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

[PracticalMac]

I'll believe it when I see it.

 

[braddick]

Back in the 70's it was a race to make electronics smaller. Now it's a race to make iDevices (iPhone/iPad Pro) bigger.

 

[FranksWildYears]

I have a feeling they'll tweak the aspect ratio and have the new phones output the same resolution as iPad - with the innards being essentially the same between 5s / Air / Mini w/Retina, further convergence (& the additional convenience it gives developers) seems likely to me.

 

[velocityg4]

I don't get the obsession Apple has with these screens that crack so easily. Just to have something that scratch resistant. Frankly I'd rather have an impact resistant polycarbonate screen. Then protect it from scratching with disposable $0.50 screen protectors.

Having a scratch resistant screen is useless anyways. As I'm going to still put a screen protector on it. If anything so that I can have a non reflective matte finish.

The glass wouldn't be so bad. If they didn't glue the glass to the LCD. Making a $5 replacement part a $70 replacement part.

 

[heisenberg123]

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!

do you really believe the majority of women carry stuff in their pockets? Every lady I know owns a purse or handbag, geez even men are starting to use a bag of some kind, their is also holtsters as an option

there is no way any phone company decides their product lineup based on what pocket they can fit into,

I wear men designer jeans and my Galaxy S3 that is 4.7" fits fine in them

 

[trecb]

Sharp has shown LCD screens using IGZO (at 5 inches) to spot PPI's of 498..as far back as 2012..Their is even a youtube video on the display..

http://www.theverge.com/2012/6/1/3056490/sharp-caac-igzo-498-ppi-display-prototype

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=F1SRHJurCXU

I bet samsung (which owns a stake in sharp) and/or LG also have something similar in the works.

Yes, they exist as prototypes or proof-of-concepts/research, but they are not currently being used in any products as they are prohibitively expensive to be used as components.

 

[Wuiffi]

Sharp has shown LCD screens using IGZO (at 5 inches) to spot PPI

Samsung is expected to have a WQHD Display on the Galaxy S5 (559PPI) and LG has also shown a WQHD display with 538PPI

 

[blcamp]

Sharp has shown LCD screens using IGZO (at 5 inches) to spot PPI's of 498..as far back as 2012..Their is even a youtube video on the display..

http://www.theverge.com/2012/6/1/3056490/sharp-caac-igzo-498-ppi-display-prototype

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=F1SRHJurCXU

I bet samsung (which owns a stake in sharp) and/or LG also have something similar in the works.

I posted earlier in this thread that for an iPhone to have a 1080p screen at 441 PPI, it would require a 4.995" screen.

To achieve 1080p with a 4.7" screen, 468 PPI would be required.


I'm not seeing a 5.5" phablet coming out of this at those resolutions... battery life has to be a major consideration, not to mention cannibalization across other products. That would be very un-Apple of Apple to go so far.

 

[Wuiffi]

Yes, they exist as prototypes or proof-of-concepts/research, but they are not currently being used in any products as they are prohibitively expensive to be used as components.

let's wait until end of februar, what Samsung shows on the S5

 

[heisenberg123]

Back in the 70's it was a race to make electronics smaller. Now it's a race to make iDevices (iPhone/iPad Pro) bigger.

back in the 70's there was not cell phones, you are right though when cellphones did arrive there was a race by companies like Nokia and Motorolla to make them smaller, but that was also because there was no need for a screen

Smartphones and tablets are a differnet market and when you doing "everything" a tablet or smartphone is designed to do, the screen is one of the most important parts

 

[ericinboston]

I was really looking for a reason last fall to swap out my iPhone 4S 64GB for a 5S...but Apple failed to entice me.

Hopefully the 6 will have the goods I was looking for. Quoting myself from last fall on this board:

It may be the best smartphone on the market right now...but there is almost no reason to upgrade if you have a 4S or 5 already...unless you want a fingerprint reader.

Never had an iPhone? Sure...iPhones are very nice. I love my 4S 64GB. I really was looking for a reason(s) to upgrade to the 5S (the super-slightly larger screen which was introduced on the 5 didn't cut it for me) but no reasons appeared.


What would have made me happier (outside of iOS software improvements) and purchased an upgrade?...

-much better camera improvement
-larger storage options as well as replacing the 16GB option with 32GB
-USB 3.0 connectivity so I don't spend forever (on USB 2.0) transferring tons of content
-jaw-dropping Siri functionality/improvements thanks to newer CPU/iOS
-direct device-to-device Airplay support so I don't have to go through my router/network.


On a side note, I have seen iOS 7.0 on a friend's iPhone 5. YUCK! The whole style/colors is horrific, Calendar is all new look and feel, ditto for Notepad...just terrible from a UI perspective IMO. Oh, and she hates it too...she's gonna try to restore a backup.

Not to mention factoring in the $400 iPhone 4S that would now be relatively useless or redundant (would make a great non-phone, but I can't sell it for any money because Apple gives (or will give) the 4S away for 99cents)...then go spend another $400 on the 6...renew another contract (I am month to month now that my ATT contract is over)...and a very big detterent is the new lightning connector that will fail to work with all my iOS devices unless I buy adapters for $30+.

Better make a good pitch, Apple...otherwise if I'm going to make all these sacrifices I might as well entertain other smartphones later this year.

 

[mic j]

Zactly! Tru dat.

Let Apple's competition waste money on such things. (remember 3-D TV?) The one thing that I love about Apple is they just don't do everything that pops in their head and they don't do what financial analysts say that they should do.

Curved screens? Why? What benefit would that give the end user? It may even make the user experience worse.

iWatch? People do not wear watches much anymore. Apple may make some sort of wearable device, but it most certainly will be nothing like the Galaxy Gear or Pebble.

Apple does not need to do a full on television at this time. The TV market is cut-throat and saturated with low profits. A set-top or wireless device that feeds existing screens makes more sense. That is a quick way into households that already have a nice TV. (nearly everyone) Apple doesn't need to make the display, they need to over-haul the user experience and content delivery. I love my two-year old 55" LG. The picture is fantastic. I don't have the money or desire to replace it in the short term.

Let other companies play in that sand box and lose money. It's not that I don't think that Apple couldn't make an awesome TV, I just don't think that it makes sense to do so at this time.

I agree with most of what you said. However, I have to differ on the iWatch (and I have not worn a watch for probably 30 years). But it will not be a watch who's major function will be telling you what time it is. I have noticed scads of people starting to walking around with exercise bands. My wife wanted one for Christmas. I think they're pretty useless but they seem to be the rage and I am sure Apple would like to tap into and even move the marketplace in that category. And also continue expanding the Apple ecosystem by tying in a device that will integrate tightly with the iPhone/iPad.

 

[goitsme48]

width and height

So, for folks who are into numbers, what would be your guesstimate on the width and height for the 4.7" and 5.5" i6?
Current i5 is 2.31 x 4.87... (inches)

My guess (with bezel-less display):
4.7": 2.4 x 4.9 (very close to existing i5)
5.5": 2.5 x 5.2 (elongated Moto X)

Moto-X was perfect for the short duration I had (2.57 x 5.09 x 0.41). Had to revert back to i5 for ios.

 

[yossi]

It's not just an iPhone. It's an iPhablet.

I think you mean iPhad

 

[RabbitLuvr]

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 Definitely more of a guy thing.

I'm a woman and I usually put my phone in my pocket. I don't always want to carry a bag, and never want to have to carry my phone in my hand constantly. That's gross. Which means I need to be able to stuff my phone in my pocket. Even when I am carrying my bag, it's faster and easier for me to put my phone in and out of my pocket than it is to put it in and out of my bag.

This might be less of a problem if women's clothing always had actual functional pockets, instead of teeny tiny not-big-enough-to-fit-anything-in-them pockets, or even worse, the pockets that aren't even pockets but are merely decoration. Many women carry bags because pockets are made too small to be useful and I resent when people insist "most women have a bag, doesn't matter how big the phone is."

 

[Reason077]

Huge mistake to discontinue the 5c. It's a great design, which adds much needed variety to the iPhone range.

The disappointing sales are due to it being priced/positioned inappropriately.

 

[alent1234]

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 see a lot of women with samsung phones in NYC with those organizer type cases. and even the ones with iphones never put them in pockets since its impossible by the time you put a case on it

 

[HurtinMinorKey]

That would be great. 5.5 is way too big.

 

[Reason077]

Back in the 70's it was a race to make electronics smaller. Now it's a race to make iDevices (iPhone/iPad Pro) bigger.

That's not a terrible problem to have. Hopefully a larger screen will also mean a larger battery and better battery life - which IMO is one of the biggest weaknesses of the iPhone. More so, for me, than screen size.

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i see a lot of women with samsung phones in NYC with those organizer type cases. and even the ones with iphones never put them in pockets since its impossible by the time you put a case on it

Most women I know do not put anything in their pockets, let alone phones. That's a guy thing. It's why women have handbags.

 

[icrew]

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.

The numbers (thanks to http://www.sven.de/dpi/) work out to something like:

2112x1188 @5.5 (440.58 PPI)
1801x1017 @4.7 (441.36 PPI)

I agree that those are decidedly funky-looking, making them ring false in my eyes as well...

Edit: 441PPI does work out to 1920x1080 @5.0, though, like many of the other 5-inch phones out there such as the HTC One.

Edit 2: Wuiffi correctly points out that the HTC One is actually a 4.7" 1080p display at 468.7PPI. So I'll claim I meant to say the Galaxy S4!

 

[JGIGS]

Why is this so hard. Discontinue the 5C, make a 4, 5, inch version for sure and maybe a 6" version if you want to enter the phablet market. I'll take a 5 inch version if they fix iOS but that isn't happening anytime soon so I'll stick to my nexus 5 for awhile.

 

[Rogifan]

So if Apple really is relaxing two phablet like devices with sapphire displays how much will they cost? Is Apple really going to release new flagship phones that are more expensive than the current flagship?

----------

Huge mistake to discontinue the 5c. It's a great design, which adds much needed variety to the iPhone range.

The disappointing sales are due to it being priced/positioned inappropriately.

The 5C will become the entry level iPhone (perhaps this is what the plan was all along). Maybe it will get 5S specs, but for sure I think there will be color changes.

 

[Wuiffi]

Edit: 441PPI does work out to 1920x1080 @5.0, though, like many of the other 5-inch phones out there such as the HTC One.

The HTC One has a 4.7" 468PPI display

But yeah, 1080p @5" is 441" and there are many devices that use that.

 

[Reason077]

The 5C will become the entry level iPhone (perhaps this is what the plan was all along). Maybe it will get 5S specs, but for sure I think there will be color changes.

I agree with you, that's what should happen. But this article is suggesting that Apple plan to do away with the 5c completely and make the 5s (or some derivative) the entry-level device.

 

[twoodcc]

an iPhone with a bigger screen is absolutely necessary for apple to continue it's previous success. giving consumers two new choices will be even better. i just wish they would release one of them earlier this year