Live data from Hacker News

The iPhone 6 Review

anandtech.com

91–100 of 134 posts

Re: The iPhone 6 Review

#91

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> after putting it in my back pocket and sitting down on it > the bending issue is very real I'd suggest that the issue is that you're a guy who thinks sitting on $1,000 of glass and aluminium is a normal thing to do.

To say you can't or shouldn't put your phone in your pocket is ridiculous. It is quite possibly the most common use case for a phone, and the design should take that into account. Full stop. The RDS is strong here, my friend.

I'm pretty sure the vast majority of pants have pockets that don't require you to sit on their contents when sitting down.

I've never sat on my smartphones before, whether they were large or small. And I've always kept my smartphones in my pocket.

Re: The iPhone 6 Review

#92

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I did this all the time with my iPhone 3, 4 and 5 without any issues which is why it developed into a habit. The fact that I can't do that with the iPhone 6 is a surprise and disappointment.

I'm with the parent. If you think sitting on a phone in your back pocket is a problem, I don't think the solution is a "stronger phone."

Older iphones were recently rated by Consumer Report to be about twice as resistant to bending from pressure and might well have endured this with ease. Also, the gorilla glass screen may have been less scratch resistant (though more than good enough), but it is less prone to shattering too.

So once people may have fixed certain expectations about the durability of an iPhone. But those will have to be revised with the new models.

Re: The iPhone 6 Review

#93
post #87

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> but the truth is that Apple tries really hard to give you bragging rights, buying the biggest PowerVR designs, jumping on incomplete ARM specs Wait, you think ARMv8 was incomplete when the 5S came out? What on earth makes you think that? Also, it's clear that they DON'T try all that hard; they could have used the six-core variant of the PowerVR used here, at the cost of battery life. > going to ARMv8 far before her…

Also, if they'd wanted A57, they could have just implemented it; it was available in the right timeframe. No it wasn't. A57 wasn't actually done when Apple outed Cyclone. Apple clearly ran with early aspects of A57 (your disingenuous misreading about ARMv8 being ignored). At exactly the same timeframe, nvidia, Qualcomm, and others had as many details of A57 and ARMv8, and none of them ran with it. Indeed, nvidia and…

> No it wasn't. A57 wasn't actually done when Apple outed Cyclone. Apple clearly ran with early aspects of A57 (your disingenuous misreading about ARMv8 being ignored)

In April 2013, ARM announced that the first production A57 chip had been fabbed and tested at an unspecified prior date: http://www.arm.com/about/newsroom/arm-and-cadence-partner-to...

> At exactly the same timeframe, nvidia, Qualcomm, and others had as many details of A57 and ARMv8, and none of them ran with it.

Google is showing me lots of documents published by ARM on ARMv8 from 2011. By Oct. 2012, Samsung had licensed the A53 and A57 core designs: http://www.techhive.com/article/2013298/arm-introduces-64bit... . They didn't have 'many details'; they had the design itself.

> Apple clearly ran with early aspects of A57

Which ones? I mean, Cyclone was wider than A9, but that's hardly a shock. My impression is that A57 isn't, in any case, really suitable for phones except in a BIG.little configuration.

Re: The iPhone 6 Review

#94
post #82

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I don't know about buttons, but "how the metal/plastic feels" is one of the most important things about a mobile device. It's pretty much always in your hand!

About 90% of the people I know who own an Iphone also own a case for it. So yes, it's always in your hand, but most people don't get to enjoy the feel, the thinness, or even the design.

That stuff still matters. When the phone itself is extremely thin and light, a case won't necessarily make the combined package too heavy or large.

Re: The iPhone 6 Review

#95

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> after putting it in my back pocket and sitting down on it > the bending issue is very real I'd suggest that the issue is that you're a guy who thinks sitting on $1,000 of glass and aluminium is a normal thing to do.

He didn't say it was normal. We stick things in our pockets and forget about them. It happens. This is where the marketing concept of "life-proof" comes from. Shit happens. Day-to-day consumer devices are going to get bumped, dropped, damp, sat on, etc. If the iPhone can't handle those things, the answer isn't "Be more careful you idiots", the answer is people will (presumably) stop buying them.

"life-proof", as in "sitting down on a hard chair with your 6 inch smartphone in your back jeans pocket", conflicts with the clear and unmistakable consumer preference for "big and thin".

In FantasyLand, engineers could create phones with 8 inch displays that were still somehow useable with one hand, and you could run over them with your car ("life-proof" - oopsies!) and they'd be ok. In the meantime, put your money where your mouth is and buy a smaller, more durable phone like an iPhone 5.

Re: The iPhone 6 Review

#96

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I've sat on my Note 3 (sans any type of case) more times than I can remember, and have never even so much as scratched it.

Out of curiosity, why not put your phone in the front pocket?

Keys and change go in front pockets and tend to scratch phone... Phones fit in back pockets and I've never damaged one that way in many generations of iPhones (and also Android phones).

Re: The iPhone 6 Review

#97

I've had the iPhone 6 since Sept 19. In the 10 days since then, I've shattered the screen, when it slipped out of my pocket as I got out of a chair, and bent the phone just yesterday, after putting it in my back pocket and sitting down on it (and then immediately getting up when I realized what I did). Let me tell you that the bending issue is very real. My phone isn't bent like those consumer reports videos, but it…

Put it in a front pocket from now on?

Re: The iPhone 6 Review

#98

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> after putting it in my back pocket and sitting down on it > the bending issue is very real I'd suggest that the issue is that you're a guy who thinks sitting on $1,000 of glass and aluminium is a normal thing to do.

When did durability stop being a factor used to assess a phone's quality? As someone who is somewhat accident prone (and who doesn't want to spend too much time fretting about protecting my phone), it's something I care about. Granted, I don't this should be as big of an issue as some people are making it out to be, but I think the discussion should go beyond chastising owners for putting their phones in the wrong po…

When did durability stop being a factor used to assess a phone's quality?

When consumers expressed a clear preference for big, thin phones that offer a lot of mechanical advantage to their round butts when sitting on them.

it's something I care about

But not enough to buy a smaller, more durable phone? One with a thick, rubber or plastic exterior case? No? I didn't think so.

That's not much better than saying "you're holding it wrong."

Maybe people should take personal responsibility for breaking their belongings?

Re: The iPhone 6 Review

#99
post #90

Earlier quoted context omitted.

This is classic bikeshedding. A lot of mobile device reviews are pretty unsophisticated, so there's a lot of spilled ink about button location, how the metal/plastic feels, etc. Its a strange regression. Like we just can't judge or weigh the complexity of a modern mobile OS and all its services and apps and just take on this simplified, "Uh, it looks nice" point of view. Strange that even a hard-nosed tech site like…

Just the other I realised Jobs was right saying the size of the iPhone was perfect because of human thumb size, his mistake at the time (assuming he really thought this through and wasn't just being a salesman) was to think consumers would always value the ergonomics above everything else. In time, even Apple realised consumers were probably favouring other things like the screen size itself even when ergonomics suff…

It wasn't a mistake -- "consumers don't know what they really want, so we'll only sell the version they should want" was straightforward Jobsian thinking.

It's similar another famous case of a perfectionist founder rejecting customers' demands, Henry Ford's famous statement about the Model T that "any customer can have a car painted any color that he wants, so long as it is black." (http://www.gutenberg.org/cache/epub/7213/pg7213.html#id00226)

Re: The iPhone 6 Review

#100

I've had the iPhone 6 since Sept 19. In the 10 days since then, I've shattered the screen, when it slipped out of my pocket as I got out of a chair, and bent the phone just yesterday, after putting it in my back pocket and sitting down on it (and then immediately getting up when I realized what I did). Let me tell you that the bending issue is very real. My phone isn't bent like those consumer reports videos, but it…

Any chance of Apple covering the bending issue free of charge? I'd actually expect them to if you took it into an Apple Store.

"I sat on my phone! Can I have a new one?"

"I fed my phone to my dog! Can I have a new one?"

"I dropped my phone out of my car! Can I have a new one?"

"My phone fell into a commercial smoothie blender! Can I have a new one?"

Post reply on HN