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Amidst the flurry of iPhone 6 rumors coming from KGI Securities' report last week, Ming-Chi Kuo presented the first possible screen resolution for Apple's 4.7" iPhone 6. Kuo lists it as a 1334x750 Retina display with a pixel density of 326 pixels per inch.

Historically, Apple has been very cautious with resolution changes in their iOS devices. The original iPhone was launched with a 320x480 resolution. Eventually, Apple moved to 640x960 Retina display, doubling the linear resolution in each dimension. That allowed existing apps to simply be pixel-doubled to fill the entire screen. Developers could then take their time to update their apps to fully support the higher resolution display. When Apple moved from 3.5" to 4" screens in the iPhone 5, they simply added vertical resolution. This allowed existing apps to run in a letterboxed format with black bars at the top and bottom of the screen.

iphone-screen-sizes.png
Relative iPhone display sizes by Redtech
Right before the 4" iPhone releases, Apple began encouraging developers to use AutoLayout in designing their apps:
Auto Layout is a system that lets you lay out your app's user interface by creating a mathematical description of the relationships between the elements. You define these relationships in terms of constraints either on individual elements, or between sets of elements. Using Auto Layout, you can create a dynamic and versatile interface that responds appropriately to changes in screen size, device orientation, and localization.
AutoLayout paves the way for apps to more easily adapt to changes in display sizes and resolution in the future.

If Apple were to adopt a 1334x750 4.7" display as predicted by Kuo, it would preserve the same pixel density (326 ppi) as the iPhone 5s. That means that all existing user interface elements, such as icons, would be the same size but would allow for more screen space.

Our designer found that using the exact same icons and spacing them out to fill the screen, 1334x750 pixels allows Apple to fit exactly one extra row of icons onto the iPhone home screen. This mockup shows the relative size of the 4.7" iPhone screen and how much extra room there would be using the exact same icons as on the current iPhone:

iphone5s-6-800x688.jpg
4" home screen (left) vs 4.7" home screen (right)​

Meanwhile, existing unoptimized apps could function in a "letterbox" style with black borders for unused screen space. TheVerge forum user Pi is exactly 3 created a mockup showing this exact scenario. This image shows how an "unoptimized" app would appear (left) compared to one that has been optimized for the 4.7" display (right):

settings-800x725.jpg
Mockup by Pi is exactly 3
Given Apple's past reluctance to blur or break existing apps, it seems that this resolution choice could provide Apple and developers a reasonable upgrade path for a larger factor iPhone. Apple has acknowledged that customers want larger iPhones and all iPhone 6 rumors are pointing to a larger iPhone device this year.

Article Link: How Apple Could Make the Move to 4.7" iPhone Displays
 

iCore24

macrumors 6502
Jan 6, 2013
388
52
Michigan
I still think they will double the iPhone 5s resolution, 326 ppi on a 4.7" is good but is not future proof. If they make a bigger iPhone in the future like 5" it would have around only 300 ppi, then will need to get ANOTHER resolution change! I talk about this in detail in a thread I made if your interested.
https://forums.macrumors.com/threads/1699542/

The iPhone can also handle the higher resolution, just look at the Retina iPad Mini, same specs and much higher resolution.

And they better come up with something more productive and creative to take up the extra space on the iPad and the iPhone 6 with IOS 8. The iPad just got the hand me down features the iPhone got on IOS 7, The iPad needs features that take advantage of the huge landscape,
Split screen? Widgets? Live larger icons? SOMETHING!!!!!
 
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AppleAlex!

macrumors member
Aug 28, 2011
77
54
UK
As an iOS developer I cant wait to have a new screen size (or two) to play about with when designing apps, the additional real-estate could pave the way for making similar UI's for both the iPhone and iPad
 

dlewis23

macrumors 65816
Oct 23, 2007
1,149
1,827
Maybe they should introduce on-screen buttons.

No.

A 1334x750 is stupid and doesn't make any sense. It will make app development harder since there is really no relation to any of the other devices.
 

D.T.

macrumors G4
Sep 15, 2011
11,050
12,460
Vilano Beach, FL
I mentioned this in a previous post: that using a 326PPI display would allow apps to retain the retina assets (they’d be slightly scaled relative to the display area). I believe this would give a 4.7-ish sized device touch targets that comply with Apple’s HID guidelines.

Then a little AutoLayout magic - that I’d assume will improve with iOS8 ( let’s say I _hope_ it will improve :D ) - and conventional UIs would work OOTB.

Some adaptive UI in the new OS/SDK, like the [...] nav overflow knowing it can add an additional icon to the bar, simple width expansion on canvas areas, table rows, etc.
 

jabingla2810

macrumors 68020
Oct 15, 2008
2,271
938
They will just double the pixels, like they did on the iphone, like they did on the iPad, like they did on the Macbook etc etc.

Apple have always been developer friendly, and while this may seem like overkill, it will mean apps just work full screen day one, and it will put them just over the pixel density of the current 1080p screens, so it's not unfathomable.
 

irfaanfaki

macrumors member
Jan 11, 2013
95
0
I wonder what the media and the "Apple is doomed" crowd will say about the screen not being "at least 1080p"

Personally I will be happy with 1134x750

Time will tell
 

redscull

macrumors 6502a
Jul 1, 2010
849
832
Texas
I'd like to see Apple make auto layout mandatory for apps submitted to the App Store going forward. This layout concept of constraints and anchors has been in Windows since the early 1990s. That iOS didn't even support it until recently is just absurd, but now that it has it, it should be required. We should no longer have to worry about screen resolution fragmentation; hardware shouldn't have to continue being limited by this consideration.
 

shareef777

Suspended
Jul 26, 2005
2,445
3,276
Chicago, IL
I still think they will double the iPhone 5s resolution, 326 ppi on a 4.7" is good but is not future proof.

The iPhone can more then handle the higher resolution, just look at the Retina iPad Mini.


And they better come up with something more productive and creative to take up the extra space on the iPad and the iPhone 6 with IOS 8. The iPad just got the hand me down features the iPhone got on IOS 7, The iPad needs features that take advantage of the huge landscape,
Split screen? Widgets? Live larger icons? SOMETHING!!!!!

Having nothing but rows of icons on your home screen made sense when the original iPhone came out because the power just wasn't there. Phones these days are desktop class machines of yesteryear and Apple needs to get you more functionality out of the home screen. People multitask and having to go to the home screen every time I want to do something else is getting very bothersome.

The only reason I still have an iPhone is that my jailbreak gets me the functionality I want (and allows me to stick with the wonderful ecosystem). Apps like BiteSMS, activator, flipcontrolcenter, springtomize are the only reason I'm still using an iPhone!
 

jrswizzle

macrumors 603
Aug 23, 2012
6,107
129
McKinney, TX
They will just double the pixels, like they did on the iphone, like they did on the iPad, like they did on the Macbook etc etc.

Apple have always been developer friendly, and while this may seem like overkill, it will mean apps just work full screen day one, and it will put them just over the pixel density of the current 1080p screens, so it's not unfathomable.

Problem is, 500+ ppi displays at 4.7" don't exist at this point. I think JDI's 500+ ppi display is a 5.5".
 

D.T.

macrumors G4
Sep 15, 2011
11,050
12,460
Vilano Beach, FL
They will just double the pixels, like they did on the iphone, like they did on the iPad, like they did on the Macbook etc etc.

Apple have always been developer friendly, and while this may seem like overkill, it will mean apps just work full screen day one, and it will put them just over the pixel density of the current 1080p screens, so it's not unfathomable.

From the current resolution? That would be 2272 x 1280, and on a 4.7” display would result in a ~555 PPI. I believe that would be severe overkill, from sourcing that resolution display, to the GPU, power overhead required to drive that kind of display.

I believe the only developer friendly move Apple might make is to retain the current PPI to reduce the number of assets required - that would also help to control package sizes as well.
 
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lars666

macrumors 65816
Jul 13, 2008
1,190
1,281
They will just double the pixels, like they did on the iphone, like they did on the iPad, like they did on the Macbook etc etc.

What has that to do with the problem of the new size? The doubling was to upgrade the existing screens (which stayed the same size) to "Retina"-density. Or am I missing something?

EDIT: Ah sorry - just calculated that the ratio stays the same. I'm still too used to my iPhone 4S screen ... :)
 

GroundLoop

macrumors 68000
Mar 21, 2003
1,582
62
Just make them 1080p. Standard resolution for a lot of display panels. Developers with Android versions of their apps likely already have 1080p optimized assets.

Then let iOS 8 letterbox and/or scale existing apps as necessary.
 

GreyOS

macrumors 68040
Apr 12, 2012
3,355
1,682
They will just double the pixels, like they did on the iphone, like they did on the iPad, like they did on the Macbook etc etc.

Apple have always been developer friendly, and while this may seem like overkill, it will mean apps just work full screen day one, and it will put them just over the pixel density of the current 1080p screens, so it's not unfathomable.

Why do you think just doubling the pixels it is friendly? The screen size is not staying the same size nor is increasing at the same rate. This means different scaling and developers creating new assets, doesn't it?
 
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