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iPhone X What's Next? - This Year Feels Like A 6S Year

N

neteng101

macrumors 65816
Original poster
Jan 7, 2009
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iPhone 6 debuted larger screens and Apple Pay, 6S a year later fixed the issues with the generational jump started by the 6.

iPhone X debuted the notched edge to edge screens with FaceID, XS/R/Max like the 6S fixes the generational jump started by the X with its improved FaceID, etc.

We all know what followed the 6S - the 7 was a very minor upgrade, main things being the water resistance and haptic home button. I'm not sure if we'll see an all new generational leap with the iPhone 11. So what else is left at this point for Apple to do?

Apple has a tradition of hitting the sweet spot a year after a generational jump product release - iPad 2, iPad Air 2, 2013 rMBPs, etc. If the teething problems are worked out that some are experiencing with the XS, I totally see this as the next 6S type iPhone.
 
Well we have really only had one leap since the 6 as I would call the 7 a 6SS and the 8 a 6SSS - so I imagine Apple will keep this design another year or two until foldable screens or AR or something takes off (or just bigger and thinner, who knows).

I do think this is an S year but this is also the first S year we’ve gotten a new size and a third phone with a new design (XR), it could be worse.
 
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I am not expecting big changes from here on out. Battery improvements, screen improvements, camera improvements. All incremental for the most part. Software will be the source of big changes, but I think most will be focused on the iPad. It's a solid platform as is, just use as needed. I wouldn't be expecting big changes every year. And yes, it was an S year.
 
I want more megapixels and more cameras purely because I want even more details and also more zoom on the phones. When we start getting decent 5x zoom and even better low light performance that will be great.
 
Farsider said:
Flexible displays sound good but more megapixels / cameras / bigger screens is all yawn.

Do people really want more of that?
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Couldn't agree more! (Thank God someone else said it!) Even foldaway screens are a bit yawn in a way for me. (less so than the other stuff, but still). Sounds like a nice novelty that will last all of 5 minutes, but not the sort of thing that makes me feel like it's worth upgrading. In all honesty, I think the more impressive things would be to figure out ways to bring back some of the mega useful stuff they had to sacrifice during the last few "upgrades" (...headphones jacks, TouchID, hint hint, apple!) :D
 
Like everyone is seemingly saying, I just don’t see any more major jumps coming. More specified bumps in specs, like camera, battery technology, more dense pixels on displays, etc. I just don’t know what they could do at this point. We’ve seemingly reached the same point in iPhone that we reached with Mac by the late 90’s/early 2000’s. There will be cool new things coming, but farther in between one another. Year-to-year, and even by-yearly updates will become less and less “stunning” and “wowing”, but more “oh that’s gonna be useful” and “looks cool, I’m excited for that updated feature”.

The days of the original iPhone, the 4, 5, and 6 and even the X are over for the most part. Flexible displays sound interesting in concept, but as soon as you realize that the materials that surround the display (metal, plastic, and most glass) are not nearly as malleable as this display tech is, so it isn’t like a phone with a flexible display can really flex and bend all that much.
 
valleian said:
Like everyone is seemingly saying, I just don’t see any more major jumps coming. More specified bumps in specs, like camera, battery technology, more dense pixels on displays, etc. I just don’t know what they could do at this point. We’ve seemingly reached the same point in iPhone that we reached with Mac by the late 90’s/early 2000’s. There will be cool new things coming, but farther in between one another. Year-to-year, and even by-yearly updates will become less and less “stunning” and “wowing”, but more “oh that’s gonna be useful” and “looks cool, I’m excited for that updated feature”.

The days of the original iPhone, the 4, 5, and 6 and even the X are over for the most part. Flexible displays sound interesting in concept, but as soon as you realize that the materials that surround the display (metal, plastic, and most glass) are not nearly as malleable as this display tech is, so it isn’t like a phone with a flexible display can really flex and bend all that much.
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Year, pretty much. PowerBooks were majorly the same between 2004-2008 when Unibody came along, then the same until 2012 when Retina came along, then until 2017 when the Touch Bar came along, then...

I mean I have a hard time justifying what else I want my phone to do.
 
I think next year the notch will probably be smaller, as they may have enough technology to make the sensors and face id camera smaller at the front. That's what the rumors say.
 
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So I thought of something - its not a crazy big change, but this is still one feature we haven't seen - I guess they could change Lightning to USB-C someday. Not sure if that's next year or not though.
 
neteng101 said:
iPhone 6 debuted larger screens and Apple Pay, 6S a year later fixed the issues with the generational jump started by the 6.

iPhone X debuted the notched edge to edge screens with FaceID, XS/R/Max like the 6S fixes the generational jump started by the X with its improved FaceID, etc.

We all know what followed the 6S - the 7 was a very minor upgrade, main things being the water resistance and haptic home button. I'm not sure if we'll see an all new generational leap with the iPhone 11. So what else is left at this point for Apple to do?

Apple has a tradition of hitting the sweet spot a year after a generational jump product release - iPad 2, iPad Air 2, 2013 rMBPs, etc. If the teething problems are worked out that some are experiencing with the XS, I totally see this as the next 6S type iPhone.
Click to expand...
And then there's what came a year later after iPhone 3GS.
 
So next year will be 7 and the year after 8:) identical form factors iphone 6, 6s, 7 and 8.

neteng101 said:
iPhone 6 debuted larger screens and Apple Pay, 6S a year later fixed the issues with the generational jump started by the 6.

iPhone X debuted the notched edge to edge screens with FaceID, XS/R/Max like the 6S fixes the generational jump started by the X with its improved FaceID, etc.

We all know what followed the 6S - the 7 was a very minor upgrade, main things being the water resistance and haptic home button. I'm not sure if we'll see an all new generational leap with the iPhone 11. So what else is left at this point for Apple to do?

Apple has a tradition of hitting the sweet spot a year after a generational jump product release - iPad 2, iPad Air 2, 2013 rMBPs, etc. If the teething problems are worked out that some are experiencing with the XS, I totally see this as the next 6S type iPhone.
Click to expand...
 
Honestly, I'd like to have a phone that does not have a glass back. So I hope there will be some way to have wireless charging with a better material than glass. Or they could make it easy to replace the glass back, like on most phones :rolleyes:
 
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OP, could you clarify by what you meant as a 6s year? Do you mean this cycle (XS,XS max and XR)? Or next year's cycle ("iPhone 11")?

Because the 6s was a significant improvement on the 6, whereas the XS is a minor improvement over the X
 
Londoner1982 said:
I want more megapixels and more cameras purely because I want even more details and also more zoom on the phones. When we start getting decent 5x zoom and even better low light performance that will be great.
Click to expand...

You are limited as to the size of the sensor by the lens or thickness of the phone. If you want 5X zoom, be ready for that hump to get much larger!

Also I do NOT want more pixels. More tightly crammed pixels will only increase noise in low light. What is making the MAX camera better is less crowded pixels on a larger sensor!
 
I want a better battery life and I hate the notch so let’s hope they can get rid of that eyesore.

I think Mobile phones have peaked so I don’t think anything is going make all us all “wow” now.

I don’t even need a better camera as very few people now even print out their photos. So for the job the phone does a perfectly good job on taking photos.

I just wish they would sit down and work on a battery. That’s what most people now want let’s be honest.
 
There's certainly a need for wearables. They should really throw everything at that, SJ's style.

And i'm not talking about the watch, although that's nice.
 
nordique said:
OP, could you clarify by what you meant as a 6s year? Do you mean this cycle (XS,XS max and XR)? Or next year's cycle ("iPhone 11")?

Because the 6s was a significant improvement on the 6, whereas the XS is a minor improvement over the X
Click to expand...

This cycle. The XS series fixes 2 major issues with the X - lower price point (XR) and larger screen (XS Max). FaceID given some that have reported in actual experience is a noticeable speed increase (not just a slight one), which to me means its as meaningful an update as TouchID 2.0 was. And there's the camera updates, which the 6S brought as well.

Its a different kind of 6S year for the notched FaceID generation of phones, but this release touches on the 3 big items/issues with the X, first-gen FaceID, high price point, and lack of a larger screen option.
 
My thoughts are the next big steps in cellular technology will be 5G. 5G is going to warrant upgrades with the data rates that are being discussed... might just be a few years for new towers and 5G silicon that is efficient.
 
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