Tech

Five features the next iPhone needs (but probably won't get)

While Apple likes to focus on making the new iPhone lighter, thinner, and faster, here are the five features I'd like to see on the next iPhone.

Written by Adrian Kingsley-Hughes, Senior Contributing Editor March 15, 2016 at 9:09 a.m. PT

apple's field trip

As a very heavy iPhone user -- it is the piece of technology that I use the most, by far -- I still feel after almost nine years that there are features that it is lacking.

When it comes to making the iPhone lighter, thinner, and faster, Apple has us covered, but here are five features that I'd like to see make it to the next iPhone release (although I'm not holding my breath).

Wireless charging

It still amazes me that I have to plug a cable into my iPhone to charge it when there are plenty of smartphones out there that make use of wireless charging solutions. Sure, a wireless charging pad is more expensive than a cable (even the megabucks Apple Lightning cable), but the improved convenience is well worth it.

I'm amazed Apple hasn't gone down this route if only for the opportunities it opens out for it to sell more accessories.

Better battery life

Once Apple hit a 10-hour battery life for the iPhone, there it stuck. At the same time, Apple's been making the iPhone thinner and lighter, which to me seemed like a poor trade-off.

Battery life only increased with the hand-busting Plus-sized iPhone, which is a shame because Apple could have sacrificed some of that size/weight savings and used it to pop a bigger battery into the iPhone.

A few extra hours of battery life would be welcomed -- even by me, and I switched over to the Plus. And I don't want to have to use that ugly battery case Apple came out with.

Waterproofing

It seems to come as a bit of a surprise to Apple that people want to take their iPhones into the outdoors, where it sometimes rains.

Please Apple, can we have an iPhone that is waterproof? I'm not even asking for full-on waterproofing that would allow me to go swimming, I just want enough waterproofing so as not to have to worry about normal occurrences, such as a little rain (or, as other people have requested, an unexpected encounter with a toilet bowl).

Shatterproof screen

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There's no doubt that Gorilla Glass is tough, but as the name suggests, it's still glass. And glass has a habit of shattering.

A sapphire display would be awesome, but a tough display such as that found in the Motorola Droid Turbo 2 would do fine.

32GB storage as entry-level

It's not going to happen because Apple uses the 16GB of storage as a way to upsell a more expensive iPhone, but it certainly would be nice, and welcomed by those who don't have $100 to splash out on the more expensive model.

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