it a very slim device, I’ll be surprised, but I do miss sleeker devices anyway so I’ll keep an open mind….

 

[MrGimper]

I totally get that, and this is clearly an iterative, evolutionary approach to Apple making the camera cutouts disappear under the display entirely but some people don’t seem to get the necessity of letting that technology get more cost effective and accessible for the everyday consumer first.

The Dynamic Island may be lower now but it’s actually useful if you care to use it correctly, and so it is not just wasted space as the Notch was. Whether there is space between it when using those UI elements or not, it is two physical cutouts in the screen and it feels dynamic. The Notch did not.

The only minor annoyance for me personally is less screen real estate when watching movies but I don’t do that too often on the iPhone anyway.

The DI is not just a gimmick because it actually holds value for people (kind of acting like a mini Stage Manager on the iPhone). YMMV.

You’re still missing the point. I get that the DI “does stuff”, but it’s stuff the notch could have done had it been programmed to do so. If the DI wants to show an icon, it animates/grows/expands a black section out to the side and shows the icon. There is zero reason why the notch couldn’t have expanded sideways in the same manner and done exactly the same. The software that makes the DI more than “2 holes with a bit of black screen between them” could have equally done the same for the notch which is “2 holes with a bit of black plastic between them”.

 

[Darren.h]

there goes right to repair. right out the window.

everyone knows you start making all your items way to thin like the new iPad the average person can not repair it. does not matter what superman tools you have.

 

[Rainshadow]

I always wondered why it wasn't centered. Aiming at close-ups of items has always been a little weird.

Disagree. Getting stark, angled shots it’s nice to have the option to put the camera lens directly on the ground since the lens are on the side. If they put the lens in the middle, we may lose that creative choice - and yes, that makes a big difference. Same thing when photographing tight spaces in builds or mechanic shots.

Maybe it will be close to the top, but I have liked having the corner as the main option.

 

[Le0M]

What happened to that alloy (i forgot the name of) they ended up using in the sim-remover pin?
I remember it was a much stronger metal that would allow a thinner design while maintaining the rigidity.

 

[rukia]

too thin for a USB-C port so portless phone

 

[iLuddite]

Finally! A thinner, lighter iPhone! This sounds like the device I’ve been waiting for.

It’s about time Apple got back to designing thin, sexy phones.

Sexy…phone. Do we hear ourselves?

 

[newdeal]

pretty sure before they did the iPhone 4 or 5 there was a tapered design going around that people really liked, maybe they will do that

 

[Surf Monkey]

The 2016 phones take garbage pictures compared to what we have now. The camera bump is good, and necessary, and should never go anywhere. Even if they make the phones thicker, they should make the lens bigger too, and keep the bump.

If you like drastically over processed images and very poor low light performance? Sure. They’re way better now.

 

[Surf Monkey]

Why not make them thicker with more battery and no camera bump?

Because they’re already too big and heavy.

 

[Surf Monkey]

Well, you don't really have a choice, do you?
Anyone who honestly wanted that area could implement it in software, without the need for a dead area on the screen below it.

If the cutout has to be there this seems like an elegant solution to making it functional. I use it pretty regularly. So you lose a few pixels at the top of the screen. Big deal.

The ultimate solution is to do away with the cutout altogether.