Ask HN: What's the point of making smartphones slimmer and slippery?

[strooper]

Making devices slimmer seems to be a trends among the smartphone designers. It results in uncomfortable grip on device which eventually makes most of the users buy cases, which ultimately makes the phones thick for less good reason. Moreover, trimming the thickness of the devices by few millimeters trims down the life and stability of the battery significantly.

I am wondering what the smartphone designers see in thinning the devices by few millimeters when it could be significantly better with a little extra battery fat?

[SamReidHughes]

Been there done that. You might enjoy this documentary about some Japanese companies' battle to make the thinnest calculator: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=I_sdS4xQtV4

[seanwilson → SamReidHughes]

Geez, you'd think if you needed to add lots of numbers together those numbers would be on a computer and the computer could do it for you. Having someone do it manually on a calculator is just asking for errors. Interesting video though, thanks!

[WheelsAtLarge]

I think the industry just got going towards that goal. It was nice at one time but in the absence of true invasion they are following the old trend.

I for one would like the companies to have a phone with long lasting battery. It should be rated in days rather than hour. I'm willing to give up slimmness and screen size.

Smallness would also be nice. I would like to be able to carry my phone on my Keychain.

I can see a use where I would rather have just a phone without a large screen.

The industry has gotten into a rut where incremental improvements that differ little from what apple defined as a phone 9 years ago and have not moved from that.

What happened to the star trek communicator?

[niftich]

They look nice in carrier-run stores where phones are displayed for purchase. In the Android world, phones compete on style (fashion), brand, features (including battery life, but also cameras, NFC, etc.), and price.

In the Apple world; I have no idea. I can't imagine a significant number of people switch between ecosystems deliberately -- in either direction. Apple could make the phone thicker, and people would still buy it, but there's still a desire to have the iPhone set a fashion trend, and to maintain rough parity with high-end Android devices.

[lgieron → niftich]

> I can't imagine a significant number of people switch between ecosystems deliberately -- in either direction.

When my current 5s dies, I'm almost certainly buying an Android phone. From what I've seen, with the right phone I can get very similar UX for about half the price.

[niftich → lgieron]

Interesting. If I may ask, what is your investment -- or if you prefer, sunk costs -- in the Apple ecosystem with iTunes/Beats, App Store, iCloud, and the like?

I think if I had a number of paid apps, lots of files uploaded, and were paying for iTunes streaming, those investments would keep me with Apple as opposed to switching to a platform where nearly all of these are unavailable, and had to migrate my data and find alternatives.

[LarryMade2]

A big part is probably fashion.

Thin small, etc. fits better in small purses, weighs less, looks cuter in a female's hand.

Though I'm with having a rubber grip case instead of a slick one, probably save a lot of drops.. then again it would snag in ladies clutches and if worn would probably crease clothes...

[pcunite]

It may be a metric that helps upgrade adoption. I'm not a phone designer. During the Mhz wars (with PC) I remember feeling like I really needed that extra 33Mhz. Perhaps the phone designers feel thinner is desirable.

[ThomPete]

You could look at this a little differently.

By making it thinner they allow for people to buy cases so that the size still ends up optimal for grip.

Also the thinner they can make them the more battery they can put in them.

[minionslave → ThomPete]

wait what? You'd think a thicker phone would hold a bigger battery.

[ThomPete → minionslave]

No a thinner phone could hold a bigger battery without being too thick.

[loco5niner → ThomPete]

Hmm... that makes no sense to me either.

[ThomPete → loco5niner]

ok if you have a thick phone and you want more battery you might end up making it too thick.

If you have a thin phone and you add battery you get more battery while still making it too thick.

[minionslave → ThomPete]

Ken M

[ThomPete → minionslave]

Huh?

What does a troll have to do with anything? If I am wrong just point to what I am saying that is wrong.

[loco5niner → minionslave]

Yep. Thanks, suprisingly I'd never heard of Ken.

[cureyourhead]

It's a few things

1. Timelines. In the future these devices will just be screens. Transparent and flexible. So this is the timeline that leads to that future.

2. Economics. You can ship more devices because they're lighter so the revenue per pound is higher.

3. Sexual selection. The many arbitrary extremes that exist in nature in males function as points of difference with no function but the attraction of mates. Consumer 'mating' with a device functions the same way as sexual selection. Every purchase makes that phenotype more likely to occur in the next generation. Thinner has caught consumers eyes as an effective selective feature.

4. Mastery. People feel satisfied by achieving mastery. Finding ways to squeeze more stuff into less stuff is one way people feel like they're mastering stuff.

[p333347]

Many times, engineers are like mathematicians - they pursue and solve a problem irrespective of whether it has practical applications (in engineers' case it might not even be a problem per se). Until I see some insight into this aspect of smartphones from the design guys, I'll stick to this reasoning.