Apple Reportedly Delaying Launch of 5.5-Inch 'iPhone Air' Due to Battery Issues

[Gomez315]

There was never going to be two phones. Come on now

 

[gikku]

can we have the phone app on iPads with cellular now, please?

 

[ghost of jobs]

Nooooooooooooooooooo!!!!!!!!!!!!!

 

[woodekm]

I figured there wouldnt be a 5 inch and above iPhone.

They need to milk the 4.7" phone for at LEAST 2 years. Just think though. You'll be able to get a 4.7" iPhone in gold in a couple of years as one of their "latest" yearly updates.

 

[SirHaakon]

Seems weird to call the larger iPhone the iPhone air, no?

The larger iPad is called the Air...

 

[TMRJIJ]

sounds like there was no 5.5 inch iPhone in the first place

That would be funny XD but if you think about it, Apple wouldn't want a slim battery like this if they didn't at least have some sort of model to use it for.

 

[xmichaelp]

Does this mean they will have separate update times, and one will lag behind in specs? Gross.

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sounds like there was no 5.5 inch iPhone in the first place

The denial is still strong on macrumors.

 

[ElZeus]

You mean like the original iPhone?

I used to charge my iPhone 3G twice a week. My next iPhone I had to charge virtually every day with the same usage.

I am into fitness, don't get me wrong. I enjoy being thin myself. However when it comes to technology, I don't like electronic devices referred to as "thin" or "sexy". Some people and some devices look better and function better with a little bit of meat on them. If 2-3mm could double the battery life of a cellphone, then make it 4-6mm thicker.
Amen

You're speaking my language. I'm also into fitness and after working out I can easily lose 20-30% battery leaving me 70% for the rest of the day. I get that being a certain thinness can be attractive but the phone is already so thin and light. I was looking forward to the bigger iPhone as it would have more room for a bigger battery but it seems they are still going to shoot for 24hrs of use. I'm also looking forward to what new sensors they put in to aid in fitness activities that tie in the watch as well.

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I really don't understand the complaints about the iPhone's battery.

If you have all your push notifications on, push e-mail, bluetooth and wifi always on, and mid-high to high screen brightness, then yeah, you're going to have battery issues. If you want to make the battery last longer, switch to fetch e-mail, turn off most app notifications, turn off bluetooth, wifi and location services when you aren't using them, and turn down the brightness. All of a sudden, your battery WILL last you 2-3 days of moderate use.

At the same time, how often are people going 2-3 days without being near a power source? I basically use one charger for my phone and two iPads at home, and yet all my devices stay charged -- I can usually start the day with 90+% battery on all three devices.

I'm sure there are some situations where people may go long periods of time without having a power source available, but 2-3+ days on a regular basis? Those situations have to be few and far between.

I do all of those things and still end up with 10-15% at the end of the day. If I planned on using it heavily it's even worse. The iPhone has great battery life for web browsing/watching videos and music but it doesn't even compete anymore in phone talk time to it's closest competitors. If they doubled the battery size they would eclipse all other phones in browsing time/media time and start to compete in talk time.

 

[zipa]

A product that hasn't been announced nor has it had a release date announced has been delayed? Interesting...

You don't think they have internal target release dates for upcoming products at Apple?

 

[Harv88]

I currently own an iPhone 4s but miss the round shape of the iPhone 3G

 

[Chupa Chupa]

You must be new here... Apple's obsession with thin supersedes all other concerns, no matter how little sense it makes. It's more important to them than it is to nearly anyone actually buying the phone.

And you must not know how to read. Take a look at the left. When does it say I joined MR? Hmm... July 2002. That's what, 9 years before you? Just saying before you are going to toss out sarcastic bombs you might want to make sure they make sense in the context you are tossing them out.

 

[zipa]

There's obviously a limit (which I think Samsung have reached) when a phone screen shouldn't get any bigger because it just can't fit in your pocket.

"Fits in pocket" is by no means a universal requirement for a cell phone, let alone a smartphone/phablet. Besides, Samsung has a lot of tablets that can make calls, and I have actually used the old 7" Galaxy as a phone on occasion.

 

[Max(IT)]

So Apple designed a phone w/o considering the reality of battery technology? This story doesn't seem credible.

This.
It is impossible they designed a phone and THEN went in the market to find a battery ....

 

[Max(IT)]

For all those people who say the phone is already thin enough: pick up an iPod Touch and tell me you don't think the 5/5S felt like a brick afterwards.

Done .... No, the iPhone 5S still feel very thin. Almost too thin.

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Jony Ive designs something first and then asks engineering to figure out how to make it a reality. It goes back to the Steve Jobs era.

Apple isn't driven by amateurs ...

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Amazing.....Samsung and HTC can create larger screen phones but not Apple. Maybe Apple should contract out to those companies to produce their next iPhones.

If this would end in such a "beautiful" device like the S5, better to ask to someone else ....

 

[coldjeanzzz]

This thing is turning into a mess. Why should the biggest iPhone be called the iPad air? It's not going to be any lighter or thinner than the 4.7" version

 

[Max(IT)]

Regardless of what size it is, raising the price seems like a horrible idea. As if they aren't expensive as it is...

And THIS is the real scary point here.
Too many rumors about a raised price. I'm not going to pay iPhone 6 more than iPhone 5S .... It is just insane.
I love my iPhone. I owned every iteration of the iPhone since the first.
But I'm not going to pay more than the already ridiculous amount of money I paid for my iPhone 5S (729€ !!!!!!!).
This time I'll jump ship, I promise.

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Regardless of Apple's obsession with thin, do you really believe that's what happened? And why are we only hearing about this with the rumored 5.5" device? Presumably Apple's obsession with thin would extend to the rumored 4.7" device as well, yes?

I do agree.
Since they basically seem to share the same design, the same problem would affect the 4.7".
This rumor is just utterly BS.

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Maybe Apple can just license iOS and let Samsung do the hardware.

To end up with a "fantastic" band aid iPhone 6 ?
No thanks ... I prefer Ive doing the job.

 

[Max(IT)]

Correct me if I'm wrong but I don't think battery life has actually decreased since the introduction of the original iPhone. In fact I think it's actually got marginally better with each iteration.

Difference is now of course we're all using them more and more so it appears to have shortened.

You are not wrong.
My iPhone 5s is not marginally better than my previous iPhone 5, that was slightly better than my 4s.
iPhone is becoming thinner and thinner but battery life still improves over the time.

Now in my opinion is useless to make a phone thinner than iPhone 5s, so it would be useful to use the extra space for a little bit more juice.

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And if they made it thicker and heavier it would still sell by the tens of millions. No matter what they do it will sell in record numbers. More expensive, bigger, heavier, less battery, etc, it will sell.

I'm not sure about that.
iPhone 6 can't be just meh, they cannot afford that.

 

[thekeyring]

"Fits in pocket" is by no means a universal requirement for a cell phone, let alone a smartphone/phablet. Besides, Samsung has a lot of tablets that can make calls, and I have actually used the old 7" Galaxy as a phone on occasion.

What I meant was, I think Samsung have reached the point where their flagship doesn't need to get any bigger. If you want a larger screen you can go for a different Samsung product.

 

[Max(IT)]

Just turn off the stuff you don't use. Only takes 2 minutes and there's no reason not to really. Here's a few things you can try:


1. Disable location and background app refresh for Facebook (FB in particular is a massive drain when that's turned on)

2. Disable background app refresh for apps you don't care about

3. Turn off parallax (Settings/General/Accessibility/Turn Reduce Motion ON)

4. Turn off everything you don't use Spotlight to search for (Settings/General/Spotlight Search/Untick everything you don't use it for)

5. Turn off Documents & Data under iCloud settings for unimportant apps (Settings/iCloud/Documents & Data/Untick all unimportant apps. If there are no important apps here at all turn off the master switch)

6. Delete all apps/games you don't use

7. Delete all music/podcasts you're not going to listen to

8. Keep your screen brightness as low as you can



And then do a hard reset (Hold down power button, switch off iPhone and turn back on again). That will boost your battery life and your phone's performance.

You're welcome

Except for Facebook (that I don't use) I have almost all the features activated on my 5S and I have a fantastic battery life (more than 7 hrs of usage and 20-24 hrs of standby).
No reason to buy an high end smartphone if you keep most of its advanced features disabled.
I just turned off things that threaten my privacy in location services.

 

[Max(IT)]

I'll pass on the iPhone this year if Apple can't get their **** together. Anything less than a 5.5" is a non-player in my opinion.

LESS THAN ?!? Are you serious ?

I would be happy if they will announce a smartphone AND a phablet, to cover all the needs, but if they would release only a phablet I'd be very disappointed.
A phablet ISNT a smartphone. It Is an huge device and not all the people want to carry a pan around all the time.

I'd like to have something slightly bigger than 4" , sure, but 4.7" is more than enough.
I'm considering the idea to buy a phablet as my secondary phone, but there are moments when I need something that is really portable.

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One of the reasons I have an S3 is because I could stick a massive 7000mah battery into it.

However, I use it HEAVY daily with no Wifi (grandfathered into VW's unlimited data), and from 7am-11pm, I may be around 60% battery left. I browse the net throughout the day, check fb, twitter, etc, and do a couple hours of XM app streaming.

I am very tempted by the S5 (I love having a replaceable battery), but I will try hard to hold out for when the next iphone comes out, but the battery issue is still the #1 priority for me. Thin is nice, but too thin = small battery = me pissed that I have to worry about battery.

If you really need a 7000 mAh battery for your usage, you'll never be happy with an iPhone. Now or ever.
In Apple design there is no place for massive batteries.

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This thing is turning into a mess. Why should the biggest iPhone be called the iPad air? It's not going to be any lighter or thinner than the 4.7" version

Why the larger iPad is called the Air ? Isn't any lighter or thinner than the 8" version

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What I meant was, I think Samsung have reached the point where their flagship doesn't need to get any bigger. If you want a larger screen you can go for a different Samsung product.

Actually the latest samsung's flagship IS larger than previous.
Apple seems to be obsessed with thinnest, but surely Samsung is obsessed with screen dimension: they feel the need to add 0.2-0.3" at every iteration.
I could bet the note 4 will be a 5.9-6" device ....

 

[sixrom]

There is a limited number of people willing to stuff their pockets with a cell phone. The big cell phone fad is already on the downward side of the slope.

No it is more a question of gullibility and misplaced priorities that drove you to it.

Until you realize that carrying a brick around with you has changed your life and not for the better.

Nice try, but regurgitating the Apple faithfuls defense of a demure little phone is a very tired dialog at best. Perhaps you're unfamiliar with the definition of a brick.

 

[2IS]

And you must not know how to read. Take a look at the left. When does it say I joined MR? Hmm... July 2002. That's what, 9 years before you? Just saying before you are going to toss out sarcastic bombs you might want to make sure they make sense in the context you are tossing them out.

My mistake... You must not be very bright then. To have been around as long as you have and not figured it out yet.

Since sarcasm offends you, rest assured there was none in this post.

 

[Señor]

First it was delayed because of something else, and now it's because of the battery?

I'm waiting to see if it actually releases with the 4.7" model, because we're jumping to conclusions way too damn quickly.

 

[macbreakweekly]

It's an eternal delay, you gullible daydreaming mugs.

 

[Kwill]

Then simply use a bigger battery, the iPhone 5S is already thin enough.

Here I thought manufacturers built cabinets/cases to fit the internal components. Apple must be the only company that leaves room for a 2mm battery that does not exist.

It's a good thing Apple doesn't build automobiles. I could hear them saying that because of the "thin" interior, they can't find enough customers shorter than 4 feet tall to drive them.