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Can't have Retina on 4" Display
- Thread starter Sedrick
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Very well said. I could not agree more. Apple is very clever. They can put anything over on the public, and I don't mean in a negative way. Its just an observation & fact They've simply learned what formula works best for puffing up something average, taking older tech, and making it "seem new & magical".
Many companies products are presented in a misleading light.
Apple's so good at it their worth billions.
I've used what Apple has relabeled as "retina displays" on my ThinkPad workstations for years. Made by a few manufacturers their industry accepted nomenclature is "IPS".
Retina Displays != IPS
While the iPhone 4 display is a "Retina Display" and IPS, they do not mean the same thing. IPS refers to the display type, RD refers to your eyes ability to resolve individual pixels when viewed from normal distances.
For example your 1080p TV may be considered RD when viewed sitting on your couch.
While the iPhone 4 display is a "Retina Display" and IPS, they do not mean the same thing. IPS refers to the display type, RD refers to your eyes ability to resolve individual pixels when viewed from normal distances.
For example your 1080p TV may be considered RD when viewed sitting on your couch.
You are all missing the point in terming it "Retina Display"
It's a marketing term yes. Your average consumer isn't going to know what PPI means. I typically have to explain what 1080p means to customers at my job. I actually use PPI as a means of explaining viewing distance and compare it directly to a photograph and how blowing a picture up results in grainines and how the same thing happens with video.
Either way, ppi isn't something your everyday user is going to know. So how do you market an amazing screen to them? You call it something that points this out. Retina Display does that.
Get over it, stop saying it's a marketing tool, it's obvious that it is. The people this name is marketed at isn't us. It's people who don't understand the idea behind ppi (which actually appears to be a fair number of people in this thread even... thus proving the point).
Apple releases products which they think customers want, and once they've had a product out for a while they get a very good idea of what customers want. When they say customers, by the way, they're referring to the largest number of us they can grab up with a simple product lineup. If they thought we (the collective we) wanted a 4" screen they wouldn't have been floating around 3.5". The device is designed to be held and pocketed comfortably.
Your coworkers are clearly not representative of the general population. I know some people who like the larger screen and other tinker-friendly features and they're all computer professionals. The only comment I've heard about the iPhone size from people who don't own an iPhone, outside the small demographic of technology professionals, is concern about its size (which is very much inline with the common concerns floating around when the device was initially announced).
But really, that doesn't matter. Personal experience with these things is nearly irrelevant compared to market research and numbers, and they make it pretty unlikely that the tech folks who want to carry a slab in their pocket are going to get what they want from Apple. Fortunately for them, the Android market can fragment endlessly, and it is easier to get a phone which caters to a smaller demographic. It just won't be iOS.
There's another complication of increasing the screen size that no one has brought up yet.
The iPhone UI was designed for a 3.5" screen. All the app icons, toolbar buttons, fonts, and switches were designed for a finger tip. These elements were designed to be a particular length, not a particular number of pixels. If you do nothing more than increase the size of the screen, all these UI elements will become unnecessarily larger as well.
It's like a laptop keyboard - the keys only need to be so big. As the size of the laptop increases, manufacturers don't keep stretching out the keyboard to fill up the space. After a certain point they just keep it the same size and just add more space along the edges.
Since all the UI elements don't need to be larger, if you increase the screen size you can potentially have more room for content. Let me demonstrate with the iPod app:
You could fit longer song (album - artist) titles, longer playlist names, see more tracks, and possibly add fit another section at the bottom (before "more"). You would also have room for more indicators along the status bar and perhaps room for a 5th row of apps on the home screen.
In order to do this, however, you would either have to retain the same resolution and use marginally smaller graphics, or you would have to increase the resolution in accordance with the additional screen area. Either way, apps would have to be updated to retain compatibility and possibly tweak the UI to utilize the extra space.
It's not really a big deal, of course - just something to think about.
The iPhone UI was designed for a 3.5" screen. All the app icons, toolbar buttons, fonts, and switches were designed for a finger tip. These elements were designed to be a particular length, not a particular number of pixels. If you do nothing more than increase the size of the screen, all these UI elements will become unnecessarily larger as well.
It's like a laptop keyboard - the keys only need to be so big. As the size of the laptop increases, manufacturers don't keep stretching out the keyboard to fill up the space. After a certain point they just keep it the same size and just add more space along the edges.
Since all the UI elements don't need to be larger, if you increase the screen size you can potentially have more room for content. Let me demonstrate with the iPod app:
You could fit longer song (album - artist) titles, longer playlist names, see more tracks, and possibly add fit another section at the bottom (before "more"). You would also have room for more indicators along the status bar and perhaps room for a 5th row of apps on the home screen.
In order to do this, however, you would either have to retain the same resolution and use marginally smaller graphics, or you would have to increase the resolution in accordance with the additional screen area. Either way, apps would have to be updated to retain compatibility and possibly tweak the UI to utilize the extra space.
It's not really a big deal, of course - just something to think about.
As silly as I think the idea of a 4" iPhone is, I'll play Devil's Advocate on this one. The increase in screen size would indeed increase the size of everything on the interface, but in most cases this might actually improve usability (especially for people who struggle with small text and small targets). It would be a frustration to use a 3.5" iPhone and a 4" iPhone (or an equivalent mix between iPod Touch and iPhone) due to the variance in typing and other targets, but for the most part people could adjust easily enough to these changes. We're pushing our luck a little with .5" on this note, but it wouldn't be a show-stopper. It is the size of the actual device that drives people away and makes this such a silly idea (as a generally marketed product).
As for your second considerations regarding increased screen size, without actually re-designing an app specifically for the extra screen sizes (not just decreasing UI elements and font sizes but also shrinking the areas in which fonts appear) any sort of difference would probably be awkward and ugly. Developers would essentially have to design for both devices if they wanted to take advantage of this and the return on this investment wouldn't be worthwhile (except perhaps in the case of Apple's own apps and fundamental third-party apps). There is something to be said for resolution independence but that opens an even bigger can of wormsand we're not there yet. If Apple were to release an iPhone with a 4" screen they would have to use the current resolution and a scale of the current dimensions otherwise they will introduce highly undesirable fragmentation.
RebeccaL is right. The iPhone 4 has an LED backlight on an IPS panel at RD resolutions. None of these acronyms are interchangeable.
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This is 2011, not 2007. No one had the technology in 2007 to produce a decent 4" screen with a small foot print. We're not talking about a giant billboard here so quit talking about how huge this would be and how you can't get it into your pocket. We're talking about little if any increase in the physical size of the iPhone. I'll repeat that: little if any increase in the physical size of the iPhone.
As an example, the Samsung Captivate is a dream to hold and pocket. Very little difference in over all size, and the fact that it's not square as a brick (like the iPhone 4) makes it much more pocketable and nicer to hold.
You can champion the cause against 4" all you want but your argument doesn't hold water.
2007 was a different year. In general phones were much smaller. In 2007, I don't think that people would have wanted a 4" screen, even if it was possible. With a 3.5 inch screen, the iPhone was considered almost too large for pockets. In fact my wife held out from getting one for a couple of years precisely because of the large size; and it's still her biggest gripe. I was looking at getting an Android last year and the top reason I stuck with iOS at that time was size (all of the Androids I otherwise liked were simply too bulky).
Even after three years, a small increase in size could push the phone from 'almost too big' to simply 'too big' for many people.
I appreciate that you like the larger screen and feel that the trade off is worth it, but for many it's not. While I wouldn't mind a larger screen, my vote would be to keep the same size handset.
This is the unfortunate down side of Apple's one size fits all mentality. They can't please everybody.
For the record: despite my preference, I would probably still buy a larger 4" iPhone. My wife however, would not.
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The technology involved in creating the screen is irrelevant to this point. It is a matter of what is comfortable in the human hand. A 4" screen is nowhere near as comfortable as what we currently have in the iPhone 4. In fact, smaller sizes are more comfortable still than the current iPhone 4, but too much detail would be lost, and the iPhone 4 is at least at a size where the vast majority of the population can wrap their fingers around it at all appropriate angles comfortably. It is the compromise Apple made.
I'm not sure why you're so emotional about this. It really boils down to a simple observation: some people want the functionality of a larger screen over a comfortable device, others want that comfort. Unfortunately for Apple customers who want the 4" screen, the amount of people who want comfort more than a screen size increase which they would notice in their hands, but which would not offer a noticeable return in device value, wins out handily. And Apple just isn't in the business of making devices which appeal to a small demographic. They need a good business case.
A 4" screen certainly isn't as bad as some of the ridiculous phones which get even larger (note that the people who like these devices are probably just as likely to defend the device and screen sizes from a mass-market perspective, rational or not), but these decisions are made for well-researched reasons. It makes sense for an Android manufacturer to release a device like this because it can be a good return on investment to address a smaller demographic. It is a harder sell for Apple.
No, it isn't. It isn't as comfortable as smaller devices. Heck, I wouldn't describe the iPhone 4 as a 'dream to hold and pocket' either. You are happy with it because you like a 4" screen, which is perfectly fine.
Odd that you would say this when you're the one making an emotional argument. Perhaps you're comfortable trying to 'win' some kind of discussion by getting upset, but there's nothing productive to be gained in doing so.
Is the iPhone really that big? I don't think it's fair to compare the size to dumbphones of yesteryear. I've been using smartphones since the WM5 days and the dimensions we see now are a dream for my hands and pockets. Even with smartphones that were smaller in height/width, they were much thicker and bulkier. The only thin smartphone I can remember owning was the Motorola Q which was still wider and taller than the iPhone. I'm glad the days where I walk around with a permanent bulge in my pocket are over
. I guess comfort is subjective because I too think the Galaxy is nicer to hold. Hell, I still prefer the 3GS. Curves are more ergonomic and give a thinner "hand feel" than squares IMO.A couple mm's bigger than an iPhone is comparable to a tablet
By no means. I'm actually quite comfortable with the iPhone in my hand. It is much more enjoyable than the dumphones of yesteryear (well, if we're talking about yesteryear's 'smartphones'regular phones can be far more comfortable to handle than the iPhone).Is the iPhone really that big? I don't think it's fair to compare the size to dumbphones of yesteryear. I've been using smartphones since the WM5 days and the dimensions we see now are a dream for my hands and pockets. Even with smartphones that were smaller in height/width, they were much thicker and bulkier. The only thin smartphone I can remember owning was the Motorola Q which was still wider and taller than the iPhone. I'm glad the days where I walk around with a permanent bulge in my pocket are over
I do agree that a tapered back is more comfortable than the sharper transitions of the iPhone 4. I'm not so sure the difference is enough for me to really say, for example, that the iPhone 3GS was more comfortable to hold. The main factor in comfort for these devices is how we can wrap our fingers around them, and that's where larger devices (width and height) can start to cause fuss for many people. Also, I don't have anything in particular against the Galaxy S or other 4" screens. I would own an iPhone if it had a 4" screen. I wouldn't own an iPhone with a 4" screen, however, if the current iPhone were still available.
I think my only real point here is to remind people that Apple's decision is based on very careful research, observation, and experienceperhaps more than is available to any other company in the industry. And to point out the reason why Apple targets the overall market rather than smaller demographics.