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Poll: If the rumors are true, will the redesigned antenna lines transform the iPhone 7’s looks?

iphone-7-mockup

Let’s face it, whatever anyone thinks about the rest of the iPhone 6/6s design, those antenna lines running across the back of the phone have never been popular.

The need for them resulted from Apple’s decision to switch to an all-aluminum casing. Radio signals can’t pass through the metal, so Apple broke up the casing with two plastic strips which are transparent to radio signals.

If the latest claimed chassis images are genuine, this is a design issue Apple aims to fix for the iPhone 7

There’s no sign of the plastic strips running directly across the back, seemingly replaced by curved strips running around the top and bottom of the casing. This would require the antennas to be repositioned within the innards of the device, so it’s by no means certain that the images are real, but if they are it will allow for a much sleeker-looking rear casing.

Reader Veniamin Geskin created some mockup images showing what the finished casing might look like. Personally, I think it’s a huge improvement, and from comments on the original piece, it seems plenty of you agree – so we thought it was time to put that to the test with a poll.

As ever, let us know any additional thoughts in the comments.

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Comments

  1. Alex Moran - 8 years ago

    Fuck that shit. We want a real redesign. Don’t be lazy apple. And give he regular sized phone the full camera treatment as well

    • Ron Cardi (@ROYG_B) - 8 years ago

      I don’t mind these renders. What’s awful is that we’re gonna be stuck with this for another two years.

    • o0smoothies0o - 8 years ago

      What redesign would you like to see? I’ll let you in on a secret:

      The iPhone will be this basic rounded design, or it will go to an iPad/iPod Touch design with the squared front to rounded back, or it will go back to square front and square back, as far as the basic case design goes. There is nothing else to do with it. It can become thinner and possibly change from aluminum and lose the antenna bands altogether, but this is similar to what it will look like for a very long time.

      As far as the front of the device, that is where the redesigning will be biggest from this point on. They will lose the home button and/or majorly reduce bezels. The side bezels will be nonexistent in a few years, and the top and bottom bezels will go to their minimum required amount, which is the point just before the corners begin to curve (despite whatever garbage mockups you see online, intelligent design of a smartphone disallows for the screen to fill the rounded corners of the device, however, it can on the Apple Watch).

    • PMZanetti - 8 years ago

      Lmao. No one cares.

  2. dcj001 - 8 years ago

    For me, antenna lines are irrelevant. They do not affect the functionality of the iPhone. I do not bother to study the back of the iPhone. My iPhone is always in a case

  3. Obviously better looking than the 6 and 6S but not even close to a redesign I would ditch my iPhone 6 for…

  4. viciosodiego - 8 years ago

    Cool it people, those rumors are probably false, because the device isn’t even entering production, and they are still working on the prototype.

    • taoprophet420 - 8 years ago

      They are working on at least 4 prototypes. Some have USC-C headphone ports instead of Loghtning. Rumors of models with the antenna lines completely hidden except for the sides and. Ew material for the chassis.

      • taoprophet420 - 8 years ago

        New

      • Ron Cardi (@ROYG_B) - 8 years ago

        Schematics for the iPhone 6 “leaked” about this time in 2014. Time’s running out to still be playing with prototypes.

      • taoprophet420 - 8 years ago

        Small trial production trials usually start in May with larger ones in late June and July. Component yield rates dictate which direction they go around this time of year.

    • o0smoothies0o - 8 years ago

      They are 99% true given my observations which no one would photoshop into that image. No one.

    • Morris ManUtd - 8 years ago

      its already that far in production so there is a model wich is confirmed to be produced.

  5. David Kaplan - 8 years ago

    Who needs a redesign for the sake of a redesign?….. If they want to make the camera flush and the phone much better I don’t care if it looks the same as it does now… The only people who hunger for a redesign are immature kids who are bored.

    • Ron Cardi (@ROYG_B) - 8 years ago

      Apple also doesn’t need to wait every 2 years to change their design. If they knew people thought the antenna lines and the camera bump were ugly, why the hell didn’t they change it earlier? This should’ve been the 6S.

      • gkbrown - 8 years ago

        The camera bump is annoying, but I wouldn’t call it “ugly”. The antenna lines have never bothered me at all.

    • amazingrugs - 8 years ago

      has nothing to do with wanting a redesign “just cuz.”

      There are a lot of improvements they can make in bezel size and reducing overall footprint. Look at the s7 Edge. Lots of minor changes that add up to a lot. I would love if the iPhone Plus was as sleek as that. The Plus looks like a surfboard next to the s7 Edge.

      • Smigit - 8 years ago

        Indeed. For a company fixated on reducing the size of their devices, the iPhone’s do have rather large bezels. Not that it bothers me too much, but at some point you’d assume they’ll be reduced or outright removed.

    • mytawalbeh - 8 years ago

      We don’t want redesign just for “redesign” ..
      We wish for redesign because we believe that the current one needs enhancements .. you can tell the difference between 5s & 6 designs.

  6. Ilko Sarafski - 8 years ago

    Everyone will agree that this one looks better than 6/6S but I guess that most of the 9to5mac readers will also agree that… well, they don’t give a damn about them. I believe that 90% of us are keeping their phones in cases, which, as was mentioned, makes the antenna lines pretty irrelevant. I see mines once every two weeks or so, when I clean my phone. The thing here is – is Apple going to remain with 6’s design (cause if the rumors are true, that’s not a re-design, it’s more like a cosmetic thing) or it will create something (completely) different? And again – for me personally doesn’t really matter. Currently my 6S looks more like some mid-range Android phone than super unique iPhone. Which it’s ok, I don’t buy an iPhone to brag about it (again, as 90% of your readers, I believe) anyway. There are more things to be improved, so I hope they’ll focus on them! :)

    • taoprophet420 - 8 years ago

      would like to see a poll here on how many people use cases. I only used a case on my 3GS, my 4,5,6 plus i have been caseless. Even though the 6 plus feels like a wet bar of soap.

  7. marcbigio - 8 years ago

    Around this time in 2014 there were two prototypes. The real looking one, and one that was real thin and had no antenna lines that still looked like the phone. This may not be it

    • o0smoothies0o - 8 years ago

      You’ll have to link them, because the leaks I remember we’re on a computer screen similar to this leaked photo and it was 100% accurate and final. I don’t recall a single leak that didn’t have antenna lines. Apple wouldn’t have made a prototype without a vital aspect that they absolutely had to have.

  8. Jono Young (@chsweb) - 8 years ago

    I cannot see any of the images, but I don’t care what it looks like as long as it performs the functions I depend on it for. 99% of the time, it is in my pocket or in a case – the design is 1% important.

  9. pmbonar - 8 years ago

    Let’s see what happens on the other side with the bezels and chassis size. The S7 Edge is an impressive piece of industrial design and packaging compared to the 6S Plus.

    • irelandjnr - 8 years ago

      If you think this http://i.imgur.com/eE2WGAI.jpeg looks better than the iPhone 6 you seriously need your head examined. Gaudy plastic glossy gold front, an incohesive “bar-of-soap-with-headache” shape. “SAMSUNG” written on the front and the rear in far too large and bold font. An unimaginative rear without a hideous camera insert. This company (Samsung) has no taste. If you think this looks better than the 6s you need to go to ID school.

  10. J.latham - 8 years ago

    The antennae lines are better but it doesn’t change that there should be more redesigned on the iPhone at this point. If this is what is released, there won’t really be any reason to upgrade from the 6/6s. There are more functional changes that need to be made at this point IMHO.

  11. uniszuurmond - 8 years ago

    I appreciate the camera again aligning with the radius of the corner, as on the iPhone 4. I also appreciate the removal of the antenna lines across the back. But it doesn’t feel lik it’s enough. I would have preferred a plastic window in a pill shape, much like the iPod touch, which also included the camera (or both) and flash, all in black, with no antenna lines at all.

  12. Greg Kaplan (@kaplag) - 8 years ago

    It’s definitively better from a design perspective. The camera will no longer feel crammed into the tiny space and it opens the back of the phone up. I think it could be further simplified by making the top and bottom caps just plastic so it’s not a line dividing two aluminum sections which adds multiple edges that catch your eye. Maybe I’ll do a mock up at some point to show what I mean/see if I’m wrong about it looking better.

    As for this not being a real redesign… whatever. The iphone’s grown up now. Apple settles on designs for multiple years with other products just focusing on internals – I don’t see why the iphone should be any different. The macbook pro design has been around since mid 2012.

    They may have addressed the two biggest complaints if this is true – less ugly antenna lines and no camera bump. Maybe in 2018 they’ll have some of the other tech ready to do something a little more drastic with the design.

  13. rsnyder6 - 8 years ago

    Maybe they have just grown on me, but I don’t mind the antenna lines. Give the phone some character.

    I still kinda think the design on the 5 was nicer. But people like changes in new phones.

  14. Chris Murphy - 8 years ago

    I’m not sure this article is accurate. The “antenna” lines that run across the back of the iPhone 6/6S are not functional. Only the very top/bottom antenna lines that follow the silhouette of the device are functional antenna lines. This is easily corroborated by looking at the internals of the back casing:
    https://d3nevzfk7ii3be.cloudfront.net/igi/alGVuoVYfFpuqK5o.huge

    Notice the plastic separators are only for the very top and bottom chins of the device. Internally the entire back of the device is one piece of aluminum. All this to say, there was no electrical function to those antenna lines that are being removed in the iPhone 7. So not much engineering was required to remove them.

    • taoprophet420 - 8 years ago

      From earlier rumors the lines are being covered by a new material. I have a feeling the bands are still where they are, you just can’t see them.

      • Chris Murphy - 8 years ago

        I’m not so sure. Like I said, the disappearing lines in the iPhone 7 are not functional in the iPhone 6 anyway. If you rip the plastic material out of that channel, you’ll see that the metal above and below are connected.

  15. Needs to be grippier

    • taoprophet420 - 8 years ago

      Seems like they could have 2 antenna bands on the top and bottom sides like the Galaxy S7 and S7 Edge

    • Inaba-kun (@Inaba_kun) - 8 years ago

      It’s like a bar of soap. Impossible to hold as there’s nothing to grip onto. Also stupidly thin. Nothing that thin is comfortable to pick up. Same is true for the stupid Apple TV siri remote.

      • tomi2711 - 8 years ago

        The Siri remote is one of the most stupidily designed devices ever. So uncomfortable and easy to loose, so fragile and expensive. It just makes me mad to think about it.

      • taoprophet420 - 8 years ago

        Would agree except the iPad Air 2 is 6.1 mm which is what the iPhone & is and is comfortable to hold.

        The iPhone 6 on the other hand feels like wet soap.

  16. Mostafa - 8 years ago

    Yes, much better

  17. Kevin Stuckey - 8 years ago

    Let’s do a redesign like we saw on the iPhone 4S to the iPhone 5. They changed everything from the rear shell material to the internal components layout to the screen size. Everything was redone. Heck, even the iPhone 3G to the iPhone 4 was pretty great too. We went from plastic to glass on the back.

  18. mpias3785 - 8 years ago

    The 6/6s series is the most hideous iPhone design to date. Apple should look back to the 4/4s or 5/5s for design clues rather the flattened suppository look of the 6/6s. And for god’s sake, give it a significantly better battery, screw Ive’s obsession with thin! He should have been institutionalized back when he first suggested the design of the new Mac Pro.

    • lombax54a - 8 years ago

      Yes, we should lock people up for having opinions about designs.

      Apple sold more iPhones last quarter than any in history, I don’t think they’re going to take cues from designs that didn’t sell as well.

      • mpias3785 - 8 years ago

        Apple sells more iPhones every year. I bought the 128GB 6s despite the looks, not because of them. Performance is key and part of that performance is battery life. Ive loves to sacrifice function in favor of form and he hasn’t had someone to tell him “no” since Jobs died. Apple has no visionary at the helm and an out-of-control narcissistic designer wielding way too much control over hardware and software design. The BOD needs to shake things up a bit. I really think Ive has become a serious detriment to Apple in the long term.

      • lombax54a - 8 years ago

        You’re absolutely right.

  19. Ryan Carter - 8 years ago

    I don’t understand why we need antenna bands… I have a gold MacBook and as you all know apple build the antennas into the frame using “New Technology” so why can’t they do this with the new iPhone? I prefer the 6 & 6s antenna lines to the 7 lines. :/

    • o0smoothies0o - 8 years ago

      Um they built it at the back where it hinges and the signal isn’t obstructed by the aluminum.

  20. Shaun Legacy - 8 years ago

    I could care less about the antenna’s on the back of the phone as mine is always in a case.

    • Inaba-kun (@Inaba_kun) - 8 years ago

      Imagine a phone that wasn’t so fragile that it didn’t need a case.

      • o0smoothies0o - 8 years ago

        I’d use a case because I wouldn’t want scuffs and jagged debts in the body, nor scratches, but that’s just me. Once they can get around physics we’ll be golden.

      • o0smoothies0o - 8 years ago

        Dents rather

      • taoprophet420 - 8 years ago

        I dropped my iPhone 4 and 5 several times from as heigh as 9 feet with no breakage. The 6 plus slid out of my pocket and fell about 18 inches and splinted to hell. It hit the rounded display.

        I prefer the ceramic backs of the silver iPhone 4 and 5’s

    • Jon C (@JonCBK) - 8 years ago

      Mine is likely to be in a case as well. It took a tumble yesterday out of pocket of new coat and landed on sidewalk. Phone hit case side first and was fine. If Apple makes the phone out of plastic or something with shock absorbing properties, I won’t bother with a case. But metal and glass doesn’t work. So in a case it goes. So basically antenna bands and camera bulge are meaningless to me.

  21. Inaba-kun (@Inaba_kun) - 8 years ago

    It’s obviously an improvement, but it’s still the most uninspired device Apple have made in years. It’s simply boring, devoid of flourishes or character. Look at the iPhone 4, it belongs in an art gallery such is its beauty, or at least in a jewellery shop. It looked and felt absolutely premium. Now look at the iPhone 6/7. Quite a contrast. Given how both HTC and Samsung have also copied the iPhone 6 design now, it’s also curious that Apple wouldn’t want to do something different.

    I also never understood the gigantic antenna lines. The iPhone 5 was all metal but had tiny antenna lines. Same story with other metal phones from HTC and Samsung.

    • amazingrugs - 8 years ago

      Definitely true on the uninspired design for the 6. I’m hoping for an overhaul too. Apple is an interesting spot, because other manufacturers like Huawei and Oppo have taken their design language, and to me made better iterations on the iPhone 5 design, ones you would hope Apple would make. Becaise of that, I can see why Apple would want to try something different, but it didn’t work in the iPhone 6. The most glaring thing to me is the lazy design of the Plus. It’s literally just a blown up 6, with no consideration to how it may have felt in the hand. Hopefully the Plus model will differ to make usage fee better.

      On the antenna lines, the 5 had glass cutouts so signal could pass through. Samsung has never had an all metal phone, only metal frame, with either plastic or glass in the newer models. I think the most recent HTC model was the first metal phone without the lines, all prior models did or had different material for the back.

  22. dksmidtx - 8 years ago

    Wow – Apple is now full into in Samsung mode – iteration city – if they really want to improve teh look, get rid of the fugly camera bump. I’d rather be a tiny bit thicker (MORE BATTERY – a win win) than have the camera ring sticking out…

  23. tangorum (@tangorum) - 8 years ago

    I just want a design that doesn’t feel like a soap bar.. If there is something that can be done to avoid using a case, even better, I never use a case tho. What’s the case?

  24. logodude11 - 8 years ago

    Honestly I don’t care what it looks like (I regards to physical appearance), I just want the OLED screen. Unless it has some other break through feature, I will skip this refresh.

  25. qybah (@qwabyh) - 8 years ago

    “This would require the antennas to be repositioned within the innards of the device”
    False, the portion of the antenna bands that runs over the back of the iphone 6(s) has no function, you could try cutting them out and replace them with metal and it wouldn’t change anything. The antennas are places at the top and bottom of the chasing, basically where the iphone 7 antenna lines are. (take a look at some teardowns).

  26. bracesork - 8 years ago

    The plastic strips are not there to allow the entry of radio signals. They electrically isolate the various pieces of the metal backside that acts as antennas. In the new design the antennas are probably just the small strip of metal at the very end outside the separators. Better design of the radio electronics inside likely makes it possible to use smaller antenna.

  27. iphone 6S.S ?????? smh, this is apple 2016.A.S (after steve)

  28. t1mber - 8 years ago

    Honestly, I’ve always kinda liked the lines of the 6/6S…gives it a touch of flare. Without them I think it looks too plain & boring. Either way, Apple should aim for a fresh redesign for the 7, not what is pictured above.

  29. tomi2711 - 8 years ago

    iPhone 6 SS – Can’t wait for Hitler’s opinion about it.

  30. proudinfidelusmc - 8 years ago

    If we don’t get dual cameras, I’ll gladly take a wider aperture camera. f/1.8 or better please. :D

  31. Colin Cooper - 8 years ago

    I like the look of the antenna bands. I don’t know why everybody hates them.

  32. mytawalbeh - 8 years ago

    I think they don’t have to spend a lot of engineering on the back as they must do on the front .. reduce the bulky BEZELS or move to OLED screens the LCD is outdated and embarrassing these days !
    this will be the real redesign not to relocate the antenna strips … come on APPLE

  33. Since when did phones become a fashion statement..who cares what it looks like? I bought the phone because of my frustrations with Android and especially Samsung Phones. I had a Note 5 that could drain the battery in less than a day with very little use. My wife has a Note 5 and she is having nothing but problems with it…she has had to factory reset it 3 times since we bought it in December. The battery on my 6s Plus can last over two days with the same usage and apps installed. I do have my phone in a case, so to me, design is not at the top of my priorities. When I picked out my phone, the VZW salesperson tried to get me excited about what color I was going to get…he was bewildered when I told him that I didn’t care. If I had one request, it would be to make the bezel a little smaller and add an OLED screen. The 6s Plus is pretty big…it makes my work iPhone, a 5s, seem like a toy.

  34. I’m not sure why anyone cares about how any iPhone looks because the majority of users cover their phones with huge ugly cases. So funny! All these articles and Apple talk about the design aspect yet far too many “protect” their phones with cases.

    • mpias3785 - 8 years ago

      iPhones need the protection. So far Apple’s used shiny plastic, glass and type II anodized aluminum, all easily damaged. There are many alternative materials they could use for cases that are light, stiff and scratch resistant and wouldn’t require a protective case, but Ive can’t think outside his aluminum box.

  35. konart (@konart) - 8 years ago

    No 3,5 jack – no iphone for me. No, thanks.

Author

Avatar for Ben Lovejoy Ben Lovejoy

Ben Lovejoy is a British technology writer and EU Editor for 9to5Mac. He’s known for his op-eds and diary pieces, exploring his experience of Apple products over time, for a more rounded review. He also writes fiction, with two technothriller novels, a couple of SF shorts and a rom-com!


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