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Comment by awa | Hacker News Reader

Is it only me who finds the flat sides and glass back "aesthetically" unpleasing... The 3GS looks a tad better to me than the 4 (ofcourse they aren't deal breakers, but wanted to know since Gruber seem to like them)

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I think the iPhone 4 gives the original iPhone a serious run for its money in the industrial design department. The 3G and 3Gs weren't even close, in my opinion. A rounded blob of plastic isn't very exciting.

Except this is exactly what was said about the iPhone when it came out -- that it was amazingly designed.

If good design is supposed to be timeless, how can once-beautiful pieces of design now be considered as "rounded blob[s] of plastic" that "isn't very exciting"?

This is the kind of fanboyism that really turns off a lot of us.

Thought experiment: if Apple came out with a new phone with the exact design of some previously maligned older phone, I'd be willing to bet that most Apple fans would immediately claim that this "new" design is amazing and perfect and all the other superlatives that are pitched about...

He's contrasting the "rounded blob of plastic" (the design of the 3G and 3GS) with the original iPhone design, which had a mostly-metal flat back, and, as you acknowledged, was heralded at its release.

Have you seen one in person? I think the new iPhone doesn’t look so good in photos (at least not Apple’s) but it looks quite great in person. No contest with the old plastic thing.

Completely agreed. The plastic felt cheap. This feels like a Rolex.

I agree, the 4 looks like a step back. Maybe to a 70s type of design. Looks cludgy to me.

I have to disagree. Nothing about the design harkens back to the 70's, except for maybe the earliest increases in adoption of minimalism. Maybe.

If you line this up next to their current line of products it fits right in.

It's taken me a few days to 'get used' to the 4.

I love the thing, it has a Bang and Olufsen vibe to it.

Apple defines beauty. Accept that as the baseline and you'll realize how exactly what was maligned before is now the new benchmark.

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