One of the consistent gripes from iPhone users is that their favorite device offers puny battery life compared to offerings from Samsung, LG and other big smartphone manufacturers. In an interview with The Financial Times, Apple design boss Jony Ive offers what seems like a really strange explanation for why Apple won’t build a thicker phone with a bigger battery.
RELATED: Apple doesn’t need to make the iPhone any thinner
“Talking of performance, when the issue of the frequent need to recharge the iPhone is raised, he answers that it’s because it’s so light and thin that we use it so much and therefore deplete the battery,” The Financial Times writes. “With a bigger battery it would be heavier, more cumbersome, less ‘compelling.'”
If we’re reading this correctly, it sounds like Jony is saying the iPhone’s battery life is below average because we’re using it so much. If the phone were thicker, it would be less attractive and thus we’d use it less, which would sacrifice our enjoyment of the phone just for battery life.
This makes no sense because Apple’s older iPhones still look very attractive despite being thicker than its most recent models. It would be entirely possible for Apple to make an iPhone that’s slightly thicker and with a better battery without sacrificing good looks.
Of course, there is some reason to doubt that The Financial Times’ paraphrase is accurate because elsewhere in the piece it paraphrases Ive supposedly making an even stranger claim: Namely, that Apple uses a “special” type of gold for the Apple Watch Edition that will be more durable than gold used in other watches.
No, seriously.
“Ive explains how the molecules in Apple gold are closer together, making it twice as hard as standard gold,” the publication writes as chemists everywhere scratch their heads.
Anyway, you can read the full profile and decide for yourself by clicking here.
