The best and ugliest iPhones ever

Jay Yarrow, a long-time writer for Business Insider, recently reviewed the ten best and worst designed generations of iPhones based on their design, market influence and technological elements.

iPhone 3GS

At the Apple Worldwide Developers Conference held at the Moscone West Convention Center in San Francisco in 2009, Apple released the third generation of the iPhone, the iPhone 3GS. As an upgrade of the iPhone 3G, the "S" in 3GS stands for SPEED, which means that the upgraded iPhone will be equipped with more reasonable configurations, with faster processing speeds and 3G network loading speeds. In terms of appearance, the iPhone 3GS is almost the same as the previous generation iPhone 3G, so its appearance design has never been recognized by the majority of consumers.

At that time, there were many rumors about the new iPhone screen, and everyone generally believed that AMOLED material would be the final choice for iPhone 3GS. Unfortunately, the final screen of iPhone 3GS had no difference in parameters from the previous two versions, and the screen of iPhone 3GS was only slightly improved compared to iPhone 3G. For example, Apple claimed that iPhone 3GS was equipped with an "anti-fouling layer", but consumers generally reported that they did not notice the effect of the anti-fouling layer in use.

iPhone 4S

iPhone 4S is the fifth generation of iPhone, which was officially released at the Let's talk iPhone new product launch conference held in California, USA on October 4, 2011 Beijing time. iPhone 4S has ushered in a major improvement in both hardware and software, and its biggest highlight is the new Siri voice assistant and iCloud cloud service.

In terms of hardware, the iPhone 4S is equipped with Apple's A5 dual-core processor, a 3.5-inch IPS glass hard screen, a resolution of 960x640 pixels, and a back-illuminated camera with pixels increased to 8 million. But like the previous iPhone 3GS, the iPhone 4S does not have many remarkable features compared to its predecessor, so we really cannot make too many comments on this product.

iPhone 6

Although the recently launched iPhone 6 may become the best-selling iPhone in history, I still think that the design of the product is far from perfect. As Joshua Topsky, editor-in-chief of Bloomberg Businessweek, said: "The iPhone 5 is good enough to stand out from a crowd of Android smartphones with its excellent design, but we can't seem to distinguish the iPhone 6 from the Samsung Galaxy S5 or HTC One at a glance. The exposed antenna and protruding camera design on the back of the iPhone 6 make it very inconsistent with the company's previous product designs, and it also loses the amazing feeling of the previous generations of iPhones."

iPhone 5

In a sense, the iPhone 5 looks like a slimmed-down and elongated iPhone. I remember someone once said that if Batman in the comics also used an iPhone, he would definitely choose the black version of the iPhone 5. However, although the design of the iPhone 5 is quite good, we think it is far from being the best-looking iPhone in history, because the later iPhone 5S has perfectly surpassed the former in color matching, and the back panel of the iPhone 5S is less likely to be scratched during use.

iPhone 3G

In June 2008, the late Apple co-founder Steve Jobs released the 3G version of the iPhone at the Apple Worldwide Developers Conference. In addition to the original iPhone's Wi-Fi, Bluetooth 2.0, and 2-megapixel camera, the 3G version uses the WCDMA standard, has a built-in GPS module, and supports Chinese handwriting input. It should be said that when the iPhone 3G came out, the competition in the smartphone market was far less fierce than it is today, but this phone still ushered in a huge improvement over its predecessor. Of course, if we look at it from today's perspective, the iPhone 3G back then is probably far from being the best-looking iPhone.

iPhone 5C

Over the years, Apple's hardware design style has been gradually evolving, but there seems to be one element that has always been missing: "fun". For example, Apple products have always been adhering to the simple and cool design concept for many years, but the iPhone 5C seems to be a beautiful accident because the product has a very rich color selection and a plastic back design. In short, the iPhone 5C is an iPhone that makes people look very comfortable and happy to use.

iPhone 5S

Apple made minor changes to the iPhone 5 and launched the iPhone 5S the following year. The most important difference between the two in appearance is that the color of the iPhone 5S has changed from black to space gray, and a new gold color has been added. It is worth mentioning that the iPhone 5S was selected as one of the "Top Ten Most Innovative Devices of the Year" compiled by Business Insider that year due to its newly added fingerprint recognition function.

iPhone

The picture shows the first generation of iPhone launched by Apple in 2007. To be fair, the appearance design of this generation of iPhone is not amazing. But the real significance of the launch of this phone is that it opened the prelude to the era of smart phones for us, and at the same time, it made consumers realize for the first time that mobile phones can become so interesting.

iPhone 6 Plus

In short, the iPhone 6 Plus is just an enlarged version of the iPhone 6, and the design of the iPhone 6 is a complete failure in my opinion. However, considering the fact that the iPhone 6 Plus is equipped with a revolutionary 5.5-inch screen, we also regard it as the best-looking iPhone in history based on its importance to Apple. It should be pointed out that I am still surprised by Apple's decision to launch a large-screen smartphone, because this decision is incompatible with the company's previous philosophy and conflicts with Steve Jobs' previous public statements, but these do not seem to hinder my love for this phone.

iPhone 4

The iPhone 4 is undoubtedly the most beautiful iPhone ever. The device is made of two glass panels, the front and the back, and the corners are polished. The iPhone 4 is only 9.3mm thick, 24% thinner than the iPhone 3GS, which was 12.3mm thick. It should be pointed out that one of the key reasons why the iPhone 4 is so thin is that the antenna and the frame of the phone are integrated together. The stainless steel frame antenna on the side is divided into two sections, serving as two antennas.

One side is responsible for receiving Bluetooth, WiFi and GPS signals, and the other side is responsible for receiving signals from the Universal Mobile Communication System and GSM mobile phone. However, for this design, Apple also paid the price of "antenna gate". Because the antenna and the frame are designed together, consumers' improper holding posture will interfere with the signal, causing the signal to disappear completely in a short time. This can be said to be a major design mistake of iPhone 4. In response, Apple also promised that customers who pre-ordered iPhone 4 before September 30 of that year would get a free "bumper" shell. But in any case, in my opinion, the overall appearance design of iPhone 4 will still be a classic even 40 years later.

As a winner of Toutiao's Qingyun Plan and Baijiahao's Bai+ Plan, the 2019 Baidu Digital Author of the Year, the Baijiahao's Most Popular Author in the Technology Field, the 2019 Sogou Technology and Culture Author, and the 2021 Baijiahao Quarterly Influential Creator, he has won many awards, including the 2013 Sohu Best Industry Media Person, the 2015 China New Media Entrepreneurship Competition Beijing Third Place, the 2015 Guangmang Experience Award, the 2015 China New Media Entrepreneurship Competition Finals Third Place, and the 2018 Baidu Dynamic Annual Powerful Celebrity.