Why the iPhone doesn't have a thicker, bigger battery

It then follows, under that train of thought, that Apple is deliberately sacrificing longevity for cosmetics. That the company is putting an obsession for thinness over usability. I used to wonder about that myself. Then I had the chance to speak to some people in the industry and discovered that batteries and battery life are, well... complicated. Here's the case for the thicker, longer-lasting iPhone as most recently made by Christopher Mims of the Wall Street Journal:

Take the latest iPhone. Let's do a thought experiment, starting with what has changed between the iPhone 4 and the iPhone 6. In four years, Apple's engineers made the iPhone 2.4 millimeters (0.094 inches) thinner, or about the thickness of three credit cards. Despite giving it a much larger screen, they also shaved off eight grams, or about the weight of a packet of ketchup.Given the size of its current battery, a little back-of-the-envelope math reveals it's more than reasonable that if the iPhone 6 were as thick as the iPhone 4, the iPhone 6 could have double its current battery life.

It sounds great in theory, but if you take an iPhone 6 as thick as the iPhone 4 and start to imagine how heavy it would be, you can start to see where it breaks down.

Apple was deliberate when they pointed out the iPhone 6 was actually lighter than the iPhone 4. They did that because, while thinness is nice and certainly improves the feel of the phone in both the hand and the pocket, it's lightness that matters. Lightness improves usability.

Battery life is the currency of mobile devices. Every feature you add, you pay for in battery life. That includes screens, radios, and it includes lightness. If a company like Apple is willing to pay that price, it shows how important it is to them — or how important they believe it to be for their customers.

A thicker, heavier phone starts to become a drawback when you try to hold it up for prolonged periods of time. It causes fatigue and eventually prevents you from using it, charged or not, for as long as you'd really like to.

An iPhone 6 or iPhone 6 Plus with the same thickness as an iPhone 4 would be too heavy for many people to read iBooks or watch movies for long periods of time, for example, while in bed or while on a flight. It would also be harder to balance and use one handed while walking around.

It's the same reason Apple's been striving to make the iPad ever thinner — to make it ever lighter and more usable.

Also, batteries don't just hold in power — they hold in heat. They're insulators. Batteries are part of the reason why processor speeds need to be capped and ramped down over time. They're also not RF transparent, so they can affect how Wi-Fi and cellular radios work as well.

With Apple's current generation of thin-as-in-light phones, you can add a thicker, heavier battery case for those times when you want or need extra power. If Apple made a thick-as-in-heavy phone, you couldn't tear half of it off for the times when you really didn't need the extra boost.

This way, usability is the standard and bulk is the option, not bulk as the standard at the expense of usability.

If you occasionally start running low on battery, you can still charge your iPhone and keep using it. If it's constantly awkward or uncomfortable to hold, or too bulky for your pockets, there's nothing you can do. It's a brick.

John Gruber of Daring Fireball made a great observation:

Consider laptops — for years, battery life on a laptop was somewhere around 4 or 5 hours, at best. It was a struggle to use one throughout a cross-country flight. Today, you could probably fly coast to coast roundtrip with MacBook Air on a single charge.

The change in laptops happened when Apple redesigned them to be, essentially, giant battery packs, and Intel made x86 more power-efficient with chipsets like Haswell. iOS devices are already giant battery packs and ARM is already power efficient. That means, absent breakthroughs in battery chemistry, we might not get as dramatic an increase, but we'll get steady increases.

Chipsets and the processes used to fabricate them will improve, screen technology will evolve, and radios will get more efficient. Add even better race-to-sleep and other power-management techniques and, over time, Apple will end up with a light, usable phone that also has extended battery life.

The iPhone 6 Plus, with its day-and-a-half of charge capacity, shows that strategy already at work.

10:00am, February 24: Updated to better explain the trade-off between battery-life and bulk.

Rene Ritchie
Contributor

Rene Ritchie is one of the most respected Apple analysts in the business, reaching a combined audience of over 40 million readers a month. His YouTube channel, Vector, has over 90 thousand subscribers and 14 million views and his podcasts, including Debug, have been downloaded over 20 million times. He also regularly co-hosts MacBreak Weekly for the TWiT network and co-hosted CES Live! and Talk Mobile. Based in Montreal, Rene is a former director of product marketing, web developer, and graphic designer. He's authored several books and appeared on numerous television and radio segments to discuss Apple and the technology industry. When not working, he likes to cook, grapple, and spend time with his friends and family.

240 Comments
  • What we need is faster charging times. Then it'll be a solved problem. Sent from the iMore App
  • Plug your iPhone into an iPad charger. Zoom. Zoom. :)
  • +1. Works great. And fast. :)
  • Beat me to it Rene. I bought an iPad charger and notice the faster charge. A better faster charger added for my car too made a difference. But for the car do some research. Not all car chargers are actually putting out what an IPhone 6 can take.
  • They really should bundle a bigger charger with the 6 Plus. Love how fast it charges with the iPad charger.
  • But, faster charge time = more heat = lower battery life?
  • My theory, Yes. This is why I stopped using a higher wattage charger for my iPhone's. I bought a brand name car charger from BestBuy, my phone got too hot, so I took it back for a lower wattage, more expensive (?!) charger. Sent from the iMore App
  • How does that affect your battery life? I mean super charging the battery is great but won't the battery be worn out faster? Why would Apple not give us higher amp charger to begin with otherwise? I just like to know the reasoning and also the side effect of using iPad charger .
  • I'd love to get a concrete answer on this as well! If there is no degredation to the battery, ill buy an iPad charger. Posted via the iMore App for Android
  • Yeah that's what I do most of the time Sent from the iMore App
  • Why? Why when I go out for a day, use my phone to find where I'm going, what my transport options are, what places I could try for lunch, which stores are stocking that thing I wanted to buy, and then by 6pm it's dead and nothing more than a paperweight in my pocket, when I still need to call my pals to check what bar we are meeting up at (and then use Maps once more to find it), why is faster charging time going to solve my lack of Smartphone service? How on earth does that help me?
  • If you don't dress in full spandex you could carry a JuicePack. If you're not idle rich you could charge it at work on 5 out of 7 days.
  • I don't know if I could agree with this article. Though the iPhone is no doubt one of the most well built devices out today, I think it would be nice if you have a bigger battery. One thing I appreciate about the 6+ is it's a bigger phone, and because of it, you could fit a bigger battery. What I wish is that battery tech would catch up with the times. Imagine how much better technology could evolve if batteries could be made thinner without compromising battery life. Posted via the Nexus 5, Sony Z3, or Surface Pro 3
  • No. Rene says you don't want that. He is all knowing. Ask him. Posted via the iMore App for Android
  • Actually Rene is right. A bigger battery might sound like a great idea until you hold it for a long time. Sent from the iMore App
  • If they made the phone bigger yet lighter, wouldn't a phone that was bigger but weigh the same not be any more uncomfortable to hold? His reasoning makes no sense. If I held the iPhone with that tiny packet of ketchup taped to the front I would notice. Not in the sense he says you would. It's a small fraction. And still weighing less than iPhones before it, and most other phones in the market. The reasoning is sad at best. And saying a larger battery doesn't mean longer life is redonk. If I say I want a minutely thicker iPhone that is hardly heavier to increase poor phone lifespan, then that is exactly what I want. Posted via the iMore App for Android
  • You're posting from an Android phone, do you really honestly know what iPhone 6 lifespan is like? Some people will complain about battery life no matter what you give them because they will just keep using it until it's dead. Personally, in my case, I get 2 full days on average out of my iPhone 6 and couldn't be happier with the battery life and would not need it to be thicker. Between 7 and 8 hours of "usage" and up to 1.5 days of standby is perfectly fine on average, and no matter how much i used it I've never been able to kill it in one single day. And the iPhone 6 Plus lasts forever based on all the reviews, so there's no issue here.
  • You must being doing some sort of magic or voodoo. Or you meant to type iPhone 6 ^Plus^. On my 6, I have liberal limitations on location services, etc. I quit apps when I'm not using them, and I'm almost always on Wi-Fi, and/or have excellent LTE signal, but my average "usage" is 4-5h/12-14h standby by the time I get down to 20%. I don't watch videos regularly. I usually listen to audio podcasts for several hours, make phone calls, text, maybe light web browsing. I'll make it through the day, but I have to charge at night. Sent from the iMore App
  • It seems clear to me that there must be some variation in manufacturing of iPhones, or some hidden battery drain that some but not all users experience, because in my queries to people about their iPhone 6/6s Plus battery life, I get widely varying answers. And it's hard to believe it comes down to usage patterns. My 6s Plus is at 60% after extremely light usage today over the past 12 hours. 15 days of standby time is a ludicrous figure to me. I would have to recharge after two days, even if I hadn't used the phone at all. Perhaps it's down to TMobile's lousy coverage (which is terrible here in my home), but the phone doesn't indicate that "Searching for signal" is the lead battery drain. My wife's phone gets roughly the same battery life. Meanwhile, my brother in a different city says he can go over a day of heavy usage without getting near zero. Very, very frustrating to hear.
  • Yes I do know what the battery life is like. The phone I am posting from isn't the only phone I have ever used or tested out. Also I'm posting via my BlackBerry. But that's not the argument. The argument is that keeping it the thickness of a iPhone 5 and the weight, that at the iPhone 6/6+ size it would apparently be unusable and not add enough battery life to notice. Which is only based on design CHOICES by the manufacturer itself. That doesn't mean anything other than they made these choices because they like super thin light phones. Posted via the iMore App for Android
  • I never thought the iPhone 4/4s was too heavy. As a matter of fact, the 6 & 6+ are nearly impossible to hold without some sort of case so I feel like Rene hurt his argument here. I loved the look and the round edges until I had to hold the stupid thing now I can't go without a case. I feel like adding the thickness would solve 50% of the problem and going back to squared edges would solve the rest. For me, the 6+ solved my battery longevity and small screen issues so I am not complaining but who couldn't use a little more? For the record I agree with Rene 75% of the time but Steve Jobs himself could never convince me on this one.
  • Yeah um no. Look at phones like the z3, or other android phones that have much larger batteries while being larger and not that much heavier.
  • No, I'll respectfully disagree. When I'm holding my phone to my ear for a long time, what gets tiresome isn't the phone, but the weight of my own arm, and having it in a raised, bent position. I'd rather have the additional weight of a ketchup packet for more battery life. Plus, most of my calls are three minutes or less. If I'm really making lengthy calls frequently, I'll get a headset.
  • Is it April Fools day already?
  • Another 1-2mm thickness is an extremely fair trade off if it increases the battery size, I mean isn't the 6/6+ thin enough? They're actually awkward for me to grip without a case on. Sent from the iMore App
  • Exactly. Especially the 6 plus, that is like trying to hold onto a bar of soap. Not to mention it would get rid of the camera bump. Sent from the iMore App
  • Camera bump? Add a thin or thick case and no worries. Have you looked at a Samsung Note 4 ? Do you think maybe there is a reason many phone cameras regardless of the phones thickness have a bulge on the phone where the lense is?
  • It's not thickness, it's weight and other factors.
  • I have had thicker phones than iPhone 6 Plus, but never the battery life that is as great. Also, what people forget is how great the iPhone is at energy conservation. I unplugged at 100% charge at 830am and when I got home at 940pm, the battery was at 98%. Sure, I had a very busy day at work and didn't use the phone too much, but my androids used to lose at least 20% battery even if I didn't touch 'em.
  • Most people complaining about iPhone battery life are Android fanboys who never used an iPhone 6. On average, everyone I know who has a 6, including me, is very happy with their iPhone 6 battery life and is getting around 15-20% more than they did on their 5/5S.
  • I have the 6 Plus and I said the same thing about the thickness and needing a case. But that's the beauty of the 6+. With a case on its perfect. Phones that feel right without a case feel too fat with one. The battery in the 6+ is fine. There are battery cases like Rene mentioned but I can't see the need.....for me. I must say coming from Android I appreciate Apples thinking on the design. Instead of adding a bigger battery and more processing power which actually is throttled and limited some they do a great job in a more efficient way.
  • So your saying that a thicker phone that has more girth for your hand to stretch around will improve your grip?
  • "Take an iPhone 6 as thick as the iPhone 4 and imagine how heavy it would be." Yup. This is my point when people try to bring up how if Apple "just made it a little thicker." Hell no. You have yourself an iPad 3rd/4th generation with that. It would be so uncomfortable to use and actually take longer to charge. You can't make a device even as small as an iPhone 6 and hold it comfortably in one hand with the thickness of the iPhone 4.
  • Yep, and everyone complained when the iPad 3 got thicker and heavier...
  • My phone weighs over 190 grams and lasts forever on a charge. And I fail to see where it's inconvenient to use. It's not. Posted via the iMore App for Android
  • You're such a big, strong man...(That's what Rene would tell you)
  • That's the same line your dead mum used to give me all the time, NadaAddict.
  • I'm just glad your mum is still alive... I'll miss her when she's gone. Posted via the iMore App for Android
  • The iPhone 6 Plus lasts forever on a charge too, and my iPhone 6 lasts me two full days on average, kudos!
  • This article is pretty dumb. If the 6 weighs less than the 4, why not add the amount of battery until the 6 weighs about the same as the 4? No one complained about how much the 4 weighed. Jeez...
  • Of course we didn't complain about it. He's saying we'd complain if the current gen iPhones were as thick as the iPhone 4. Read and comprehend.
  • "Take an iPhone 6 as thick as the iPhone 4 and imagine how heavy it would be. Apple was deliberate when they pointed out the iPhone 6 was actually lighter than the iPhone 4. They did that because, while thinness is nice and certainly improves the feel of the phone, it's lightness that matters. Lightness is what improves usability." Maybe you are the one who needs to read and comprehend?
  • Thank you for the accurate rebuttal.
  • Maybe read and comprehend my comment? You just made the point for me. A hypothetical "imagine if the iPhone 6 was as thick as an iphone 4." Exactly what I said.
  • I don't really care about your point. The post from icon12 mentioned weight comparison with iPhone 4. Not thickness.
  • Thickness = size and weight. Thanks for answering my point on my point that you took 2 replies to let me know about.
  • Hey no problem. And don't worry about that reading comprehension thing. You'll pick it up one of these days.
  • thickness has absolutely nothing to do with weight. I can have a box made of paper thats a hell of a lot thicker than a box that is made of stone. Guess which weighs more. I said weight specifically for a reason, not so you can fill in your own definition in an attempt to make my point invalid. I'm talking about his argument saying that if the 6 weighed as much as the 4 we would hate it and get tired using it due to its weight. Obviously we didn't get tired using the 4 so why would it make sense to argue that point for the 6? Be unbiased and think.
  • jesus fucking christ, if the iPhone 6 was as thick as the iPhone 4 then of course it would weigh more. Why? Because the iPhone 6 is a bigger phone. Those two things go hand in hand. You're acting like he said that the iPhone 6 would weigh exactly what the iPhone 4 would of it was just as thick. I really have to explain to you that the iPhone 6 would weigh more if it was just as thick? You knew exactly what I was talking about but you needed some super hero to come in here and get technical.
  • Depends... If it was just the case without more gadgetry installed, it could be just as thick, and still be lighter... Posted via the iMore App for Android
  • One last time before I give up... Nobody is saying that the iphone 6 should have been as thick as the iphone 4. All that is being asked is why the iphone 6 couldn't have been thicker to at least be the same weight as the iphone 4? Obviously the 6 would not need to be as thick as the 4 to be the same weight. But if the iphone 6 was .5 - .75 mm thicker than it is currently, how much battery life gain could have been achieved from the added battery capacity? At least that is how I read the original post that we are replying to here. Based off the "Apple was deliberate when they pointed out the iPhone 6 was actually lighter than the iPhone 4" quote in Rene's article.
  • Um no. You act like the iPhone 4 is so thick. An iPhone 6 the size of the 4 thickness wise would still not be that large or heavy. Apple has sacrificed battery for thinness in iPhones. Sent from the iMore App
  • From Mims' piece: "But here’s my point: In their dimensions, smartphones became “good enough” a couple of generations ago. Few in 2010 thought their phones were a brick until the next shinier and, above all, thinner one came out." I agree with you that on its face, the iPhone 4 isn't that thick. But we're psychologically trained to think that it is that thick now and that idea in our mentality is permanent.
  • He's saying psychologically it has no affect on what he considers too big on a phone. Most of the population uses phones thicker than an iPhone 6 and as such or wouldn't be any more or less "cumbersome". Maybe they should think about reducing the heinous bezels the iPhones sport year after year. Posted via the iMore App for Android
  • I agree about the bezels.
  • I just want it thick enough so I can lay it flat on its back without it laying on the camera lens. Sent from the iMore App
  • I think this is the thing that puts the lie to the thin-ness idea. Ive is even quoted in that latest interview as being not so happy with the stick out camera. He says that it was a "practical" choice or some such that makes it sound like they kinda "had to." IMO once you are making an awful design decision like that, you actually *are* fetishising thin-ness, because a flush camera would be better design and the extra millimetre would mean a slightly bigger battery, not a big, *heavy* battery that the entire 2.5 millimetres would theoretically be. Sounds like spin to me.
  • That's assuming the conclusion that it's about thinness and working backwards.
  • I don't agree. But I don't really understand your meaning either. All I'm saying is that they made the "iPhone 6" 0.7mm thinner than the "iPhone 5" and the camera sticks out by that much because it's the same camera basically as the 5. They could just as easily made the Phone the same thickness, had a flush camera and fill that space with whatever percentage of battery (or nothing at all) to get the phone to the weight they wanted. It seems inescapable to me that Apple has prioritized "thin" over the "phone lies flat on a table," for no real reason and introduced a problem (no matter how small one might think it is) that affects many iPhone buyers, again for no reason other than fetishising "thin."
  • Yup, Ive said the choice was pragmatic, means he got it wrong.
    Funny thing is in this instance Apple got neither form nor function correct.
  • The 6 is 0.30 inches wider than the 5. They had to make it thinner so the extra width could be spanned by the same sized hands that held the 5. https://www.imore.com/e?link=https2F2Fc2F4...
  • A Lumia 635 is about the same width as an iPhone 6, but very nearly as thick as an iPhone 4. And it is perfectly comfortable to hold one handed, and I don't have big hands. Sure, making the iPhone 6 this thick, and filling the space with battery, would have probably made it heavier than the 6 Plus. But some middle ground, where it weighed about 20 or 30 grams more, and was around 8mm thick, would have been comfortable to hold on both a size and weight basis, AND had a significantly increased battery life.
  • Thinner makes it easier to handle because you can wrap more of your hand around it. The phone grew a lot in width so obviously Apple did make the decision to make sure it wasn't so hard to handle with the thickness hindering the ability for some average hand size to wrap around. There's no problem with the 6 or 6 Plus battery life anyway, the only issue that I do admit is annoying is the fact it won't lay flat without a case. But then again, no other phone does either. Samsung's have camera bulges, HTC and Moto Xs are curved, the Nexus 5 has a ring around the camera just like the iPhone, they all lack a lay flat feature.
  • I don't think they had to at all. They just did it for thinness and marketing. I'm sure they could've not had the flushed camera because other manufacturers with phones as thin as the iPhone 6 don't have flushed cameras. Apple did a horrible job there and while from the front it looks like a fantastic upgrade, the back with the flushed camera and the lines are hideous. The best in my opinion design is the iPhone 4/s and 5/s. Adding the curve of the 3/s with the glass and metal of the 4 and 5 /s would be a much better designed product than the anorexic iPhone 6. Posted via the iMore App for Android
  • This article is a joke. People wouldn't be able to hold it for long periods? Dude, if you can't support the weight of a cell phone you need to go straight to the nearest hospital and have them find out what is wrong with you start!
  • The iPhone 6 Plus isn't as easy to use lying down as the iPhone 5s was. Make it thicker, it only gets worse.
  • No, it does not. To a certain extent at least. This is just a problem with larger phones in general. My iPhone 6 Plus was just as odd to use lying down as my old Note 4. Thickness was not an issue even though the Note is 1.4mm thicker and has a battery 306mAh more than the 6+. I know you like to defend Apple, but please at least try to be reasonable.
  • "306mAh" - this means nothing since iOS and Android use battery life very differently. Both the Note 4 and 6 Plus last forever.
  • I didn't make it clear, but I was basically trying to say that the 6+ could be made slightly thicker like the Note 4 in order to incorporate a slightly larger battery. The 6+ already has excellent battery life, but incorporating a slightly larger capacity battery would make it last longer
  • Yes, but it sure is a lot lighter than an ipad. I think a bit bigger battery would great, since smart phone have come along we all have settled for mediocre battery life compared to the feature phones we had that could go days with needing a charge. You just have keep things in perspective.
  • This isn't the iPad here where we are talking about 1-1..5 lbs. This article is really grasping for straws.
  • This article is way over the top. Too heavy to use? Come on. Posted via the iMore App for Android
  • Some people just have girly hands I guess that want to have a piece of paper for a phone that lasts 2 hours on screen time instead of something that is reliable and gets them through the day at expense of a few mm. Form over function first.
  • I just want some faster change times coming from the note 4 I'm a bit spoiled Sent from the iMore App
  • Use the iPad charger. You'll be happy.
  • I came from a Note 4 and added an iPad charger to my iPhone 6 Plus. There is nothing to miss. Charges just as fast now. And lasts longer than Note 4.
  • Aren't you PapaSmurf on BGR?
  • If any of the current phones are "too heavy"... You need to start going to the gym... Regularly. I read an entire book on a surface 2 during a flight from The Netherlands to Los Angeles holding it without the kickstand... That's a little heavier than an iPhone with a mophie pack on it... You really reach for stuff, don't you? Posted via the iMore App for Android
  • Great! And someone who's 5 years old? Or 75? Usability isn't about the dooooood who can hold his surface up for hours. It's about everyone.
  • Oh so apple is building these so thin for the 5 and 75 year old demographic. That makes perfect sense. Posted via the iMore App for Android
  • Exactly... Every five year old on the planet has a new iPhone... Same with the 75 year olds... That's what I mean when I said he really reaches for stuff... Posted via the iMore App for Android
  • You're reaching for stuff when you try to say that a Surface makes a great eReader. It sucks as an eReader, and Microsoft has never tried to market it as one. Sure, you can read a book on it while flying from The Netherlands to Los Angeles. You can also read a book on a MacBook Pro or a Motorola flip phone, but what does that prove? Most people who read books are choosing lighter tablets/eReaders on which to read them. Most people who buy a Surface are not buying it to read books. Most people are using tablets to 'consume' media (like books), rather than for office work (for which most people still prefer a laptop or desktop computer). Hence, Apple is selling more iPads than Microsoft is selling Surfaces. And that's his point about appealing to a broad range of customer profiles, from 5-year-olds to 75-year-olds, as Apple is trying to do.
  • The Surface 2 isn't my choice for an ereader. I use a Nexus 7 for my ereader, but my GF packed it into the checked bag, so all I had was my Surface 2. My point was that even that was doable, so an additional 30-40g on an iphone indicates a weak, weak man or woman if it becomes too tiresome to hold. When either of my children were 5, you never would have heard them say "But dad, it's soooo heavy". Rene wrote a weak article. (Surpise!) You and one other iSheep are the only two trying to justify his article.
  • Even a 5 year old would have no issue holding the phone, even for long periods of time. Come on Rene, you're really grasping at straws on this one. Sent from the iMore App
  • I'm grasping at facts. :)
  • You are grasping, period.
  • Rene, You have a future in politics. I'd probably vote for you. While your post does contain facts such as "batteries don't just hold in power — they hold in heat. They're insulators" or by providing measurements of iPhones, there are no facts in this your article that validate your subjective opinion that is the title. You merely took the lazy route and used gross exaggerations liberally to produce an illusion of a conclusion based on fact. Taking the lazy route isn't like you as your highly productive and usually on or near the mark (with a little blind Apple allegiance and hyping sprinkled on top) Most of the gross exaggerations you used here are also either patently false, irrelevant, ommitting crucial information, or a phenomenon inherent to all PC's and "Post PC's." As an example of a false statement that also omits crucial informstion; the MacBook Air currently boasts a superior battery life mainly because of the significantly slower processor, integrated GPU, and lack of a Retina display. All laptops or devices that boast leading battery life are essentially batteries with computer components attached.
  • He's saying that an iPhone 6 or Plus at the same thickness of a 4 would be too heavy. He's right. He didn't say the iPhone 4 was too heavy.
  • I've seen 5 year olds happily use iPads for long periods of time without complaining. It's a safe assumption that a thicker iPhone would be of a lesser weight. Even if it was comparable, evidence that the weight is acceptable, even for the wrist muscles of a 5 year old, is abundant! You wouldn't expect an article on iMore to be objective at the cost of disagreeing with apples product designs, would you? Sent from the iMore App
  • Funny you complain about the phone being too heavy, yet people handle iPads all the time without issue. If a phone is too heavy, you better reevaluate things. Sent from the iMore App
  • I mention the iPad specifically in the article. It's why the iPad keeps getting thinner/lighter almost every year. And why, when the iPad 3/4 got thicker/heavier, people weren't happy.
  • Because Apple has people so fooled into thinking if it doesn't get thinner every generation then it wasn't done right. Sent from the iMore App
  • Rene, I respectfully disagree that it's about lightness, and thinness is a happy side effect. Apple fetishizes thinness - they nearly always mention that spec before weight at keynotes. Steve Jobs, Apple.com, and execs have repeatedly touted devices as "thinnest ever". Watch the MacBook Air keynote and note how thinness is emphasized over and over, and weight is mentioned once or twice. I think Jobs and Ive have obsessed over it, and consumers enjoy it too. So I guess there's nothing wrong with that, but let's not do mental somersaults to justify it.
  • I absolutely do want a thicker iPhone with a bigger battery. Weight on the scale (snicker) we are discussing is a non issue for me, but the fact that my 6 Plus lasts at most 3/4 of a day - not a day and a half - is.
  • Urm, 172g for ip6+ and 129g for ip6... Although there's some truth to the battery facts of interference, it isn't unbearable to hold something 10g heavier for like an extra 1-2 hours. Haven't held nokias before? They are pretty easy to hold.
  • I have a 1020. It's not easy to hold. It's worse than my Nexus 5 which is worse than my iPhone 6 Plus.
  • Rofl you're saying the iPhone 6 Plus is easier to hold than the Nexus 5?
    I really hope that was just a joke. Comments like this make you look like a fan boy :)
  • Ha the nexus 5 is like holding nothing compared to my 6 plus. Nice on Rene, and you wonder why people bash you for your fanboyism. Come on now... Sent from the iMore App
  • I have a Nexus 5 which I am typing this on and it is thin enough to hold comfortably. You must have some tiny hands.
  • Nope, disagree with this, totally. I can get my hand around a Lumia 1080 (the surrounding grip test - can you touch your middle finger with your thumb when holding the phone). No can do with an iPhone 6 Plus, it's just too wide. On top of this, the Lumia is lighter, which by your own argument makes it easier still. My Lumia 930 is just below the weight of a 6 Plus, so close that you'd never notice the difference. Is it too heavy, going to cause me fatigue? Nope. Would it fatigue a 5 year old? Maybe, but you'd have to question the sanity of anyone giving a $500 plus smartphone to a 5 year old! Having said that, the 1080 (which I don't own) and the 930 (which I do) might be possible to hold with a surrounding grip, but then my thumb can't reach the opposite side to even operate the back button, they are still just that bit too wide. At least with my iPhone 6 I can touch the far side of the screen to do a left edge swipe for back. But I know I still would be able to if it was a couple of mm thicker.
  • Rene, what are you on? I've never seen you get the business like this and just keep going in defense of your opinion over and over. Everyone is entitled to their own opinion. But how about a point that actually makes logical sense backed up by a fact. Did you mean to say the iPhone 6+ is worse than a Nexus 6 or the Nexus 5 is worse than the iPhone 6? The iPhone 6+ is the worst feeling phone in hand that I've felt since a Treo 700.
  • I love reading this site, but articles like these from Rene are what I dislike the most.
  • I'm providing a clear, factual explanation for the design decisions behind the iPhone 6 and that's something your "dislike"?
  • Yeah right ... But did apple tell you this ? I don't see any article on why apple made a design choice to make it thinner.. So you are just speculating and being an apple apologist.. Posted via the iMore App for Android
  • Rene let's be honest here. This isn't about usability at all. It's design and marketing superlatives that make for a good presentation. It's "look how thin and light it is" and nothing else. It underlines Apple's image as innovators in tech design. They do this for their claims, for (product) photos, for product hands ons on shelves. It just makes their products appear more "magical" and sophisticated, so, more stylish and compelling. That's all and we should really deal with that fact and move on. Posted via the iMore App for Android
  • Aka providing excuses why you fap over everything Apple does. Seriously BGR and iMore should co-write articles together. Did you and Jonathan Gellar go to journalism school together?
  • Same here. Same here. Sent from the iMore App
  • I'd be okay with my 6 being a couple of millimeters thicker; just thick enough to get rid of the camera lens protusion, even if that would only net me 30 - 60 minutes extra battery life. The heat increase could easily be negated by adding some heat deflection materials into the chassis if Apple could deal with losing a few cents in profit margin per phone. Can't speak for the 6+, since I don't like it even in it's current form factor. I did play with a friend's Motorola Nexus 6 the other day, and despite the thickness, I actually found it more ergonomic than the 6+ (though neither are anywhere close to being something I'd use daily) thanks to the curved back. So no, the argument doesn't fly with me.
  • What if they make it as thick as the iPhone 5?
    Like the other guy mentioned. I just want it thick enough so the phone lies flat and not on the camera.
  • If Apple considered flatness to be more important with lightness, they'd have made it thicker so you wouldn't have the camera bump. That should be a good indicator of just how important the size was to them — some of the most obsessive designers on earth are putting up with the bump right now.
  • I'm a big fan Rene, also owner of an iPhone6, but even to me (and I'm not even a native speaker) it seems like you're juggling with words here. Thinness, Lightness, all semantics. You're basically saying 'if Apple sacrificed battery time for thinness, it would be reprehensible.... but they do it for lightness, so that makes it ok'. Unsure. In your books, lightness is a function of usability. As is battery life, so you're arguing that dropping one for the other cancels each other out. But this isn't exactly differentiated. Why so fixated on the iPhone4 dimensions? Your point is valid with regard to that one, but how about the thinness of the 5? I think it's fair to ponder if the couple additional millimetres would have delivered greater usability benefits (battery life) than the one we are enjoying now courtesy of the 6's thinness.
    Yes there are battery cases, but they're VERY bulky and a huge tradeoff, for many the current battery life is borderline satisfactory (just about good enough not to rely on a battery case, but also sort of too short to trust your battery lasts throughout the day, every day) and an additional 2 maybe 2.5 hours would eliminate those worries once and for all. I do get that Apple's focus on thinness is more of a usability decision than mere aesthetics, but I also think that some usability considerations need to be prioritised over others.
  • I'm saying you can charge a phone or add a battery case to make it last longer. You can't do anything to make it lighter.
  • fair enough. I'll give you that one.
  • Charging the phone or adding a battery case are HUGE tradeoffs in everyday use, while a little bit more weight is clearly a non issue. Posted via the iMore App for Android
  • Sucks when people who know nothing about technology or battery technology in general weigh in at all. Let alone print articles as if they are experts.
  • What did I say that's factually incorrect? I tend to research my articles pretty carefully, and speak to a lot of experts before publishing them. You can absolutely disagree with me, but if you do it, do it with facts and do it with style. :)
  • Regarding the first sentence, most of your article. Regarding sentence two, something here went off the rails this time. I'd find a new "battery guy." Regarding sentence three, how about adding some facts that support your opinion instead of facts contained within the article that are irrelevant in supporting your opinion? Refresh my memory... Prior to the iPhone 6+, did you write an article saying "No, You Really Don't Want a Large Screen iPhone"? Now that I think about it, I do recall an article on the 5 talking about how it is still one hand usable, how Apple went to great lengths to accomplish this, and we really don't want larger screens that sacrifice one handed use. While I agree with Apples logic and still do, people clearly wanted big iPhones as the 6 and 6+ are blockbusters and destroying the Note and S5. You sbsoluely hump door knobs over how much you love the 6+ when two years ago the song was "You want a Apple doesn't always know best. People do want better battery life and are willing to sacrifice form for function. Increasing battery life isn't a technical challenge for Apple in the slightest. Doing means Apple losing some internal pride over not being able to say "Thinnest Ever. Magical. Magicaler. Magicalist." I think you may have meant to communicate the message of "Apple isn't going to increase the thickness of the iPhone again for the sake of including a larger battery to increase usage time/charge as they did with the iPad 3. The iPhone will see a leap in battery life when higher density, lower weight and/or more power efficient chips, displays, and other components are available." Make no mistake; the market wants battery life for the 6. And the market will accept a compromise such as a little added weight and thickness. If you'd like a fact to validate this statement, post a poll that asks your readers if they'd accept compromise for better life. I'll bet every Apple device I own against one iPhone 6 from you that that number comes back at 65% or greater for those in favor of additional weight and thickness for better battery life in an iPhone 6. Just to name a few of your potential prizes, that's 2 current base MBA's-13", an early '13 MBPR-15", an iPad Air, iPad Mini, iPad 3rd Gen, two 6's, a 5, snd plenty more.
  • Exactly My 6+ has a perfect battery and I actually hope they make it lighter. I wish the 6+ was as light as the iPhone 6.
  • If Apple trimmed those huge bezels it would be lighter, and smaller overall. Sent from the iMore App
  • Lol Posted via the iMore App for Android
  • http://www.imore.com/people-who-say-they-want-smaller-screens-really-want-smaller-iphones
  • Bezel are not the issue. I want it thinner.
  • So then it will bend even easier.... Sent from the iMore App
  • Not really. Using both iPhone 6 and 6 plus and not a bent. That's lies people made up.
  • "Chipsets and the processes used to fabricate them will improve, screen technology will evolve, and radios will get more efficient. Race-to-sleep and other power-saving techniques will also get better. As these advancements happen, Apple will end up with a light, usable phone and great battery life." Meanwhile, other phone makers are having no problems making thin and light phones with great battery life. Take Sony's Z3, for example. Only about .5 mm thicker and 1 oz heavier (which I believe most normal people would consider nothing), yet it has battery life that can last for days. Plus, it is powering an even bigger screen. Speaking of thickness... why was it necessary for the 6 to be thinner than the 6+? Was it really for ergonomic reasons that you describe? Or was it more likely that it was so they could brag about how thin it is? By the way, just so you and others like you understand... It is quite possible to be a big fan of Apple's products, but also be critical of some of the things they do. They do make amazing devices, but they are far from perfect.
  • RE: "It is quite possible to be a big fan of Apple's products, but also be critical of some of the things they do" Yup. Where I come from, it's perfectly normal to criticize products you pay for. I have no idea where this entire idea of paying a corporation while giving them a blowjob at the same time came from. It's like hookers paying their clients.
  • It's a Canadian thing... Posted via the iMore App for Android
  • Preach! Sent from the iMore App
  • This!!! Sent from the iMore App
  • Lots of people keep saying the iPhone 6 is too big, and they wish for an iPhone 5 or even iPhone 4-sized iPhone 6 mini. Everyone has opinions, including the people who designed the iPhone 6. Understanding the trade-offs (because everything is a trade-off) allows for more productive, more informed discussions. It can nothing to do with being critical or not critical of Apple, it's about providing a foundation upon which to be critical.
  • Not even sure what you are talking about. I think most folks here are discussing the crummy battery life of the iphone 6. It also appears there are some here complaining about the 6+ battery life, even though it supposedly has better battery life than the 6. I don't see any comments where people are asking for an iphone 4 sized iphone 6 mini. I don't see that you've built much of a foundation here. What I do see is that you are presuming to tell us what we all don't want or need, based on what you are calling 'facts'. Obviously nothing at this point can be changed on the 6/6+ design to improve battery life. It is what it is, and I still enjoy using my 6 for the most part. My wish is that Apple would focus more on improving battery life on their future products instead of spending so much effort on making their phones thinner, and then trying to sell it as a feature.
  • battery life is awesome on both iPhone 6 and 6 Plus. Specially 6 plus I get two days of heavy usages.
  • 6 is pretty average at best. 6+ is good because the battery (and phone) is huge.
  • Iphone 6 battery life is not awesome. If the 6 got two days with heavy usage like the 6+ apparently does, I would have never bothered commenting on this article in the first place.
  • It is good.
  • The 6+ is 1/100th of an inch thicker than the 6. It needs more battery for the increased size of the screen backlight. Would you rather have a 6+ that you can't use in daylight?
  • Do you see anybody here complaining that the 6+ is too thick?
  • My mistake. I misunderstood the comment.
  • Phone fatigue?
    At the weight of an iPhone 4?
    The difference being almost 1/2 of an ounce.
    I don't recall ever feeling fatigued using my iPhone 4.
    I just can not agree with the premise of this article.
  • Anecdote, sadly, isn't the plural of data.
  • Plural anecdotes surely indicate the data they have in common is real and not imagined.
    Certainly not scientific, but a clear indication many people either don't agree with your points in your article.
    I would prefer a phone slightly "thicker", slightly smaller, and slightly heavier... Especially if I could get a few extra hours of battery life AND not have the lens protrude from the back of the phone.
    I currently use an iPhone 6 as my daily driver. Sent from the iMore App
  • I don't want a thicker phone
  • Is there data out there suggesting iPhone 4's were too heavy or fatiguing?
    I know holding them side by side the weight difference feels significant, and being totally honest, the newer iPhones do feel better in the hand by weight alone.
    It seems like there are a significant number of complaints about iPhone battery life that suggest people would at least like that aspect to be addressed (though that doesn't necessarily mean a thicker iPhone would address that as opposed to software advancements and limiting push and etc).
    The new iPhones are certainly svelt and light but, for me, they feel too thin and slippery in the hand, perhaps combination of a number of changes. I somehow think a slightly thicker, more ergonomic iPhone wouldn't be a step backwards for Apple (not to say we could know for certain that battery life would be significantly affected.)
    I just don't see, if it were to become slightly thicker and heavier, it would be such a hindrance that consumers chose another phone based on those points.
    But I've been wrong before :)
  • You should have added a poll to this article. Although I love the form factor of the 6+ I wouldn't mind it being a little thicker to add some extra battery life. However, I understand Apple not doing it simply because we can buy accessories in order to add extra life to the phone or to make it thicker. As small and thin as it is I would personally complain about it being too heavy as I've had thicker phones of similar height as the 6+
  • All the money they take in and all the R&D and they still cant make a phone with good (not decent) battery life?? The average user shouldnt have to "get a mophie" lol smh
  • Battery life is already pretty great. It'll get better.
  • IPhone 6 battery is pretty crappy actually. Sent from the iMore App
  • It is not
  • Yes it is. I have one and the battery life is no better than it was on the 5s which wasn't that solid in itself. Sent from the iMore App
  • But is thinner than the 5s
  • It's decent for the iPhone 6. It should be better. The fact that battery life is still as big of a discussion like this proves it. I suppose it doesn't help that I get a fair amount of people needing a mophie that mildly use their phone on a daily basis...
  • Why not make the iPhone 6 thicker so it weighs the same as iPhone 4...problem solved.. You've not made it any heavier and it's slightly thicker so it may be better to hold. Posted via the iMore App for Android
  • Maybe because it's so much wider than a 4 that people who's hands could comfortably hold a 4 can upgrade to a 6 without losing their grip on their new phone?
  • If the 6 was 1mm thicker that would be alright. Sent from the iMore App
  • This article is ridiculous. It's basically whitewashing the iPhone's shortcomings and telling users they are stupid for wanting something different. Was it written by Apple PR? Is there a difference between Apple PR and iMore. Yes the device would be heavier at it's current size with iPhone 4 thickness. Yes weight and thickness matter. However, there is nothing wrong with someone wanting something slightly different. I used an iPhone 6 for several months and I've used several flagship Android devices in the past year. If I had to pick the iPhone 6 and the weight/battery of the Sony Z3V, there is no doubt I would pick the Z3V thickness and weight. It would be the same for the Droid Turbo and other Android devices. It's not our job to put up with perceived shortcomings while we wait on chipsets to catch up. All in all it's up to users to vote with their wallets and Apple has bee killing it this gen so I would not expect a change. That doesn't make it okay to tell us that would prefer the other way that we are wrong.
  • People would just complain differently. "The iPhone is a brick! Why didn't apple make it lighter! I'd sacrifice an hour of battery life for a few grams less!" That's the nature of large customer populations — everyone has different priorities and different opinions on what's important. The iPhone, by it's nature, is meant to be the minimal core. Add a battery charger, add a rugged case, add anything you like. Because the core is minimal, you can add things without much problem. If it wasn't minimal, you could never take them away.
  • Oh gosh. Please implement a poll to save the day. Even as a computing student, I won't go to such great lengths to be defensive. I know you said you have talked to experts, do research and stuff, but let's just be honest here, do you really believe that your analysis isn't biased towards anything Apple? It's the kind of cliché stuff that you always hear, people tend to use stats to prove things to their likings, and distort reality about things that they do not like. It's kinda frustrating to hear sweeping statements on an esteemed tech blog site. Even if stats show that 75% want more thinness and minimalistic design, there are so many questions to ask before deciding on a fact. So please, you could save yourself a life of argument with our stupid comments by polling. Peace.
  • I see your point but couldn't someone make the argument that Apple is abdicating their responsibilities by leaving this part of the design for others like Mophie or Otterbox to pick up? I mean you can say they are just designing for the core but if they do that with the understanding and expectation that people will turn to other companies to build on that core, aren't they doing a disservice, especially when considering how proud they are of their designs?
  • "I'd sacrifice an hour of battery life for a few grams less!"
    Hmm.. not sure I've seen this one. Now the opposite sentiment however, is on every phones' forums. except maybe the droid maxx.
  • I wish for a thinner phone actually
  • But obviously many don't, and in fact want the opposite. So telling them they don't, and throwing pointless numbers around about thinness and how it trumps need for battery life when a very large portion of the population of iPhone users want battery life to extend and couldn't give 2 shits about 1mm or the extra gram it would weigh, is moot. Posted via the iMore App for Android
  • Bought a Mophie, solved that problem. Only put the Mophie on the iPhone when traveling or going to be
    a long meeting day. Otherwise, run with just iPhone battery, go from 06:45 to 11:00 each day and still have about 30-40% battery left.
  • How do you do it? Your arms must ache really bad at the end of the day... According to Rene. Posted via the iMore App for Android
  • Lmao!!!! Sent from the iMore App
  • Hahaha yes! Sent from the iMore App
  • haha
  • Why did Apple pin itself to a pointless target of being lighter than a phone that is by all standards irrelevant today. Hopefully this was just a happy coincidence. If not, I think it's as much about meeting your claims as it is making the right design choice. I think that if the extra 1-2 mm to make the camera flush would have been a smarter design choice. It would have been aesthetically pleasing and pragmatic. On the off chance that would have yielded a larger battery, all the better. The sweet spot for battery life is at least one and a half days for me. This gives me a little slack time should I forget to charge it. If I take it easy on the phone, I may make it through a couple sleeping cycles. I'm looking to charge it one night, use all day, sleep the next night, and then have some left over to make it to the office and charge mid morning. This is what I get and then some with the iPhone 6 Plus. It will be hard to not have when moving on to my next device. To expand on thicker phones. A flat top and bottom phone is not the easiest phone to hold onto. In my opinion, the HTC One M8 is much easier to hold onto due to its thicker core. It's a bit more ergonomic. It's still Aluminum and slippery as can be, but so is the iPhone 6 and 6 Plus. A case or skin can fix that.
  • Yeah, the M8 is like trying to hold onto a greased seal. It's way more slippery than the iPhone 6. I use a case when traveling so I don't drop it. It's naked most of the time though. It is also heavier. Posted via the iMore App for Android
  • Again, if even Jony Ive wanted the phone to be flat, and they still didn't make the phone flat, maybe there is some compelling reason or merit to the choices they made? If everything is a trade-off, a choice, than this was obviously something they felt very strongly about. Apple can always make dumb choices, but it's worth considering the choices they made just in case.
  • Don't disagree at all, I have a 6+ and am very happy with it. Everybody's hands are different though and each person having a individual opinion to match. Perhaps I just fall into the minority of those people. I like a curved back phone as well, think Lg G3. It's seems like a good compromise. To be honest though, I'd need to hold them both to really assess.
  • Considering those choices is different than using those CHOICES as some sort of campaign in telling actual users they don't know what they want. Those design choices don't speak as fact and your article presents them as such. That was the flaw in your writing. You didn't just explain why they may have chosen that path, you took those choices, presented them as absolutes and to top it off you insulted your reader by saying they don't know better. Posted via the iMore App for Android
  • Ill rather take a slightly heavier phone with a bigger battery than thinness. Yes the hardware has improved greatly, the A8 is battery efficient for what it is for BUT imagine that efficiency on a bigger battery* now that'll be better. Plus a majority put their phones in a case so they add more weight on their devices than it being naked and furthermore ill rather have a phone with some weight and feel than it being weightless in my hand. To each their own but Ill rather have much better battery life if it includes a thicker device. I don't agree anything with this article. PLUS, look at the back camera going out from the back and all for thinness haha, no thank you. Posted via the iMore App for Android
  • They'd still put it in a case, then it would be even thicker and heavier still.
  • If it was thicker I'd never have used my iPhone 6 with a case. I bought it intending not to use one. But when I got it was just too thin to comfortably handle with my long fingers.
  • Most, if not all of your points are ass backwards on this topic and here you've thrown an orange in an Apple fight. Your points are comical at this point. You've managed to erode 35% of the credibility you've gained over 6 years of me reading this site with one post. Yes, people would still put it in a case. So what? People who put a case on their are willing to trade thinness and lightness for protection. Apple is near the top regarding durability. If Apple could further galvanize the construction, I'd be willing to sacrifice weight and thickness because I wouldn't need a case that adds weight and thickness. But Apple can't without dramatically changing the design given current manufacturing capability and material, nor can any other company. Apple can increase battery life with minimal impact to the design, though a huge impact on Jony's pride, as can any other device company. There are two people commenting that are clamoring for thinner yet, you being one of them. Battery life is the number one complaint on the iPhone. And it's been that way since the iPhone was released. The bottoms line is the majority wants better battery life, would have sacrificed thinness and weight to get it. Obtaining better battery life is not a design or technical challenge. Obtaining better battery life is an ego and marketing challenge. Both of these challenges are petty.
  • I don't recall people complaining about fatigue with the motorola "Brick" I quote the following:
    "An iPhone 6 or iPhone 6 Plus with the same thickness as an iPhone 4 would be too heavy for many people to read iBooks or watch movies for long periods of time in bed," Why would an iphone 6 or 6+ be on par with the thickness of an iphone 4 be too heavy.... an ipad mini is far heavier yet i don't hear anyone complaining reading books/watching movies. Less fatigue is that the new selling point of phones now?
    If apple wanted it lighter they could have "unapologetically" made it out of plastic For a phone that has a "non removable" battery, battery life is absolutely paramount. The apple marketing machine really is "THAT GOOD" Who doesn't add a case to their phone, making it heavier and thicker... NEXT!!!!
  • Yes to the last part.
    Plus I think itll add more durability to the device to begin with. Motorola has beautiful devices that grow thicker towards the middle yet are still thin devices with great battery life. Posted via the iMore App for Android
  • iPad mini is typically used with two hands for long periods of time. An iPhone is typically used one handed.
  • Says who? iPad's are often used while resting in a stand or perched in a case that supports the iPad. Also, haven't you written an article talking about how easy the iPad Mini is to use one handed when it was first released. Is Brian Williams ghost commenting as you while he has some spare time?
  • Good point. I know of NO ONE who doesn't use their iPhone inside a case (thus, adding weight). Honestly, I think no matter how you turn this around, the battery problem on the iPhone is very simple to explain: Apple STILL sacrifices utility for cosmetics. What's the point of having a lighter and thinner phone that you can hold for longer if then you don't have a battery that can last for the same amount of time? Posted via the iMore App for Android
  • You can charge it to add battery, you can split it in half to remove weight. And the battery life is pretty darn good already.
  • Rene, I am increasingly wondering if the divide I'm seeing in satisfaction with the 6+ battery isn't because many of the units shipped with inferior battery life. I would love to see iMore take on the issue of iPhone 6 + battery life and investigate a little. Every podcast and web site I encounter talks about the day + battery life of the 6 plus, but everyone I know (and a few people on this thread) gets substantially worse performance than that. Mine will maybe last until bedttime with moderate usage. With persistent usage (video, extensive screen illumination through the day) I will not get anywhere close to that. Apple says that you can watch 12 hours of video on a charge. Have you and the iMore crew who marvel at your battery life gotten that kind of performance? I'd be lucky to get half that. I've been to the Genius Bar twice to investigate and received the usual advice about what to turn off. I even did a clean install, to no avail. I think there are a lot of bad batteries out there in the six plus and nobody's talking about it. Least of all Apple.
  • That's interesting, I get great battery life with my 6+. Two days sometimes. I have 1 minute timeout and use auto-adjustable brightness. Perhaps it's an app you installed? Have you tried a Factory Reset and not installing any apps just to test? Do you charge your phone with a car charger frequently? They regulate badly compared to wall outlets. This also depends on the car. Newer cars can perform better with built in capacitors/regulators inline with the outlet. You can also try discharging the phone to about 10% and charge it back to full. Try charging at around 30-40 % several days afterwards from a wall outlet each time. A good clean charge will last longer. Partial discharges will lengthen battery life. It's also important to note Lithium Ion Batteries do not have a memory like Nickel based batteries. Capacity drops as cycles increase. You will notice some decreased capacity over time. Thought you might like the feedback.
  • Scorch, thanks for the reply. I'm actually using the same settings as you on screen and auto dimming. I do have some third party car chargers I use in the car but mostly I charge via Apple cable in the house. I've done the full factory reset but did reinstall apps (not via restore but manually). Didn't help. I suppose my last resort is to do without my apps for awhile and see if that makes a difference but that will be painful. At this point I think the only likely answers are either that I have a bad battery or my expectations for what constitutes moderate use are just too high. Apple's specs do seem to indicate I should be getting twice the battery life I'm getting but I can't convince the genius bar people of that. Sent from the iMore App
  • I charge my 6+ every 1.5 days. Amazing battery life
  • I don't know about you, but I've seen the bendgate videos... I think splitting my iPhone 6 in half would be more difficult than bending it, render it useless, and void the warranty. I'm not willing to do that with my iPhone, are you?
    Lmao! Sent from the iMore App
  • On the 6+ maybe. On the 6 I still see my friends worried midday that their battery is dying and going around the office asking for a lightning cable. I think any of them would choose battery over cosmetics. I would not hurt Apple to, for once, listen to what their customers say. If they did some market research on this I'm pretty sure the iPhone 6S would come with a bigger battery even if slightly fatter. Posted via the iMore App for Android
  • If you're holding your phone so long that you notice how heavy it is you have a damn problem. "I'm da Blur boys!" - Me with 1200 ping. Fiber in Nashville? Save me based Google.
  • I'll be damned if I'm not hate surfing this site these days. I used to get good info here. Now, it's articles about how the people that run the site wish that the Apple Edition Watch sells for $10,000 instead of a paltry $5,000 so he can be seen wearing one and this trash. You disappoint me iMore, you disappoint me.
  • God, Rene's "articles" suck so hard. Sent from the iMore App
  • It's not the article that sucks. It's people like you who suck. It you don't like reading the articles that much then take your reading somewhere else. But please respect the writer. Sent from the iMore App
  • Really? Hahahahaha Sent from the iMore App
  • Rene gets around 80% disagreement, 10% who don't really care About, and 10% Apple apologists. That's about it. Look in the comments here and all of his other "articles". He's just trying to get snatched up by Apple marketing. It's very obvious. Sent from the iMore App
  • I've am one of those people that have no problem with Apple going with a slightly thicker iPhone if it could give me an extra 2 hours or so of usage. After owning a 5c prior to this the battery life has gotten much better taking into account that it has a bigger screen, faster processor -and ,only a 300mah or so jump in capacity. But what would this phone have been like if they throw a 2100mah cell in this. Please don't tell me it can't be done because I can name two thinner devices with larger batteries. Battery life is the only reason that I'm revisiting my size over battery dilemma and decided that if the 5.5 inch model gets a refresh this year with more ram that I'm selling this ip6 and getting it. Because I would rather go with a larger device than a smaller one and have to carry chargers or external battery packs with me. Don't get me wrong I love the thin profile of this phone and was taken back by it. I also love the fact that when using my otter box commuter case that this phone still feels very usable and not like a brick the 5 and previous models felt like.
  • Holy Christ are these comments getting ridiculous and out of hand. Just because you CAN comment doesn't mean you SHOULD. The point is imagine an iPhone 6/6+ length and width iPhone 4 with the same thickness. Or as another example pointed out, when the iPad was made thicker people complained, people would complain if the iPhone got thicker too. Sent from the iMore App
  • I suppose it can matter who complains more. "It's too think" vs "it's too thin". It's hard to say that design should or shouldn't be solely based on feedback from your customer base. It's depends on what it is. I'd say whats most valuable is the hands on feedback, that's a limited group before a phone is released. You may think you know how you would like something, but hands on is a better indicator. It's tough and you can't make everyone happy. I think Apple hit a home run this time around. Money talks and the market has spoken regarding larger screen phones. Apple listened and we have the best of both worlds.
  • I agree, I really like my 6+, I never thought I would really really like a bigger phone but the 6+ is very comfortable for me and I have zero issues with battery life, right now my phone has been off the charger for 18 hours and spent about half that time in an area with no signal or wifi. My battery is sitting at 12% right now, that's great battery life as far as I'm concerned. Sent from the iMore App
  • I've been an Android loyalist for the longest period of time and recently switched to the Apple ecosystem (MBP and an iPhone 5). While I'm a big fan of the hardware and software, reading garbage like this straight out of the distortion field is probably the biggest reason I stayed away for so long. Whether you think Apple made a mistake on the 6 / 6+ in reference to battery and thickness is entirely personal, but ministering to people that they don't want thicker phones because of reasons that the rest of the market essentially proves to be either untrue or not large enough to be a problem is just comical.
  • Welcome to Rene, the biggest joke in journalism. He's just trying really hard to get hired to work in their marketing department. Sent from the iMore App
  • Yep people are arguing with him and don't know why..he is going to tell some crappy reason defending Apple every time. Even in Macbreak weekly he is the apple apologist while Leo and Andy speak the truth.
  • There's no distortion filed.
  • If you don't think there's a distortion field, you're probably in the distortion field.
  • Not at all.
  • Seems to me this would be really easy to test. It shouldn't be too hard to affix an extra bit of something that replicates the weight of battery material and you can then vary the thickness to see what it feels like. I'm pretty sure that opinion would be divided at any given thickness/weight. As it got heavier/thicker more people would dislike it. The thing is, some people would indeed like it more, especially with the extra battery life. Pro tip Renee, probably isn't a good idea to tell people what they would or would not like. There is no way to know what any particular person would like. The title of this article is needlessly combative. Pointing out what the trade offs are is great, telling people that they wouldn't like it is a bit presumptive.
  • shoot I 100% do want a thicker phone. And i'd love the added battery life. I actually put a case on my iPhone 6 specifically because it's just too darn thin for my tastes. It's hard to hold for me. I have long fingers and it's just awkward. It kept squirting out of my hand the first few days without a case.
  • Yes, I really do want a thicker iPhone with a bigger battery (within reason, of course). I don't like having anyone presuming to tell me what I should or shouldn't want. The negligible amount of added weight would not be a problem for me. And I would really like to see that ugly protruding camera become flush again (it's one of the few things I really hate about the 6/6+'s design). So I'm going to have to respectfully disagree on this one.
  • OMG. Are you serious ?? a thicker phone would not be more usable? Gosh a bigger battery is not adding like 3 kilos , are just grams. you will get tired? omg unless you are starving marvin any person can hold a phone heavier than the actual iphone with a jucier battery. I still cant believe i read that.
  • Is this real?
  • Case makers loving the protruding camera that's for sure. If this phone sat flush on its back it would be pretty much perfect. Sent from the iMore App
  • This would be the case up to a certain point, but right now - and I have one - I find the iPhone 6 too light, it could use some heft. The notion that it's easier to balance something light than something heavy is just plain false, as any camera operator can tell you. So I use a Mophie or now a UNU case. This is not ideal, so yes - I DO want a slightly thicker phone - hopefully if the extra power is built it, the overall size would be less than that of a phone with a battery case. Try not to tell us what 'we' want, an 'I' in the title would've been far less presumptuous.
  • If Apple had wanted, if Apple had wanted...reminds me of people who used to say 'If God had wanted man to fly...'...
  • Yet another irrelevant and uninformed article by Rene. Your points are trivial and not even factual and you may certainly haven't busted any myths with your own personal opinions. Don't tell me I don't want a thicker iPhone because of extra weight just because you have weak girly haha that apparently can't handle it. As an iPhone 6 owner I would be happier with a thicker iPhone 6 so that the camera sat flush instead of the off balance bump that it is now. A little extra weight would be worth it in my experience for longer battery life and better design aesthetics to get rid of the camera bump. But this is just my opinion not a false made fact to tell people what they do and don't want from the product they pay a premium for.
  • It really is getting ridiculous around here. Thank God for Peter Cohen.
  • I think you're really reaching here Rene. The iPhone 6 is just too thin, to the point of being easily prone to bending. I know this, because I accidentally bent mine, and it lives in a Incipio DualPro case. Making the 6 a little thicker would improve battery life, make it less prone to bending, and would get rid of the stick-out lens problem.
    It is also too light and slippery, and a little more weight would require just the right ammount of force in the hand so it would not feel like soap. Its time to admit Apple made bad design choices here.
  • How dare you decide what you as a consumer wants!!! Apple decides what you want (and so does Rene)...
    C'mon Rene, put up a poll already. See what the masses want. Don't hypothesize on what you feel is needed or speak for the masses. Posted via the iMore App for Android
  • "The idea of a thick phone with longer battery life sounds great precisely until you actually try to hold it up for prolonged periods of time." To debunk that I present the fact that most cases add more weight than the extra battery space would, and no one gets fatigue because of the extra weight of iPhone cases.
  • If I were to buy an iPhone, I would want a thicker one with a big battery. One size does not fit all, make a skinny one for the 5 and 75 year olds you mention. They are not mutually exclusive. Supply chain and profit is Apple's problem, not the customer's. But it won't happen because, too often, Apple tells their customers what to want (as you do now), and it works.
  • Classic Rene. Pulling out all the stops to defend anything and everything apple does. You are Apple's biggest apologist, accepting and defending mediocrity. Keep the ship going Rene.
  • "There’s no thick iPhone, so mophie. There’s no ruggedized iPhone, so Otterbox/Lifeproof." There's no setting up a 3rd party browser to default, so Safari it is. Choice indeed. There's nothing wrong about choosing design and what 'they' think is the ideal form factor for a product. It apparently worked, they sold hundreds of millions of iPhones. What I have a problem with is all the BS justifications sites like the WSJ (hardly unbiased when it comes to this) and iMore constantly remind readers/users of, that they shouldnt want this over that, that feature/solution A is intrinsically better than option B. 1 or 2mm extra on an iphone 6 is not gonna drastically change its usability or make it burst into flames. I for one still own an iPad 2 and have no problem 'using' it, neither does my girlfriend. I sold my iPad 3 for lack of performance, but there again there was no problem. The weight (or lack of) of the iPhone 6 has become detrimental in my case, actually. Feels toyish and relatively awkward to handle properly, But hey, theres probably smth wrong with me.
  • This argument is hilarious. Nobody ever said make it as thick as the iPhone 4. All I can say is that other OEMs pack much bigger batteries into their phones as the iPhone 6, although they're pretty comparable in terms of overall size and weight, are just as convenient to use and have better reception. I personally use a phone that weighs a massive 196 grams and has a hilariously big battery in it, while being almost 9 mm thick at its center. And no, the weight isn't a problem in day to day use at all. Posted via the iMore App for Android
  • (Fan)tastic article Rene...I'm looking forward to your next comical misadventure. I'm still laughing. Bravo. And to think most people say Canadians aren't funny?
  • Yes..we do...they are thin enough. Battery is extremely important to people. Instead of each time making it paper thin, put in large batteries. This is true for all OEMs.
  • Yes, I really want a thicker phone with a bigger battery. I work out.
  • I do not agree with "Lightness improves usability."
  • But...But...Rene says it does...So it HAS to be true! /s
  • I love it when someone tells me what I want..or don't want Posted via the iMore App for Android
  • This is... not persuasive. We're talking about weight differences of maybe an ounce here. I seriously doubt whether that amount of weight makes any noticeable difference in people's ability to use the phone (because if it did, why did the 6 oz iPhone 6 plus sell like hotcakes?). Don't get me wrong, I'm not super displeased by the iPhone 6 battery life. But given the choice between another couple of millimeters of thickness/20 grams of weight with longer life, and thinner with shorter life... I'll take the 20 grams, thanks. Also: it's really, really annoying to have people tell me I don't want what I, in fact, do want.
  • Rene's tender little arms would probably hurt. That's what I get out of this article.
  • yes i want a thicker iphone with longer battery life!
  • You said it yourself that the iPhone 6 weighed less than the iPhone 4. No one was freaking out about that phone being "too heavy." In fact, no one is freaking out about ANY phone being "too heavy." I think that's because weight doesn't affect usability quite as much as you think it does. I'll take a few more ounces in the hand for extra battery life any day.
  • This article is such fanboy fodder, my eyes are burning! A day and a half usable out of an iPhone 6 Plus? In what universe? And I'm sorry, but the 6 Plus is a Phablet not a phone, and we really shouldn't be expected to tote one of those monstrosities around just so we can go out our front door at 10am, get normal usage on our phone (not just stuck in your pocket for hours on end on standby), and not have it flake out before 6pm. "If you occasionally start running low on battery, you can still charge your iPhone and keep using it. If it's constantly awkward or uncomfortable to hold, or too bulky for your pockets, there's nothing you can do. It's a brick." And to charge your iPhone, you need to take the charger with you (assuming you can find a wall socket to vampire some electricity from). And that thing really IS a brick. "A thicker, heavier phone start to become a drawback when you try to hold it up for prolonged periods of time. Then it causes fatigue and eventually prevents you from using it, charged or not, for as long as you'd really like to." Have you got Sarcopenia or something? An extra 20-30 grams on top of an iPhone 6 is not going to cause your brittle bones to break. Do you see too many people bothered that the 6 Plus weighs an extra 43 grams? No, what they are bothered about is you can't get a safe grip on it with one hand because of the size of the thing. Your core argument is utter cr*p. The sad fact of the matter is, the iPhone 6 battery life (and the battery life of every model before it) is not enough to make it through a days usage. That's just not good enough. 12 hours, basically a full day out should be a bare minimum of battery life. You end up having to turn stuff off, like Location Services, or Background Apps, or WiFi or 3/4G, just to eek it out until you get home. And when you do that, you're not left with a particularly smart Smartphone.
  • Poll is up on 9 to 5 and the results are resounding. Currently 60% will take a thicker iP6 for improved battery life. Posted via the iMore App for Android
  • Not entirely true, Batteries size will always be just big enough for the average user or one reason, bigger batteries cost money, and the average iPhone power user is already conditioned to know the battery life is abysmal, incremental increases are all we will ever see. If you go back and look at investor talks before the 6 came out you will see that there was a push to keep the battery smaller simply to keep the cost down and margins astronomically high. thickness is only one dimension you have to think in terms of volume and how the battery is packed into the phone. It bet you could have put a battery 10% higher in capacity with barely an incremental change to the thickness of the case. Seriously the statements about weight are insane. How weak would someone be to not be able to lift another 20 to 50 grams?
  • Yes I do want a thicker phone with a bigger battery as I want better battery life and I want a phone that is not so slim that it is uncomfortable to hold. If i have to stop part way through the day to recharge then it is not the device for me. Your needs may differ
  • This article doesn't make sense at all. Other companies like Same-soon is doing much better as for the physical capacity of the battery. Their(Same-soon, sony etc) phones aren't that thicker or heavier than iPhone is but do have superior battery life.
  • "A thicker, heavier phones start to become a drawback when you try to hold it up for prolonged periods of time. Then it causes fatigue and eventually prevents you from using it, charged or not, for as long as you'd really like to." LMAO! GO DO SOME PUSHUPS! Do you know what keeps ppl from using their phone? The battery being dead! Not a fatigued wrist. We can all survive a slightly heavier device (well obviously not Rene) for the trade off of all day battery life, which would be worth its weight in gold. Being able to make it through the whole day without "topping up" wither it be by socket or battery bank
  • This is the most ridiculous reasoning I've ever heard. They could at least release a special edition with double battery power. The weight would NOT be an issue for most people. In fact, I use my extended battery case CONSTANTLY because my iPhone never lasts more than about 5 hours. That's with radios OFF, background refresh OFF, Location setting OFF. If I'm using navigation forget it, I get about 2 hours max. The weight difference with my extended battery case is completely unnoticeable! To be honest, the iPhone could be a brick and weigh a pound and I wouldn't care bit if it last me 2 days without charge. This is doable, and the only reason it hasn't happened is because people would get "fatigued"? The notion that fatigue will set in is so irrelevant, and if you're holding your phone up long enough to get fatigued, you should probably invest in a case with a kickstand. Sheesh!!! What a bunch of crap!
  • It's unfortunate that this article is published when the Smart Battery Cover just come out, it would've been a good article otherwise. But the timing just make this an excuse and fanboy-ish, especially because Apple themselves aren't trying to make one.
  • A good chunk of the people posting look upon battery life as a single independent dimension, when it is a complicated issue. I didn't read all the posts, because I do have a life, but I didn't see anyone mentioning the greater the weight, the greater the kinetic energy gained by falling iPhones, leading to greater physical damage when experiencing rapid deceleration upon impact onto a slab of concrete, asphalt, etc. Having had an iPhone since Day One 2007, battery life has been fine for me no matter if original iPhone, 3GS, 4, 4S, 5S, and now 6S.
  • Dude, just shut up. "When experiencing rapid deceleration." You sound like a f*cking dork. iPhones need bigger batteries. If you use your phone without a case it will get damaged either way. And, if you do use one without a case, you're kind of on the slow-spectrum.