‘Thicker. Chunkier. Perfect.’
Basic Apple Guy with a comprehensive look at what makes the new Siri Remote so great:
Just how much Apple doubled down on creating a remote that functions so much better than the previous Siri Remote is intriguing. There is no technical reason for why this remote needed to be as thick, tall, and chunky as it ended up being. Instead, its design appears intended to compliment the environment and ergonomics of how it will be used.
It may seem obvious that a remote should be designed around its intended environment and ergonomics, but that certainly wasn’t the case for the previous version.
I’m in agreement with nearly everything in this piece — the size is better, the click-wheel touch surface more functional, and the dedicated power button a nice bonus. I do, however, use the Siri button, and like its new position on the side to match with the iPhone. It looks like the Remote app will be updated to match.
And, yes, the placement of the mute and play/pause buttons is backwards.
I have a gripe with the mute button being the bottommost button on the remote and would have preferred Apple keep the Play/Pause button located there instead. I’m far more likely to want to pause than mute someone, so having it remain the bottommost button makes more sense to my use case.