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Would you like to see a thinner iPhone?

  • Yes, I want to see a super thin iPhone

    Votes: 13 16.5%
  • No, they're getting too thin!

    Votes: 60 75.9%
  • I wouldn't mind

    Votes: 6 7.6%

  • Total voters
    79

Anneks

macrumors member
Original poster
Jul 13, 2015
76
8
UK
Would you like to see a thinner iPhone? Or are they thin enough?
 
I really don't want a thin iPhone. I like the form factor of the 6s/6 series, and honestly I need them to focus on battery. I love the Plus battery but I need them to get it together, I would love 20hr battery for Wi-Fi etc...
 
I was fine with the 5 series, to be honest. At this point, thinner only serves to remove battery and weight. Until we reach a point where I can fold my device up to more easily fit it in my pocket I am really not interested in seeing it get thinner. Would I be against a thinner phone? Probably not. But I will always think "what could have been" in regards to the battery.

There are also rumors going around of a 3.5mm jack removal. If the purpose of this is a thinner phone I absolutely would be against it. Don't need to remove an industry standard for no reason outside of thinning the device. This already happened to a lesser degree with the 30-pin and, while I will say the lightning cable is nicer to use, I haven't experience any benefits outside a smaller flipable plug. I realize there are other benefits but my guess is only a very small percentage of the population takes advantage of them, certainly fewer people than those who utlize the audio port.
 
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The better question is - have you seen a thinner iPhone?

Because I think that the moment we do, all complaints about battery life and audio jacks go out of the window.
 
I hate having to have a case on my 6+, but it is too thin to use comfortably without it. After trying a 6S and 6S+ in the store I think the small increase in thickness perhaps combined with stronger aluminum may have made enough of a difference, but I haven't bought one to know if it is something I could use without a case. Apple's design is good, but it needs to be thicker so I don't have to cover up that design with a case.
 
Really, we are reaching an upper (or lower) limit on the thinness thing. I really don't see any point in going thinner if they keep sacrificing other things like battery life, structural integrity (bendgate, ipad air 2 display blotches, etc), etc.

I don't think anyone would mind a thinner phone, but at what cost? If you could give me a phone that had the iphone 5's thickness, but double the battery life, I would take that any day over what we have now.

People complaining about the 6S's new thickness are crazy.

Focus on other things. The thickness of my phone at this current size is not a concern for me.
 
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Apple needs to get over this obsession with making things extremely thin. I enjoy a thin phone, but not too thin. It needs to feel good in your hand. If its too light or too thin it will make dropping it easier.
 
I'm hooked on the larger screen since the 6 Plus. So I've lived with the larger phone for over a year. With the 6s Plus I'm getting even better battery life. Honestly in last 14 months I have not had one instance where I ran low on battery.

For the first time since using cell phones, starting with a five pound bag phone, through the flip phone era and razors where I carried two extra batteries, and the whole series of iPhones, and Mophie cases. I no longer think about battery life, nor plan around it. I just use the phone now and plug it in every couple days. Or nightly if I used it heavy.

I will pop on an iPad charger, all I use now, for a few minutes more from habit then need. But in 14 months it has not been a need because I was running low. More like topping my gas tank if I stop for a coffee or see cheap gas price.

Like everyone else I am curious what the new iPhone 7 style will bring. But without seeing it, knowing what is added and deleted it's next to impossible to make any reasonable comment as to thinness, or jack changes. I recall the nashing of teeth, dire threats to abandon the platform when the 30 pin connector gave way to the Lightning port. That died down quickly once the new phones came out and people realized all their griping didn't mean a thing.

It has been stated in articles and interview with Ivy that Apple design teams purposely do not follow, monitor, or concern themselves with customer comments regarding future desires or products. Apple has not ever used focus groups to decide which direction to take designs. Typically changes are introduced with more than the next iteration of product in mind. The Apple design team tells us what we will want in future products. While this may not sit well with some of the users, I defy anyone to make a case that Apple has been incorrect following this process. 93% of high end phone profits argues their business model works quite well.

You can be sure the iPhone 7 is physically in the design teams hands right now and that the 7s, and 8 are also well along design wise. Changes to the iPhone 7 are stepping stones to the iPhone 9 and 10. I have a strong feeling that solid state batteries, continued SoC designs enhancements, targeting a single chip incorporating radios, Sensors, GPS, lack of power consuming L3 memory, etc is all in the works.

The current ear phone jack can't carry higher band width so that might be part of it. Desire to achieve some measure of water tightness may be another. Thinness, well it's pretty obvious that is a major goal, like it or not. I can't see the concern any longer about battery life. Take a poll and see if any macrumor's user is heading into Amazon rain forest, otherwise a power boost is a electrical socket away. If someone wants a fatter phone, like some have said, with more battery life get a battery case.

My opinion is Apple is not listening, and has certain goals set. Regardless of a very small but vocal minority on here you can either accept it or find your own solutions, battery case, extras power cell, or alternate phone. That is one very good option, that there are alternate phone available. However, I see the differentiation between phone being less and less each year. Past features are being eliminated, memory card, replaceable batteries, etc. Phone are becoming more and more alike.
 
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I don't mind a thinner iPhone because I know it's coming. Every generation is thinner than the last, aside from S models. They will push the envelope with the removal of the 3.5 jack just like they pushed it with the new MacBook. People will buy it regardless. If Steve Jobs used the word thin once, he used it a thousand times. This is nothing new. Priority one with Apple has always been making aesthetically pleasing devices, the thinner the better. I'm all for thinner devices. It means less weight and less bulk. We know battery life isn't a priority and probably never will be. We're all going to buy the damn thing anyway so it doesn't matter what we think.
 
You'd think that Apple would have been scared off the thin trail since the 'bendgate' issues with the iPhone 6. A device needs to be a certain minimum thickness in order to be robust, easy to hold comfortably and to feel premium. Not to mention protruding camera lenses. Everyone wants a better camera each year and for that to happen the camera modules are pretty much guaranteed to get larger. So if the phone is getting thinner at the same time we're going to have uglier phones.

I don't know many people who wouldn't prefer a thicker phone with a bigger battery and a flush camera. Slim the bezels, do something with the home button and usher in longer battery life...but stay away with this holy grail of credit card thickness. Please.
 
Thinness doesn't necessarily have to come at the expense of battery life. I've owned two iPhones: an iPhone 4 and an iPhone 6. I would charge the iPhone 4 every night. I can go 2 or 3 days without charging the iPhone 6.
 
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You'd think that Apple would have been scared off the thin trail since the 'bendgate' issues with the iPhone 6. A device needs to be a certain minimum thickness in order to be robust, easy to hold comfortably and to feel premium. Not to mention protruding camera lenses. Everyone wants a better camera each year and for that to happen the camera modules are pretty much guaranteed to get larger. So if the phone is getting thinner at the same time we're going to have uglier phones.

I don't know many people who wouldn't prefer a thicker phone with a bigger battery and a flush camera. Slim the bezels, do something with the home button and usher in longer battery life...but stay away with this holy grail of credit card thickness. Please.
The protruding camera is one of the things I hate the most. So far it hasn't actually affected me as I use the leather case, both for protection and mostly gives me the one handed grip. But the case negates the thinness so it's a compromise.

I had read a bit back about camera designs that use a prism to bend the incoming light 90 degrees such that lense stack up and actual multiple independent chips that can pick up individual colors can be used lengthwise in side the camera case. This might be an approach forthcoming. Whatever, I would not like to see phones turned into DSLR looking device with a lens sticking out.

As for the thinness vs bending, the 7000 series aluminum has twice the tensile strength so with proper internal design I don't see this as a problem again for some time. Should the phones get so thin there is alway titanium which for a high end $1,500 (only question of time) phone, wouldn't be an issue if it's thin enough to not need to much of it. also could be heading towards a nonmetallic structure. Something strong and not acting to block the radio signals.

Each phone is doing away with more chips by integrating them into one chip. Apple has been leading this crusade for some years. Thinner phone with one or two chips, 10 or 8 nanometer would leave room for new type of solid state battery. This is where getting rid of huge plugs would gain lots of inside room. That might be the main reason for dropping the audio plug.
 
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No, I wish the 6 and 6s were thicker. The camera sticking out doesn't bother me so much but picking it up off of a flat surface can be difficult sometimes I liked the thickness of the 5s best.
 
I hope it does. I don't really have a problem with the battery life like most people here do. Maybe I'm not using as much during the day compared to other users? Thinner phones feel better in the hand and a joy to use. Two things I hate is the antenna bands and the protruding camera. If they can make the camera flush inside a thinner body? yes please.
 
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