mrochester
Senior member
- Aug 16, 2014
- 471
- 16
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Putting the fingerprint reader in the power button also reduces the surface area for scanning. Also, I'm not sure it's smart to link a reader to the power button when you need it for Apple Pay... do you want to accidentally sleep your phone while you're trying to pay at Walgreens? That and, let's face it, the circular home button is fairly iconic.
Those other flagships with less bezel also have on-screen navigation keys, or make calculated tradeoffs like placing the fingerprint reader on the back.
I do think Apple could stand to trim the size, but it may have to be more conservative than you're hoping. Shrink the top and bottom bezels as much as possible without significantly shrinking the home button (say, by cutting out blank space). Side bezels? Maybe, but iOS' swipe gestures are helped by having at least a little bit of bezel on the sides.
Where Apple really needs to step up its game is display quality. I don't think the 750p display on the iPhone 6/6s is bad (it's generally color-accurate and bright), but it was clearly chosen as a tradeoff for battery life and other concerns. OLED? Maybe, but I'm more interested in Apple going to a resolution around 1080p or quad HD if it can do so without taking a hit to battery life.
I can't see that increasing the screen resolution will help at all. My iPhone 6S looks just as sharp as my Galaxy S6 Edge+, so I'm not sure what increasing the screen resolution would actually achieve now.