iPhone 12 has embarked on a “backward road.”
Not quite right.
In the past 13 years, the design of the iPhone has been continuously “evolving forward”. From materials to design language, Apple is very cautious about its products, and iterates only once every two or three years. Every time a new design element is introduced, it will be implemented to the extreme.
From the rounded back shell of the original iPhone, to the square sandwich structure of the iPhone 4, to the 2.5D glass after the iPhone 6, the iPhone’s development path is clear and clear. But on the iPhone 12, Apple has introduced a lot of “old designs.”
The square frame, MagSafe, and colorful accessories. On the iPhone 12, you can see many shadows of past Apple products. Is it still a new generation of iPhone?
Square sandwich structure
The iPhone 12 uses a “square sandwich structure” similar to the iPhone 4.
The iPhone 4 released in 2010 is generally considered to be a revolutionary and innovative generation of iPhone. On the one hand, it uses a retina screen with a pixel density of 326ppi for the first time. On the other hand, it uses a square sandwich structure design. The front and back two pieces of glass sandwich the metal middle frame, bringing the beauty and texture of industrial design to the extreme.
Not only that, the square sandwich structure makes the iPhone 4 25% thinner than the previous generation 3GS, reducing the thickness of the iPhone to less than 1 cm for the first time. The same thing happened on the iPhone 12. The iPhone 12 that returned to the “square structure” was 11% thinner than the previous generation 11, with a thickness of only 7.4mm and a volume reduction of 15%.
The square design of the iPhone 4 is not only complimented but also comes with a price. One of the biggest problems is the “not enough drop resistance.” On the iPhone 4, the front and back two pieces of glass are inlaid on the metal middle frame, and the position is more protruding than the middle frame, and the edges are sharp and right-angled, which makes it very likely to break when accidentally dropped.
At that time, Smartisan T1, which adopted a similar design language with the iPhone 4, also caused a lot of controversy due to the “drop resistance” issue. Hammer Technology therefore launched the industry’s first “broken screen insurance” to solve this problem.
▲The protruding glass of iPhone 4 makes it easy to break | Geek Park
But on the iPhone 12 series, Apple solved this past problem. The iPhone 12 “embeds” the glass into the metal middle frame, which is equivalent to “wrapped” the glass with the metal middle frame. When it is dropped, the edge of the glass will not directly hit the ground.
Not only that, Apple has been working with Corning in the past few years to develop glass that is stronger and less breakable. The “super-ceramic panel” glass used on the iPhone 12, combined with the new design, has the official test drop resistance four times higher than the previous generation.
Another reason why Apple abandoned the square design back then was that the iPhone 6 series adopted a larger screen, and the square structure would be “handy” when held. In the iPhone 12 series, Apple has gone back in terms of screen size. For the first time, it launched the iPhone 12 mini with a smaller screen than the previous generation, which caters to the needs of some users to hold and operate the phone with one hand. The body size of the iPhone 12 mini is smaller than the 4.7-inch iPhone SE 2.
▲iPhone 12 mini is the first “small screen flagship” launched by Apple|Apple
The design 10 years ago, with the latest technology and technology, has been reborn in a better form.
MagSafe and diverse iPhones
In 2006, Apple first equipped the MagSafe interface on the MacBook Pro.
Apple users in recent years may not be familiar with this term. MagSafe used to be the name of the MacBook charging port. At that time, Apple developed this interface in order to solve the problem of “users stumbling on the power cord and ripping the laptop from the desk.”
MagSafe’s charging head and MacBook’s charging port have built-in magnets around them. As long as the charging head is close to the interface, it can be easily attached. Users can pull the charging cable with their hands, and they can easily pull the interface off the computer. The MagSafe interface has 5 metal contacts to realize the function of powering and controlling power for the MacBook.
In the following 10 years, many MacBook Pro and MacBook Air adopted MagSafe interface. Until 2017, Apple released the new MacBook Pro, replacing MagSafe with the more general USB-C (Thunderbolt 3) interface.
Although MagSafe was abandoned, Apple’s idea of integrating magnets into product design has not stopped. Since 2015, Apple Watch has been using “wireless magnetic charging cable.” In 2018, Apple built another 102 magnets in the iPad Pro, so that the protective cover, keyboard and other accessories of the iPad Pro can be installed by magnetic adsorption, and at the same time, the function of magnetic wireless charging for Apple Pencil is realized.
▲With iPhone 12, Apple introduced a variety of MagSafe accessories | Apple
On the iPhone 12 series, Apple restarted the MagSafe name. The new MagSafe is a wireless charger that can charge 15W with twice the power of the Qi protocol. In addition, Apple also launched a series of MagSafe accessories, including mobile phone cases and wallets that can be attached to mobile phones.
The iPhone 12 is available in 5 colors, and it can be combined with the MagSafe in multiple colors. Apple has arranged the iPhone 12 in a variety of combinations of different colors and accessories on the official promotional map, which makes it easy to think of the iPhone 5c, which used “colorful matching” as its biggest selling point.
In 2013, with the release of iPhone 5s, Apple also released iPhone 5c with minor changes based on iPhone 5 configuration. It uses a colorful polycarbonate shell and is the first iPhone in history to be equipped with “colorful color matching”. This is also the first time Apple has launched an official mobile phone protective cover. With a variety of different colors of silicone cover, the iPhone 5c can be combined in many color combinations.
On the iPhone 12, this is all back.
Old elements, new iPhone
From the first day of its birth, Apple has been inseparable from the word “innovation”. So many people think that to do “new” things is to innovate. So whenever Apple chooses the same, they will say, “Apple no longer innovates.”
But the key to making a product is not only “new”, but more “good”, convenience, power, beauty, and intuition… Every year, Apple’s mission is not simply to launch an “updated iPhone”, but How to make the iPhone stand on the current technology and design philosophy and go one step further. In the process, sometimes Apple will remain unchanged and continue the design of the previous generation, and sometimes Apple will use a new technology to make a thing that has been used in the past.
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