All iPads Some thoughts on the evolution of the iPhone and iPad

[QuickSwimmer]

Hi comunity. I would like to contribute some opinions about what is next for iPad and iPhone.
The fundamental thing i see is that the iPhone is steadily getting larger, heavier and thicker and over the years steadily gaining battery life.
While the iPad was getting thinner and lighter while keeping the 10Hr battery life claim.

When we look at the iPhones since 2014 and reason for the change in form factor
iPhone 6 - 6,9 mm thinnest iPhone ever
iPhone 6S - 7,1 mm - addition of 3D touch
iPhone 8 - 7,3 mm - addition of glass back and wireless charging (metal back iPhone case was around 1mm thick)
iPhone 10 - 7,7 mm - dual stacked motherboard (the actual plastic substrate OLED is thinner than past gen. LCD (2,4mm))
iPhone XR - 8,3 mm - iPhone X design but with a much thicker LCD display
iPhone 11 Pro - 8,1 mm - the first time there is no obvious reason for a thickness increase other than battery life. The display is thinner (-0,4 mm due to lack of 3D touch) and a much thicker battery.
iPhone 12 Pro - 7,4 mm - first time the iPhone got significantly thinner in a long while, however my personal opinion is that this is due to much thinner front and back glass - 0,4 mm down from 0,8 which saves 0,8mm in total, also the display assembly was thinner.
iPhone 13 Pro - 7,65 mm - simmilar to 11 Pro. Thinner display due to integrated touch layer and a larger thicker battery.
iPhone 14 Pro - 7,85 mm - I do not see a reason for the thickness increase
iPhone 15 Pro - 8,24 mm - Looks like they cannot go backward.

overall we went from thinning, to thicker if there is major new feature, to thicker every generation, because why not.

Now the iPad is "stuck" with the same dimensions - being limited by battery thickness, aluminium thickness and having a bulky LCD which takes around 2,5 mm of the total 5,86 mm thickness which is huge. There is a prospect that in the future we might get titanium/ titanium with glass back iPad and an OLED display. That would save a huge amout of space - about 2mm and 100-150 g by itself.

So we have two possibilities. a 4-5 mm thin iPad with 11" screen but iPad mini weight OR an iPad of similar measures but lets say 15-20 Hr battery life. And from past design choices the second option seems more likely as a battery upgrade is lacking on iPad for 13 years while mac books and iPhones improved immensely in the same time.

The problem with the iPhone is that the growth in thickness is going to stop sooner rather than later. Is it going to hurt possible upgrades ? Everything needs space.

And last bit, i would like to see a iPhone 6 rebuilt for thinness with modern tech. Thinner glass, OLED and titanium might make for a ~5mm thick device and under 100g weight. So bad we cannot visit Apple prototype lab in person.

So what do you think ? Are you into a possibilitry of ultra thin compact and light iPhones iPads and Macbooks even if it would mean a price simillar to pro models ? (Typed on a one and only sub 1kg Mac Book)

 

[Jared G.K.]

I think that technically, it should be possible to make an iPhone that's thinner and lighter than the current 14 (non pro), with a battery that lasts one entire day from get up to bed time.
The bigger issue is the camera, sensor sizes and optical elements cannot be reduced in size much further without some image quality loss, and the trend seems to go towards even bigger sensors, larger telephoto lenses, periscope internals etc. All this needs more space, therefore the huge camera bumps and phones not getting thinner & lighter.

As stated in a different thread already, I personally would give up on always improving camera qualities/features (I think the software based image improvement options have still not been fully exhausted anyway), if in return phones would become thinner and lighter again, and even a smaller battery would be OK for me, as long as it lasts for one entire awake day.

 

[Biro]

I’ve been completely in the Apple ecosystem for at least 20 years. And, usually, I have bought the top-of-the-line versions of iMacs, iPhones, and iPads. But now, after an accident seriously damaged my iPad Pro, I decided I didn’t want to spend that much money on a new iPad with new versions in the pipeline.

And, guess what? I discovered that the iPad 10 has more than enough power and features for what I use an iPad for right now. Plus I like the placement of the camera better while in landscape position. My next iPad will probably be whatever is the cheapest version with a 3nm chip.

I have an iPhone 13 Pro right now but I suspect its eventual replacement will be a base iPhone 15 or even 16. Or perhaps the next SE depending on its exact specifications. I have a nice collection of interchangeable-lens cameras, so I really don’t care about getting the best camera. Again, I want the 3nm chip.

The iMac? I don’t know. It depends on the specs of the M3 version. But I would consider an M3 Mac Mini - and not even the Pro. In the meantime, my 2019 iMac with i5 9600K chip will process photos and videos just fine.

What I’m saying is that many of us don’t need the top-of-the-line Apple gear. The cheaper stuff is better than many realize. Frankly, I don’t need new features and wish Apple would focus on fixing long-term bugs. I also wish they would put out a “iOS Light“ OS.

But one area Apple needs to be watching is size and weight. Going to a titanium chassis with both the iPhone and iPad would be a big help. If you look at the specs for iPads, you’ll discover the weight of the 11-inch and 10.9-inch Pro, Air and base are all within a 10th or two 10ths of a pound of each other.

 

[JPack]

Every single iPad/mini/Air/Pro has a 10 hour battery life rating according to Apple. That's obviously not correct because tests show battery life exceeds 10 hours in many cases. In other words, Apple believes users don't care about battery life once it exceeds a certain number.

We see iPad become thinner because users don't need extreme battery life and would rather carry a lighter product. iPhone is getting bigger because users want more screen time and real estate. Foldables will help solve many of the issues on larger sensor and bigger stacked chips in the future.