Looks, Physical Design and Technical Advantages
we prioritize antenna performance over physical design if they are ever in conflict
Does this statement confuse physical design — an immensely broad term — with appearance?
John Gruber seems to think so, based on his comment:
Judging by how their phones look, must be a lot of conflicts.
The iPhone 4’s external aerial not about looks. It provides many technical advantages, some of which Gruber listed earlier:
better signal quality overall, better aesthetics, more structural rigidity, even better battery life because there’s room for a bigger battery without an internal antenna
As I see it, the external aerial is there to provide these technical advantages but at the cost of appearance: all other factors aside, I believe most people would say the device would look better without the black lines in the steel frame.