The Prototype iPhone Dissected, No User Removable Battery

[Anuba]

Still I think the most recent shots give a good enough image for me to be able to have an opinion about it, retouched or not. It could be pink for all I care, it's the unimaginative form, the bad fit, the lack of "I want to touch this so badly"-feeling that disappoints me the most.

Those are pretty much the feelings I had when they introduced the iPhone 3G (and had the nerve to leave unchanged for the 3GS). They went from a classy aluminum case with cool trim details like the black rubber around the mic/speaker, to cheap looking, scratch-prone plastic. I'm saying cheap looking because aluminum is associated with Apple's "Pro" products while black/white plastic is associated with the "I'm a poor student" products such as the white and black plastic MacBooks. I personally think this prototype has more sex appeal than the 3G/3GS.

As for the chrome frame, there's a possibility that it will live on. I saw a part in some Chinese photo of this prototype that looked suspiciously similar to the chrome bezel before it's been coated with chrome.

I just wish that people would take the engineering perspective into consideration in order to understand why the prototype looks as it does. Johnny Ive can't just draw anything he likes and then have people make that exact thing and stuff all the components into it. I personally think that this whole design was dictated by the use of zirconia for the back plate. Zirconia is very durable and scratch resistant and great for the wireless signal, but it's also an industrial grade thermal insulation material that would fry the insides of the phone unless there's another way for the heat to escape, and that's why they had to do this aluminum unibody type thing where the aluminum extends all the way to the border around the sides. I think they have to leave that border pretty much naked, if they cover it in too much bling/chrome/plastic/whatever it might result in overheating issues (the 3GS is known to get smoking hot and it's not like an even faster processor will run any cooler). The battery gets pretty hot while charging, too. Imagine the headlines if the iPhone 4 turns out to be prone to overheating and exploding, and hospitals are crammed with people waiting to have zirconia shards removed from their eyeballs...

 

[jragosta]

Funny how they use the word dissected... it's not a living organism.

http://dictionary.reference.com/browse/dissect

See definition #2.

 

[Belly-laughs]

…

I just wish that people would take the engineering perspective into consideration in order to understand why the prototype looks as it does.
…

The looks is the very reason I hope it's [just] an engineering mule.

 

[pmz]

The more I look at it, the more I… hate it. God, that's awful! Rather unflattering and crude + bad fit between buttons and body, even compared to the original. Mule, corporate edition… I so hope – and believe – the final version will be more appealing than this.

The final edition will look exactly like this, without the seams. Mark it. The seams are part of the prototype design, that have a purpose not worth discussing on such a low-IQ forum.

But this is the next iPhone. Down to the detail, minus the seams. I believe the buttons may also be the standard issue plastic, and not the machined-metal that also seem to be prototype in nature. (After all, they are made from the same place-holder metal that was used for the inner casing. Very much like an inhouse prototype).

 

[Stetrain]

If you don't really know what you have till later why would he have done this.

There was no criminal intent so no charges can really be brought up.

Let me rephrase charges can always be brought up, that is nothing new but will they stand in front of a judge I doubt it. Bad judgement sure criminal no, we do not live in a police state.

Didn't matter that he didn't know that what he had was an iPhone 4 prototype. He knew at the time that it wasn't his phone. He left the bar with a phone the belonged to someone else, someone he didn't know. Just give it to the bartender, secret prototype or not.

 

[Chupa Chupa]

Let me rephrase charges can always be brought up, that is nothing new but will they stand in front of a judge I doubt it.

If he was charged then he would have to stand in front of a judge at his arraignment.

Also it would be up to a jury, not the judge, to convict or acquit unless he waived his right to a jury trial.

 

[OutSpoken]

Didn't matter that he didn't know that what he had was an iPhone 4 prototype. He knew at the time that it wasn't his phone. He left the bar with a phone the belonged to someone else, someone he didn't know. Just give it to the bartender, secret prototype or not.

If only everyone in the world was so honest... Jeez, why are people having a heart attack over the lost iPhone.

I'm sure hundreds of iPhones get lost and stolen all the time... its human nature that some people will be sincere enough to return it and some will not.. THAT'S LIFE.

 

[Clown Boy]

The final edition will look exactly like this, without the seams. Mark it. The seams are part of the prototype design, that have a purpose not worth discussing on such a low-IQ forum.

Back this up then Einstein. Interested to hear what sh*t you come up with.

 

[Anuba]

The looks is the very reason I hope it's [just] an engineering mule.

A mule would have been 'home-built' in Cupertino and wouldn't have any print on the back (why bother?). Since pictures of the exact same design have emerged from China, it means that the design has made the transition from prototype to production, or at least test production. Apple wouldn't involve the Chinese until absolutely necessary, since they have a history of leaking like mad over there (and jumping out windows afterwards).

As iFixit and others have pointed out, the interior of the phone appears final or very close to final. It shows evidence of thousands of little engineering decisions taken throughout the process, decisions they'd never bother with for a simple test mule (heck, the original iPhone mule was a square box with wires sticking out of it).

 

[BruiserBear]

The lack of sense on display in these iPhone 4 threads had been SO annoying to watch.

Will you fools stop talking about charges being brought upon someone related to this phone being stolen?!? You have no idea what you are talking about!

No one broke any laws here, and no one is going to get charged with any crime! Do you really think Apple's legal team would bother sending Gizmodo a letter asking for the phone back if they actually believed a law had been broken? No! They would have just contacted the police, because they knew exactly who was in possesion of the phone at that point.

 

[[DL]]

Of course...

 

[Carniphage]

The final edition will look exactly like this, without the seams. Mark it. The seams are part of the prototype design, that have a purpose not worth discussing on such a low-IQ forum.

I'd be prepared to bet money the seams *are* part of the design.
This is a working device. Built in a factory.

Any rational design process would iterate the case design in a design workshop. Ives is known to create multiple 3D designs in a day - using fast prototyping machinery.

But these would be non-working prototypes.

But once the design is locked-or near locked - they'd move to factory-built working models. Close to final release, the case design would be locked months earlier. It is the first thing to be locked - because the form of the case decides the internal layout, the capacity, and the specification of every internal component.

There might be a handful of hand-made working prototypes built for final appraisal. But these would be incredibly valuable and never leave the vault.

This design is identical to the case part photographed in China. Which means this is the one they are building.

Changing the design of a case at this stage would be like re-casting the leading man in a movie after the movie was shot.

C.

 

[Anuba]

The lack of sense on display in these iPhone 4 threads had been SO annoying to watch.

Will you fools stop talking about charges being brought upon someone related to this phone being stolen?!? You have no idea what you are talking about!

What? You mean they won't extensively revamp the design 8 weeks from launch? That's impossible, because I saw a movie once where that totally happened.

I'd be prepared to bet money the seams *are* part of the design.

So do I. Perhaps the final ones will be more subtle, but I do believe that the seams are part of the design and has to do with offering a quick and easy way to replace the battery. Not for end users, but for the dudes at Genius bars, so that it can be done in a few minutes without requiring this slow, arduous and expensive exchange program they have in place now.

 

[3282868]

Apple will never utilize a user replaceable battery. Not simply for the unnecessary need as the newer lithium ion batteries Apple has developed are more than adequate based on the recent MacBook line but also the iPad. Further, Apple has developed an moderately aggressive stance with regard to Eco/e-waste and allowing owners to dismiss batteries into landfills at free will severely impacts the environment in negative ways most Americans are unwares. A user replaceable battery is unnecessary and it seems only a select group of "techies" are overly sensitive to this point. Indeed, read "The Story of Stuff", a well documented decade long study of American consumerism, the disposable mindset of most Americans and the out of sight mentality adopted by many with regards to consuming and disposing of this trash. I applaud Apple, not for giving into Greenpeace, but to actually listening to their claims and adjusting their products according to the science behind technology and ewaste. Most people do not need disposable phones and the latest and greatest power hungry systems, it's tantamount to autophiles bragging about their engines. Who cares? Focus on efficiency and making these systems more power conscious and efficient.

 

[MIDI_EVIL]

Personally I prefer waiting for Apple's keynote with shiny and brilliant product photos. We can't change anything of the features, so it makes absolutely no difference if we (the possible customers) know it two or three weeks sooner or later.

QUOTE]


For some of us who need to know whether to wrap up a current cell contract, whether to upgrade their iPod or purchase a current iPhone, knowing what features are on the horizon is invaluable.

 

[kirky29]

I'm not surprised the battery isn't User Replaceable, that seems very un Apple like..

 

[Carniphage]

I do believe that the seams are part of the design and has to do with offering a quick and easy way to replace the battery.

I don't know how you can come to that conclusion!

C.

 

[anubis72]

Wah!

No removable battery?! No curved back?! WAH!

 

[Cinnabar]

Changing the design of a case at this stage would be like re-casting the leading man in a movie after the movie was shot.

I absolutely agree with this. I think the seams are part of the final design, they are too intentional to be incidental. Which raises the question, why would you do this when there seems (like what I've done there?) to be no practical reason why you could not machine one uninterrupted piece of aluminium for the casing (not that I'm an engineer, and there may be engineering restrictions that I can't see)? It has to be a choice between the seams adding some kind of function to the phone which we are not yet aware of, an impact on price, or a straightforward aesthetic decision.

A basic principle of project management is that the later you change something the more expensive it is to change. By the time you are at an early production/build stage, changing things is simply not practical.

 

[bmk]

There was no criminal intent so no charges can really be brought up.

You really don't know ANYTHING about the law do you? "I didn't think I was doing anything wrong" is no defence in law. Yes, criminal charges can certainly be brought, even if you don't think you've done anything wrong or had no 'intention' to do anything wrong.

In this case, all parties knew what they were doing was, at the very least legally dodgy, and in Gizmodo's case (I believe) actually illegal. I think they have taken a gamble that Apple won't pursue them in the courts because they know it would look bad for Apple to be seen to be trying to put journalists out of business. But I honestly doubt that you could find many lawyers who would say that Gizmodo have acted entirely within the law.

 

[Carniphage]

I absolutely agree with this. I think the seams are part of the final design, they are too intentional to be incidental. Which raises the question, why would you do this when there seems (like what I've done there?) to be no practical reason why you could not machine one uninterrupted piece of aluminium for the casing (not that I'm an engineer, and there may be engineering restrictions that I can't see)? It has to be a choice between the seams adding some kind of function to the phone which we are not yet aware of, an impact on price, or a straightforward aesthetic decision.

A basic principle of project management is that the later you change something the more expensive it is to change. By the time you are at an early production/build stage, changing things is simply not practical.

A seam for purely aesthetic reasons is not very honest. One of Ives' design rules.

My only (and not entirely convincing) guess - is that 802.11n WiFi supposedly needs three antennas.

Any others?

C.

 

[E.Lizardo]

Evidently. The metal cage is a bit weird too, but here's what I'm thinking... the back is made of this zirconia stuff (Apple filed a patent for use of this in 2006), which is great for the signal but terrible for heat dissipation -- zirconia is actually used for thermal insulation on jet engines. If you made a MacBook Pro case from zirconia, the insides would melt. iPhones can get pretty hot too, and now all those components are jammed into a tiny enclosure sealed off by a zirconia wall that stops the heat from going anywhere. So it seems that all the metal on the inside was put there to drag heat out of the components and out through the aluminum border around the sides (where your fingertips will be when you're making a call )

Brilliant!I think you nailed it.
Can't wait to get mine.

 

[baryon]

I'm glad to hear this, so as others have pointed out: there is no more excuse for those ugly seams, let's hope the final version (if it will look anything like this prototype) won't have seams or unnecessary things in its design. I trust Apple on the final design, I'm not worrying much about this

 

[E.Lizardo]

Everybody's a legal expert on Macrumors today, huh?

Why should today be different?

 

[Anuba]

I don't know how you can come to that conclusion!

C.

Serious or sarcastic? I'm not sure.

I was under the impression that disassembling the entire sandwich was kind of a pain since the ceramic back is screwed on from the inside, so they made a hatch in the aluminum chassis that opens from the side so that you can replace the battery that way.

But since the battery doesn't have a normal shell, it's still wrapped in that black paper/plastic stuff or whatever it is, it's clearly not for end users but for semi-authorized people like Apple Store employees.