After reading Zac’s opinion piece on how the iPhone SE could actually tempt him not to upgrade to the iPhone 7, I realized that I hadn’t even begun to think what Apple could do to get me to want to upgrade to an iPhone 7. Overall I’ve been happy with the iPhone since its iPhone 5 iteration. It was the device I felt Apple really hit its stride with the hardware. I only upgraded to an iPhone 6 because I wanted a better camera and needed more storage space, but the larger form factor was a serious drawback for me. So what could possibly make me even want to upgrade from my current iPhone 6 to another phone later this year?
Now, of course I realize the discrepancy in even bringing this up. How could you know you don’t want to upgrade when nothing has even been officially announced? That’s just it though. I don’t know what’s going to be in the iPhone 7, but I also don’t know what more I could want from my phone. I loved the iPhone 5 design, and the iPhone 6’s camera is great enough for me to use daily. I didn’t really care about battery life at that point (even though I frequently carried a mophie juice pack plus around just in case), because I had to understand that the battery tech in Apple’s iPhones has never been particularly good.
None of the hardware upgrades in the latest revisions were “revolutionary” to me, but I was never one to upgrade just for the next big thing. I always upgraded because I was able to justify the upgrade from some need or additional benefit the device would bring. 3D Touch is a great example; I like 3D Touch, and really think it will be successful if more and more developers work towards building creatively on it. Though, in its current state I just don’t see it as a reason to want to upgrade my device.
After some time breaking it down, and not being able to come up with a good list of potential iPhone 7 upgrade temptations, I realized I could take a look at Apple’s biggest competitor: Android devices. After some research I decided on a few hardware specific upgrades I would love to see in an iPhone 7. I don’t imagine all of these to be built into a single device for this year’s iteration, but a mix of at least two from the list below would be great. Building these features into the iPhone would not only bring it up to its competitors’ levels, but also make the iPhone feel a tad bit “fresher”.
Waterproof/Water-Resistant
I’ve never been one to care about waterproofing/water-resistance in phones. I’ve only had one incident in my entire life where a phone got wet and destroyed. I just find it strange that phones have been able to go on so long, without coming with some form of marketable water resistance built in. Having a water-resistant phone may not be a priority in my life, but it sure would add a small peace of mind while I’m washing dishes.
I love listening to podcasts while cooking or cleaning in the kitchen. Sometimes I need to jump back just fifteen seconds to catch a missed phrase, and in those moments I love having my Apple Watch. As I use my Apple Watch less and less, I’ve taken more care when touching my phone’s display with wet hands and I’d love to remove that worry even if it only comes up once a day or so.
[youtube https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=l5aF23XpBwU]
I’m a fan of the way Samsung’s Galaxy S7 handles its protection against water and would love to see that implemented into a future iPhone. I’ve even grown to love their ridiculous Galaxy S7 commercials, although I’m not too sure I trust that I could spill an entire bottle of champagne on my phone and still have it function.
Home button integration directly into the display
Apple has introduced more and more features into iOS and their devices that have slowly pushed the need (but not convenience) of the home button away. Honing in on three major functionalities seen in the past few years, we can tell that Apple is at least toying with the idea of removing a physical home button. Specifically the features include the 3D Touch behavior of invoking the multitasking switcher, and how you can activate Siri.
With the iPhone 6s/6s Plus, Apple introduced the ability to use 3D Touch at the edge of the display to “pull in” the multitasking interface. This removes the need of having to move a finger down towards the bottom of the device and then double-clicking a physical button. Because of the iPhone 6s’ M9 motion coprocessor, Siri can now be activated using Hey Siri even on battery power.
The only major functionality I can think of that still relies on the home button is when taking screenshots. Even that behavior can be replaced by simply making it so that a screenshot can be taken with a combination of the sleep/wake button and a volume button.
With this slow fade of the home button, the precedent appears clear for Apple to introduce some form of removing the physical home button. TNW reported last year about a technology that would allow fingerprints to be read through Gorilla Glass. A month prior, reports had come in that Apple was working on a similar idea already. The question then arises how would iOS understand that a finger is attempting to press on the display to launch an app, to activate Touch ID, or to simply “press” the home button. Luckily with 3D Touch’s introduction, Apple already showcased a way that the display can detect different points and levels of display pressure.
Adding on to that, building a home “button” with Touch ID directly into the display opens up the phone to having an even larger display without having to physically increase the phone’s size. The home screen dock as we know it could move lower down, introducing enough room for even another row of icons, while still keeping everything in a nice reachable range.
A worthy camera upgrade
When I moved from the iPhone 5 to the iPhone 6, the biggest benefit I saw was the camera upgrade. For a long time Apple had been ahead of the game with cameras in their mobile devices, but nearly everyone seems to be catching up (if not surpassing them) now. Even Justin Bieber has compared the latest iPhone and Samsung cameras head to head, and felt the latter was better.
[tweet https://twitter.com/SamsungMobileUS/status/722956842662424577?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw]
The introduction of 4K video support was nice, but didn’t feel like a significant improvement. It felt more like “the next step”, instead of a leap into the mobile camera world. I’d love to see better low-light support, and better contrast handling. I don’t know what is but with the iPhone 6, even when using manual controls in third-party apps, I notice the contrast can get all out of whack depending on the lighting of the scene.
Always On Display
This is a “small”, but definitely important feature I’d like to see. I don’t always wear my Apple Watch anymore, so it’s been easy to miss notifications as they come in. I’d love for Apple to bring in some form of an always-on display. Whether through OLED or another creative mean, having a display that can quickly tell me the time and what’s going on with my phone would be great.
I always question how much battery life it takes whenever I pull my iPhone 6 out of my pocket, turn on the display, only to turn it off a second later. I don’t need the full display to show me everything, I just need to see if there is anything new worth taking action on.
LG G5’s intelligent always-on display is a great example of this. While it is “always-on”, it knows to disable itself when set face down on a table, or within a pocket. It’s a small feature that I would get an extremely large use out of.
Ridiculously great battery life
This final one really just feels like a cop out. I long for the day that I can use my iPhone for at least a day and half straight without having to worry about charging it. I own an Anker iPhone 6 Battery Case, but I tire of having to worry about charging that or even holding on to it.
While understandably consumer-level battery tech hasn’t seen massive scales in innovation lately, I’d still love to see Apple come to some sort of solution. I’d much rather have the battery life increase, versus the phone possibly getting any thinner at all. Android devices really nail the battery life nowadays, and Apple just continously looks like they’re struggling to even maintain the previous year’s stats.
What did I miss?
The iPhone’s been around for nearly a decade now, and while it helped raise all mobile phones to a new level, it’s starting to feel like it’s lagging behind. I don’t really expect that Apple would choose to introduce any more than one of these items in the list into the next iPhone, but I can hope.
Whenever I think about a new product and whether or not I would even want it, I’m reminded of Henry Ford’s quote: “If I had asked people what they wanted, they would have said faster horses.” Steve Jobs also publicly seemed to align with this when releasing products.
What about you? What features would the next iPhone have to have to make you really want to upgrade?
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BEZELS
Bezels? Like how the iPhone 5 has them?
256GB storage.
Are you planning to start a data center or something?
When you begin to think that iPhones and iPads can become people’s main computing devices, 256GB isn’t too bad.
With some games coming in at 2-3GB, and an HD movie at 6GB, a 256GB phone is not out of the question.
I love this comment haha.
Well, if Apple’s going support 4K video recording, and with apps and games taking up more and more storage space, I don’t think 256GB is out of the question. You can’t live within the constraints of your data plan if you’re uploading/downloading 4K video to your iCloud storage every day…
Ugh, yes. Please. 64GB should be standard, with 128GB and 256GB upgrade options.
Ever heard of the cloud? Google Drive, Dropbox etc. They’re a thing.
Mobile data here in Australia, and elsewhere, is very expensive. A plan with ‘a lot’ of data here would probably be looking at 10GB or so, and most people would be on far less (maybe 2 – 4 GB or so). That largely puts me off wanting to stream even my music, and certainly rules out streaming movies.
If you’re on Wifi constantly that’s another matter, but there’s clear advantages in the current climate to having local storage.
Ever heard of data caps…they’re a thing too.
What what? Home button integration on screen? THATS NOT BEING REALISTIC.
Now what can happen VERY EASILY (if removing home button for was a necessity) is adding fingerprint sensor to the power button.
It’s a no brainier really and I don’t understand why more companies have not done this.
LG did that but I am impressed it’s not being done more often.
Sony also did with their Xperia Z line.
Yeah. Not LG kind of implementation. More like Xperia kind of set up.
In my opinion, that isn’t good design. I doubt Apple will ever do that. Until it is able to be integrated into the screen, it should remain where it is.
It’s completely realistic. If I remember correctly, Touch ID works on basically a super powered version of capacitive touch so wouldn’t be that outlandish to just build it into the touch screen. They also have patents for just that… So it at least is something they are dabbling in. As far as the “button” part of it, Force Touch/3D Touch answers that part. It’ll operate just like the Force Touch Trackpads on the lower (for the love of God, hopefully smaller) bezel.
I’d like for them to keep the headphone jack, but I think I’m like the only one who hates bluetooth earbuds 😕
Nope, I hate them too. I have yet to find a pair I really really love.
USB headphones. coming to iPhone 7. Guaranteed.
USB? You mean lightning?
Hopefully they are USB-C instead of lightning. The MFI program would cripple lightning headphones. USB-C is a much better to go. Apple was testing phones with USB-C headphones jacks.
USB-C is never coming to an iPhone. All you have to do to know that is look at the iPad Pro. The one device you might do USB-C does not have it.
It’s bigger which is the number one reason id never replace the lightning port with it, but more importantly, the lightning port will be eliminated for the Smart Connector in a few years, and then there will be no port whatsoever.
iPhone in 2017 could theoretically go wireless distance charging and remove the lightning port for a Smart Connector, but there is only one glaring issue with that, and that of course is that people couldn’t plug wired headphones into the device at all, and instead they’d have to use the Smart Connector, but that wouldn’t work well for headphones as they’d get pulled off the magnetic connector too easily.
The toughest challenge Apple has will be how to eliminate the lightning port when so few people have Bluetooth headphones, and including them in the box in the next 5 years probably isn’t financially acceptable to Apple.
Shit. I meant lightening headphones. Coming to iPhone. Guaranteed.
(Speaking of which, still waiting for 9to5mac to switch to disqus!!! More emphasis = !!!)
Disqus…yes yes! I’m signed into Disqus on another website – its excellent! best web-editor (or what ever the correct technical term is!) out there.
Soon.
Powerbeats are reliable but expensive. And there’s still a cord. But they are great during exercise.
They sound terrible though. There are two things that suck about bluetooth headphones. 1) Just finding a pair that doesn’t drop the connection to begin with. 2) They don’t sound like you’re in an airplane while listening to music. Flat flat flat. The only decent bluetooth headphones I’ve found are jaybird’s, and they’re still not wire quality, or even really close. Doable, but not that close.
You should try out other quality headphone brands. Beats sound terrible!
No I hate BT. Flaky and unreliable. I won’t even waste my money on a BT mouse or keyboard and I bloody well am not going to ditch my $150 set of headphones for a flaky, always dead when you want them set of BT phones or buds. The only time it gets turned on on my phone or pad is when I hit it accidentally pulling up the Control Centre. Then it drains my battery. I do wish there was a way to disable BT in settings that would stick.
May sound weird but the removal of the jack port would be a bug reason to celebreate personally. I hate things that are useless. I know many people still use jack but you can just as well transfer audio through the lightning port.
My name says it all. I hope I will have to modify my username this September, and when Apple gets rid of the sim card tray, my username will be Applegetrid.
If Apple were to get rid of the SIM tray, how would overseas users handle their carriers? A lot of overseas customers handle multiple SIMs at a time.
I can see allowing for creating and switching carriers on the fly, but that really one works when you have one carrier, right?
Exactly the removal of the sim card tray will allow us using multiple phone numbers because you will have to log in with a code or login to activate your number(s) on the device.
Embedded Touch ID alone would be a reason for me to ugrade, who does not want Apple to put them bezels to a diet?
Always on display is boring I feel, so is water resistance… Even if my iPhone becomes water resistant, I want go and dive in a pool with it. There is no reason to do so. Of course cater resistance is great for accidents where the phone comes in contact with water or other fluids… But such accidents have never happend to any of my Apple devices.
if you lived somewhere wet you’d see the appeal of water resistance. People keep talking about accidents, but for me it’s about getting it out while I’m walking in the rain.
Storage is the big one. 16GB as a base phone is an insult. 64GB should be a minimum really
100% agreed. What the heck is 16GB even doing around still?
16GB is a starting point. If it is not enough, upgrade.
Once again……I’m amazed how often I hear people scoffing at the idea of anyone using a 16GB phone “in this day and age”, because it just suggests they don’t grasp the way that a LOT of real people are using their phones today. I hear this over and over from people who obviously need more than 16GB but simply don’t comprehend that there’s a large and not insignificant group of people who use their phones for ‘basic’ things like phone calls, texting, calendar, taking a few photos now and then, a bit of email, a bit of basic web browsing, a few apps like accessing their bank account and (possibly) a casual game or two, maybe YouTube and Netflix, and that’s basically it…..and for those people, get this, 16GB is MORE than enough. I know, because while I’m not one of them, I know a good few of them, and they’ve told me that the idea of buying a 64GB phone seems ludicrous to them.
And let’s not say “Well, if that’s all they want a phone for, those people are stupid to buy an iPhone, they should just get a much cheaper phone which does those things.” Even if someone only used their phone for calls and texts, let’s say, two things you could easily do one a much cheaper phone, why shouldn’t those people get a cool and well-designed and desirable phone on which to do those ‘basic’ things? Then you toss in a few apps, and maybe they’re using Apple Maps and Apple Music (both of which are easily doable on a 16GB phone), and let’s say they want a simple experience for their calendar and taking notes, and they want to be sure their bank has an app available for their phone, also maybe they like the sound of Apple Pay and the really great fingerprint reader, and you start to get the picture: the iPhone has a LOT to offer the casual phone user. You don’t need to be a gamer or business user or photographer or enthusiast or video editor etc. in order to appreciate an iPhone.
This argument applies also to Android phones, Windows phones, any smartphones or tablets. My Dad is using an Android phone which has only 4GB, and he doesn’t use an SD card, and he’s totally fine with it. He uses it for calls, texts, checking the sports scores, and, um, that’s it. He likes the big screen for texting with his grandkids, who also have smartphones. He also has a 16GB iPad, by the way, and he uses that for email, Internet (banking, news, sports scores), and, um, that’s it. The iPad replaced his 7-year-old slow-as-molasses laptop for when he just wants to write an email without waiting ten minutes for the damn computer to boot up. It’s perfect. 16GB is enough.
And the point is, if there are a good number of people for who 16GB is enough, Apple would be nuts to stop selling a 16GB phone, cutting into their profit margin in order to give those people more storage than they need or want. For people like you (and me), there’s 64GB (or even 128GB, if you’re a really hardcore user). Apple tracks this utilisation stuff really closely. When we reach the point that almost everyone needs more than 16GB, they will sure as nancy shift the entry level up to 32GB….and at some point, that WILL be the case, just as it became the case that 4GB and 8GB was no longer enough. Maybe it will be this year, maybe it won’t, I have no clue, but it will happen – and then within a year, everyone will be complaining that 32GB is not enough, boo, they should have made it 64GB (and what are they thinking with that 32GB iPad Pro anyway?).
So the point is not that 16GB is fine for ALL people or even for MOST people – it’s not fine for me, it’s not fine for you, it’s not fine for all the German people, it’s maybe not fine for a MAJORITY of people – but the point is, it’s been fine (so far) for a lot of people, more than just a few. For those people, the idea of paying more $$ for a higher capacity phone is just crazy. And sure, Apple could charge the same price for a 32GB phone, and just make less profit, but come on, that’s not how business works….Coke could give you twice as much Coke for the same price, and just make less profit, but why should they, if so many people are happy with how much Coke they’re getting right now, and if some people would just toss the extra Coke away? And meanwhile for everyone else, the people who want more Coke, well, there’s more Coke. Buy the amount of Coke you need.
End of long rant.
@ ericisking
64 GB at the 16 GB price point. people who only need 16 GB will not be affected. pity you wrote all that lol.
Company provided phones.
It’s more likely that Apple will DROP from 16gb to 1gb of storage than going up. Reason? We all know it’s about money.
Do you think there’s a phone company for whom it’s NOT about money? *lol*. It’s all about money, that’s how business works….it’s all about money for Apple, for Microsoft, for Google, for Samsung, even for Blackberry (although they don’t have much money left).
It’s all about money in that if they don’t make lots and lots and continue to do so, they won’t be able to continue doing what they love, changing the world, and most importantly although sadly so, making greedy pathetic anonymous shareholders happy.
If you think that many people at Apple don’t just want to make the best products in the world, you’re crazy though. Like Jony goes back to work everyday already being a multimillionaire and doesn’t want to make the best products that change the most lives and are seen by the most people.
I’m with @ericisking. For a lot of people 16GB is fine. I have a 16GB iPhone and I just checked and it has 6GB free. Music? I use streaming services for that. Writing or drawing? I have my iPad for that. Photos? Yes but I offload them to iCloud and a secure computer where they’ll be backed up. I have a screen full of Apps, everything from Tumblr to CBC and BBC, in addition to the Contacts, Maps, Clock, Mail, Calculator and Safari I use all the time. I make full use of my iPhone, I just don’t need to store a lot on my iPhone. When I get my next iPhone, It’s vey likely it will be whatever the minimum size is.
16GB is not enough for a “mainstream” phone. For a 5SE yes; that is not a “mainstream” phone. But for the big boys you can’t do 16GB in 2016. Not for a $650 plus phone.
I don’t think the media would forgive Apple this time if they pulled that crap again.
im glad 16 GB works for you, but why isn’t it just as valid that it doesn’t work for the rest of us?
@mrobertson21 If it doesn’t work for you that’s cool too. Apple makes products for a lot of people with a lot of different needs. I get annoyed though, when people say that it is an “insult” or a sign of Apple’s “greed”.16GB doesn’t work for everyone but apparently it does for many. If it didn’t they wouldn’t sell and Apple would stop making them. The fact that 16GB is still in the mix says to me that it does work for a significant portion of users.
I’d like to see some statistics on what Apple Phones are selling. Both screen size and storage. It would be very enlightening for all.
A $650 device only having 11 GB of usable memory is straight-up nuts and is a cash grab designed to make people upgrade to the 64 for an exorbitant $100. Why even bother to have 4K video? Want to store some HD movies for your flight? Sorry ’bout ya! I could see a purpose for Apple to have 16gb devices for Corporate purchases. However, as the main computing device for many people, 16 GB is just being stingy to try to get that upgrade money.
Better display would be good to have. iPhone 6 not being full hd and when comparing it to most of the andriod devices in the market. Apple is way behind. A big catch up is required.
True Tone and the anti reflective coating of the iPad Por 9.7″ would be a great addition.Daylight reading needs to be improved on iPhones.
really? you look at the iPhone display and think making it higher resolution would be a huge improvement? seems like it would be a small improvement, but not a groundbreaking shift like adding Touch ID or Siri or something to make me upgrade. True Tone and anti reflecting would be nice, though.
Those android flagships you mean use AMOLED displays and AMOLED displays need higher resolutions to look sharp then LCD displays. That’s just how it works. If you had a Samsung Galaxy S7 with 350ppi you’d see there’s something wrong, but on an iPhone display it looks just fine
You do realise Apple is switching to SAMOLED screen and that too from Samsung in 2017
of course, but that doesn’t mean the current display needs higher pixel density. higher density will be needed when the jump ti OLED will be made, not as long as lcd is used
I have to say an always on display for a smartphone makes no sense. Now, once they go to OLED, they could save some power in not turning on everything when a notification comes in, so it’s basically a black screen with a floating notification. Other than that, just no. A watch with an always on display is good, but not a phone.
As for your massively better battery, if Apple wanted to, they could solve that with this upcoming iPhone. Not with a huge increase in battery capacity internally,but with the best battery case and system ever brought to a smartphone. It’s incredibly simple: the iPhone 7 or iPhone 6SE (whichever they call it) have Smart Connectors on the bottom back of the phones, and Smart Connectors have bi-directional power and data transfer, and therefore a battery case can be designed that is completely flat (unlike their current case), and no longer requires a bottom chin because it will use the Smart Connector instead of the lightning connector. It will be like any ordinary case, just adding a few mm to the thickness, and it will simply act as an extension to the capacity of the phones battery. You plug your phone in like normal and it charges like normal, and then charges the case through the Smart Connector after the phone is full.
That is the battery solution Apple should have because that is simply the best battery solution for people that want increased battery life.
Now, assuming the reports of wireless distance charging in the iPhone 10th anniversary Edition are true, then battery capacity will become of little concern to most people over the next few years. I hope I don’t have to explain why.
I thought my explanation of an always on display by exemplifying it through a device that does similar to what you said was appropriate.
I see what you meant, yeah sorry I think I misread it. I agree I think I basically just said what you said in a different way.
There’s no way it will have wireless charging, over Phil Schiller’s dead body lol
He was / still IS as far as I know vehemently against that, and NFC by the way, so I doubt the NFC chip in the iDevices will ever be open for developers to actually use for anything else besides Apple Pay
Wireless charging is garbage and I support Schiller’s statement about it 100%. This is wireless DISTANCE charging, which is not garbage, but rather the best feature to come to smartphones since Apple released the iPhone.
Wireless distance charging will profoundly change everyone’s inherent need to worry about charging their devices and significantly increase battery life due to the fact that everyone’s devices will typically be charging, without a user even thinking about it. You sit down on your couch and your phone is charging beside you, not because you plugged it in, but because it’s within 10-15ft of the charging transmitter. The transmitters will become ubiquitous over the next 3-5 years, and more and more mobile devices with batteries will reap the benefits of charging whenever near a transmitter. They will be in businesses, at your friends house, in hotel rooms, in gyms, etc. it will be the most transformative feature because it’s greatly enhancing what inherently makes everyone’s devices work, by giving them energy far more frequently and without thinking about it.
Cool and all but who has this distance charging technology ready to be deployed for consumer devices?
You’re saying Apple has it themselves or are they licensing it \ buying it from someone else?
IMHO it would make sense if all the devices were standardized so they could all use the same chargers…so it would probably be better if this were an open industry standard type of a thing and not just unique to the next iPhone.
It’s been rumored that Apple may have gotten an exclusive license with the company Energous who I believe were reported to be able to mass produce in the end of 2016, but I’m not sure. Whether they got an exclusive license or they’re simply working with them, hopefully it is Apple who is doing it. It was reported that Energous was working with one of the top smartphone producers.
Apple would absolutely seek exclusivity for this technology, whether they do it themselves, buy a company, or obtain an exclusive license from a company. It will be a feature that sells phones. Lots and lots of phones. When you can tell people to buy the new phone and you can charge it from a distance from its charger, not have to plug it in, and not have to lay it on a specific spot, you win.
With always on wireless charging how much electricity would be wasted? Considering it would have to cover the entire area 5-15 foot from the device. At least with a pad the charging is localized to the phone. It also only activities when the device is placed on it.
Go look up Energous. It sends a tiny signal to connect before it ever starts trying to charge anything. Apple isn’t going to waste a bunch of energy, and anyone making tech like that isn’t going to either. It has different mechanisms for syncing and directing radiation to give power to the transceiver.
I handed out my first iPhone (a 3GS) to my mum when I replaced it with a 4S which again I handed out to my mum when I switched to a 6. I think the 6 and 6S (and +es) are plain ugly (protruding lens, plastic bands, awfull colors). But the 6s are all begging for a case which Apple is happily providing at cost. I never used a case with the 3GS and 4S I owned. Whenever I go to my mom’s, I ask her to hand me my old 4S to me, just to feel it in my hand and sig. What a gorgeous design it was! Just plain perfect in shape and weights. I miss it alot.
Sure the 6, and I assume 6S, are far more powerful, better screen and camera and all, and the SE is close to what the 4 and 4S was in term of design, but it’s not as balanced in height/width ratio as the 4/4S was.
I don’t care much about what new super-great features the next iPhone will bring. I want an iPhone that does not need to be hidden in a case because it so ugly and so thin you might be affraid to bend it just looking at it. Just give me a plain solid indestructible good looking design which does not need a case or carrying extra batteries to go places and do the job at least for a good active working day.
Is that too much to ask?
Why are so many people talking about an iPhone 7?
It’s months and months away…
People have been talking about an iPhone 7 since about a week after the iPhone 6S came out…..people like to speculate. Also, there are probably a good number of people who got the iPhone 6 on a two year contract and so will be eligible for an upgrade when the iPhone 7 comes out, so they didn’t get the 6S.
Jeeze…I’m still rocking a 5S with the Apple Watch using that for Apple Pay…I really see no reason at all to upgrade.
I skipped the 6 because of the bending thing, and the 6S is basically the same exact thing with the bending issue fixed, 4K video and 3D touch, which is cool and all but…I dunno. On a device that can do 4K video I would expect some kind of memory card option. 16GB of permanent non-expandable storage space on a 4K capable device is straight up moronic. Not interested in putting my dick pics in some 3rd party cloud either that’s bound to get hacked sooner or later, so that option is out :) Wake me up when Apple grows a pair and either adds a MicroSD slot or starts shipping phones with decent price per GB storage and *at least* 256GB capable (I think that’s what MicroSD is on now, it may be 512GB though).
@srgmac: The latest MicroSD spec can support cards up to 2TBytes!
Because you can get the maximum number of readers when it comes to “iPhone”.
That’s fine ..
I wouldn’t want them to do away with the home button unless they can figure out a way to keep the phone from constantly trying to unlock itself in my pocket the way my Moto X does.
Just wait until they announce the thing and you have time to play with it and judge at that time, otherwise, this is just an exercise in mental masterbation since we don’t know the reality of the product and we don’t have one in our hands to compare.
Did you read the article?
No way. Reading articles is for suckers :)
For me the last great must-have aspect on an iPhone was Touch ID. I couldn’t wait to get it and can’t live without it. Next is camera quality.
For me footprint is a big deal and the 6 series and now 7 are of no interest to me. I’ll wait for the modern revision in next years iPhone 8. The 6 series looks and feels so old fashioned, and the 7 will do nothing to dispel that notion.
Lower prices, higher storage, better integration with OS X, stronger displays, water-resistant. That would mean a dream coming true.
User replaceable battery and one touch answer on the phone. I hate the slide to answer.
no user replaceable battery! it just adds another point of failure, makes the phone more breakable. I don’t want a phone with a sliding back thingy like my old Blackberry, which always broke eventually. Problem with one touch to answer is that you might answer the phone accidentally. Like, you pick up your phone to see who’s calling, and you accidentally answer the call – I can see that happening. The ‘slide to answer’ makes that much less likely. Maybe they could let you answer the call just with Touch ID, though? And have an option in Settings to disable/enable Touch ID ‘touch to answer’?
In the beginning I thought having a non user-replaceable battery was a bad idea…Now, I changed my mind.
A battery case is a much better option if you need extra power for traveling and I think it makes the device safer and more secure.
With the gaskets inside it the iPhone 6 is already water resistant, it just is not water proof.
The iPhone is Not water resistant.
I was taking a bus somewhere once and got caught in this massive storm, 6S in front pocket. 30 minutes everything soaked. Finally got to wipe it down, no problem. Had zero effect. Certainly people shouldn’t just try to do that, but, it did impress me and made me feel that much better about my purchase.
Its can stay submerged for an hour with no damage, so yes it is water resistant
Water Resistant is one of those wiggly marketing-speak terms. Other than a sponge, powdered sugar, or a sheet of printer paper, nearly everything else could be said to be Water Resistant, Resistant is just vague enough.
USB-C would be great to bring it in sync with the new MacBook and would enable future iPhone/Macbook users to carry one universal charger for both devices.
nice, but maybe not important enough for them to do it yet, given that most people are still using MacBook Airs and Pros. When the MacBook gets more market share (or they add USB-C to all their laptops), they should definitely do this.
add better resolution screen and less bazel.
Rather than complain about Apple and the IOS vs Android, I have one of each. The Android at times will crash many times a day. My Apple IOS phone may have crashed two or three times in the multiple years I have owned one. I’ll take whatever Apple is selling.
Surprise me. But I would like earbuds that don’t fall out of my ear, so I can use them. I don’t have an ear gutter.
I agree with that one!
I want a pliable compound layer around EarPods that slightly deforms to the shape of an individual’s ear due to the heat from the body, and therefore feels more comfortable, and stays in place better. Maybe that’s not possible though.
Definitely is possible as there are manufacturers that have done similar ear molding techniques for earphones before. Great idea!
You’ve come up with some great ideas and observations in this forum so far…are you an engineer?
How about functionality that you could turn on and off…so that when you are moving in a car, and someone texts you, your phone would automatically text back, I’m driving or I’m driving please call me.
They’re smartphones not geniusphones. Seriously though, there’s no reason their engineers couldn’t make that happen. However, since they just got around to password protecting notes….yikes.
Nice article, and some interesting ideas.
Battery life – yes, I agree, they could really get me to upgrade with some big battery life improvement! I’m pretty much OK with my iPhone 6 battery most days, because I plug in my phone at the office and in my car, but there are days when I wish it would last an extra couple of hours at least, so that would be compelling.
Not sure about the ‘always on’ display, but I’ve never really thought about how much battery it takes to quickly check the time or notifications. If you’re right, and it sucks juice, then ‘always on’ display of some kind might be nice.
Waterproofing would be cool. I’ve never dropped my phone in the toilet, but there’s always a first time.
Not sure about camera – sure, it would be nice, but I’m happy with the current camera on the iPhone 6. It does what I need. A better camera wouldn’t make me upgrade.
Removing the physical home button – hmm, interesting. I’ve used a Windows Lumia phone which has no physical home button, and I didn’t like it. Maybe that was something to do with implementation, and Apple could do a better job, but on the Lumia I just didn’t care for the lack of that tactile feedback (it does give a little vibration when you press it, but it’s impossible to know if you’ve pressed Home, Back or Search/Cortana, without looking at the screen). I’m also not sure about reducing bezels – phones without bezels definitely LOOK really cool, but it feels like the bezels allow me to hold the phone when I’m reading without accidentally pressing anywhere on the display. I guess they could use software to allow for accidental touches, but that adds more complexity – there would be times when you mean to press the screen, and the phone might disregard your first touch, thinking it’s accidental. It’s like adding a potential point of failure. But maybe they can pull it off, and the phone would definitely look cool.
The thing I’d love to see on the iPhone 7, aside from a kick-ass battery improvement, is wireless charging. That’s the only thing I really liked about my Lumia, was the wireless charging pad. And I know that’s not technically ‘real wireless charging’, because the charging pad was still plugged in via a wire, but being able to just drop my phone on the wireless charging pad was pretty cool. Easier than fiddling with a cable, even though the Lightning cable is a lot easier than the old 30-pin things. It’s not a huge deal, I’m not going to get a Windows or Android phone just for wireless charging, but it’s just a cool little extra. But really, it’s way below the battery improvement when it comes to ‘what will make me upgrade’…..if they add a good chunk of battery life, I’m probably in.
Opinion : you’re out of ideas.
Who’s out of ideas? Me or Apple?
Apple on 3D Touch
You. All of 9to5Mac. All of the tech blog world it seems.
Your post one is giant unimaginative bore. I started reading it, was getting put off by some of your assertions about past iPhones, but kept reading…and then got to the tired list of bullet points of water proofing, remove the home button, bla bla bla. These are not improvements to iPhone. They are just rehashed garbage from around the rest of unimaginative internet.
Nice. You’re comment adds no value. Got anything that IS imaginative?
Get rid of the home button make the whole front Screen and I’ll buy a new phone
They should never push the screen into the rounded corners,and the rounded corners should always remain. They should however, push the screen to the maximum point just before the corners begin to curve. The side bezels should fully be eliminated.
I was working on mocking up this very image (right up the max point), but no matter what I did it looked weird to me.
Yeah, I don’t know. The thing to me about going screen to edge on the sides is that you have to go back to square front edge at least, because the beveled glass would distort the image or not allow for the screen to truly look like it had no bezel.
Please provide one good reason why that would improve the iPhone in any way, at all.
Read the comments here and you’ll see what everyone thinks.
Less bezel = bigger screen or smaller device.
Apple is choosing bigger screen based on rumors of a 5.8″ device.
If I’m Apple I release 3 10th anniversary iPhones with reduced bezels:
4.3″
5.0″
5.8″
All AMOLED, and all the same or very close to the same physical dimensions they currently are, except with 0.3″ increases in screen size and therefore get everyone to upgrade again.
Have you ever used a smartphone with software home button? Obviously not. They are a disaster, and not for a lack of trying.
The loss of a headphone jack will be a deal breaker for me. I use my phone with musicians for work, and in friends cars (which can’t be easily/cheaply) upgraded. The headphone jack is a necessity. I have a pair of Bang & Olufsen H8 headphones, one of the best bluetooth/wired sets you can buy, and they still sound like shit over a bluetooth connection compared to a wired one. I doubt apple will ship the phone with an adapter, and I don’t like the idea of buying a phone thats less-capable for my daily needs out of the box, than the one I have now, and I’m sure a lot of audiophiles and people who have cars (or go on road trips with their friends) with aux inputs, are going to be really annoyed.
Also would like to see a more ambitious design.
I think Apple should not include an adapter in every box. However, it would be nice if they allowed customers to choose to receive a free adapter if they desire one, for the first 3 months (similar to how they allowed users to get a free bumper for the iPhone 4).
That’s interesting. Why do you think someone wouldn’t want an adapter in the box?
I wouldn’t want an adapter in the box, and id say the vast majority of iPhone users simply use the included EarPods which will be lightning now, so I think it would be tens of millions of adapters sitting in pretty boxes, never to be used. It’s both economically bad for Apple, but more importantly, environmentally bad for everyone when resources are used for something that isn’t used.
It would be nice if Apple offered it for free to those that wanted one though.
Another good point!
Higher resolution and Less Bezels.
How does Apple make a button-less front as intuitive and handicap-friendly as the home button?
I’m for evolution, but the “get rid of home button” idea currently stands out to me as change for the sake of itself.
I’d make it slightly smaller, move it to the very bottom edge, reduce the bezels as much as possible, and not cutout a button, but cut into the glass a round indentation which remains 100% seamless and doesn’t physically move, yet 3D Touch will replace its physical functionality, and the Taptic Engine which lays directly behind it, will offer the haptic feedback. However, they’d have to make 3D Touch and the Taptic Engine much better first.
Not sure what you mean by handicap friendly. I’ve met plenty of customers that couldn’t use the home button and had to turn on the Accessibility Shortcut instead because physically pressing the button was near impossible. (I worked at a store with primarily older clientele.)
For one here I work with blind people all the time. The physical home button is one reason most prefer iPhones over Android phones (don’t get me started on the implementations).
Oh interesting. Yeah I completely forgot the tactile feedback of a physical home button for blind users. My thinking was of the users I worked with who suffered strokes (and thus still have shaking side effects).
What about this: An iPhone where the entire lower “strip” of the phone could be used as a home button? For example, imagine where the button is now, but in a future iteration it’s just glass. Pressing on the left, right, or center all produce the same functionality.
You brought up some great points that I’d love to sit down with someone who uses iOS accessibility features and understand where Apple should go with it next.
After reading Zac’s opinion piece on how the iPhone SE could actually tempt him not to upgrade to the iPhone 7 This was idiotic thinking article. Because there are two sets of people. One likes smaller iphone and one larger. I say because I see in my family choices of iPhone sizes. .About iphone 7, it is all jibber-jabber until we solidly know what iphone 7 is about.
You didn’t read the article did you?
Sadly, Apple will do a minor redesign, Ives will go back on vacation for 11 more months, and the sheep will line up by the millions to buy whatever apple Doesn’t give them. Every single person on this site will have an iPhone 7 within 4 months of its release.
People keep letting apple under deliver while over rewarding apple for nearly nothing.
iOS needs a TOTAL makeover. I am still looking at the same grid of icons I had on my 3GS. The Terrible All WHITE everywhere needs to DIE.
ZERO customization, No REAL widgets, no native app choice, needs to go away. (lock screen widgets are a Joke)
Apple will make the next phone thinner. They are now in the battery case business and they Will make you buy it.
The always on display on my S7 is awesome, but Motorola X series and the G5 both did it better. Can’t believe so many people are saying they wouldn’t want that. What’s even more mind boggling, people don’t even want OPTIONS. You could just turn off the always on display if you didn’t want it. ….
It amazes me how closed minded people are. I think Apple fans are really closed minded because the only want what apple tells them they want.
They can’t think different. They need apple to do that for them.
Wait and see iPhone 7 WILL start out at 16GB at $700-$800 (after tax) but people will just pony up more money and take one for the team instead of speaking with their wallets.
The S7 feels like a $700 phone. the iphone 6 series feels like a cheap tin can toy. and its ugly.
iPhone 4/4S was apple best look and feel. Someone thought the tin can with antenna lines in 2 places looked better… ives….
Hope all you want. The 7 will be a minor rehash of the same crap. They HAVE to, they throw like one feature at people and save the rest for the S so you can spend more money for the same damn phone.
Dunno why are you so upset?!
It’s that simple, If you do like gimmick features many others don’t
Gimmick features lol. Good try. I bet Atari fans said the same thing about the Nintendo. Ah, that Mario is just a gimmick.
I actually agree with a lot of what you’re saying here. But why so passionate? You’re obviously an Android user and the latest flagship Android smartphones are excellent devices and technically better than Apple’s current offerings. So remain happy in your Android world and stop attacking the competition. Apple devices have their merits too and there are many people who like using them because of that…so let them be. The world wide Android user base is far larger than Apple’s, so numbers wise you’ve won anyway, so lighten up!
“Android devices really nail the battery life nowadays, and Apple just continously looks like they’re struggling to even maintain the previous year’s stats.
”
Well we all know why that is. Samsung aren’t afraid to make their flagship phones thicker to increase the battery life. Apple are obsessed with making phones so thin they’re uncomfortable to hold and have terrible battery life. Any why? What purpose does it serve? The iPhone 6 is far too thin already. The human hand can’t hold broad very flat things comfortably or even well, especially with the sides are as smooth and slippery as a bar of soap.
Samsung make better phones than Apple now from a hardware standpoint. If Samsung can ever shed the carrier bloatware and use stock Android then Apple should be very afraid.
My solution is simple for you, if Apple did it with the iPhone 7. That solution is above concerning a new battery case.
Oh dear, so behind the times. Crickey, the Note 5 is the phone of the future, and that is almost a year old! And now we have the amazing (Star Trek like) Galaxy S7 Edge, that is selling like hot cakes. Just go pick one up in black, it’s got a low light camera, wireless charging, fast autofocus, slim body, curved glass, STEREO audio recording on video (no iPhone can do that, silly, else what’s the point?) and a very versatile customizable OS, not to mention standards compliant (under EU law) microUSB port. (Hopefully Samsung will adopt USB-C in next devices, as should Apple.)
Yes the S7 Edge is an excellent device…way ahead of the 6S (with the exception of 3D Touch) in all technical aspects…specification, looks, water resistance , expandability etc…and probably close to what next years iPhone 8 will be. And that bothers me, because Apple have been sitting on their laurels for too long. Maybe because they’re a monopoly in their own right (there aren’t any other companies running iOS) have too much cash lying around un-utilised or just that Tim Cook is not a product guy (in Steve Jobs own words) Jony Ive is interested in other things and so on. They used to lead, now their slow and middle-aged and don’t seem to be all that bothered by the competition anymore…that’s smug and they shouldn’t be.
going to be a s up grade . guess ill stay with my 6
No camera nipple..
Call me old fashioned but I use an iPhone until it breaks and I can’t fix it, or until it won’t run the iOS version I need for the functions I need. Consequently, I’m still using a 4S and 5. The former came near to replacement last week when I fumbled it and the drop face down onto concrete smashed the screen, but 5 minutes on Amazon and a week later a new screen arrived from Hong Kong for $20 including shipping. 2 hours later and the 4S was working fine (mostly just for calls) again. The iPhone 5 keeps on going and so what if I have to wait 0.5 seconds longer to do something. They are both running 9.3.2 beta 2 (yes, I am a developer) and have most of the functions I need. 3D touch and Night Shift mode are not compelling enough to spend $700 each on new iPhones when I am not as rich as Croesus.
At this rate, I might be waiting until the iPhone 8 appears with AMOLED screen, but what a testament these old iPhones are to long-life software and hardware engineering and Apple value for money.
Hey Catherine I’m deleting your comment because it adds nothing to the conversation and is a waste of space.
How about a new design that isn’t the boring 6 design
The 6 feels like a squished and rounded iPhone 5. I wonder what a new design could look like.
Another great article from this site! Breaking the Tabu of Apple devotees thinking that the iPhone still rules the roust technically. It doesn’t, Android devices, especially the latest flagship models from Samsung, LG and even HTC have overtaken it and Apple needs to catch up! An example of this trend is the iPhone’s camera…when the 6S was introduced last year, there was quite a lot of hoopler over the new camera. But when DxO tested one shortly after release it only ranked overall in 10th place! The first time I believe in recent history that a new iPhone’s camera didn’t go to the top of its class. I was surprised by that. I also follow audio quality in smartphones too, amongst other kinds of devices. And here too Apple seems to be losing its lead. While the 6S is still considered the best sounding (via headphones) smartphone available, despite not supporting high-res 24bit audio like its high-end Android rivals do. Recent audio centric reviews of the latest 9.7″ iPad Pro concluded that the sound quality (again via headphones) was inferior to the iPad Air 2 and iPhone 6S. And showed concern that this might be a trend for future Apple devices. I don’t think Apple are going to beat this with the 7, I just hope they will with next year’s 8.
Thank you for understanding the reasoning behind me writing this and not just complaining and providing no examples behind it.
I wonder about sound output improvements via lightning port. As it would not have to rely on analog/digital conversion, this might allow for higher quality audio in the iPhone 7
1-Water resistant
2-Bigger sensor 1/1.7 with IS while keeping MP count
3-2 times the battery
4-64GB as base starting storage and an option for 256GB
5-OLED display
6-4K 5.5″ display
7-No home button
8-Fingerprint sensor on the back of the phone
9-Flexible display tech so it does not shatter in thousand pieces when it falls on the ground.
There many things that can be added to phones to make them more attractive. I do not see many reasons to upgrade from an iPhone 6 or even from my xperia Z1. (I have both)
And I want a unicorn.
Fingerprint sensor on the back is horrible design
People don’t ask Apple for the “perfect” phone, but “cool” one, always.
I would love for Apple to show me the leadership they once had. 3D Touch is awesome by why not use that along with new technology to get rid of the home button. Qualcomm has already developed tech that will allow a fingerprint sensor to work below metal or a display. I’m not huge on waterproof phones but why not. I think my biggest gripe is the form over function. We don’t need thinner phones we need a phone that makes a nice compromise between form and function. Style can not always win out. Honestly I’m sad that Samsung has found a better balance than Apple. They have chosen to go slightly thicker but give customers a device that should make it through a day. While still having a great looking phone. I don’t think we will see anything other than the iPhone pro with an amoled screen. Amoled will require a higher ppi screen to keep the same perceived resolution unless they go with an rgb strip style. Honestly I would have no problem with a refined iPhone 6 design square the edges slightly. I guess I just want the iPhone to feel special again like earlier models.
Apple needs to give more than 5gig if you get one than 1 phone. Why do we have to share space and get bummed when buying multiple devices. More devices = less space with Apple :(
Once manufacturers impliment wireless carplay then to me wireless charging on an iphone makes sense
I don’t think copying an Android feature is a great way to find a “must have” idea. There are certainly some decent ideas in this list, but I generally find the best “must haves” come for identifying a problem or a weakness and solving it in a novel way. None of these really solve any problems, at least not ones which really matter much – they’re “nice to have”, not “must have”. I don’t know what the next must have feature for iPhone 7 (Or 8) is, but I don’t see it being anything on this list or any other idea available on an existing Android device. My guess is a new sensor or something would be the way to go, but who knows. I’m not even certain a truly must have new feature is going to appear on the next iPhone. It sounds like they’re going to have to go with the more modest backup design for this year.
If Apple goes OLED/AMOLED then they should use their patents of an all screen iPhone, the whole iPhone case being a huge display. Also by iPhone 8 or iPhone 9 they should add the first miniaturized holographic projectors in the industry. The technology has been in the labs for a couple decades now and very advanced prototypes do exist. And to deliver all new features Apple should make of use of some new battery technologies that have been in the labs for many years, that would be the only way to deliver a feature rich iPhone that could be powered on for many days or weeks.
Apple has the billions of dollars and the expertise to make all of that an more happen in a few years. They just need to do it.
” Android devices, especially the latest flagship models from Samsung, LG and even HTC have overtaken it and Apple needs to catch up!” Anyone writing such nonsense must be living in a competitors wetdreams fantasy world … It never happened! Competitors are a silly joke! And there is a very good reason why Samsung, LG, Sony manufacture their best hardware for Apple first and they don’t use it on their own products.. because Apple asks for the highest quality while those manufacturers themselves don’t care about selling the best hardware to their own customers on their own brands. It is only thanks to Apple that they achieve the highest quality, because Apple pays a lot of money and Apple customers want the highest quality.
So no, competitors haven’t overtaken a damn thing. Without Apple they wouldn’t exist at all.
While no competitor is selling more at the high end. I wouldn’t say some of these competitors sell Apple their best. The difference is that a lot of these competitors are happy to use off the shelf parts where as Apple would rather go custom. Case in point Apple’s memory setup in the 6s. As far as these guys not existing without Apple that’s kind of dumb given that they were all in the market prior to Apple.
Don’t forget, the Home button is also the button you press to manually reboot the phone. A lot of troubleshooting happens with the Home button, so Apple should either build these into the UI (like a “Restart” option under General settings), or “bind” these commands to another button (like the volume buttons). That being said, I’m not sure that taking the Home button away does much for the display. The aspect ratio would be awkward for viewing video without also making the phone wider. If that’s what you want, you may as well be using a 6s Plus.
Yeah I was thinking about the reboot function itself, but a software replacement wouldn’t be acceptable. The reboot functionality needs to work even when the device can’t power on. Binding it to volume and sleep/wake could help that.
I agree, the aspect ratio would be weird as well, but we’ve had plenty of iPhones where it was off before.
The idea of waterproofing is cool, but the reality to me is that if it weren’t also somehow more shatterproof, then it wouldn’t matter. I’d still be using a case. I’ve always treated my iPhones so delicately without a case … I’m terrified. I put an OtterBox on right away.
If Apple can finally make the phone feel less delicate and breakable, by having, say, a shatter-resistant screen, that’s good enough for me. Waterproofing would be a nice bonus to that. If I can finally use an iPhone without a case, that would be a revelation. All the specifics of how the phone looks have never mattered to me because it always has a case on it. Hell, the color of the phone doesn’t even matter because of it.
Also, a low-power, very basic always-on screen would be great. Same reasoning… I don’t always wear my Watch anymore and I’d love to be able to just glance at the phone for, say, the time.
You have it pretty much spot on. Battery life would be number one on I think everyone’s list, and waterproofing isn’t that big a deal, it would be nice, but not a big deal. Based on the rumours, it seems like apple is looking to bet it all on waterproofing, which I think would be a mistake. The always-on display seems like a good idea, I imagine apple could remove the home button and use the new bottom part of the screen for this feature, while also using it as an extra dock while the phone is on. This would be incredible, although perhaps too incredible for apple to actually implement. It’s really sad that apple who was once on the forefront of everything in the smartphone world is now being made to copy others, and falling behind in almost everything (especially battery life). This decline has also started to show in their finances (see their last earnings call). I really hope 2016 will be the year apple starts turning this around. I think the apple watch, how they lowered the price and the new MacBook (which is still wildly overpriced) have been the first right steps. I hope the iPhone 7 will be the next. Also, I have been doing the maths, and this iPhone is to be the tenth generation. Perhaps apple should also change the way they name their phones (I’m thinking iPhone X). It would also be nice to see better improvements in the S generation of each phone. The 6S was the first generation iPhone I didn’t buy, having owned every single other model (since 2007), and as pretty as it looks, 3D touch seemed like a useless thing, although it was clear apple saw it as only the start. I think if apple wants to see growth in it’s smartphone line again, they need to do three things: 1. Better battery life for all 2. Avoid rolling out stupid upgrades like the 6S and 3. Come out with new designs for the lower end 4-inch iPhone. As nice as it is, the iPhone SE’s design is almost 4 years old. People buy apple to look cool, and having a flashy new design can go a long way towards making people buy it. I’m encouraged by iPhone SE sales numbers, but I really think apple should put out a new design for the next generation, and also come out with it soon (It would be nice if apple released their whole iPhone line in June of every year, but with the SE having only been unveiled in March, that seems rather unlikely.) In any case, thanks for the great article.
Not relegating all the “good stuff” like better battery, better camera, etc. to the Plus, is a major thing for starters. There’s absolutely no excusing the fact that the batteries, cameras and storage space have not improved, not to mention the fact that the Plus is getting better/different features than the standard size flagship. You cannot expect to sell more flagship phones and keep sales on the rise of that model if you’re not making it equal to the larger size of that phone. The features need to be identical on both phones, with only size being the difference. Regardless, both need exponentially better battery life, cameras and storage. start at 64gb, and go up to 256, or even better, 512. Movies and photos are getting better and bigger, so they take up more space. Not a dealbreaker with this but I’d like stronger/better screens and waterproofing.