“Apple is cooking up such an iPhone upgrade path, with a wave of rumors warning the next iteration will be faster, thinner, and possibly even curvier than before,” Jonny Evans writes for Computerworld.
“If you own an Apple Watch or have spent any time looking at the teardowns on this product then you’ll already know that the technology inside the device is squeezed inside a System in Package design,” Evans writes. “It seems Apple may adopt a similar approach to a future iPhone, according to the China Times. Even if Apple’s engineers then choose to maintain the same chassis design they will have more available space in which to squeeze new batteries or new network equipment in order to introduce support for other communication standards – essential if Apple ever decides to offer its own satellite iPhone services. Or it could just make even thinner iPhones.”
MacDailyNews Take: We’d rather have more battery, please. No need for a combination iPhone/trowel, thanks.
Evans writes, “That’s not the only Apple Watch tech you can expect to find in the next iPhone – Force Touch and use of metal alloys developed for the wearable device are also expected to feature, as previously reported here. And don’t neglect those camera improvements.”
More reasons why you’re going to want the next-gen iPhone in the full article here.
In respect of battery life I tend to find that most of the time when I get home I’m on 30-45% battery, but if I’ve been out during the day, or don’t go straight home I often run out. Larger battery would be nice, but frankly I’d rather have a substantial bump in the size of the battery (even at the expense of size) than a couple of percent or something. If they theoretically doubled (for the sake of stating an amount) the battery life on the iPhone 6 upgrade by way of smaller internals and possibly making it as thick as the 6 plus, that would be amazing because it would not only allow far heavier usage during the day, but on most days would mean you could forget to charge it overnight and still get through the next day.
With devices now being so thin to start with, an extra mm of thickness would actually represent a fair percentage increase in internal space whilst still not making it thick, so with a commensurate increase in battery life would definitely be a trade off I’d consider.
There is a trade-off in thickness in regards to device rigidity as well (i.e. “Bendgate”) so a slightly thicker drive with better battery life would be nice, and stronger. Thin for thin’s design sake is not the be-all and end-all. It must be tempered with better functionality, features and battery life. Captain Obvious has spoken.
Thank you, Captain Obvious. Too bad Apple doesn’t see the obvious sometimes. We love that it is soooo thin, but have wanted better batteries for quite some time, and your solution is… obvious. 🙂
It’s not quite that simple, though. Adding significant battery also mean significantly more damage due to deceleration forces when the device is inevitably dropped. To combat those increased forces, the device has to be stronger and more rigid, which means additional size and weight. Product design and engineering of a device as complex as an iPhone is a delicate balancing act.
That said, I’d certainly support additional battery life if at all possible if it doesn’t compromise weight or durability too much.
I’d rather have a camera that didn’t protrude than a better camera. The iPhone 6 takes fantastic photos, if you need higher quality than what it already does, why are you using a phone to take pictures?
Actually my ideal solution would be to thicken the case so that the camera is flush with it and then fill up the extra space with a larger custom-shaped battery.
I don’t think that an extra few tenths of a millimetre would worry too many people, but keeping the excellent camera and also boosting endurance and having a flush lens would be a great outcome.
I have a Apple leather case on my iPhone 6 and it covers the camera perfectly. IMO the camera is a non-issue.
Having a Apple Watch extends my battery charge often to two days.
I’m another one who is keen to have more battery capacity.
Most of the time the battery lasts for an entire working day, but sometimes I work long days ( 12-14 hours ) at events and it isn’t practical to plug the phone into a wall socket as I’m always on the move. The one time when I can absolutely guarantee to want to use my iPhone is at the end of one of those long days and of course that’s just when it packs up.
WATCH is the solution to the need for longer battery life.😃
If Apple can squish the components more, to slide in a few more battery layers.. and with their cool Aluminum make it stronger and thinner, works for me…
Why not offer satellite communications? Then buy SiriusXM claiming it will offer Beats 1 as a channel… rework the tired old SiriusXM interface so that it communicates with your iPhone (think ‘Buy Now’ buttons).
All the while Apple could secretly be planning on offering a Satellite phone service with WiFi fallback phone and WiFi data. And offer the phone service cheaper (or on par) with existing phone plans.
Then create a series of ‘bundles’ one of which would include the Apple TV channels. Of course, all search would go through the new Siri Search… bypassing Google.
Agreed. More battery. No trowel.
(However, a pepper grinder would be really cool!)
I don’t know why they don’t go ahead and make it thinner (if they can) and increase the weight just a tad (if necessary) to reinforce the two long ends internally so it’s less bendy.
As with all new iterations of Apple products or new releases, I wait until Version 2.0 comes out a year later. It’s always faster, more better in a dozen ways, sometimes thinner, and the same freakin’ price!
I’ll buy a new iPhone the moment Apple releases a new one with a 3.5″ screen. Not before.
I’d pay extra for a thicker phone with double battery life too.
That will never happen. The last iPhone to have a 3.5″ screen was the iPhone 4S. (The iPhone 5 and 5S had a 4-inch screen). Apple will never make another 3.5″ screen phone. It’s just too small.
When you’ve gotten used to the 6 Plus 5.5″ screen the old 4S 3.5″ screen seems ridiculous.👀😱
“Apple will never make another 3.5″ screen phone. It’s just too small.”
It’s just that kind of arrogance that will seal Apple’s fate as another has been. Hopefully Apple won’t listen to the likes of Jooop, but will listen to the few million customers who actually want a small phone, and are willing to pay full price for it.
Oh, fer cryin’ out loud! I just bought my iPhone 6 a month ago, and already, I’m being told to be unhappy and go get another one! I fart in their general direction!
haha… they wish. Love the 6 plus.
The need for a bigger battery is to cover those occasions when you go out and overnight somewhere else. You dont want to take any cables and plugs but nor do you want to discover when you wake up next morning that no one can get in touch and you are staring at a blank screen for the next 4 or 5 hours.
I don’t think a bigger battery can possibly be bigger enough to support the day-and-a-half-plus scenario you mentioned. If most people can get 12 hours (give or take) on a single charge, a larger battery would need to 2-3 times the size/capacity. That’s not going to happen.
If you regularly need that much capacity, then you should look at an external battery case, or you can throw the phone into airplane mode when you’re not using it and only check it periodically. Expecting a modern smart phone with all its power and connectivity to last almost two days just isn’t really realistic.
Thank you captain obvious. I always dump every iPhone for the next generation on day one.
Me 2
Re: battery life. I’ve been getting a day and a half or so. I recently upgraded to the iOS9 beta for a try. The utterly terrible battery life made me revert to iOS8.3 again, which I reinstalled from a backup.
The wipe/reinstall also got me back 2GB in junk space and now my iPhone 6 lasts 1/2 a day more on average, and regularly makes it into day 3. It’s a pain re-entering some passwords and setting up TouchID again, but well worth trying if you’re having space/power issues.