charlesn

SiTime said:

I’m leaning towards the iPhone 17 Air as my next phone. But not for the thinness or anything like that. It’s specifically the C1 modem. For specific international cellular network compatibility travel reasons, the C1 modem is more useful for me than the Qualcomm modem. 

Can you say more about systems with which the C1 would be compatible, but Qualcomm not... and why? Not suggesting that this isn't true, just really surprising and I'm curious. 

chasm said:

I certainly "get" the appeal of a lighter/thinner iPhone, but I'm definitely not the target market. The current iPhone weighs (to me) next to nothing in my pants pocket or jacket pocket, but makes available a shockingly great camera system (I have a 16 Pro) that this future iPhone will mostly lack, though I'm sure the 2-in-1 camera Apple recently developed for the 16e will be similar to what's used in any forthcoming "thinner" iPhone.

I don't think most people appreciate how "shockingly great" the camera system is on iPhone--and, to be fair, other premium smartphones. Having ditched Nikon professional cameras and lenses to focus on iPhone photography exclusively, I'm constantly amazed that I can be carrying the photographic capabilities I have with the 16 Pro in a back pocket. Does it match the quality of my Nikon equipment? Of course not. But it's 7 ounces vs a 20-lb camera bag and I'm a big believer that the best camera is the one you always have with you. If the rumors turn out to be true, and the Slim gets an all-new single lens that covers the whole range of both the ultrawide and main lenses of current iPhones, I'll be curious to see how well it performs in a challenging range that almost demands compromises in optical performance. 

That said about the hardware, I'm not nearly as happy with Apple's "advances" over the years in how it processes photos--and I'm hardly alone in criticizing what has become known as an "iPhoney" look to photos. I was actually reminded of this just yesterday when a friend shot a photo of my wife and me at a theatrical with her phone and as soon as she showed me the image I said, "That's an older iPhone, isn't it?" Indeed, it was a 7. And the image was beautiful--no, it didn't have the nth degree of resolution and sharpness of my 16 Pro, but it looked much natural and pleasing to my eye. More like film than digital. Overall, I think the more Apple works to "advance" its processing to deliver "perfect" photos in any lighting, the more it strips away the artifacts and "defects" that make an image look like what I saw. In my fantasy, Apple cuts a deal with Fuji to license its processing algorithms used on cameras like the X-100 series, similar to licensing deals other phone makers have cut for lenses with Hasselblad and Leica. But the key word in that sentence is "fantasy." 

mpantone said:

henrybay said:

Apple should make a smaller phone, like the iPhone 13 mini, not a thinner one. 

That era is over.

Apple knows exactly how many iPhone 12 mini and iPhone 13 mini units were sold and in what markets. They also know that their main competitors don't market smartphones in that size anymore. The handful of people like us (I'm still clinging to my iPhone 12 mini as my daily driver) moaning about it on online Q&A forums, social media, whatever aren't enough to change Apple's product roadmap.

It would have to take a major shift in overall consumer trends to see a significant group clamor for smaller phones. And it's not happening now nor does it look like it's going to happen. Consumers basically want a smartphone with the biggest and brightest screen they can hold in one hand. And clearly human beings are getting larger.

Remember that Apple's iPhones (and those of their competitors) ten years ago were smaller than the ones they market today. Companies need to go where their customers are. The technology is there, the market isn't.

Time to let this go.

And even if there's new battery technology to make an iPhone "Air" a reasonably good performer in terms of battery life, that same technology would definitely come to the primary models (iPhone Pro, regular iPhone) anyhow. Let's remember what hardware consumers really care about in smartphones: display, cameras, and battery life.

Nice (and so unusual!) to read a post from someone who loves and still uses the Mini but also has a rational understanding of why Apple no longer makes it and why it will probably never come back. I have similar feelings towards the Macbook 12" Retina--my fave Apple laptop ever, but alas, I had to let go of my fantasy that it would be revived. 

oberpongo said:

Wonder why the Air would not be as thin as a iPad Pro. 

I'm sure it's about battery life. The M4 iPad Pro's size, even the 11", allows it to fit a sufficiently large battery--for an iPad--in that very thin case: roughly 7,500mAH for the 11", which provides 9 hours of video streaming playback. However, while people accept that for an iPad, it would be atrocious battery life for an iPhone. The regular 16 has a roughly 3,500mAH battery that provides 18 hours of streamed video playback--and most people wish the battery life was better. (I'm using video streamed playback time as a metric because it's the only published metric we have to directly compare battery life of iPad Pro M4 to iPhone 16 when using a cellular network.) 

So then... if the iPhone Air hits the rumored depth of 5.5mm, it will be 30% thinner than iPhone 16--while having the same size display (possibly larger!) and the same functionality. You see the problem here: how does Apple maintain current battery life specs, or at least  come darn close, when there's 30% less volume inside the case? That's already enough of a conundrum to solve without reducing the depth even further to hit the 5.3mm measurement of the Pro 11" M4. 

seoulipsism said:

The only reason why this phone has a reason for being is new battery tech that Apple feels is ready for prime time and probably a new dual camera set up disguised as a single lens. Not to mention the already proven in the wild C1 modem that will add to battery performance. I’m sure Apple has also figured out how to make this phone as rigid as possible without bending, so new materials tech had to be invented for the casing as well. I guess the future is here. Apple should’ve stuck it to EU regulators and have gotten rid of the USB-C port as well. The future is MagSafe.

Welcome and nice to see your first post! Seems unlikely that Apple would have new battery tech that no one else is even talking about, let alone using. My guess is that they've figured out innovative power management--and certainly the C1 will help with that. I'm really interested to see the new tech behind the rumored single lens that will cover the range of the ultrawide and wide lenses. Up til now, I couldn't figure how they were going to sell a premium=priced iPhone with only the main (wide) lens. And yes, Magsafe/wireless charging is the future, especially if Apple hopes to achieve the "single slab of glass" phone. The thickness required to accommodate a USB-C port is now the impediment to the phone getting any significantly thinner. 

mpantone said:

This thin iPhone might get some attention for a few months but soon every Instagram and TikTok influencer is going to wave one on camera yet will be using an iPhone 16 Pro Plus behind the scenes as their daily driver.

I guess you really don't know much about the influencer community. The hot cameras are actually cameras, while iPhone pics are criticized for looking too "iPhone-y" -- which I actually think is a fair criticism of Apple's jpg over-processing in recent years--it didn't used to be this way. The especially hot cameras have been the Fuji X-100 Mark VI, sold out since release and only avail at inflated prices on ebay, or you can go on the perpetual waiting list at B&H. For the less well-heeled, the camera of choice is the Canon G5x II, also sold out except for ebay and waitlisted at B&H. 

mpantone said:

Let's face it, the battery life of this purported iPhone Thin will be worse than what's in the iPhone 16 and 16e. As I mentioned earlier, the 6.3mm thick iPod touch (6th generation) had piss poor battery performance (even with an underclocked CPU) and this rumored thin phone is even thinner than that.

It's not a sure thing that battery life will suck. And citing a discontinued product from 10 years ago isn't a credible example to "prove" that it will. Apple is certainly aware that battery life is a KEY concern--maybe even #1--for iPhone users, and battery life had to be a key challenge to solve in the development of a phone as thin as the Slim. I'm not saying you're definitely wrong about battery life being an issue--no way I can prove that, either--we just don't know yet, either way. 

mpantone said:

I am still clinging on to my trusty iPhone 12 mini. There's an iPhone 16 waiting to replace it but I'm waiting for iOS Software Engineering to clean up iOS 18 to the point that it doesn't suck so much and I can use it as my daily driver. Maybe June.

I'm sorry--you haven't installed iOS 18 yet, but you just "know" that it "sucks so much?" So, from your vantage point of not having used it, what are the problems you've had? I've been using iOS 18 since it dropped last Sept, and the only problem I've experienced was a CarPlay/Mazda glitch that I finally sorted by getting my Mazda software updated. 

mpantone said:

So both the iPhone Fold or iPhone Slim are pretty sketchy rumors. 

The "Fold," yes. No doubt that Apple is researching folding screen technology, but rumors of the iPhone Fold remain sketchy in the sense that the goal posts for its supposed "release" keep getting moved. I could see a folding phone making sense for the Chinese market, which is (or at least was, before Trump) Apple's second largest after the USA. Premium folding phones are a much bigger deal there, and the tech is more advanced than what either Samsung or Google is offering. 

But the Slim/Air is way beyond sketchy rumor. The most respected Apple followers are fully committed that it's coming in Sept -- we're seeing cases for it and the photos in this article. And Samsung's Galaxy Edge launches in June, probably rushed to market in typical Samsung-fashion to beat Apple by a few months--let's hope the first gen doesn't burst into flames like its first gen fold.