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Comment by mleonhard | Hacker News Reader

> The Pro lineup is built to last, combining the strength of titanium with the toughest back glass in a smartphone and the industry-leading Ceramic Shield on the front.

The back panel is made of glass. This is a user-hostile design choice. Apple tries to gas-light us, claiming that it's a "Durable Design". This is deception. I hope FTC sues them for false advertising.

A real durable design would have a durable back (metal, plastic, or composite) and a raised lip around the screen. I would buy such an iPhone immediately and gleefully use it without a case.

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The market has spoken. Rugged phones don't sell. Or people have compensated by buying a case. It is very normal to see a phone with smashed front or rear glass (1), or a degraded battery. A worn out battery is often part of people's rationalization in buying an entirely new phone. At least on the operating system side Apple is ironically leading the industry. The remainder of the smartphone industry that's not Samsung or Apple churns out disposable products so it's a low bar to clear.

(1) https://www.theonion.com/new-iphone-geared-towards-college-a...

Given companies are allowed to advertise waterproof-ness and wholesale deny warranty claims when any water indicators inside the phone are triggered, I don’t think the FTC is going to do much

The iPhone is designed to be used with a case. That’s why they make no effort to remove the camera bump.

> The Pro lineup is built to last, [bunch of physical attributes]

Having hardware which lasts is good, but they also need to make sure the software lasts. A phone is hardware + software, both need to last for the phone to last.

I know Apple is much better at this than Android, but still, they could be even better. My iPhone X does everything I need, physically it's still in pristine condition (so well done to Apple for that), but they're going to drop software support soon. Meaning no security updates, and apps will eventually stop supporting the old OS and thus the phone.

It's a shame that the 8/X isn't getting a proper feature update, but you should still be fine in terms of security updates. Apple released 12.5.7 earlier this year which is compatible with the 5S — a phone that's now ten years old. Apple has consistently provided security updates for it each year since its release.

Ah I see, I didn't realise they went back that far. That's good to know, thanks!

Security updates will continue, just not iOS 17.

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