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Can someone that is actually interested in this explain the appeal? Thin on its own I get but thin with a giant bump 100% defeats the whole point for me. Seems
by jdprgm 1y ago
Can someone that is actually interested in this explain the appeal? Thin on its own I get but thin with a giant bump 100% defeats the whole point for me. Seems clear at this point there is little hope of them engineering their way into thin cameras.
- nkrisc 1y agoI don’t get it either. They’re more difficult to hold.
- kridsdale3 1y agoOptics is not going to be "solved" by anything but some fascinating kind of metamaterial.
- georgeburdell 1y agoGRIN and micromachined Fresnel lenses are both flat. I wouldn’t be surprised if apple is working at least on the latter
- fudged71 1y agoTaking a peek at the research: “While flat-optics cameras have transitioned from theoretical concepts to high-fidelity laboratory prototypes, significant interdisciplinary R&D—spanning nanofabrication, materials science, computational imaging, and systems integration—is required to realize commercial flat camera modules for next-generation smartphones. Recent breakthroughs have produced multilayer metalenses only ~0.5 mm thick that can focus unpolarized broadband light across several discrete wavelengths. Dual-Pixel Coded Aperture (CADS): End-to-end learned amplitude masks on dual-pixel sensors have shown >1.5 dB PSNR gains in all-in-focus images and 5–6% depth accuracy improvements in DSLR, endoscope, and dermoscope prototypes. Color-Coded Aperture Imaging: Single-lens, single-frame depth sensing via color-coded apertures has been demonstrated on DSLR and preliminary smartphone modules with depth map extraction sufficient for basic AR and portrait modes.”
- swiftcoder 1y agoGlad to hear the research has caught up with this... checks notes... nearly 20-year-old paper from MIT: https://dl.acm.org/doi/abs/10.1145/1457515.1409087 https://dl.acm.org/doi/abs/10.1145/1457515.1409087
- vbezhenar 1y agoiPhone 4S has camera without bump and makes perfect photos. I don't understand why they are doing that ugly design.
- m463 1y agoI tried iphone 16 pro max and cameras are just amazing.
- mr_toad 1y agoIn the far future the camera will dictate the physical dimensions of the device and the display will be entirely virtual. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dot_and_Bubble https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dot_and_Bubble
- ramesh31 1y ago>"Thin on its own I get but thin with a giant bump 100% defeats the whole point for me. Seems clear at this point there is little hope of them engineering their way into thin cameras." I have this recurring vision of what could have been if we never lost Steve before the industry went whole hog in on the camera bump fad. It goes something like this: SCENE: Steve Jobs' office on the eve of the iPhone 7 release "Hey Steve here's the new prototype for iPhone 7, we think you're going to love it!" Steve picks up the phone, fumbles it around for a moment, flips it over, and runs his index finger over the camera bump "You're fired. Now, you" points to another engineer "Get rid of the bump." And just like that, we were saved from this nightmare. Alas, the world is shit now and no one cares about anything anymore. But I can say without question he would have never allowed it.
- stetrain 1y agoI’d rather have the world with nice cameras on my phone than the one where the back is flat for aesthetic design reasons.
- macintux 1y agoYep. The cameras keep me upgrading every other year, otherwise I'd probably wait 3-4 years at least.
- ramesh31 1y ago>I’d rather have the world with nice cameras on my phone than the one where the back is flat for aesthetic design reasons. The argument is that you shouldn't need to pick one or the other. They got us used to the bump because it is cheaper and simpler for them to build. The same with literally everything now. No more striving for excellence, it's just "what can we normalize and force people to put up with so we don't have to fix the problem".
- musictubes 1y agoRight, iPhone engineers are just lazy. That is a much better explanation than them having to juggle tradeoffs between camera performance, weight, and feel in the hand. It isn’t a problem. That’s why it isn’t “fixed.”
- cpuguy83 1y agoBearing in mind I haven't looked at specs yet... I be been struggling with the 14 pro's weight. So that would mainly be my interest here. Also almost certainly less likely to get obsoleted by some AI feature given the higher end GPU cores.
- hbn 1y agoI bought a 14 Pro when it came out and returned it for a 13 mini because it was too heavy. They switched the frame from stainless steel to titanium the next year which made the Pro phones noticeably lighter. And now this year the Pros are aluminum like the non-Pros have been for years, which is also pretty light. The 3 big camera sensors certainly don't help with the weight either, but the good news is they did seem to recognize they were getting to heavy with the 14 Pro.
- cpuguy83 1y agoSadly the 17 pro is the same exact weight as the 14 pro.
- alexchantavy 1y agoYeah, the 13pro is 204g and in my opinion pretty uncomfortable to one-hand. The 17pro according to the website is 206g :\
- hbn 1y agoDamn, I didn't realize they worked their way back up.
- baby 1y agoSame question here. Why would I buy this instead of folding phones that provide a tablet-like screen on demand?
- quantumwannabe 1y agoThis is likely a prototype for their folding phone, which are essentially just two ultra-thin phones stuck together.
- musictubes 1y agoThe iPhone air is half the price isn’t it? But yeah, if you want a foldable the Air isn’t one.
- clarkmoreno 1y agoStop bringing up the folding phone in different threads. Very few people want that.
- DennisP 1y agoIt still takes up less room in your pocket.
- tartoran 1y agoIf it fits in the first place...
- jdprgm 1y agowidth and height wise it's actually larger than the Pro though.
- DennisP 1y agoTrue, a quarter inch longer and eighth inch wider. Smaller both ways than the Max, at least. https://techcrunch.com/2025/09/09/all-of-the-iphone-17-models-compared/ https://techcrunch.com/2025/09/09/all-of-the-iphone-17-model...
- sethhochberg 1y agoThis was my first thought. My iPhone 15 Pro is fine and hopefully has much more life left in it, and I've gotten used to the size in general over the years, but I like to wear pants that are reasonably fitted and the "pocket bulge" outline of the phone still annoys me if I'm trying to deliberately look nice. I'd believe this is an area where even a few millimeters of thickness makes a real difference in how much the phone in pocket stands out despite the overall footprint being larger? Will be curious to read once people get their hands on the things.
- nomel 1y agoIt's interesting how this isn't the obvious conclusion and allure. Is there some fanny pack trend I'm missing out on!?
- thewebguyd 1y agoIt should be a trend. I've been wearing a crossbody small bag (I guess you could call it a fanny pack, technically) for a long time now and ever since I've gotten a smartwatch I rarely need to take my phone out, so it lives in the bag instead of a bulge in my pants pocket. I wear the bag in the front so when I do need my phone it's just as quick to pull out of the bag as my pants pocket.
- scarface_74 1y agoBecause China. Ben Thompson (Stratechery) has been documenting for almost a decade that the biggest driver of new phone sales in China is a new form factor. I’m sure that might be the same in other markets where an iPhone is a status symbol. It’s definitely not one in the US where 60% of phone buyers have iPhones.
- layer8 1y agoOn the other hand, the iPhone Air is eSIM-only, and carriers in China generally don't support eSIM (with one exception apparently [0]). [0] https://www.macrumors.com/2025/09/09/iphone-air-esim-china-unicom/ https://www.macrumors.com/2025/09/09/iphone-air-esim-china-u...
- seanmcdirmid 1y agoChina Unicom was also the launch carrier for iPhone when it came out in 2007-8. It was the only carrier to support GMS channels similar to the ones in the west (China Mobile didn't, these days Apple supports chinese cell phone channels on both carriers with the same chip).
- rogerrogerr 1y agoApple basically forced US carriers to get their act together when they shipped the iPhone 14 series as eSIM-only domestically. Sounds like the rest of the world is about to get kicked into gear.
- Gigachad 1y agoI’m surprised the Australian iPhone 17 still isn’t esim only considering all the carriers support it already.
- Namidairo 1y agoThe major carriers perhaps, but support among the MVNOs isn't universal. Number sharing support for smart watch usage is almost non-existent among the MVNOs in Australia. Eg. ALDI (yes, the German supermarket chain run a MVNO in Australia), have been saying esim support in the future since 2021.
- Workaccount2 1y agoiPhone status symbol without having to haul around a huge bulky phone. Most users probably use/need 10% of what a max pro iPhone offers, but they want 100% of the max pro status. Now they can keep the status without needing to carry a chonker.
- thekevan 1y agoI bought a new iPhone 13 for $200 a few months ago and I love it. It does everything I need by far. Newer iPhones take better pictures, yes, but the 13 is still no slouch in that regard.
- ar_lan 1y agoI have my iPhone 13 Pro Max for 4 years now and the only problem I really have is storage and the battery. I'm debating if I just replace the battery and let this run another year... since the iPhone X I haven't seen any major upgrades still that feel like they'll matter in my day-to-day life. A flip would be different...
- dervjd 1y agoDefinitely replace the battery, it will make a huge difference in your everyday use.
- mrandish 1y agoI'm still rocking a four year-old Note 20 Ultra. I bought it new the week after they announced the Note 21 Ultra when it was clear they were dropping expandable storage. So it's five year-old tech and I can't see any compelling reason to upgrade. It still looks practically new despite never using a case and dropping it dozens of times. It runs all the apps I use quite fast and there's nothing slow about it. I keep looking at new flagship launches and I keep not seeing any new capability, feature or performance that would make a noticeable difference to me. I replaced the battery myself last year and generally keep the OS clean, not letting app cruft accrue. I'm not a luddite nor am I price sensitive. I remain ready and willing to buy a high-end flagship phone the moment it does anything new I actually care about. It still gets regular security updates even though a couple years ago Samsung stopped updating it to their latest customized version of Android. And despite looking, I still haven't seen any new Android OS or Samsung One UI feature that would matter to me. Bottom line: I don't think it's you or me, I think it's that phones are mature tech and unless you have a specific use case or it breaks, there's just not much reason to upgrade.
- twiceaday 1y agoThis phone has the highest screen area to weight ratio except for the Galaxy S25 Edge.
- Romanulus 1y ago[dead]
- ctvo 1y agoAnd this is good or matters to customers because?
- dboreham 1y agoEasier to drop in the toilet?
- Brendinooo 1y agoThe Osborne 1 weighed ~25 pounds. I'm glad computer makers have put in the work to make computers faster and lighter over time.
- gretch 1y agoThere’s no rational answer to this. They want thin phones for the same reason they like fast cars. The same reason that ice cream tastes good. Why do (some) people like jazz music?
- johan914 1y agoPhones are the leading cause of RSI.
- ohdeargodno 1y agoThat's a great piece of marketing straight out of Apple's Big Number Book of Important Numbers, but _who the fuck cares_ ? Aside from a tiny amount of nerds needing post hoc rationalisation as to why they blew $1500 on a gimmick, absolutely nobody will go looking for a phone and consider grams/mm² as an important measure.
- computerdork 1y agoIt's about the size and even more importantly the weight. I like small, light phones (I currently have the iphone 13 mini). I want something small that I can slip into my pocket and it's not this brick bouncing around as take a walk. Although, I'm not a big phone user though, mainly use it when I'm outside of the house. In the house, I'll just use my laptop.
- mallets 1y agoNo mention of the actual weight here but a quick search says 165 grams. Not as light as I expected.
- mikepurvis 1y agoI'm also pretty happy with my iPhone 13 mini and loathing having to upgrade to something much larger. For reference, the 13 mini has a 5.4" screen, and the new-gen iPhones are 6.3", 6.5", and 6.8". Pixel 10 is 6.3" as well. iPhone 5 was the most perfect size ever and was about 0.3" shorter than the 13 mini, though it had a much smaller screen due to the bezel: https://www.gsmarena.com/size-compare-3d.php3?idPhone1=5685&idPhone2=11104 https://www.gsmarena.com/size-compare-3d.php3?idPhone1=5685&...
- seec 1y agoExactly in the same boat. Apple offering is underwhelming to say the least and way too expensive for my use case. I want to go Android anyway, I'm too disillusioned with Apple currently, I'm tired of dealing with their predatory behavior. But there aren't a lot of decent options there as well but at least you can get it much cheaper, so that's something, I guess. Previously Apple was the provider of hardware which made the right compromise to allow specific/focused use case, they called it "taste" in a sea of nonsense with bullshit "features". But now it feels like Apple has joined in on the nonsense and is actually leading the pack; which is why the price feels bad. If you are going to make the same crap as everyone else with the same set of bad compromises, I'm not going to overpay for it. I think this is why Apple "AI" got so much backlash. If they didn't make it or at least market it as heavily as they, did it would have been fine, but it was just the same crap as everyone else, just worse and more expensive. They could have released the exact same phone, just shaving a 100 dollar and have been acclaimed and made more money that way I believe.
- saynay 1y agoI largely agree, but when we hold phones it is generally by the side without the camera. That means that this phone will feel smaller in the hand, which could be a very effective marketing gimmick to upsell people from the base iPhone.
- krater23 1y agoNo problem, the next iteration is a phone without a camera. And they will tell us that no one wants a camera oh his phone. And then they sell bluetooth cameras as extra.
- notcodingtoday 1y agoEasy mid-way product realization from research they had to do for folding phones.
- MichaelZuo 1y agoYeah makes sense to do so when the R&D is practically already paid for.
- kulahan 1y agoLighter == better, thinner == cooler. Phones are essentially identical these days anyways, and choosing one over another is based on ever-minimizing differences. Now that you can't even install third-party apps easily on Android, this is more true than ever.
- ohdeargodno 1y ago[dead]
- ewoodrich 1y ago"Now"? Are you referring to the future developer signing requirements that won't begin until 2027 globally? It's trivially easy to sideload on Android right now: 1. Flip one switch in settings to enable sideloading 2. Download and open an APK 3. Flip one more switch (which you get automatically redirected to and it's highlighted at least on Samsung phones) the first time installing from whichever app source (Chrome/FDroid/etc). 4. Click install Other than step 1, the user is led through the process via prompts, and step 3 only has to be done once per source. i.e. the first time you install from FDroid, after that you just click install without any nags or scare screens. As far as I remember the "enable sideloading" switch in settings has always been a thing, and the per source setting was added at least 5+ years ago.
- kulahan 1y agoYes, I meant that upcoming change. I suppose I could’ve said “now that the decision has been made to…”, as if that’s somehow better.
- ewoodrich 1y agoWell even then it will be better than iOS which makes the user jump through absurd hoops like having to re-sign every 7 days plus another MacOS device (other than in Europe, but even there Apple still requires approval at the individual app level vs a developer account).
- 1y ago
- zoeysmithe 1y agoThere's nowhere to go with phones than thinner if you aren't doing folding. Thinness has practical value but past a certain point, probably not very much. Marketing will create hype and desire and the feeling of exclusiveness. Those will lead to sales. Not every big change is an actual innovation. A lot if just engineering sales via these methods, which aren't very different than fashion, jewelry, or luxury cars. I might get one because I'm always a bit forced to follow the curve and can't afford to look 'backwards' or 'old fashioned' to stakeholders in the workplace, people in my life, etc who's good side I need to stay on who believe in the above dynamic.
- nhumrich 1y ago> there is nowhere to go with phones than thinner Umm, smaller? We don't need thinner, we need smaller.
- zoeysmithe 1y agoDidn't Apple cancel its smaller phones because of lack of sales?
- BitwiseFool 1y agoI'm told that was the reason, which is a shame because I would continue to buy the "mini" version if they kept making them. Sadly the only dimension Apple seems interested in reducing is the thickness.
- dingaling 1y agoIn absolute terms they sold plenty of Mini phones, around 12 million per year. Proportionally though that was only 3% of their sales.
- apparent 1y agoThe thinness makes it easier to grip around the phone laterally. Think of it like having a slightly smaller basketball, which more people would be able to palm. Easier for holding, easier for one-handed typing.
- sporkxrocket 1y agoThe thinness would make it harder to grip laterally. It's less surface area to grab on to.
- apparent 1y agoThat may be the impact for some people, but for others, who can now get another metacarpal around to the other side of the phone, it will be easier. I do hope that the metal they are using is on the grippier side (like the black 16 Pros, as opposed to the 16s)
- sporkxrocket 1y agoI feel like I must be one of these people because even a regular iPhone from the past 5 years is way too thin to comfortably hold. When something is much wider than it is thick, not aligning it perfectly in your hand puts pressure on it diagonally and sends it spiraling to the ground.
- apparent 1y agoI noticed in one of their videos, where the subject is picking up the Air off a table, it looks like it could be hard for a wide-fingered person to pick up.
- m463 1y agoI agree with you, you're still going to put it in a fat case to protect the camera. Personally, I think thin is just "omg look at my engineering". blah blah. I found the (expensive!) bullstrap case to be helpful - thin and slippery enough to slide out of a pocket easily, well engineered to protect the camera. But really, I think the iphone 13 mini was the most useful/practical application of apple's engineering. I think a mini-sized 3-camera bulge phone would be great.
- kccqzy 1y agoI've only broken the iPhone camera once in more than a decade of using iPhones. And that's when I was in IKEA and a box of unassembled furniture fell onto it. If you really want protection, the screen is still more fragile than the camera.
- thehappypm 1y agoYou escaped the infinite IKEA?
- mcv 1y agoYeah, super thin phones that require bulky cases have never made sense to me. Why not make tough phones that don't require a case?
- JumpCrisscross 1y ago> Can someone that is actually interested in this explain the appeal? It’s light and the thinness is just fun. I’m not putting a case on it. And I really don’t understand why a phone needs to sit flat on a table—if anything, the angle is a plus.
- zargon 1y agoIt’s only 12 grams lighter than my iPhone XS. And it’s 20 grams heavier than my Pixel 4a. For a product called “air”, It doesn’t even succeed at being light-weight.
- cogogo 1y agoAt least for me something so thin feels better with a bit of heft. And if you read the article the idea was to use any space saved for the battery. Seems pretty slick
- PartiallyTyped 1y agoHigher density makes objects feel a lot more premium than their less dense counterparts.
- crossroadsguy 1y ago[flagged]
- JumpCrisscross 1y ago> That weight is perfect weight It’s just less. Less means it hits the ground softer when I drop it. Less means I’m less pissed off when I lose my AirPods and have to hold my phone up to my ear. Less means little moments of delight over how this engineered slab of minerals can do these things. Do you remember the ad for the first MacBook Air? Even if you didn’t connect with it, can you recognise how someone else might?
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- ajsnigrutin 1y agoI'm not an apple user, not into their design choices... but if i had a choice, i'd much prefer a phone as thick as the camera with a 3x the battery capacity. I'd even go with a millimeter or two thicker to have the backplate attached by screws and the battery easily user replacable after a few years.
- layer8 1y agoIt's also not actually that much more lightweight, compared to the 6.1" iPhones.
- NetMageSCW 1y agoPeople who have held it have said the slightly lesser weight and the slightly lesser depth combine to make it feel like a much bigger difference.
- jeroenhd 1y agoSeveral brands have released an ultra thin version of their phone, followed by a foldable version of their phone. One phone depth is good for just about everyone, but you can't double that up, you'd get a phone that's too bulky for modern tastes. It stands to reason the iFold/iPaper/iSheet/whatever Apple will call it is drawing closer now that Samsung and several Chinese brands have pretty much solved the design for Apple.
- 1oooqooq 1y agomaking it thinner than the camera save us a ton o money on battery materials! signed, apple CFO
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- notatoad 1y agototal phone volume is what determines how well the phone fits in your pocket. especially on women's pants with small pockets. a thin phone with a bump will fit better than a thicker phone. the argument that the bump defeats the purpose of a thin phone is only true if you're trying to squeeze it through a narrow gap in a rigid object.
- joshjob42 1y agoI'm going to preorder one because I want a light phone and a large screen. This will be the lightest iPhone in years while also having a bigger screen than most. I dropped from the Pro Max to the Pro last year because I was tired of how much it hurt when I dropped my phone on my face. I don't have much call for most of the camera system, and my battery life on my Pro is just fine. I have plenty of chargers typically, and for emergencies or times I know I'm going to be out I could potentially get the battery pack. I basically never use cases on my iPhone, and at most will maybe use an ultra-thin one or some sort of structure adhered to the plateau just to make it flat across so as to not rock on a table.
- sonofhans 1y ago> I dropped from the Pro Max to the Pro last year because I was tired of how much it hurt when I dropped my phone on my face. Now this, good people, is a real use case. If it seems like an edge case to you, I guarantee Apple’s design and product people know of — and optimize for — use cases much more rare.
- djtango 1y agoBut apparently they don't engineer for smaller hands, one hand usage or fits comfortably in a pocket when you're running
- humpty-d 1y agoI'd rather optimize my $20 running shorts around my $1000 phone than the other way around tbh. No phone is comfortable in the pocket when running though, I used to use an arm strap and more recently just take the watch.
- macNchz 1y agoThe horizontal rear waistband zipper pocket on Patagonia Strider Pro running shorts genuinely makes my phone not noticeable at all during runs, unlike any other shorts I’ve tried. My experience is limited to smaller phones (6S, 12 Mini) without any cases, though.
- arcane23 1y agoDoubt most people want it as thin as possible. This is just the phone industry running out of ideas and trying to tell people what they actually need. There's not much left to "fix" on mobile phones, and no real important features to add. Lacking that, they need something to sell the phones with, so they're going for these strange "improvements". It needs to be something that has some wow factor so they can lead with. This seems to somehow work on normal people so they'll keep doing these "improvements". I expect in the future they'll pull this trick again, moving bits of the phone upwards towards camera, and create a second notch from half way down, where the phone will get even thinner, and they'll sell that.
- jdprgm 1y agoI can think of quite a few things to fix just they are extraordinarily difficult engineering problems versus 10-20% improvements on existing features or random tweaks: - novel approach to camera optics that can completely flatten them into the phone - front camera hidden behind the screen removing the island or inset - dramatically better battery tech density leading to like week long usage - way more ram (100gb+) and processing power for powerful local llm and other ai - significant reduction in thickness and weight. like this air with no bump but also under 100 grams - maybe some stuff with projectors
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- Liftyee 1y agoNote that hidden front cameras have been available for a while - for example, the Samsung Z Fold 3 (2021). There are some engineering tradeoffs involved with light transmission and image quality that maybe Apple doesn't find favorable. Interestingly Chinese manufacturers seem to be the main adopters of this tech. For example, the article below has Samsung, Xiaomi, ZTE, Oppo, Vivo (actually, this may just be due to there being many more large Chinese phone manufacturers in general.) https://www.smartprix.com/bytes/under-display-camera-phones/ https://www.smartprix.com/bytes/under-display-camera-phones/
- altairprime 1y agoIt weighs a lot less. My pinky hurts and 99% of my photos are selfies, so I’d rather have less mass than more camera; I’ll rent a Leica if I want truly excellent photographs. Also my purse is hella full all the time so every less millimeter of phone makes it easier to get stuff out of the pockets, get phone out of purse, etc. Also it’ll fit with less bulge into my side-thigh pockets and pull less on the waistband, which is handy for my skirts and leggings and undershorts that all that have that.
- crossroadsguy 1y agoAren’t you glad they have not called it something like Thin™ or True Thin™ or some shit?
- NikolaNovak 1y agoIt's a weird cyclical thing. Samsung galaxy s2 was a super small super thin phone, 15 years ago almost, which still had user replaceable battery, microsd, 3.5mm, gps, and everything most people would expect smartphone to have. We then spent a decade making phones 0.2" bigger each generation as if that's an advancement - I.e. As if we couldn't have made them big in the first place (all the while removing physical features). Then we started making them thin again, as if we couldn't have made them thin before. It makes me think of cars - VW golf used to be a small car, then it kept growing... So they released Polo... Which kept growing so they made lupo... But each year my entire life they have ads like "6 inches bigger than before" or "10cm more legroom than competition", as if there haven't been small and large cars before. Grumble Grumble, seen it all before, kids get off my lawn :-)
- bluSCALE4 1y agoI agree to an extent. Most phones back then had no water protection. They also didn't last long so most people carried extra batteries which sucks. Honestly, I'd welcome the whole non replaceable battery if I could completely submerge my phone in water. Maybe when they get rid of the charging port.
- mauriciob 1y agoReminds me of the fun times of dropping the phone and having the phone go to one side, battery to the other and back cover to a third place.
- NikolaNovak 1y agoPseudo-scientifically, it always seemed that worked to dissipate impact kinetic energy - I dropped my s2 and s5 a million times and picked up the parts with no damage. The more modern phones don't fall apart, they just crack :-(
- bartekrutkowski 1y agoYou can submerge recent iPhones completely in water for few years now. Every year I make some quite fun and surprisingly looking underwater pictures with mine, that's just fine afterwards given I'm still able to write this comment on it.
- mountainriver 1y agoI think they are appealing to the Razor crowd /s
- NetMageSCW 1y agoHey, that was me at one time! But the iPhone’s technology advantages put me in the road to bigger and thicker phones.
- mountainriver 1y agoNot hating, the Razor was rad for its time!
- tqi 1y agoSome people will like the way it looks, have money, and don't care as much about overall performance/utility. Much in the same way a Rolex and Timex both tell time.
- Spooky23 1y agoThey’ve shrunk the phone so much that the bump is the computer + optics, strapped to a screen and battery. The Air and Pro are essentially the same with a different skin. It’s a big deal imo as the phone itself is practically modular. It’s pretty brilliant as they can make the computer part in China and Taiwan and probably ship that unit to various locales for different form factors.
- uni_baconcat 1y agoEasy. Top part is not where people holding their phones.
- smeeger 1y agoit is the precipice of stupidity. making an ugly, mis-shaped phone and calling it thinner than ever. its fugly. just make the guts thinner and use the extra space for more battery. thats what everyone wants. but apple wont do it because they arent brave anymore. they arent brave enough to stick out
- yoz-y 1y agoAlmost every statement with “every” in it is false. No it’s not what everyone wants and I’m quite sure this phone will sell.
- MagicMoonlight 1y agoYou don’t hold the camera bump…
- jbs789 1y agoI liked the older thinner phones for the pocket-ability. Less of an issue with jeans but more so with lighter shorts or suits etc
- teekert 1y agoThey sacrificed size for battery life, just like with the mini models, just in another dimension. Since the minis were cancelled I expect this model to undergo the same fate. Maybe it's just an experiment? Call it an A-B test.
- pllbnk 1y agoEven more annoyingly, the bump is non-uniform with lens extruding even further from the entire bump. I have been annoyed by this design ever since they started with it. The last phone the design of which brought joy for me was my OnePlus 3T - thin and light. It also had the camera bump though which I would gladly sacrifice even if it meant a lower quality camera. On the other hand, I suppose they could just insert a thicker battery and make the whole phone a bit thicker but remove the bump.
- camillomiller 1y agoIt's more about physics than hope. There's not much you can do with lenses miniaturization after a certain point (which we already reached). The result is more and more computational stuff, which Apple does somewhat gracefully, but still in a way that sets the iPhone photos apart from a camera, and not in a good way.
- rpozarickij 1y agoThe good thing about the bump is that it should make it easier to pick up the phone from a desk. The size and weight of the phone does look tempting, but its battery life is a deal breaker for me. I'm pretty sure there's no way its built-in speakers could possibly match those in the Pro models, which is also very important to me.
- linuxftw 1y agoPerhaps being thinner allows for people to put their phone into an external case, the combined size which is approximately the bulk of the current generation.
- ultramann 1y agoI currently have a 14 pro. I use a MagSafe wallet with it (holds three cards). This allows me a not crazy, but fairly uniform, thick single object I have to grab when I leave the…anywhere. While this might not work for everyone, it works great for me. I’m potentially considering the air because wasted z-axis space the camera bump creates, I’d use with a MagSafe wallet again, so it wouldn’t be wasted for me. I like that the built in battery is likely sufficient for a day of my use, but can be easily extended with the MagSafe battery on days where I know I’ll be using more juice, e.g. when traveling. None of these things are unique to the air; instead the overall thickness which results from my usage is the differentiator, from which I think I might derive value.
- mvkel 1y agoIt exists because it is likely the first volley in a push to a foldable phone. It's the same thickness as one half of the foldable phones on the market. I am personally interested because I have found iPhones to be offensively bulky for... 10+ years, and this has the potential to feel differently.
- goldrake 1y agoIt probably fits better in the front pocket of one’s trousers. And if so, that’s great news.
- losvedir 1y agoI'm interested in it. I have an iPhone 11 and have been looking to update. I don't use a case. It looks pretty cool, I guess? Do you need more of a reason than that to have anything more than an iPhone 11, heh?
- SequoiaHope 1y agoHonestly with rumors of a folding iPhone coming out in 1-2 years it makes me wonder if the primary drive is to experiment with thinner production hardware so that a folding phone isn’t super thick.
- WhyNotHugo 1y ago> Can someone that is actually interested in this explain the appeal? It looks really cool Yeah, it has a bump. Thicker phones have a bump too. It's still less volume in your pocket. Also, it looks really cool.
- pdimitar 1y agoI literally almost got an injury from using my iPhone 12 Pro Max while laying on the side on the bed for the last few years -- it's too heavy. I had to do various therapies to stop feeling pain. It's almost 230g and I also have an Urban Armor Gear case that adds a little bit. iPhone Air is at 165g. I'll get ~72% of the weight and be able to comfortably use the device without getting tired. Sample size of one and all that apply, of course.
- chipsrafferty 1y agoWhat if there was a phone that was completely weightless and didn't take up any space at all