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Let's take a product like the iPhone. It has seen many enhancements and update rounds. From the initial prototype to the current version. What word would there be to describe such a product?

I'm thinking of something like "polished" but without the connotation of something necessarily clean. Just something having seen effort put into it. Any ideas?

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  • As a side note: polished doesn't necessary connote "clean" or "shiny". From NOAD, polished can mean "accomplished and skillful" (as in a polished performance), or it can mean "refined, sophisticated, or elegant".
    – J.R.
    Commented Nov 11, 2014 at 23:40

7 Answers 7

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It's a product that has been refined with each iteration. However, refined does sound like it would only apply to high-end products.

From MW

Refined - improved to be more precise or exact

Alternatively, you could say it is a product that has evolved with each new version. Describing the iPhone as an 'evolving product' may fit your purpose. It doesn't suggest it's the end of the line and that it will continue to change and improve.

From MW

Evolving - to change or develop slowly often into a better, more complex, or more advanced state : to develop by a process of evolution

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Well-seasoned or honed are indicative of repeated, positive effort. Reworked implies that it has been worked on more than once, although it may carry connotations of prior failures.

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How about 'improved' or 'matured' which could very well convey the context?

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    I think "mature" is a good suggestion, but I also think this answer would be much improved if you either quoted a definition that uses that word in this sense, or maybe found a product review or something that used that word to convey this meaning (as opposed to answering with a question).
    – J.R.
    Commented Nov 11, 2014 at 23:43
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I can't think of a specific singular word, but would you consider multi-generation product as an acceptable phrase?

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I'm not sure that improvement is necessarily implied - a humourously critical view might afford answers such as 'cloned', 'bred', 'over-bred', 'mutilated', 're-disassembled'.

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The word

enhanced

may fit, to mean that the product went through an improvement process

enhance

verb

Intensify, increase, or further improve the quality, value, or extent of.

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consummate Vocabulary.com

adj - having or revealing supreme mastery or skill

As in:

The iPhone , through its iterations, has become the consummate cell phone.

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