Become a MacRumors Supporter for $50/year with no ads, ability to filter front page stories, and private forums.

mstgkillr

macrumors regular
Original poster
Feb 11, 2012
237
20
What did you choose and why? Besides the larger icons, what else does the “Zoomed” setting change? How do the settings affect resolution or scaling?
 
Standard. Zoomed looked way too unnatural to me.

There are 3 pages of examples in the Settings that you can compare. I think they show you a text message and an e-mail to help you get a feel for the different scaling.
 
Good question. I just went for the standard right off the bat and i'll await feedback as well. I don't have any problem with the option I chose with things I have done so far to tell the truth.
 
The "zoom" mode just makes everything match the iPhone 5/5S. Icons, text, everything. It's the mode that automatically scales existing apps to fit the larger screen, just applied to the whole OS and not just apps that haven't been updated. Zooming makes the whole 4.7" phone look and act just like a magnified iPhone 5S. The home screen and everything else is displayed as 1136x640. If you thought everything was just too tiny on the old iPhones, then zoom mode lets you use the bigger screen to make everything bigger.

The standard mode is the native 1334x750. It uses the larger screen to show more content instead of bigger content.
 
Text size can be independently controlled though, so it's not quite as simple as the above. I like the zoomed view (because the icon sizing and spacing looks more natural to me), in conjunction with text size at the smallest setting.
 
Zoomed view all the way. One of the reasons I got the 6 is because of that feature. In fact if it was not for that I may not even have upgraded. My eyes 49 years old lol.

Jay
 
Text size can be independently controlled though, so it's not quite as simple as the above. I like the zoomed view (because the icon sizing and spacing looks more natural to me), in conjunction with text size at the smallest setting.
No, it's literally as simple as the above.

You can override text sizes in both modes, but that's a separate function.
 
No, it's literally as simple as the above.

You can override text sizes in both modes, but that's a separate function.
Yes and no. In zoomed mode the text can go as small as standard mode, which is important to me. I want the screen real estate for browsing, email etc, but icon wise it looks better to me in zoomed mode, because there is less empty space. It would perhaps be better still if we had 5 columns and 7 rows of icons (or an option for it) on a plus though!

Everybody has the choice though of course - worth pointing out that zoomed mode isn't just for older folk with poor eyesight though :)
 
  • Like
Reactions: BigMcGuire
Yes and no. In zoomed mode the text can go as small as standard mode, which is important to me.
Yes, but you're still getting an iPhone 5 layout. If having bigger icons floats your boat, then have at it, but it seems strange to gimp the whole phone UI for the sake of the home screen icon sizes.
I want the screen real estate for browsing, email etc, but icon wise it looks better to me in zoomed mode, because there is less empty space.
On the whole, there is more empty space in zoomed mode. The text slider only controls certain kinds of text boxes.
Everybody has the choice though of course - worth pointing out that zoomed mode isn't just for older folk with poor eyesight though :)
It's for anyone who wants the UI to be bigger rather than denser.

And apparently for you or anyone else who would let every app be scaled to iPhone 5 dimensions because you like the icon size on the home screen. Which, you know, rock on.
 
I've designed an iOS app before and what it's doing is scaling the UI points. The points are independent of pixels. On the 6 it's scaling up the points from the 5/5S and on the 6 Plus it's scaling up the points from the 6. Instead of seeing more content, you're seeing the same content as the next smaller device but shown larger so that you can more easily see it. I believe it's mostly for people who have poor vision and want to take advantage of the larger display's ability to render things larger instead of rendering more on the screen at once.
 
Try it guys? Or not, up to you. It's not an iPhone 5 layout - you get six rows of icons, same as standard mode. The icons are just larger, but closer spaced. Compare various apps too. I was fully prepared to prefer standard mode, but I just don't :)
 
Zoomed mode is the iPhone 5 layout. Everything is just 15% bigger physically. It looks and behaves exactly as an iPhone 5. If you change the text size slider, it still looks and behaves exactly as an iPhone 5 except with resized text.
  • Standard view has seven rows of home screen icons. Zoom has six.
  • Standard mode uses 667x375 points (1334x750@2x) on iPhone 6. Zoomed mode uses 568x320 points (1136x640@2x), identical to the iPhone 5.
  • Standard mode will include updated layouts for apps, but falls back to iPhone 5 layouts if no update. Zoom will always use the iPhone 5 layout regardless.
  • A text slider can be used to change font sizes for system textboxes. It does not change the layout. If you choose to use a smaller font size, you're getting an iPhone 5 workspace with smaller text, not an iPhone 6 layout with bigger icons.

You're not currently noticing much of a difference because very few apps have an iPhone 6 layout, so most of them are running in zoom mode individually (watch the status bar as you enter and exit apps).

Edit: this is all assuming the 4.7" iPhone 6. If you've got a Plus, then it's recreating the iPhone 6 layout in zoom mode rather than the 5.
 
Last edited:
I must have a special phone then as I only get six rows of icons (plus the dock) in both standard and zoomed modes.
 
Oddly I think I prefer the zoomed view, it keeps 6 rows on the place. I dunno why I like it more. Just dont like it for browsing as it shows less.
 
Are you sure it shows less when browsing? I did a comparison and it didn't appear to, as it doesn't affect the font size (which is controlled independently and I have at the smallest setting).

EDIT - it does show a bit less, due mainly to the bigger top and bottom bars - I wish there was an option for it to affect the home screen icons only! The "old" sized icons on the plus screen look odd to me.

I prefer the zoomed view for the home screen because the icons are spaced better, less dead space. Ironically I'd probably have preferred an option for an extra column and row on the plus even more - I think there would be room albeit the icons would be a fair bit smaller.
 
Is it me or does Facebook and Instagram seem to take on a slightly zoomed in look regardless of what setting you enabled globally?
 
Zoomed mode is the iPhone 5 layout. Everything is just 15% bigger physically. It looks and behaves exactly as an iPhone 5. If you change the text size slider, it still looks and behaves exactly as an iPhone 5 except with resized text.

  • Standard view has seven rows of home screen icons. Zoom has six.
  • Standard mode uses 667x375 points (1334x750@2x) on iPhone 6. Zoomed mode uses 568x320 points (1136x640@2x), identical to the iPhone 5.
  • Standard mode will include updated layouts for apps, but falls back to iPhone 5 layouts if no update. Zoom will always use the iPhone 5 layout regardless.
  • A text slider can be used to change font sizes for system textboxes. It does not change the layout. If you choose to use a smaller font size, you're getting an iPhone 5 workspace with smaller text, not an iPhone 6 layout with bigger icons.



You're not currently noticing much of a difference because very few apps have an iPhone 6 layout, so most of them are running in zoom mode individually (watch the status bar as you enter and exit apps).



Edit: this is all assuming the 4.7" iPhone 6. If you've got a Plus, then it's recreating the iPhone 6 layout in zoom mode rather than the 5.


This is great, thanks. What I don't understand (I have a 6+) is how can it recreate the 6 layout if apps are really only designed for the 5 at this point.

Does that mean developers have to build in support for the 6 and 6+ layouts in addition to the 5? So you could run a game on 4 different phones and might see different options?
 
Is it me or does Facebook and Instagram seem to take on a slightly zoomed in look regardless of what setting you enabled globally?
It's not just you. Almost all apps run in zoomed mode right now because developers have not gotten the iOS 8/iPhone 6 features coded and into updated versions. There is no "standard" mode for apps that haven't been optimized yet, so they always fall back to the best version in the bundle (right now, those are the iPhone 5/5S layouts).
This is great, thanks. What I don't understand (I have a 6+) is how can it recreate the 6 layout if apps are really only designed for the 5 at this point.
For the apps that are updated (the home screen, some of the Apple apps [Messages, Mail], and a few third party apps like CNN), you'll get the iPhone 6 version when running in zoomed mode on the 6+. This means that instead of 736x414 points (2208x1242@3x), you'll be working with 667x375 points. iPhone 6+ only features, like landscape home screen, landscape split views, will not work because they are coded only for the 736-point canvas.

For most third party apps, and even some of Apple's own, the 6+ will basically be using a double-zoomed mode of iPhone 5 (568-point) layouts because that's all that's available.
Does that mean developers have to build in support for the 6 and 6+ layouts in addition to the 5? So you could run a game on 4 different phones and might see different options?
They don't have to, but they can. They can use autolayout tools, build custom layouts for each screen size, or build a single interface with responsive graphics. If you want to do everything pixel-perfect manually, there are now 6 iOS 8 screen sizes:

  1. 1024 points @1x (iPad 2/mini)
  2. 1024 points @2x (Retina iPads)
  3. 480 points @2x (iPhone 4/4S)
  4. 568 points @2x (iPhone 5/5S)
  5. 667 points @ 2x (iPhone 6)
  6. 736 points @ 3x (iPhone 6+)
 
Register on MacRumors! This sidebar will go away, and you'll see fewer ads.