arsenicwater
macrumors newbie
the next ‘mini’ will be 6” at this rate
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Bigger Displays Rumored for Next Year's iPhone Models
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MrMojo1
macrumors 6502a
Please bring back the Plus model with the larger screen, battery & storage space ~256g Minimum.
All models now, unless Apple changes its mind, include ProMotion, so it'll be good for those who need the larger screen to help with their aging eyes.
Don't need the high priced Pro Max models just to get the larger screen and don't need any fancy cameras, just a decent one for everyday photos. The Plus model will do.
All the younger owners should learn that Everyone ages and many Will find themselves eventually squinting at the smaller screens of their portable devices. Looking at screens for most of the day doesn't help one's eyesight.
All models now, unless Apple changes its mind, include ProMotion, so it'll be good for those who need the larger screen to help with their aging eyes.
Don't need the high priced Pro Max models just to get the larger screen and don't need any fancy cameras, just a decent one for everyday photos. The Plus model will do.
All the younger owners should learn that Everyone ages and many Will find themselves eventually squinting at the smaller screens of their portable devices. Looking at screens for most of the day doesn't help one's eyesight.
Octavius8
macrumors 65816
rchaser
macrumors regular
So…you don’t like the air, then.
No one does.
“The air is perfect except for x, and y, and z…” is the official tagline of the iPhone Air.
Zeus2018
macrumors member
Apple doesn’t need bigger phones. It needs lighter ones.
The latest leak about a 6.4-inch panel for a possible iPhone 20 Pro and a roughly 7-inch panel for the Pro Max continues the same pattern we’ve seen for years: every few cycles the screens grow a bit more while the rest of the device mostly stays the same. A jump from 6.3 to 6.4 inches is modest, and the claimed 7-inch Pro Max would be a more noticeable step. Both moves keep the same aspect ratio and point toward a more curved, nearly borderless design. On paper it sounds like progress. In practice it mostly delivers more glass, more surface area, and, almost inevitably, more mass.
What most people actually feel every day is the weight and bulk in the hand and pocket. Larger displays increase the structural demands on the chassis, the battery has to scale to keep pace with the bigger screen, and the result is a phone that is harder to use one-handed, more tiring to hold for long periods, and less comfortable to carry. The 20th-anniversary models are expected to bring under-display Face ID, a custom image sensor, haptic buttons, and other refinements. Those are welcome. None of them require the phone itself to get physically larger.
Apple has the engineering talent and supply-chain leverage to attack weight instead of just growing the diagonal. Thinner glass, more efficient silicon, refined titanium or advanced alloys, and smarter battery chemistry can deliver meaningful reductions without sacrificing durability or battery life. A phone that feels noticeably lighter while keeping (or even slightly improving) battery endurance and display quality would be a more useful anniversary statement than another incremental size bump.
Screen real estate has already reached the point of diminishing returns for the majority of users. Further increases mainly serve marketing slides and the minority who want a near-tablet experience in their pocket. For everyone else, the more valuable next step is a device that disappears a little more in the hand and the pocket—not one that demands more of both.
The latest leak about a 6.4-inch panel for a possible iPhone 20 Pro and a roughly 7-inch panel for the Pro Max continues the same pattern we’ve seen for years: every few cycles the screens grow a bit more while the rest of the device mostly stays the same. A jump from 6.3 to 6.4 inches is modest, and the claimed 7-inch Pro Max would be a more noticeable step. Both moves keep the same aspect ratio and point toward a more curved, nearly borderless design. On paper it sounds like progress. In practice it mostly delivers more glass, more surface area, and, almost inevitably, more mass.
What most people actually feel every day is the weight and bulk in the hand and pocket. Larger displays increase the structural demands on the chassis, the battery has to scale to keep pace with the bigger screen, and the result is a phone that is harder to use one-handed, more tiring to hold for long periods, and less comfortable to carry. The 20th-anniversary models are expected to bring under-display Face ID, a custom image sensor, haptic buttons, and other refinements. Those are welcome. None of them require the phone itself to get physically larger.
Apple has the engineering talent and supply-chain leverage to attack weight instead of just growing the diagonal. Thinner glass, more efficient silicon, refined titanium or advanced alloys, and smarter battery chemistry can deliver meaningful reductions without sacrificing durability or battery life. A phone that feels noticeably lighter while keeping (or even slightly improving) battery endurance and display quality would be a more useful anniversary statement than another incremental size bump.
Screen real estate has already reached the point of diminishing returns for the majority of users. Further increases mainly serve marketing slides and the minority who want a near-tablet experience in their pocket. For everyone else, the more valuable next step is a device that disappears a little more in the hand and the pocket—not one that demands more of both.
Is this a rhetorical question?
The bigger the phones get, the more they seem to sell.
Still to this day, the most popular smartphone of all time was the iPhone 6 series, also known as the year that biggest iPhone went from 3.95 inches to 5.5 inches.
And the second best-selling? The iPhone 11 series, the first time the big massive stove top camera bump style was used, and the phones got quite a bit heavier.
And of course the 17 Pro Max has been a wildly successful line and it’s massive.
Meanwhile, every time they’ve tried to make a smaller spinoff version, it has been met with a very muted reception. Mini, Air, even when the 16e was released, it was reportedly selling double what the previously significantly smaller SE was selling, despite being almost $200 more expensive.
And by the way, I am both a Mini and Air user, and I absolutely love when Apple makes a product that’s extremely compact. But there’s just no way around the fact that that is not where the industry is going, and it’s not where it has been going for the last decade and a half.
I think it’s safe to say, just comparing sales numbers that for the majority of people, their smartphone is their main computing device. So it makes sense that they would want it to have the biggest display, biggest battery, and biggest camera possible.
That70sGAdawg
macrumors 6502a
rchaser
macrumors regular
This is like saying “I don’t care that my car doesn’t have windows because I live in SoCal and the weather is perfect 365 and it doesn’t matter that my door locks don’t work because I live in a safe neighborhood. So basically my car is like any other car but thinner and lighter.”
Trained by a PR dept to look past shortcomings because you have been conditioned to believe that thinness and form are more important than actual, useable features. This is willing psychological manipulation by a corporation to be pacified and complicit in paying more for less.
This is abnormal and illogical consumer behavior.
I doubt this is an actual size increase. Just what happens when you curve glass over the edge and still want to preserve the same actual usable viewing area that we have now.
That being said, I’m just glad they aren’t getting smaller (sorry mini fans!). Everyone loves to complain about how big phones are getting but clearly chatter on the internet doesn’t match sales numbers since the screens keep getting bigger.
That being said, I’m just glad they aren’t getting smaller (sorry mini fans!). Everyone loves to complain about how big phones are getting but clearly chatter on the internet doesn’t match sales numbers since the screens keep getting bigger.
This isn’t a valid comparison at all.
You are describing necessary features that a vehicle should have.
It is not necessary for the iPhone Air to have triple cameras.
A more valid comparison would be that a significantly smaller electric vehicle can only take you 200 miles on a charge, while a bigger one can take you 300 miles on a charge.
Of course, the bigger car is going to be better for you in certain situations, but the more compact nature of the smaller car means that if you aren’t traveling 200 miles every single day, it will be significantly more convenient.
The iPhone Air is almost half the thickness and 100G lighter than the Pro Max.
ipedro
macrumors 604
With the passport format iPhone Ultra likely later trickling over to other slate iPhones down the line, the iPhone is about to enter it's Fat iPod nano era
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Phablets are stupid. And the more phablety they are the stupider they are.
rchaser
macrumors regular
Windows and doors aren’t necessary. That’s your opinion. People drive around in jeeps and broncos and side by sides without doors (locks) or windows.
choosing a more expensive phone missing significant features just so it can be thinner isn’t a logical consumer decision. The market already decided that. It’s a fact.
Anything beyond that in favor of the air is an opinion based in illogical consumer decision.
choosing a more expensive phone missing significant features just so it can be thinner isn’t a logical consumer decision. The market already decided that. It’s a fact.
Anything beyond that in favor of the air is an opinion based in illogical consumer decision.
rchaser
macrumors regular
Long live the fat boy.With the passport format iPhone Ultra likely later trickling over to other slate iPhones down the line, the iPhone is about to enter it's Fat iPod nano era
>
mjs916
macrumors 65816
Camera-bearing hips?
Phone cameras are so much better than they used to be, it’s interesting how much we move the goalposts every year so that the Air apparently has a bad camera. (To be fair, I don’t really see people say it’s “bad”, just “compromised”)
Powerbooky
macrumors demi-god
BvizioN
macrumors 603
Wha e terrible analogy. There is a perfect working camera on the iPhone Air and acceptable speaker that works just fine. Does iPhone Air lack these like a windowless car? Of course it doesn’t, how on earth would you come up with this stupid analogy? I would have agreed if there was no camera at all and no speaker. Sure, if you believe that a pocket sized device produces equal or even beats the quality of high end glass and advanced large sensor on professional cameras, go for it, buy a large iPhone. But understand that thinnesses and form factor are important for me and other people who don’t want to carry a phone that looks like a brick, especially when placed in a pocket! By the way, just like the phone, my camera is with me 70% of the time when I am out of my home. That’s what I do.
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capamac
macrumors 6502a
rchaser
macrumors regular
Thanks for your outlier personal experience that the market doesn’t agree with.
The market rejected the air. It’s overpriced and lack standard features.
sahajesh
macrumors 6502
With the passport format iPhone Ultra likely later trickling over to other slate iPhones down the line, the iPhone is about to enter it's Fat iPod nano era
>
A phone with the size and weight of the iPod Nano would be awesome, I'd even settle for one with the size and weight (88g!) of the iPod Touch.
This move to bigger and heavier phones is asking for a disruptive player to enter the market.
fireguy286
macrumors 6502a
Considering all the long running rumors of smaller bezels / edge to edge / curved edge for the iPhone 20, it makes sense to me that adding .1 doesn't seem like a big deal. In fact the phone may be the same size overall or even a hair smaller. Most of these comments seem like an overreaction.
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