Anonymous

June 24, 2008 at 3:11pm

the plastic is to keep costs down and to preserve battery life

Anonymous

June 24, 2008 at 1:29pm

I'd say the aluminium just because it's part of the Apple industrial design aesthetic but both give and take in different ways. Shiny plastic looks cheap and tacky in comparison to anodised Au but the metal hampers signal reception, only have to look at the wifi on a MBP.

It's all good but of course if you're just basing it on straight up Apple eye candy, the aluminium back FTW.

nebby

June 24, 2008 at 11:20am

Plastic better insulates, resulting in better battery life.

Anonymous

June 24, 2008 at 11:15am

Expect companies to come out with new protective cases
with all kinds of different finishes and colors.
Make everybody happy. Or at least everyone who wants to protect their investment or doesn't have 3 G's to throw away every time they drop it.
Also, as stated here, the aluminum body interferes with reception somewhat and weakens the potential signal.

mac boy

June 24, 2008 at 10:39am

from what i have seen in all the 3G iPhone photos is that the back does not look flat it looks like it has a curve to it and that to me is undesirable

and i read on TGdaily.com that some people think they moved to a plastic back because of the extra weight of the 3G chips and GPS chips, just a thought

Bruce

June 24, 2008 at 9:57am

Based on this picture, I definitely prefer the original iPhone design to the new shinny plastic version. The metal back just makes the phone look and feel more special. The back plastic looks too much like everything else.

P.S. The camera lens looks bigger on the 3G iPhone, but I suspect that is an optical illusion.

jchaac

June 24, 2008 at 9:51am

The horrific combination of shiny plastic and shiny "mirror-like" plastic is completely unappealing. It looks cheap. It looks so 80's. And not in a good way.

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jchaac

June 24, 2008 at 9:39am

Aluminum is much more sexy than plastic, c'mon, that is what Apple uses for all of their higher end products. Also, the latest iMac design upgrade just confirms that.

I feel this latest design is a complete step back in terms of sexiness. That shiny plastic WILL scratch even worst than aluminum and it looks like an LG wannabe product, yuck!

Was that to cut costs? I wish I could have exactly the same industrial design of the iPhone OG, but with all of the 3G stuff in it. (Jonathan Ive, I know you are reading this... DO IT!)

Forcing this analogy a little bit more in terms of "the back" of the iPhone, I think it went from Jennifer Lopez to Calista Flockhart.

Greetings geek fellows.

Anonymous

June 24, 2008 at 9:02am

I hated the iphone back on the OG phone. The black is what i was hoping for from the start. I do wish that the new one was metal though instead of plastic