The Evolution of iPhone Design: A Nostalgic Return to the Classic Look

As I watched the keynote presentation for the new iPhone 12, one thing that caught my attention was the return to a more squared off shape. This design element is reminiscent of the classic iPhone designs from years past, and it's easy to see why it's excited me. As someone who daily drove an iPhone 4 for almost three years, I have a deep appreciation for this design aesthetic.

The iPhone 4 was my trusty sidekick for over three years, and I've been through everything with it. From replacing the battery at one point to fixing the broken home button, I was determined to keep this phone going. But despite its durability, there were moments when I couldn't help but feel that something was missing. The industrial solid feel of the aluminum frame with the glass sandwich design on both the front and back still stands out today, and it's a testament to Apple's ability to create products that are not only functional but also beautiful.

As someone who doesn't normally geek out over design nuances, I have to admit that the return to this squared off shape is exciting. It's almost as if Apple has taken a step back in time and reimagined what it means to be an iPhone. Of course, this isn't just about nostalgia; there are practical considerations at play here too. The new design elements will likely improve the overall user experience, with features like a more seamless glass-to-metal transition and a revised layout that's both intuitive and elegant.

The New iPhone 12: A Fresh Start

But what really got me excited was the opportunity to check out the iPhone 12 in person. As someone who's been waiting for an update to Apple's design, I have to say that this is a major milestone. It's been over 17 years since the iPhone first hit the market, and it's amazing to see how far we've come as a society. The iPhone 12 Pro model I'm holding in front of me is a testament to Apple's commitment to innovation and design excellence.

One thing that struck me immediately was the limited-edition Sticker Bomb skin from dbrand. This exclusive accessory adds a touch of personality to the already sleek design of the iPhone 12, and it's a great way for fans like myself to show off their love for this new device. As I flipped through the video description, I found a link to check out more information on this limited-edition skin – it's clear that Apple is serious about making the iPhone 12 stand out from the crowd.

The Future of iPhone Design: What's Next?

So what can we expect from future iPhone designs? Will we see more updates in the form of incremental changes or bold new directions? Only time will tell, but one thing is for sure – with the iPhone 12 leading the charge, Apple is signaling a fresh start for its iconic brand. Whether you're a seasoned fan or just starting to explore the world of iPhones, this new design direction is definitely worth keeping an eye on.

For those who may be wondering about other models in the iPhone 12 lineup, don't worry – we'll get our hands on the Pro Max and mini versions soon enough. Until then, it's essential to focus on what matters most: the experience of using an iPhone 12. And with its squared off design, improved display, and enhanced camera capabilities, this is definitely a device that will leave you eager for more.

"WEBVTTKind: captionsLanguage: en- Remember when you evaluated a phonebased on how smooth itwas when you were swipingfrom one page to the next?- Yeah.Which iPhone is that? 4?- The iPhone 4.This was my daily driverfor almost three years.- Oh, me too! (laughs)- It's a good phone.And that is why I'm so excitedto check out the iPhone 12.I mean, we haven't seen an updateto Apple's design for theiPhone since the iPhone X.And before that, ithad been, I don't know,about 17 years since theyhad updated the designthat they originallyintroduced with the 6.So here in front of me,I have the iPhone 12 and iPhone 12 Pro.Unfortunately, we don't havethe Pro Max or the mini yet,but surely, we will get ourhands on them in due time.Oh, right!Interesting.The new Sticker Bomb skinfrom the one and only dbrandthat is a limited timedrop, ha-ha-ha-ha-ha,that you can check out at thelink in the video description.Now, what excited me whenI watched the Keynotefor the iPhone 12 was this returnto kind of a more squared off shape.I've always liked it,and maybe part of it is just nostalgia.A lot of people around here assumethat I'm some kind of Apple hater,I hate iPhones or something like that,but the truth is I actuallydaily drove this iPhone 4for almost three years.And I've been through everything with it;I replaced the battery at one point,I had to replace the brokenhome button at one point,like I really wanted tokeep this thing going.I absolutely loved it.And part of what I loved about itwas the industrial solidfeel of the aluminum framewith the glass sandwich, front and back.It's a design that I stillthink stands out today.And so seeing Apple make a returnto this squared off design was somethingthat was kind of exciting to me,even as someone who doesn'tnormally geek out over like,\"Yeah, like the design, thelines, the phone, you know.\"Honestly though, feeling it in my hand,I can't say that I like it asmuch as I was expecting to.Part of what worked so wellabout the iPhone 4 was its size,like it was very, very holdable.Remember when the lockbutton was on the top?Ha-ha, I remember that.Honestly, this, I find alittle bit harder to hold onto,like it either alternatelydigs into my palmor kind of slips out of it.To be clear, there is a sticker on it,a fancy sticker, buta sticker nonetheless.But I'm just finding it alittle bit, I don't know, sharp,in a way that I didn't find the iPhone 4.- Maybe if you have a case.- I don't know, I'm more of a naked guy.You know, I'm a naked boy.At most, a fancy sticker.I don't really like a bulkything around my phone.- Speaking of naked, LTTstore.com.- Don't be naked. Go to LTT store.com.(everyone laughs)Swipe around a little bit here.Okay, I got my news, thingsthat can be paywalled,so I can subscribe to Apple news for $14or whatever it costs.Thanks for that. This is cool.Got my App Library.So this is Apple holdingthe hands of all the peoplethat don't know how to make folders.My wife would benefit from this.For whatever reason,you still can't just putan icon wherever you want.Ugh!But yeah, I tend to just make foldersand then anytime I don't need folders,Spotlight is so amazing.If you've been living under a rock,the main benefits of the iPhone12 lineup are as follows,and surprisingly, this is really cool.Most of them apply to boththe 12 and the 12 Pro,which impressed the heck out of me'cause Apple's beenknown to do things like,\"Oh, well, you know, well, youdon't need a OLED display,\"or whatever the case may be.So we've got higher resolution displays,they're now calling it Super Retina.Apple has finally giveninto the pixels-per-inch warbut in a way that I stillthink is reasonably sensibleas long as it's not costingus anything in battery.More on that later.They've got support for 5Gacross the entire new lineup.As long as that doesn'taffect battery too much,that should be okay.although word on thestreet is that it has.and we're gonna have to waitfor the upcoming iPhone 13 lineupto get a more efficient 5G modem.We've got the A14 BionicSOC, which to my knowledge,is the first commerciallyshipping five-nanometer processor.So it's got an enhanced neural engineas well as a new image signal processorwhich should make the camerason these better than evereven though they're 12megapixels across the board,even on the iPhone 12 Pro.So you've got your telephoto 12 megapixel,your regular 12-megapixel, andyour super-wide 12 megapixel.And then finally, honestly,as crazy as this sounds,I don't really care that muchabout a new super advanced SOC these days.I mean, I am still daily driving a Note9and finding it to befast enough for my use.The thing that's blowingme away here is the glass.On both of these phones,Apple is using a new CeramicShield glass technologythat infuses the glass with ceramicthat apparently makesthem more shatterproof,just across the boardstronger than anythingthat we've ever seen beforeby an order of several times.I mean, is this the end ofshattered iPhone screens?According to some preliminarytesting that I've seen,these puppies are surviving six-foot dropsand just shrugging them off.I mean, bad news for thethird-party repair industryalong with all the other thingsabout the iPhone 12 lineupthat are difficult to repair,but good news for anyonewho doesn't like replacingtheir phone screens all the time.That's freaking awesome.This video brought to you by drop.com.Drop's having a sale onall Drop-made keyboardsuntil November 8th.It includes the ENTR keyboardthat offers impressiveperformance at a solid value.The CTRL, ALT, and SHIFT keyboardswhich come with full aluminum framesand hot-swappable key switches,and their Signature Serieskeyboards where each componentof the keyboard iscompletely customizable.So click the link in the description belowand use code FLAGSHIP20 for 20%off all Drop-made keyboards.One other bigI-can't-believe-you-didn't-hold-out-on-mefeatureis the ability of both phones,the Pro and the regular,to not only playback HDR contentat up to 1200 nits peak brightness,but also record HDR content.Now both of them will do up to 4K 60 FPS,but the only difference between themis that the Pro will do HDR recordingat up to 60 frames per second.So I'm actually usingthe regular one right nowto just try it out.Let's record an HDR clip here.Whoa! Hey, hold on.Whoa. You could see itjust like right there,switched over into HDR mode.That is mind blowing.That is absolutely incredible.I don't know how much of thisyou guys are gonna be able to seethrough my camera on your screen,but this is not an idealscenario for recording videoon phones when I'munboxing them or whatever.There's studio lights shining in my faceand a lot of really deep shadowsout there in the warehouse.I have never seen anythingpick up even closeto this kind of detail in here.Look how smooth that is too.Holy schnikes, dude. This is crazy.Wow.This becomes one of thosecan-I-wait features, you know?'Cause that's the question Android usersfind themselves askinga lot of the time is,well, iPhone users too for that matter is,\"Is this worth switching for?Can I wait to have this?\"Android phone makers are gonna come outwith good HDR video recordingeventually, but can I wait?Damn!Sorry, I swear I will stop.Like holy (bleep).This right here. No, hold on.This diffusion cloth looks so closeto what it looks like in real life here.I'm blown away.Obviously, when you have areally strong light source,it'll clip, so you cansee my main light here,but my fill light,that looks like the wrinkles in the cloth.Here, let's just...Okay, let's pull out amortal video recorder here.So there's Andy looking all fly.Let's pan over here.Oh, looks like garbage.Okay, check this out.See how the entire scene dimsas I point towards these lights?And how dark that looks,it doesn't look like that.But on the iPhone 12,look at that consistency.Even as we pan across these bright...Like what? Look at that dynamic range!It captures the whole thing.Isn't that nuts?- It's crazy. (laughs)- We should all switch to iPhone.- Oh!Okay.Sorry, I will move onnow. I will move on now.The notch is still here.Notch is apparently notgoing away anytime soonin spite of the fact thatwe got a global pandemicand without some weird, hacky workaroundswhere you hold the maskon half of your facewhile you set up Face IDand then an alternate look,and you do the other half of your faceor something like that, really,Face ID does not work at all with a mask,and Apple has come out and said,\"Well, it's not intendedto be used with a mask.You can just use a pin.\"In spite of that, we'restuck with Face ID.We're stuck with a frickin' forehead notchin the front of the phone.I'm not a big fan of that.We're stuck with 60 Hertz displays.Right, I didn't evenrealize until I was like...Who doesn't use theirphone as a fidget toy?Until I was fidgeting,swiping between home screens.I was like, \"Oh yeah,that looks like garbage\".(laughs) I mean, it really does.90 Hertz, even 80, 75.75 Hertz would have been a big difference.That's all you had to do tomake me at least happier, Apple.But I also understand why they didn't.Word on the street is that,and I haven't tried it yet,but word on the streetis that battery lifeon the iPhone 12 lineup ain't great,and a big part of itis due to the 5G modem.So if Apple had gone and gone,\"Okay, we're gonna add 5G,we're gonna add a higherresolution display,we're gonna throw a highrefresh rate display in there,\"they would have had endlesscomplaints about battery lifeunless they sucked it upand put a big battery in the iPhone,which I don't thinkthey're ever going to do.One thing they did do thoughis throw a ton of RAM in these puppies.So there's a really good testover on EverythingAppleProwhere he shows thatbasically, with 6 gigs of RAM,that slow task switchingthat has plagued iPhone userswhen you have a lot ofapps open in the backgroundis pretty much resolved.And that's the kind of thing that I also,like the battery thing,was sure that Apple wasnever going to addressbecause it dramatically increases the costof every single unit they sell.Whereas software optimization is somethingthat only increases the costof writing the software;the handsets themselves can remain cheap.So you've got the fastestSOC, you've got a ton of RAM,you've got a beautiful displayeven if it only runs at 60 Hertzand they actually didn'traise prices for a change.What do you think, Andy?iPhone 12, 12 Pro, winners?- Look at my T-shirt.- Oh my God, he's wearing an Apple logo.(staff laughs)You're buying one, aren't you?- I bought one for my wife.- \"I bought one for my wife.\"- Yeah.- All right.- Not for myself.- You're gonna test drive itfor her though, right?- Yeah.- Yeah, that makes sense.Which one should I dailydrive, the Pro or the regular?- Pro.- Just go Pro?I mean, the difference is so small.You got stainless steel frame on the Pro,aluminum frame on thenon-Pro, like, hmm, okay.It's a little bit heavier.You got the extra camera which honestly,I probably won't use much, ugh.They both have wireless charging.Obviously, I think Appleis trying to phase usout of the whole pluggingthings into your phone thing,one connector at a time here.MagSafe charging, so let's go aheadand try out the MagSafe charger.Personally, I'm not expecting to be...What the hell? What is this packaging?Oh, very funny, dbrand. (laughs)Okay, there, that's anexample of the Linus face dropthat you can find link down below.Personally, I'm not expectingto be very compelledby MagSafe charging, but who knows?Maybe I'll be surprised.Personally, I got one ofthose multi-device thingsthat Apple never manage to release.I'm a little bummed thatthis isn't detachable'cause that means when this wears out,and you can tell just looking at itthat it's gonna wear out,it's gonna be a bit of a drag.Which way does it go? Oh, there you go.Yeah, okay, so what'sthe key benefit of thiscompared to just a regularwireless charging pad?I guess just that italigns properly in place.Okay, I mean, that's cool.Oh yeah, we could try the LiDAR thing.What did I say thatapp was called? Canvas!How many things are called Canvas?There we go, Canvas:Pocket 3D Room Scanner.Confirm the side button.Oh, got the camera right there.- Keep it up, Linus.- You sound like my wife.- Hold it up.- I'm working on it.\"Preparing to process your scan,\"this is where your A14 Bionicis gonna come in handy.Oh, dang!That's cool.Now there's a lot of obstructions'cause this is a film set, butcheck out the enhanced scan.- Whoa!- Neat!Go away, I'm trying to... (clicks tongue)I'm trying to look at things.Okay, I don't...Don't show this info anymore. Go away.Stop! I just wanna look at it.(staff laughs)Don't show this info anymore.Okay, there, if I clickit, then will it go away?Okay. Oh, no.Here we go.- I mean, it'skinda like a panorama.- No, it's not 'cause it has depth to it.See?- Oh, that's true.- Now there's a lot of like...It's doing a lot of guessing, obviously.You'd need multiple scans toget a really proper room scan,but that's still really cool.Yeah, it really doesn't like this plant.Ooh.That's all I really have toshare about the iPhone 12and 12 Pro for now.I'm gonna do a full review,I'm gonna daily drive it.I guess we'll do the Pro then?- Yeah.- We'll do the Proand you'll have to find thatover on Linus Tech Tips.I might never use theLightning port again,and that's Apple's plan, isn't it?\n"