With a refreshed 4-inch iPhone just weeks away, the
The report suggests that the new iPhones, which some are now suggesting will be called iPhone Pro, will be thinner than current models by about 1mm. They'll also sport a flush rear camera, eliminating the bump on the 6/6s; lose the headphone jack; and gain a second speaker to offer stereo sound. Mac Otakara says earlier rumors the iPhone would gain waterproofing aren't true. Finally, the rumored dual-lens camera will definitely be only a Plus option, limited to the 5.5-inch models, and perhaps not come with all of them.
History not repeating?
Importantly, the speculation is that the basic shape of the phone won't change other than the thinness. On the one hand, that's expected because Apple's commitment to maintaining the same screen sizes at this point seems like a given. On the other hand, it's unfortunate because it means the phone itself won't get any smaller by shrinking the bezels surrounding the screen. The iPhone aesthetic already looks dated with the display not quite reaching the side edges and with the giant plastic pieces above and below it. Imagine how it will look in the summer of 2018 as we await the iPhone 9!
Why so far in the future? Well remember that while Apple upgrades the goodies inside the iPhone annually, it keeps the so-called industrial design -- what you see and hold -- more or less fixed for 2 years. (The iPhone 6s was very slightly thicker than the 6 to accommodate the 3D Touch screen and the reinforced casing vs. iPhone 6.) With iPhone 4, Apple delivered the famous slab-sided design that came to define the iPhone aesthetic. With iPhone 5, the slab was lengthened to deliver a taller screen and the glass was removed from the back. With iPhone 6, Apple went radical in not only enlarging the screen, but also offering two sizes. It also created the curved edges the sent the slab packing apparently for good.
With the upcoming phone, whatever it's called, the screens constrain change but don't eliminate the possibility of a radically overhauled look and feel. Yet we now have another in a series of rumors suggesting the changes will be merely subtle.
Power please
If the design isn't altered much, it seems unlikely Apple will generate much sales momentum behind the new devices.Yes, the camera will be upgraded along with a new A10 chip inside adding some speed and whatever subtle refinements Apple has cooked up for it. With iPhone sales having peaked recently, there was hope among investors at least that iPhone 7 (or Pro) would restart the growth train that shifted into high gear with iPhone 6 only to more recently downshift to cruising speed.
But beyond aesthetics, it is troublesome that Apple seems to have developed a major blind spot when it comes to the phone's single most important feature: mobility. In the quest for ever-increasing thinness, Apple has long been willing to sacrifice battery capacity for a supermodel-like physique. And the result is something that often looks beautiful, but perhaps isn't optimized for strenuous activity.
In iPhone's case, that means a battery life that remains barely acceptable for people who are genuinely on the move. And before anyone chimes in to explain how great the iPhone battery is for you, let me say that I have no doubt you're telling the truth. But as we use our phones more and more each year and as we spend more time on the go relying on them, more of us become power users with the passage of time. And for us, the iPhone battery life is woeful.
If I spend a day on the move in San Francisco, I'll drain the battery before lunch is through -- guaranteed. In heavy use of the phone as a computing device -- web, apps, e-mail -- it's fairly easy to take it down to an uncomfortably low percentage in just a couple of hours. While there is no way Apple could build an iPhone with enough battery life for every scenario, it absolutely could choose a larger one that is has. The iPhone 6s has just 1715 mAh (that's milli-amp hours) of capacity vs. 3000 mAh in the new Samsung Galaxy S7.
Never mind a direct comparison of life between those two phones, just understand that if Apple put as large a battery as Samsung did in the case it could nearly double battery life. (Incidentally, the Samsung is nearly the same size as the iPhone, measuring 4mm longer and 2mm wider. It's also about 1mm thicker and 9g heavier -- about 1/3 ounce. But in exchange for those tradeoffs you get a 5.1-inch screen and the larger battery.)
Instead of that, we'll get thinness. And a second speaker, which might be nice here and there but will take up space inside the phone that could be used for that bigger battery. The speaker will go where the headphone jack was before and you'll now be left with either a Lightning connector or wireless for your headphones. Apple is expected to include the former in the box and sell the latter as an upgrade. Of course, it could sell wireless headphones today so it's not like that's a new capability. (You might see rumors the Lightning connector will be getting thinner too, but that refers to the cutout in the case not the connector itself. Existing accessories and most docks should still work.)
It's hard to get too worked up given that Apple is 7 months from releasing the new iPhone and, of course, rumors are often quite wrong. Perhaps we'll see a more impressive design shift or something else revolutionary when the new iPhone is revealed. But the likelihood Apple is sacrificing potentially 15% of the thickness of the phone to chase some impossible standard of waifishness seems rather high. And the overall trajectory of design choices away from something nearly everyone could make use of at least sometimes -- a phone that works longer without recharging -- in favor of maybe nice to haves is worrisome. Let's hope we're pleasantly surprised.
