The 17 Slim effort feels like a trial balloon, or like Scullyist SKU management. Like, two cliques in Apple squaring off: "Nobody demanded a thin phone!" vs. "Thinliness is next to godJobsliness!" - and they're both wrong. Like, Apple has lost the bead, and must now rely on dart boards. Like, Apple is beta testing next-gen builds from untrusted whitebox manufacturers to cap liability.
Of course, I'm curious about how good it might turn out, but I remember iPhones got flimsy when Apple emphasized thinness. The world is bendy and poundy and abrasive and burning and freezing and wet. Apple should emphasize in the marketing how tough this thing is, like... "Bruce Lee can't bend it! A .56-50 Spencer bounces right off! Recovered it from the Edmund Fitzgerald! Dropped it down the bore hole and broke an oil rig and still worked after Red Adair put the fire out! Used it as Secretariat's horse shoe! It survived a Boeing Starliner reentry!"*
*No temporal continuum were harmed in the composition of these durability claims.
