I don't fully understand this but what's to prevent the 6+ from having a 360x640 point setup and it not having to render/downscale everything? Perhaps the scaling is only for incompatible apps?
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6 Plus Screen Is Scaled Down?
- Thread starter ghsDUDE
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I don't fully understand this but what's to prevent the 6+ from having a 360x640 point setup and it not having to render/downscale everything? Perhaps the scaling is only for incompatible apps?
The resolution of Xcode's iPhone 6 Plus simulator is 640x1136 (like the iPhone 5(s)) until developers choose to add a default.png specifically for the 6+. The default image tells iOS that the app supports the resolution. At that point, the resolution of the simulator is 1242x2208.
Also, Apple's Human Interface Guidelines instructs developer's to use a 1242x2208 default.png image for the 6+.
This resolution is definitely not exclusive to incompatible apps but quite the opposite, it's the recognized resolution for apps that explicitly support the 6+.
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To answer your first question, nothing is stopping Apple from updating iOS and giving a true 1:1 pixel mapping experience. But at this point, it seems that iOS renders a larger canvas and then scales it to fit the 6+'s relatively smaller screen.
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All the concerns about the 6+ having lag are way overblown.
Have you ever bought a larger monitor for you Mac? Did it suddenly start slowing down as you moved windows around your screen?
There are twice as many pixels on the 6+, and it is possible that some HEAVILY graphics intensive games might have a slower frame rate on the 6+. However, I'm sure that the game developers can do what PC game developers do. Run their game at a lower resolution and let the OS scale the results up. I have a 27" iMac, and most games do not run at native resolution.
The A8 is a VERY fast processor, and it will easily handle the larger number of pixels during normal operation without any hint of lag.
And one more thing ... I wouldn't be surprised if the GPU is clocked at a slightly higher rate on the 6+. The battery on the 6+ is supposedly way larger, so it could handle a little extra drain while still lasting longer than the 6.
Have you ever bought a larger monitor for you Mac? Did it suddenly start slowing down as you moved windows around your screen?
There are twice as many pixels on the 6+, and it is possible that some HEAVILY graphics intensive games might have a slower frame rate on the 6+. However, I'm sure that the game developers can do what PC game developers do. Run their game at a lower resolution and let the OS scale the results up. I have a 27" iMac, and most games do not run at native resolution.
The A8 is a VERY fast processor, and it will easily handle the larger number of pixels during normal operation without any hint of lag.
And one more thing ... I wouldn't be surprised if the GPU is clocked at a slightly higher rate on the 6+. The battery on the 6+ is supposedly way larger, so it could handle a little extra drain while still lasting longer than the 6.
I don't know why Apple would release a powerful device they designed, running software they built, using a rendering and graphical effect engine they supplied for developers, within a system they control - and still allow that to lag at all.
So... i doubt it. - If it does exist, it's 100% a software issue, and can be patched with an OTA update.
If you think about it, there's really not much for the phone to upscale, as long as the developer of the application is smart about things when they design their app.
Since iOS 5, text has been rendered at the iOS level, not the individual app - so already, retina displays can utilize amazing quality text on the screen, because the text is rendered exclusively by the phone itself, and not the app. - so that takes care of scaling the text easily... because it would never be necessary. There's nothing to scale. It just renders as usual the first time, correctly.
The same thing would work for menu shading, fade in/out effects, application transitions, and inter-app color shading (like the overlay that comes from the notifications bar in iOS 7, having that slight transparency).
Then comes images - THAT would be the only thing needing scaled, unless the developers are using high-res images already, and placing them with percentages as they should be. Then, again, only one single render. Nothing to scale.
Apple has been preparing developers and the world for a seamless transition to a larger width display, with the stages and improvements to their developer SDK. Every version of iOS since 5, has seen more and more of the phone-level support for text and graphic scaling - removing the need for developers to worry about it. That's why ALL text, no matter what app you are using (even super old ones), has really sharp typography. The app itself isn't rendering it. Apple's own engine is. It's like that with a lot of things already.
So while Android apps have to use their clunky Java to scale their own applications as best they can, Apple's devices should, again, "just work." - Because they've designed it that way already.
Unless of course the developer hasn't updated since iOS 5... In which case... why are you using that app?
So... i doubt it. - If it does exist, it's 100% a software issue, and can be patched with an OTA update.
If you think about it, there's really not much for the phone to upscale, as long as the developer of the application is smart about things when they design their app.
Since iOS 5, text has been rendered at the iOS level, not the individual app - so already, retina displays can utilize amazing quality text on the screen, because the text is rendered exclusively by the phone itself, and not the app. - so that takes care of scaling the text easily... because it would never be necessary. There's nothing to scale. It just renders as usual the first time, correctly.
The same thing would work for menu shading, fade in/out effects, application transitions, and inter-app color shading (like the overlay that comes from the notifications bar in iOS 7, having that slight transparency).
Then comes images - THAT would be the only thing needing scaled, unless the developers are using high-res images already, and placing them with percentages as they should be. Then, again, only one single render. Nothing to scale.
Apple has been preparing developers and the world for a seamless transition to a larger width display, with the stages and improvements to their developer SDK. Every version of iOS since 5, has seen more and more of the phone-level support for text and graphic scaling - removing the need for developers to worry about it. That's why ALL text, no matter what app you are using (even super old ones), has really sharp typography. The app itself isn't rendering it. Apple's own engine is. It's like that with a lot of things already.
So while Android apps have to use their clunky Java to scale their own applications as best they can, Apple's devices should, again, "just work." - Because they've designed it that way already.
Unless of course the developer hasn't updated since iOS 5... In which case... why are you using that app?
Thank you for the well written response. Are there any benefits to what they're doing rather than 1:1 mapping?
The general consensus is that Apple wanted to put a 1242x2208 display on the 6+ but wasn't able to. Either because the technology wasn't there yet (at the level that Apple wanted it) or it couldn't be done within the deadline. So Apple decided to compromise and go with the standard 1080p resolution on hardware and a 1242p virtual resolution on software.
Next year, if Apple is able to put a 1242p display on the 6s+ (or whatever it's called), users won't have to once again wait for developers to support the device because they would have already supported it with the 6+.
TL;DR: Using a virtual 1242p resolution now means developers don't have to support yet another resolution next year when the hardware has an actual 1242p display.
Edit: Another benefit is that the 6+ gets a higher point resolution than the 6. If the 6+ was 1:1, it would have a point resolution of 360x640 while the 6 has a point resolution of 375x667. So even though it was bigger, the 6+ would have less usable space than the 6. The 1242p resolution gives the 6+ a point resolution of 414x736.
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One issue with that is you'd need @2.46x artwork which is very problematic. Going to 2208x1242 means @3x artwork can be used.
Also the downscaling isn't bad. It's the same thing that happens on the Mac when you want to run at a higher resolution than the native display. I certainly can't see it making the quality worse, I'd say better if anything.
GREAT. I never noticed it before and now I can't unsee it.
Sorry to spoil it for you
It isn't terrible, but it certainly needs some polish. Hopefully they do something about it.
After some investigating I see that the minor graphical issues I have seen for years on my iPad 3rd Gen are similar to the lag iPad Air users have demonstrated so it sounds similar to the lag described on the 6+. The graphical performance imperfections on my iPad 3 don't worry me at all and after looking at a 4.7 and a 5.5 Android phone yesterday and found both usable in one hand I think I'll get the 6+. Besides the most graphics intensive things I do on my 5S are Video and Tiny Tower, I bet those will run fine.
Don't forget iOS8 is not even final yet and usually the last thing you do before shipping is optimization. That said, if there is some issue with Plus being slower, as long as it's not glaringly horrible, that optimizing will probably wait until after 8.0 ships. Just because Apple has a ton on their plate for the next month or so. I remember my 4S had horrible, stuttery animations with the iOS7 betas, but sometime between 7.0 and 7.1 it got a lot smoother.
iOS 8 is final, the Gold Master was released the other day. I skipped all the beta's but bunged it on my 5S and rMini the other day. Only encountered a couple of minor bugs, it's been very stable otherwise.
This scaling thing will likely be barely perceptible, and may even be negated by a slightly higher clock on the cpu, ala the rMini and Air.
This scaling thing will likely be barely perceptible, and may even be negated by a slightly higher clock on the cpu, ala the rMini and Air.