Hacker News Reader

Comment by grecy | Hacker News Reader

I find it fascinating that a review of an extremely complex piece of technology devotes 1,500 words to the color of the back of the thing. What a world.

View on HN

It's not just the "color". The technology to create those finishes is itself extremely complex and difficult to accomplish. One of the things many people like about Apple products is the company's (or Jony Ive's) obsession with producing hardware that looks and also feels good, solid, pleasing. Some people find those details silly and pointless but lots of people appreciate meticulously crafted objects. Gruber is definitely that sort of person, and he writes for that sort of person. You may judge the relative value of other aspects of the device differently but I think it's reasonable that many phone buyers would be deeply concerned about the look and feel of a device they carry with them everywhere they go and use and touch more than literally any other object in their life.

I don't know, I think Apple makes good hardware but I doubt they needed such complex technology to create shiny metal. The video describing the process made it seem more about marketing checkboxes than actual improvements.

>The technology to create those finishes is itself extremely complex and difficult to accomplish.

What about it is extremely complex?

https://youtu.be/NuCYHrSig94?t=5318

We think one of the most important questions now, when you buy a computer is gonna be what’s your favourite color. And this is more important in our surveys, in our consumer surveys this is far more important than most of the mumbo jumbo associated with buying a consumer computer…megabytes, megahertz, gigabytes…people don't care about that stuff, they wanna trust us to give ’em a really great computer, what they care about is ‘I wanna express myself and pick the color I want’.

- Steve Jobs, 1999.

I'm actually kind of glad he did. Because what I'm most excited about right now is the possibility of either the black or jet black color coming to the new MacBook Pro's whenever they get updated.

IF they ever get updated. The recent history of Mac and Macbook Pro updates leaves some doubt as to whether there will ever be an update ever again.

On the positive side, even with a three year extended warranty, you can now—whenever your macbook wears out—go to an Apple store and buy the same model with the same tech inside for the same price that you paid years ago for the original model. It creates more stability and reliability of expectation than any computer buyer has ever had before.

The writing is self-indulgently long-winded. It would be trivial to cut it down to a quarter of the length without losing anything useful.

I stopped reading about a third of the way down because my attention span timer expired. It gets reset for dense and interesting content, but 1500 words about a metal finish is... counterproductive.

Agreed. The over-fascination with a feature of a product that is only apparent when you aren't actually using the product is optimizing for an edge-case.

What percentage of these phones are going in a case as soon as they're bought?

A large percentage. However, a surprisingly high number of my friends are rocking their phones without a case lately. It makes me nervous considering how fragile they are, but I think there's some appeal to going caseless, though I'm not sure what it is.

Perhaps it's easier to slide into your pocket?

Or maybe it's more about letting everyone know that you have the latest phone? Who knows.

For myself, I go caseless because, 1) I like the feel of a solid metal device in my hand over plastic or rubber, and 2) it's thinner without a case, and easier to handle.

I have a leather wallet case that the phone slides into easily for when its in my pocket, as I wouldn't want it to get damaged being jostled around, but it's quick to take out when I want to use it.

Do you have a link for your case?

http://kavaj.com/iphone-6-plus-cases-black/

I use the Miami that's at the top of that page. It was 20-someodd US dollars on Amazon, and has held up well for the year I've had it.

I tried to go caseless, but thin metal smartphones are way too slippery. Every time I set my phone down on something, it always seemed to have some velocity towards the floor, just a matter of time.

Also, it feels wrong setting the iPhone down on a bar table or whatever. Either the touchscreen lays against the table or it's seesawing on its protruding camera lens.

Putting it in a minimal rubber case took an $800 load off my mind for $15.

My $99 Android phone (out-of-pocket, no contract) that looks nice (to me at least), has 6.0.1, and serves all my phone needs quite nicely has no case. If I drop it, it'll probably be cheaper at this point to replace it. Actually, I have dropped it a few times with no damage. I could care less about the thing at this point, even though it is easily the best phone I've ever owned.

It's actually quite liberating.

Dunno but Gruber doesn't use a case and he's not writing this review for the average iPhone buyer. He's writing for people like him who are obsessive about these details.

Really disagree. My phone spends as much time face-down on tables, desks etc as it does in my hand. True, it's not "in use" but it's an object in my environment and I care how that looks. 1500 words... yea that was a bit boring to read. But in practice, for myself and for many people, the industrial design is actually a very important part of the value.

Exactly. And if it's in your hand frequently, what it feels like in your hand, what it feels like coming out of your pocket, matters.

Disagree. I notice the finish on the phone infinite times more often than I've wanted a removal battery, SD card, or IR blaster on my phone.

Actually you interact with the finish every time you touch the phone.

He's a designer, so he's writing about the design.

The big/little thing is embarrassing, but he doesn't pretend to be Anandtech.

He's a blogger, not a designer.

He's a self-promoter.

He was a professional designer for many years and up until a few months ago he was primarily responsible for the design of Vesper.

Reply on news.ycombinator.com