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Bigger, stronger iPhone could add Force Touch and battery life, eliminate #bendgate and camera bump

iphone-6-protruding-camera

A new report today adds to a recent note from KGI analyst Ming-Chi Kuo claiming an upcoming next-gen iPhone could include stronger aluminum adopted from the Apple Watch and potentially increase slightly in size to accommodate new components. Macotakara details the report noting that the next iPhone would be approximately 0.15mm longer and 0.2mm thicker, which isn’t much, but that could offer hints at what other changes Apple will make in the process…

The increase in thickness is likely to accommodate the addition of Force Touch, the new pressure sensitive touchscereen tech that makes Apple Watch’s display clickable. We reported last month that iOS 9 showed hints at Apple’s plans for bringing the tech to a next-generation iPhone and possibly using it to enhance iMessage, keyboard, and Apple Pay.

Although, a thicker iPhone could hint at other possibilities for the design of the new iPhones. While it will only be a slight increase according to today’s report, with a slimmer, upgraded camera module, Apple (combined with an upgraded camera) could potentially get rid of the unsightly camera bump that many complained about when the current iPhone 6 and 6 Plus were introduced. An earlier report from KGI’s Ming-Chi Kuo detailed some of the expected spec bumps and Rose Gold color option for the new iPhone, including an upgraded camera likely increasing to 12MP alongside upgraded RAM and other new components.

A slightly thicker iPhone combined with smaller, more efficient internals and better battery chemistry could also improve the iPhone 6’s battery life. While the iPhone 6 Plus lasts much over a day in typical usage, one of the few complaints about the iPhone 6 is the sacrificing battery for “thinnovation”.

Lastly, the report today claims Apple has plans to bring the 7000 Series aluminum it’s using for Apple Watch to the next-generation of iPhones expected this fall. That’s not an entirely new claim, however, as previous reports have mentioned the possibility of the stronger (bendgate-proof?) aluminum coming to future iPad models as well. Stronger aluminum means less bending.

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Comments

  1. sendingitagain - 9 years ago

    This would be great!

  2. jaydenirwin - 9 years ago

    Please no! I want a thinner iPhone!

  3. rogifan - 9 years ago

    Did that many people really complain about the camera bump? My guess is most people don’t really care. I have my phone in one of Apple’s silicon cases and I never notice the camera.

    • Atlas (@Metascover) - 9 years ago

      That you don’t care doesn’t mean it’s not a problem. Apple is known for its amazing designs and that bump is an ugly compromise.

      Also, are there silicon cases for the 6?

      • rogifan - 9 years ago

        Yes there are silicon cases for the 6.

      • jimr450 - 9 years ago

        It’s not a “problem” for anyone. It’s simply a super minor aesthetic annoyance. The word problem is far too strong. In any case, it just shows how demanding Apple customers can be. Seems like Samsung customers couldn’t care less that their phone has a camera bump 3 times as thick. In reality, neither are a “problem”.
        But of course, not having any protrusion would be ideal. :)

      • dcj001 - 9 years ago

        “Also, are there silicon cases for the 6?”

        No. But there are silicone cases for the 6.

    • Ryan - 9 years ago

      I dont use a case on mine, so it’s a slight annoyance every blue moon. Other than that, I don’t really care.

    • jamessmooth - 9 years ago

      I don’t think most people care either. Love the silicone Apple cases!

    • Danny Guerra - 9 years ago

      I really dislike the bump…can’t really go careless without feeling weird about having he camera lens being the first point of contact when I lay it down…and yes, I’m aware that it’s made of sapphire…

  4. William Robinson - 9 years ago

    How does this help with “battery issues”? Is the article implying a slightly bigger battery?

    • Jeff Colvin (@jeffcolv) - 9 years ago

      A bigger phone would allow for a bigger battery.

    • Igor Magnani - 9 years ago

      Yes, more room for battery.

    • tylercohn - 9 years ago

      I’m assuming a slightly larger batter due to a slightly larger body and thinner, updated internals. On top of that, iOS 9 will be less taxing on the batter

      • jprice02 - 9 years ago

        Mmmmm fried iPhone

    • macmaniman - 9 years ago

      I’m with you, if the next one really is 0.2mm thicker, that won’t change the battery size!

    • o0smoothies0o - 9 years ago

      Putting a bigger battery in would be a mistake, because the iPhone 7 will be thinner and then you’ll lose that extra battery and everyone will complain even more.

  5. Piotr Kleina - 9 years ago

    Wasn’t the aluminium apple watches very scratchable?

    • Atlas (@Metascover) - 9 years ago

      No it’s not, it’s just another stupid lie about Apple products.

      • lkrupp215 - 9 years ago

        Witness the power of the collective insanity of the Internet. If three people have the same problem or complaint it instantly becomes pandemic and a major design flaw. I love the posts that start with “I didn’t do anything. It just up and scratched itself for no reason.” Then there’s the “I’m very careful about this sort of thing, very protective of my beautiful gadgets but..”

      • Piotr Kleina - 9 years ago

        Looks like I confused aluminium with stainless steel. Even 9to5mac wrote about these apple watches to be very scratchable.

    • jimr450 - 9 years ago

      No, not at all. The polished steel Watch model can more easily get minor surface scratches, but those aren’t actually inside the metal (unless you try to scratch it or drop it on concrete) but rather scratches in the surface polish which can be buffed out at home. The problem with polished metal is that it’s nearly impossible to keep it perfect for long since the polished look is the result of an incredibly smooth surface. Anything can mar such a smooth surface. This is why while aluminum is technically softer than 316 stainless steel, the bead blasted and anodized surface finish of the aluminum Watch Sport is far less susceptible to wear and tear scratching, etc.
      I can speak to all of this as I work in manufacturing and deal with surface finishes and metal grades all day long.

      • macmaniman - 9 years ago

        new trend, every clam should come with a proper job description and how you know it!

    • srgmac - 9 years ago

      I have the aluminum Apple Watch Sport — it’s very scratch resistant, even moreso than the higher end stainless steel models.

    • It’s surprisingly scratch resistant. I’ve been wearing the watch during heavy lifting at the gym for a month now, not a single scratch (aluminium or glass).

  6. mytawalbeh - 9 years ago

    Well that looks interesting!

  7. davidt4n - 9 years ago

    For the camera bump issue, Xiaomi’s latest flagship Mi Note Pro already solved it few months after iPhone 6 launched while making fun at Apple during their keynote. Also, I don’t really care because I will have case on my iPhone after all. Force Touch is a great addition but to me, the new iPhone should faster with double RAM and hopefully double the battery life.

    • irelandjnr - 9 years ago

      Nice dual flash there, Xiaomi. Hopefully you can combine them on your next attempt to play catch up. I’m not saying the photos with this new Xiaomi are not good but I’ll reserve judgement until I see them. Double the battery on 6s? Climb down off that cloud. Double the RAM is pretty much all but guaranteed at this point.

  8. incredibilistic - 9 years ago

    Kinda surprised they’re doing this now and save Force Touch for the iPhone 7 but I’ll take it. I’m more curious what developers will do with it.

    The camera bump doesn’t really bother me but it’ll be nice when it lays completely flat again. Frankly I’m still nostalgic for the iPhone 5 design. Arguably the best designed iPhone so far.

    • irelandjnr - 9 years ago

      > Kinda surprised they’re doing this now

      Whoa horsey. We don’t know that yet. This article is full of speculation if you reread it.

    • macmaniman - 9 years ago

      in my opinion the 5S is without a doubt the best designed iphone! or any phone for that matter, the build quality.. the heft… damn i miss my 5S

      • Greg Kaplan (@kaplag) - 9 years ago

        I think the 4/4s was the best designed, at least aesthetically. Using actual steel looks and wears much better than “space grey” (aka knockoff-steel color) aluminum. Then there is the back of the phone, the two tone looks alright, but not as nice as a full glass back, though way better than the franken-whale back of the iPhone 6. The 6 is such a butterback.

    • o0smoothies0o - 9 years ago

      iPhone 6S and iPhone 6S Plus get force touch and taptic which sets up the iPhone 7 with the removal of the home button. Force touch and taptic will pave the way for it, Apple plans things out way ahead, just as the iPhone 5S got Touch ID which was fully intended for Pay in the iPhone 6. My guess is that the iPhone 7 will have the same display the apple watch is using, with increased resolution, and dramatically reduced bezels, going clear to the bevel on the sides, and clear to the corners on the top and bottom, leaving room for a single row of camera, flash, proximity sensor, ambient light sensor, and speaker at the top, and the bottom will be symmetrical to that. Force Touch anywhere on the sleeping display provides taptic and wakes the phone up, and Touch ID in the display instantly takes you in. It’s really just a matter of whether or not they’ll be able to build Touch ID into the display then or not.

      • Greg Kaplan (@kaplag) - 9 years ago

        I’m thinking the same thing, but what will happen to the other home button functions?

        Home, siri, and reachability all need to be system wide actions that don’t interfere with app functions.

        Do you picture they would bring back a printed white home icon on the bottom bezel? It would be capacitive with force touch but not be apart of screen… Or I guess it could be if it was OLED like the apple watch and the home button area could have a more dynamic UI. Maybe it looks different when siri is active. Double light tapping bottom gets reachability, force touching it does home, force touch further to access siri?

      • iphone6splus - 9 years ago

        They need physical home buttons for restarting frozen phone.

      • Greg Kaplan (@kaplag) - 9 years ago

        iphone6splus, couldn’t they just make it any other physical button combo? I really don’t think it’s that important.

      • Piotr Kleina - 9 years ago

        I don’t believe apple is going to get rid of home button. Iphones without it won’t be iphones anymore, it’s too iconic to disappear.

    • Greg Kaplan (@kaplag) - 9 years ago

      I think the 5’s design was Jony’s experiment with pushing how far he could make the hardware disappear so the device was only screen. It was a cool idea but I think they changed it because it went against another design principle. It wasn’t true to it’s materiality. You can see where this problem quite literally showed through when the 5 started getting worn a bit. Matte black finish scraped off, revealing the material’s natural form. They adjusted this in the 5s by making the color options decidedly metallic.

      I think it was conceptually a mistake too. Although we mostly use the screen the device as a physical object is important. It needs to be treated with equal respect. I think the apple watch is really the perfect marriage of the ideas he was playing with. The screen and the body are able to be treated as equals but their boundaries are blurred.

      The iPhone 6 trying the same concept. You can see it in original print ads that chose wallpapers with flowers floating in the middle of full black or white backgrounds. Before that the wallpapers featured in ads were usually full bleed. I just think the back of the 6 is meh. They should have owned the division lines instead of trying to make it blend. Like the gold one got it right by making the lines white. The silver and space grey bands are making the mistake of trying to look like the same color of the metal.

  9. kadajsouba - 9 years ago

    They need to increase battery life! They keep adding features to the system, but you can’t activate them all without killing your battery. Instead of deciding which feature is useful to me, i have to decide which ones consume less battery, and this is really killing my experience with the iPhone.

    • PhilBoogie - 9 years ago

      -1

    • tmrjij718 - 9 years ago

      -15
      Why 15? Because that’s how many hours my iPhone 6 lasts

      • jimr450 - 9 years ago

        Yeah, I’ve never killed my iPhone 6 in a single day no matter how much I used it. If you do, and don’t have a lemon, then you need to look the F up and live life outside of a screen a little more, LOL.

      • kadajsouba - 9 years ago

        15 hours of pure usage time on Iphone 6? I don’t believe it. The most I’ve been able to extract from the battery is 8 hours of usage, and the common denominator is around that. Do tou use it on greyscale and minimum brightness or what?

      • macmaniman - 9 years ago

        thats no way in hell.. maybe 15 hours standby!

        the other day i charged my phone twice in one day, never had to do that with any phone prior to 6.

        but then again that depends on what you do.. do you use it solely as a phone?

      • standardpull - 9 years ago

        Although I am a heavy user and charge up my phone no more than once every 24-36 hours,some users require more charging. The devil is in the details. I have no doubt that a user can repeatedly exhaust their battery of any device in a few hours.

        You have to remember that battery life is not the same for everyone. Let’s say you live in LTE fringeland. Then your cell radio is going to be working a lot harder. Or you live in WIFI Village, an apartment community filled with tech geeks, with 100+ chatty WIFI radios around, and its always connecting via 802.11g – when it can connect. Again, your phone is going to be working a ton harder.

        Or let’s say you love to play a game that makes very heavy use of all resources while playing some tunes via Pandora. Or you jailbreak your phone and install an app with poor internal practices.

        Those are cases where battery life will certainly suffer, and maybe result in half or even less of what a normal user would experience.

    • o0smoothies0o - 9 years ago

      STOP USUNG FACEBOOK. This is the key. Get a life and stop using one of the worst ideas ever, Facebook.

      • o0smoothies0o - 9 years ago

        How does it not autocorrect usung? Haha sad.

  10. 89p13 - 9 years ago

    Bending . . . . What is this bending of which you speak?

    Oh – the Shamesung Fan-Boi thing that was rapidly dispelled. So last year!

  11. chrisl84 - 9 years ago

    Doubt it, 9to5 reports in a weeks plans put on hold due to production problems….expect to see in iPhone 7 instead.

  12. irelandjnr - 9 years ago

    It’s not clear here if these suggestions are Ming’s or yours. There’s a hell of a lot of coulds there.

    • rogifan - 9 years ago

      Ming didn’t say the camera bump would be gone. It’s just speculation on 9to5Mac’s part.

      • irelandjnr - 9 years ago

        So include a question mark the title then.

  13. lkrupp215 - 9 years ago

    “bendgate-proof?” Really, you need to check the potency of that hemp you’re smoking. Nothing will stop the bendgate meme. It’s in the lexicon and some fool will always figure out how to bend their phone. Fools are very innovative when it comes to stupidity.

  14. If they are brining so many changes to the next iPhone then surely it won’t be called iPhone 6s but rather just ‘The New iPhone’ or something along the lines.

    • Igor Magnani - 9 years ago

      Of course not. All the cool tech comes out on S models. Siri, Touch ID, 64-bit architecture, Co-processor for movement tracking, dual flash and a bunch of other stuff. Why wouldn’t they put force touch on the 6S?
      The “number” models are all about design, so all the posers go for the innovative design and pay extra for the same thing, just because it looks different. I upgrade from S to S.
      Tell me if there’s any difference cooler than the ones I used as examples from the 5S to the 6.
      Better camera? That’s a constant in every new model. Slight processor and RAM upgrade? Maybe. And that’s basically it. Nothing has really changed besides the design, just a couple slight improvements.

      • Pep Rodeja Ferrer - 9 years ago

        I find screen size something worth changing for.

      • srgmac - 9 years ago

        One thing that pisses me off to no end about the 5S though is that while it supports TouchID it doesn’t support ApplePay — not even the in-app version of Apple Pay — which IMHO makes no sense because that doesn’t require NFC to function, it only requires the TouchID hardware, which it has. It was great that the 5S got a 64-bit CPU — that stunned the world pretty much, Apple came out with a 64-bit CPU about a year before everyone thought they would.

      • jimr450 - 9 years ago

        I agree, the S is the better model, but you do have to keep in mind that people generally update on a 2 year cycle and even if they are on the non S cycle, they get all the cool updates from the previous S model, plus the new design so they are happy as well. So it all depends on how you look at it.
        But I think the reason to get the S models is because so far I’ve found the non S models tend to have physical design bugs which always get ironed out in the S model.

        For instance:
        iPhone 4 – antennaGate (overblown, but still was a thing)
        iPhone 4S – antenna’s worked better than ever!
        iPhone 5 – dust under the camera lens cover (I got 2 free replacements due to this issue).
        iPhone 5S – no dust under the redesigned camera lens cover, problem solved.
        iPhone 6 – front facing camera “crescent” issue.
        iPhone 6S – bet you any money this problem will be solved.

        For me, the more refined hardware is the most important reason to stick to the S upgrades.
        But I don’t practice what I preach and have gotten the newest iPhone each year since the iPhone 3GS LOL. I’m just terrible.

  15. Ryan - 9 years ago

    I just got out my micrometers and looked at how big 0.2 mm is….it’s so small, I don’t think anyone would even notice at all, even when comparing side by side.

  16. Ryan Morano - 9 years ago

    Well now we all know what Samsung campaigns will be about come the next generation, the 0.2mm thickness increase.

    • jimr450 - 9 years ago

      And then the generation after that, Samsung’s GS7 will have the same or thinner thickness, LOL.
      Remember when Samsung was insulting Apple users as “wall huggers”… and now their GS6 battery life isn’t much if at all better than iPhone’s since they made it so thin without a removable back?
      Fucking Samsung…lol.

  17. Greg Kaplan (@kaplag) - 9 years ago

    “We reported last month that iOS 9 showed hints at Apple’s plans for bringing the tech to a next-generation iPhone and possibly using it to enhance iMessage, keyboard, and Apple Pay.”

    How would it enhance apple pay? Are they going to drop the metal ring and make it an on screen function? Wasn’t that a patent a while ago? It would be great to force touch anywhere on screen to unlock and then to force touch an on screen button for apple pay dialogues.

    • Greg Kaplan (@kaplag) - 9 years ago

      It would be good to decouple apple pay and touch ID from the home button. If the requirements were just a force touch surface and the fingerprint reader tech. It would work great for the laptop trackpads. Maybe with the security improvements in bluetooth 4.2 they could maybe use it for the magic trackpads too.

      • srgmac - 9 years ago

        I think the ultimate iPhone would somehow integrate TouchID into the display itself along with having ForceTouch capabilities. I don’t think they will be able to do the TouchID / Display integration on this next model, but ForceTouch seems very likely :)

  18. On a 6Plus, I’d take a 1mm increase in thickness if it also came with a 5mm decrease in width and 10mm decrease in height – without altering the screen dimensions.

  19. daving313 - 9 years ago

    The phone will be 3% bigger in thickness, are people really expecting dramatic battery gains because of that? Any battery gains will be in the CPU and iOS9 mostly, not a 3% bigger battery.

    • Greg Kaplan (@kaplag) - 9 years ago

      On top of that they will be putting in the force touch sensors which is probably the entire reason why it’s getting thicker. I also imagine that there will be a different haptic feedback than the normal vibration, but Apple has been discouraging devs from using the vibration motor because of its toll on battery, will it suddenly open that up now with force touch? How will that effect battery?

      • charilaosmulder - 9 years ago

        I really hope they won’t let devs do anything with Force Touch. I hope it is a replacement for longpress and keyboard clicking sounds, both of which are system features that can be easily adapted in third party apps. Any other use defined by devs might kill battery faster and make Force Touch feel inconsistent

      • Greg Kaplan (@kaplag) - 9 years ago

        The future of interaction design isn’t going to be a faster long press interaction. There can APIs for making cookie cutter app designs where it will be very consistent but its true potential lies in custom interactions with access to the pressure sensors. The possibilities are so great. Drawing apps with pressure sensitive brushes. Music creation apps with a human touch. Racing games with pressure gas pedals. You can’t even imagine how awesome the apps that devs could make will be.

        It’s in most devs best interest to be consistent where it makes sense but having access to a new sensor allows for innovation.

  20. srgmac - 9 years ago

    I thought #bendgate wasn’t real and was just something on the interwebz that fandroids made up? :P
    /sarcasm — Thankfully Apple is acknowledging the problem and fixing it. Force touch would be awesome as well…Maybe this year I won’t skip the next iPhone iteration and upgrade from my 5S.

  21. Matt - 9 years ago

    Get rid of the camera bump, stronger aluminum, better camera, faster processor, better battery, and force touch. I’d update for this.

    • o0smoothies0o - 9 years ago

      I don’t understand how everyone can go on and on about how much they want a better battery and no one made a HUGE deal out of iOS 9s battery improvements… An extra hour is insanely great for software only improvements, not to mention low power mode for even more… Low power mode will be what helps most people, because most people don’t understand what kills their battery, and low power mode kills what kills their battery, like Facebook in the background, bye, bye.

      • William Robinson - 9 years ago

        The adjustments Low Power mode makes are all preferences I’ve already made. Some folks are aware of what’s eating their battery life, and there have been many articles on-line explaining how to avoid it. What iOS9 is supply is a simple path, a preference setting rather than a half dozen settings.

  22. bloodymerzkizzoid - 9 years ago

    Add a Space Black color option same as the watch. :)

Author

Avatar for Jordan Kahn Jordan Kahn

Jordan writes about all things Apple as Senior Editor of 9to5Mac, & contributes to 9to5Google, 9to5Toys, & Electrek.co. He also co-authors 9to5Mac’s Logic Pros series.