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Apr 12, 2001
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Apple will reportedly release two versions of its next-generation iPhone featuring 4.7 and 5.5-inch sapphire screens in September, reports the South China Morning Post. Citing industry insiders who have "seen the prototypes," the publication also states that both phones will feature a pixel density of 441 pixels per inch (PPI) compared to the 326 PPI currently found on the displays of the iPhone 5s and iPhone 5c.

Furthermore, the Hong Kong-based newspaper adds that the new devices will feature a flat screen instead of a curved screen as suggested by prior reports, and that Apple will be discontinuing the iPhone 5c in favor of an iPhone 5s made of lower-cost materials.

Apple has been experimenting with a range of screen sizes for the next-generation iPhone since early 2013, with size rumors varying from 4.7 to 5.7 inches. The Korea Herald reported yesterday that the iPhone 6 would adopt a "bezel-free" display.

It was also reported last week that GT Advanced, the company that has partnered with Apple to open a plant in Mesa, Arizona, was gearing up to mass produce sapphire displays meant for the iPhone 6. While another report yesterday said that Apple's initial sapphire production would target the iWatch instead of the next-generation iPhone, the volume of raw material and equipment the company is purchasing would suggest plans to manufacture approximately 200 million 5-inch sapphire displays to meet iPhone demand.

Article Link: Apple Reportedly Launching Two New iPhones with Larger Flat Sapphire Displays in September
 

CJM

macrumors 68000
May 7, 2005
1,532
1,053
U.K.
I'm sure Apple has many prototypes. I think we can all assume that there will be at least one new iPhone model with a bigger screen. Honestly, I can't imagine Apple running three different sizes in parallel; it doesn't seem very Apple.
Whether Ive and his team can blow us away with the design remains to be seen!
 

polterbyte

macrumors 6502
Sep 24, 2012
353
538
Brazil
I buy 4.7in, and even bezel-free. But 5.7in? That may as well be a prototype, but one that will not see the light of day any time soon.
 

addictive

macrumors 6502
Jul 6, 2008
369
356
This

I imagine Apple will launch two new models with larger screens, give the consumer more choice and with that sell more iPhones in total.

Does this mean the iPhone 5S becomes the entry level iPhone?

Do they drop the iPhone 5C completely? Or is this the entry level phone?
 

Ted13

macrumors 6502a
Dec 29, 2003
669
353
NYC
If this is true, I may have to hang on to my iPhone 5S for an extra year, and hope that sanity returns by the iPhone 7. If you want a large screen, for the love of Mike, get an iPad.

And no, I'm not saying Apple shouldn't produce larger screened phones for the no taste people out there, but please keep making a 4" phone with the top of the line components every year.

Do any women work at Apple? Have you tried putting a 5" phone in the pocket of women's designer jeans? The current one can barely, barely fit. The 3.5 model was much better. That's half your customer base right there!!!

Please, Apple, step back from the cliff before it is too late!
 

CJM

macrumors 68000
May 7, 2005
1,532
1,053
U.K.
I imagine Apple will launch two new models with larger screens, give the consumer more choice and with that sell more iPhones in total.

Does this mean the iPhone 5S becomes the entry level iPhone?

Do they drop the iPhone 5C completely? Or is this the entry level phone?

I predict they'll drop production of the 5S and upgrade 5C internals.
 

5590982

macrumors member
Jul 12, 2013
97
106
Reduction

This is slightly off-topic perhaps, but the most opportune time to mention it.

Does anyone else feel that, as the technology improves and as the design becomes more and more transparent, there's going to be less and less to get us excited about the actual appearance of our devices?

What I mean is, we're now at the stage of the long-foretold handheld screen. The futuristic compute device seen in sci-fi movies for decades - a glowing rectangle held in the hand with almost no physical evidence betraying how that hand-held glow got there. It just is.

Are the days of aesthetics (in terms of industrial design) numbered? Because we're almost there - the wafer-thin, cable-less, buttonless, screwless, distractionless chassis for the touch-screen. Design is soon not going to be 'almost invisible' it's going to be invisible, period. And this kind of saddens me.
 

lewisdorigo

macrumors member
Sep 19, 2008
77
0
Ayrshire, Scotland
Next-generation iPhone featuring 4.7 and 5.5-inch sapphire screens […] Citing industry insiders who have "seen the prototypes," the publication also states that both phones will feature a pixel density of 441 pixels per inch (PPI) compared to the 326 PPI currently found on the displays of the iPhone 5s and iPhone 5c.

I hate to be “that guy”, but the math for this just doesn’t seem to check out.

What resolution would those phones be? It couldn’t be 1920x1080 (“Full HD”), because at 4.7", the pixel density would be ~468PPI, and at 5.5", the pixel density would be ~400PPI.

So if both phones had a 441PPI display, they’d both need to have different resolutions, that are both kinda near Full HD, but not quite. And it means two new resolutions for developers to support, rather than just one.

This rumour just rings false to me.
 

Lifes

macrumors newbie
May 12, 2010
7
1
If this is true, I may have to hang on to my iPhone 5S for an extra year, and hope that sanity returns by the iPhone 7. If you want a large screen, for the love of Mike, get an iPad.

And no, I'm not saying Apple shouldn't produce larger screened phones for the no taste people out there, but please keep making a 4" phone with the top of the line components every year.

Do any women work at Apple? Have you tried putting a 5" phone in the pocket of women's designer jeans? The current one can barely, barely fit. The 3.5 model was much better. That's half your customer base right there!!!

Please, Apple, step back from the cliff before it is too late!

I'm glad that I'm not the only one who think the same.
 

applefanDrew

macrumors 65816
Jul 17, 2010
1,437
4
I hate to be “that guy”, but the math for this just doesn’t seem to check out.

What resolution would those phones be? It couldn’t be 1920x1080 (“Full HD”), because at 4.7", the pixel density would be ~468PPI, and at 5.5", the pixel density would be ~400PPI.

So if both phones had a 441PPI display, they’d both need to have different resolutions, that are both kinda near Full HD, but not quite. And it means two new resolutions for developers to support, rather than just one.

This rumour just rings false to me.

Don't forget the screen could be 4.6xxxx and they round it up to 4.7 for marketing sake. Kind of like how iPhone 5/5s is actually 3.99 inches.
 

Northgrove

macrumors 65816
Aug 3, 2010
1,149
437
I hate to be “that guy”, but the math for this just doesn’t seem to check out.

What resolution would those phones be? It couldn’t be 1920x1080, because at 4.7", the pixel density would be ~468PPI, and at 5.5", the pixel density would be ~400PPI.

So if both phones had a 441PPI display, they’d both need to have some weird, non standard resolution that’s near 1920x1080, but not quite. It also means 2 more resolutions for developers to deal with, rather than one.

Somehow, this just rings false to me.
Yes, my first thought was to try figure out what this meant for the resolution.

For convenience's sake, I put this into Wolfram Alpha:

http://www.wolframalpha.com/input/?i=solve+%28sqrt%281920^2%2By^2%29%29%2F4.7%3D441+for+y

So if the X resolution is 1920, Y must be 780 for a 4.7" display @ 441 PPI.

This does fit well with a typical "actual" movie resolution though. Movies often use the Cinemascope format, which is not 16:9, but 2.4:1. This implies 1920x800, and this is the actual resolution of many 1080p movies, especially cinema versions. The missing pixels become the black bars.

So it could be made to make sense in a way (although why not go Full HD when they're so close indeed?) but yes, as you say, this rumor also implies two new resolutions, not just one. That in particular strikes me as questionable.
 

iSocialista

macrumors member
Sep 4, 2013
90
52
If this is true, I may have to hang on to my iPhone 5S for an extra year, and hope that sanity returns by the iPhone 7. If you want a large screen, for the love of Mike, get an iPad.

And no, I'm not saying Apple shouldn't produce larger screened phones for the no taste people out there, but please keep making a 4" phone with the top of the line components every year.

Do any women work at Apple? Have you tried putting a 5" phone in the pocket of women's designer jeans? The current one can barely, barely fit. The 3.5 model was much better. That's half your customer base right there!!!

Please, Apple, step back from the cliff before it is too late!

As a woman who owns many pairs of designer jeans and has friends who do also, not a single one of us has any interest in putting our phone in our pocket. Who does that :confused: Definitely more of a guy thing.

Looking forward to seeing what Apple has in store for iPhone 6...the larger screen is a good step in the right direction. Finally.
 

Rogifan

macrumors Penryn
Nov 14, 2011
24,069
30,940
Going from a 4" to a 5.7" phone? Thanks for the laugh MacRumors. Btw, that mock up is butt ugly.
 

SvP

macrumors 6502
Mar 31, 2009
464
122
If this is true, I may have to hang on to my iPhone 5S for an extra year, and hope that sanity returns by the iPhone 7. If you want a large screen, for the love of Mike, get an iPad.

And no, I'm not saying Apple shouldn't produce larger screened phones for the no taste people out there, but please keep making a 4" phone with the top of the line components every year.

Do any women work at Apple? Have you tried putting a 5" phone in the pocket of women's designer jeans? The current one can barely, barely fit. The 3.5 model was much better. That's half your customer base right there!!!

Please, Apple, step back from the cliff before it is too late!

I'm glad that women's designer jeans compatibility is not likely to be an influencing factor in a product that has an already big marketshare. The jeans will have to adjust!
 

mdridwan47

macrumors 6502
Jan 20, 2014
478
777
Please let this be true. I'd love sapphire glass on my iPad. If iPhone gets it there is good chance for iPads too.
 

x-evil-x

macrumors 603
Jul 13, 2008
5,576
3,234
If this is true, I may have to hang on to my iPhone 5S for an extra year, and hope that sanity returns by the iPhone 7. If you want a large screen, for the love of Mike, get an iPad.

And no, I'm not saying Apple shouldn't produce larger screened phones for the no taste people out there, but please keep making a 4" phone with the top of the line components every year.

Do any women work at Apple? Have you tried putting a 5" phone in the pocket of women's designer jeans? The current one can barely, barely fit. The 3.5 model was much better. That's half your customer base right there!!!

Please, Apple, step back from the cliff before it is too late!
apple will still offer a smaller phone to fit a lot of people i don't see anything wrong with options. comparing a 5.7" phone to a iPad is a little ridiculous. going from an iPad mini 8" to an air 10" is a huge jump. I'm not against having a larger phone for a guy id rather it be 5" or over. My mini fits in most of my jacket pockets i want a bigger phone 4" is way too miniature to me still(I've owned iPhones for 5 years now).
 

cmChimera

macrumors 601
Feb 12, 2010
4,271
3,753
I'm sure Apple has many prototypes. I think we can all assume that there will be at least one new iPhone model with a bigger screen. Honestly, I can't imagine Apple running three different sizes in parallel; it doesn't seem very Apple.
Whether Ive and his team can blow us away with the design remains to be seen!

Agreed. Until I see otherwise, I believe Apple will settle on a size and go with it.
 

cfc

macrumors 68030
May 27, 2011
2,773
2,333
Both screens having the same pixel density sounds unlikely as that would mean even more display resolutions for developers to deal with, which Apple have gone out of their way to avoid before because it starts to get like Android, with multiple target resolutions making apps harder to write and with generally poorer results.

I can believe that there will be one more display size (like when the 4" screen arrived) but if they have two then my money would be on the same resolution with different sized screens. And therefore different pixel densities.

I wonder what aspect ratios they will go for? Maybe the 4.7" model will match the old 3.5" and the 5.5" will match the current 4" screen ratio? The maths aren't perfect for that, but not far off. That may make things a bit easier for developers who already have to cater for the different aspect ratios.
 
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