From left to right, successors to the iPhone XS, iPhone XR, and iPhone XS Max
Apple seems to be keen on going all in on their least popular iPhone features. They made the notch iconic, part of the device’s branding, much to the dismay of users. Then, with the iPhone 6 the introduced a camera bump. It was met with ridicule. Now, Apple seems to be making that bump larger once again.
Oh, and the next iPhone will also still have those rounded edges everyone hates.
These leaks come from molds used by case manufacturers, which aren’t always reliable. However, adding to their weight is the leaker: Mark Gurman. Gurman currently works for Bloomberg, and has a long history in the Apple news community. His insider information is often spot-on, a large part of the reason he got picked up by Bloomberg, leaving smaller Apple-focused blog 9to5Mac behind.
Gurman believes all the next iPhones will have larger notches, with little else changed.
Looks like we’re in for another year of disappointing iPhone designs.
What Makes This Design Disappointing?
Apple followed this up with the iPhone 5. It was taller and ditched the back glass for aluminum. That iPhone had glass “windows” at the top and bottom for the cellular signal. It was… okay. No iPhone 4, but it had a taller 4″ screen, and that was nice.
Then Apple released the iPhone 6. It had a camera bump on the back reminiscent of a wart or pimple. The iPhone 6 couldn’t lay flat on a table without a case, and would rock back and forth. It featured slippery aluminum on the sides, which, when combined with its rounded shape, it was hard to hold. This was around the time that I started using cases all the time for my phone, as I dropped and broke it within the first few weeks of owning one. This was never a problem for my iPhone 4 or 5.
5 Years Later…
Many years later, we still have that same design. Sure, it’s a larger, taller phone now, but it still has that ugly wart of a camera on the back. It still can’t lay flat. It still has slippery curved sides. Apple brought back the glass back, which was a nice touch, and steel is less slippery than the aluminum. But it’s still nothing like the gorgeous design of the iPhone 4. Apple released the iPhone 4 in 2010, and we haven’t had an iPhone that matched its beauty since.
That’s why this new design is disappointing. Apple had a chance to redesign the iPhone. Instead they took one of its worst aspects and accentuated it.
Camera Bumps
I remember when this tiny bump was a big deal.
If you really think about it, my Canon EOS M3 has a camera bump. As do all my other cameras. What’s wrong with camera bumps? Well, for starters, I never need to put those cameras down on their lenses. If, instead, the base of the camera was uneven, photographers would be unhappy with that model.
Secondly, even if we were to agree to a bump, why not place it in the center of the device? At least line it up so the phone can sit level on a hard surface without a case. You can’t even put your phone down on a table and use it anymore. Not that you could, since Apple introduced Face ID, which struggles to identify users when lying flat on a table. You have to do this awkward thing where you lean over it before you can do anything.
Camera bumps aren’t necessarily bad. We should be celebrating the fact that Apple’s adding a third camera. Will it be a monochrome camera to aid in sharpness of photos? What about a telephoto 10x zoom, like other Android manufacturers have released? Or maybe it’s a super wide angle lens that makes taking landscape shots without stitching photos together a breeze? Who knows? It’ll definitely make the iPhone camera better. But will that larger camera bump make the iPhone a better device? Probably not.
Apple Fan Frustration
Right now, I see so many online communities frustrated. Women are frustrated with laws governing their bodies. LGBTQ people are frustrated to see the rights they fought so hard for being rolled back. Even Game of Thrones fans are frustrated in the direction the show is taking. Everyone’s disappointed. Looking at threads on Reddit and Twitter show that Apple fans are frustrated too. The design of the iPhone hasn’t changed much, and its few changes have not been for the better. The iPhone has become uncomfortable to hold, uncomfortable to use, and looks uneven. And, much like the aforementioned politics and TV shows, things are only going to get worse.
I mean, have you noticed that those renders seem to have raised camera lenses on top of the camera bumps? It’s camera bumps on bumps!
Is it 2020 yet? I want to skip the rest of 2019 and go right to fall of 2020.
Who am I kidding? Apple will likely keep this atrocity for another five years.