Apple Fantasy Prototyping League (AFPL!) is out in full force for the iPhone 6—make that the iPhone Air. Along with a Samsung-style 5-inch screen, many design concepts have been focusing on extreme thinness as an important selling point of the next iPhone.
苹果“幻想原型联盟”（Fantasy Prototyping League，AFPL）为了iPhone 6倾巢出动——这款机型暂被命名为iPhone Air。除了三星风格的5英寸屏幕之外，很多设计理念都集中在极薄的机身上，这是下一代iPhone的重要卖点。
For a reality check, above is an image of the Vivo X3, and Android phone available in China, that is currently the world’s thinnest smartphone at 5.75mm. What the pictures don’t show is that the X3 is quite heavy for a paper-thin phone at 150 grams, compared to the iPhone 5S at 112 grams. Two recent design concepts set their micrometers much tighter, at 4.5mm and a laughable 3mm (at the thick end!)
作为现实比对，上面是一张Vivo X3的图片，这是一款在中国发售的安卓手机，目前它是全球最薄的智能手机，厚度只有5.75毫米。图片上没能显示的是，作为一部薄如纸片的手机，X3算是相当重的，有150克，而iPhone 5S为112克。两款最新的iPhone概念设计比这个还要薄，为4.5毫米和让人失笑的3毫米（最厚一端的厚度）！
The more reasonable (but still daunting) prototype is from an American iPhone accessory company based south of Cleveland called Fuse Chicken. They are clearly trying to get some attention for their products (I had never heard of the Une Bobine iPhone charger before) but their design is pretty well done. One interesting concession the Fuse Chicken concept makes to how this thinness would be achieved is to forgo the physical home button in favor of a touch gesture area at the bottom of the phone. This idea has been well-imagined by Italian designer Fabrizio Bianchi in his edgeless iPhone 6 concept (see image below.) Touch gestures could be used for a variety of functions that currently require physical buttons. Still, to get from the iPhone 5S’s current 7.6mm thickness down to Fuse Chicken’s projected 4.5mm is quite a reach, even for Jony Ive’s crew of emaciators!
两款设计中，更合乎情理（但仍然让人望而生畏）的原型来自一家名为Fuse Chicken的美国iPhone附件公司，位于克利夫兰南部。很显然，他们在努力为自己的产品争取关注度（我以前从没听说过Une Bobine iPhone充电器），但他们的设计相当出色。Fuse Chicken的概念设计对于如何实现如此薄的机身做出了一个有趣的让步，那就是放弃实体home键，而用手机底部的触摸手势区代替。这种概念在意大利设计师法布里齐奥·比安奇（Fabrizio Bianchi）的无边框iPhone 6设计中得到了很好的诠释（参见下图。）触摸手势可用于目前需要实体按键进行操作的多个功能。然而，要从iPhone 5S目前的7.6毫米减小到Fuse Chicken预计的4.5毫米，这中间还有很大的差距，即使对于乔纳森·埃维（Jony Ive）的瘦子团队来说也是很吃力的！
UPDATE: And the idea in the Fuse Chicken concept that the overall size of the iPhone could stay the same and a larger screen incorporated by merely expanding the screen edge-to-edge was nicely demonstrated by Martin Hajek back in November (see image below)
消息更新： Fuse Chicken概念设计中的理念是整个iPhone的尺寸可以不变，仅仅通过无边框设计来扩大屏幕，这种理念在马丁·哈杰克（Martin Hajek）11月份展示的概念设计中得到了很好的体现。（参见下图）
In the realm of pure fantasy is the concept from the Italian digital studio called SET solution. At 1.5mm at the top and 3mm at the bottom and weighing just 70 grams, the SET “solution” is implausible and impractical. The only way I could see something that thin working for users (even if it were physically possible) is if the material was flexible as well so it could slip easily into a pocket without poking in funny ways. And if you could make a phone that thin, could it be foldable? That would really deliver a difference, to have a phablet-sized that folded in half for easy stowage. I will look for that one next from the AFPL.
意大利数字工作室SET Solution的概念设计则纯属幻想。手机顶部厚1.5毫米，底部厚3毫米，仅重70克，这就是SET 的“Solution”（即方案），既难以置信又不切实际。我能看到纤薄唯一一个对用户有用的地方（即使实物能实现这样的纤薄程度）就是如果材料也是柔性的，那么它能很顺畅地滑进口袋里，而不用使劲把它硬塞进去。并且如果你能制造出这么薄的手机的话，它能折叠吗？这真的会有很大不同，拥有平板手机的尺寸，同时可以对半折起，便于放置。我会期待AFPL下一步给我们带来这样一部手机。
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