It's regressing back to a superior design. The hard edges are easier to hold, and also, you can rest the phone on it's edge without stand. I miss being able to rest my phone on it's edge.

This. I hate the lozenge designs of the last several iPhones. They are slick in a bad way.

And the edges aren't MBP-sharp (beautiful but painful). Looks like an edge radius of maybe 0.5 mm instead of 0.1 mm or so.

You interact with the screen. Why does the design matter that much? What exactly is innovative about the rectangles from other companies?

You also hold the unit quite a lot. The feeling matters.

Yes, it does, which is why the iPhone 4 was a terrible design. Pull the phone out of your pocket, and there's a 3-in-4 chance that you're "holding it wrong" right off the bat because the front and back feel the same.

No, thanks. Every surface on a phone needs to feel at least subtly different.

The glass front and the metal back always felt different to me... and in any case, the very first thing I did is look for the home button with my thumb.

I haven't upgraded since iPhone X. That one doesn't feel different wrt front/back at all. Does iPhone 11 feel different in this regard?

Yes, the 11 has kind of a “matte” slightly textured back. It’s definitely easy to determine which is which just by feel.

This is still a one time design cost though. And nothing about it means that you should iterate the design every other year. Materials maybe.

In a way, yeah, definitely. Perhaps it's a bad sign for Apple, but good for consumers. It's a solid (and imho beautiful) design that works really well mechanically (iirc).

I'm treading into parts I don't know very well here, so treat this as a question: Is this perhaps a part of the de-Ive-ification process?

Hope so, I still miss my skeuomorphism so much.