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The back of the iPhone

boss.king

boss.king

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Original poster
Apr 8, 2009
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Is it just me, or was the flat back of the 1st gen iPhone nicer? I honestly like the look of the first one better than the 3G (aside from the ugly black square at the bottom). If the next iPhone was either completely metallic or black (possibly other colours too, possibly iPod Nano-esque colour schemes) and flat like the 1st gen, i think it would be much more attractive than the 3G is.
Thoughts? Opinions?

P.S. Sorry if this has been done before, I'm kinda new here and didn't find anything about it when I searched.
 
No it's not just you - the 3G was definitely a downgrade in styling. I guessing they had to increase the dimensions and give it a hump so they could fit the GPS and 3G chip? And I bet the plastic doesn't hurt reception but it sure is cheap feeling.

But I don't think anyone complained because it had GPS and of course 3G, both things which the first iPhone should have had anyways.
 
Personally I like the 3G better.

I have both phones and the iPhone original looks cheaper. The black buttons on the side are very unattractive and the dual tone of the back looks put together.

The 3G (Black) looks a lot sleeker and streamlined. The metallic buttons on the side are a nice touch and make it look more like a $500 phone. I also like the mesh in the ear piece, gives it a nice touch. The speaker/mic is more attractive as well.. I could go on.
 
I'm reasonably sure the black plastic on the original iPhone was there so the antenna would work properly. If that's right, a completely metal body seems unlikely.
 
I like the original and the white 3G.



I'm hoping to get mine switched when I go exchange it........ Is that possible?
 
Well, I've been hearing a lot about a unibody iPhone recently... Reckon that would be a return to 1st Gen styling?
 
northy014 said:
Well, I've been hearing a lot about a unibody iPhone recently... Reckon that would be a return to 1st Gen styling?
Click to expand...

It's interesting how the 1st Gen styling is a much better fit for Apple's current product line... not that I'm at all a fan of the "everything must be silver with a black border" trend...
 
I get so tired of the reasoning for a plastic back is for better reception. There are a lot of higher end phones that are all metal with excellent RF. The Nokia E71 for instance.

Apple did the same thing with the first generation Nano They switched from an all aluminum body, to scratch prone back, and plastic front. All you had to do was take it out of the box and it was scratched!

Even the Apple logo on the 1st generation phone didn't scratch as quickly as on the 3G cheaper quality logo. I think its made of chrome paper like a sticker! I hope they use the same technology of the unibody MacBook / Pro's on the next generation. Plus, the plastic doesn't fit with the whole "green" campaign, they are bragging about.
 
I personally like the 3G styling better. Much more sleeker, also fits good in the hand too.

I wouldn't mind a nice unibody with the brushed aluminum look.
 
Mr. Giver '94 said:
I like the original and the white 3G.
I'm hoping to get mine switched when I go exchange it........ Is that possible?
Click to expand...

Maybe sorta. Depends on the genius, because mine offered to swap my white iPhone for a black one when I took it in for cracks. I decided to go with white still.

As for my preference of iPhone- the black iPhone 3G looks the best. I only have the white one because everyone has black.
 
Wirelessly posted (iPhone: Mozilla/5.0 (iPhone; U; CPU iPhone OS 3_0 like Mac OS X; en-us) AppleWebKit/528.18 (KHTML, like Gecko) Version/3.1.1 Mobile/7A259g Safari/525.20)

My personal preference is the black 3G. I liked the original iPhone as well but it scratched easily. I like the sleeker look of the 3G, but the original iPhone feels better in my grip.
 
The curve of the 3G is much better in my opinion. It's more ergonomic. It fits my hand just right.
 
lorenwade said:
The curve of the 3G is much better in my opinion. It's more ergonomic. It fits my hand just right.
Click to expand...

+1
I do like the feel and look of the aluminum though. But the curved back and black looks really good. 3G is definitely better looking imho
 
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