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BLUEBLASTER

macrumors regular
Original poster
Jun 28, 2016
144
98
With the iPhone 6,6s and 7 they all shared the same build design. Going forward can we expect a new design from Apple in 2020? Every 3 years?
 

Darkashnet

macrumors regular
Jul 15, 2010
206
266
Maybe 4. If you run in the assumption that the X was released a year earlier than planned, you have 6 6s 7 and 8 with all the same design. Either way, 3 or 4 years.

Apple seems to be pushing the whole environment thing making phones last longer, which is a tell that there isn’t going to be a huge amount of design changes as often as there was before.
 

44267547

Cancelled
Jul 12, 2016
37,642
42,492
With the iPhone 6,6s and 7 they all shared the same build design. Going forward can we expect a new design from Apple in 2020? Every 3 years?

I would expect the current design to be used for at least four years. Smart phones generally do not have major refinements on a year to year basis, its typically incremental. 2019 is expected to introduce the ‘Triple lens camera’ as the next hardware refinement.
 
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MF878

macrumors 6502
Jul 12, 2011
362
314
Auckland, New Zealand
There’s not really much you can do to improve the iPhone’s design in the near future. The battery dictates the thickness, the glass back needed for wireless charging dictates the weight, etc. Any design improvements that could occur in the next couple of years would be minor, eg. a smaller notch, reduced camera hump (unlikely with the rumors of triple lens), slightly more bezel thinning, none of which would represent a meaningful change in my opinion.

We are definitely not only a year or two away from having zero bezel and zero notch as some people seem to think. It might become technically possible in that time, but I don’t think it will be replicable at the scale Apple requires until at least 2021. Unfortunately, that’s really the final frontier for the “candy bar” style smartphone unless a different form factor like foldable or transparent phones becomes mainstream.
 
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New_Mac_Smell

macrumors 68000
Oct 17, 2016
1,931
1,552
Shanghai
Similar to above here, there's little they can improve upon at this stage. I think the next 'big' thing will be under-screen sensors, making the front all glass, however we are still a few years from anything like that. There could also be feasible bendable phones which take off.

But I think it'll just be iterative updates for the next few years, smartphones have matured now, and improvements to the software are where things are going - like taking advantage of AI or using AR etc..
 
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