How would a larger screen be implemented?

[mrockm01]

I am not here to debate if the next iPhone will get a larger screen, just how it would potentially be introduced and how it would work with current applications:

Would the "retina" display maintain the same resolution and just have more pixels, or would they keep the same amount of pixels and lose dpi?

Would all apps have to be reformatted for the new screen like they were for the iPhone 4 (else they will be blurry or small)?

I would LOVE a larger screen, just see too many problems with them trying to do this. Any thoughts?

 

[fireshot91]

Either the apps will be scaled, or they'd have a "zoom-in" feature, like iPads.

 

[walie]

how do you increase the number of pixels without increasing the resolution?

 

[Small White Car]

I am convinced Apple would just make it bigger without changing the resolution. The way they've worked out their SDK and the app-store pretty much demands this. They won't want to introduce a 3rd resolution, so I see no other solution.

For that reason alone I find the 3.7" rumors possible but the 4" rumors far-fetched.

I mean, it could happen, but I don't think they'd want to lose that much dpi.

 

[staeit]

how do you increase the number of pixels without increasing the resolution?

I'm guessing mrockm01 means density rather than resolution.

If not, this is how I'd guess it would be implemented. Part of the reason that there is relative ease with the transition from iPhone 3GS display optimized to iPhone 4 display optimized is because iPhone 4's pixel count both horizontally and vertically is double of the iPhone 3GS (and previous). It's multiplied by a nice round number.

If I was Apple, and looking at going from 3.5" to say, 4.3"... I'd consider the problem as follows:
The iPhone 3GS and iPhone 4 are both 3.5" screens with 320x480, and 640x960 displays. The iPhone 5 will be a 4.3" display. The diagonal of the iPhone 4 is 3.5", and using Pythagoras is also sqrt(640^2+960^2) = 1153.78 pixels. So along the diagonal, 3.5" = 1153.78 pixels --> Divide by a factor of 3.5" to normalize, then multiply by 4.3", and you have 1 417.50 pixels along a 4.3" diagonal to keep the pixel density the same as iPhone 4. Keeping the aspect ratio the same (960/640 = 1.5) this suggests a resolution of 786.29 x 1179.44. Now, this is a stupid resolution, so I'm guessing they'll do something like 1152x768 or something if they want to keep the 1.5 aspect ratio. But I can't really see them lowering the pixel density.

Similar process for if they do a 3.7" or 4.0" display. I simply can't see them lowering the pixel density as this is one of the big things they marketed in their retina display. Then again, they might not want to introduce a new resolution at all so they may keep going with the 3.5" display. But my guess is about as good as anyone's (except Steve Jobs )

 

[Jimmy James]

Too much is made of DPI.

Yes, high pixel density is a great thing. It's probably the biggest upgrade of the iPhone 4.

However, from a usability standpoint, I'd rather use 960 x 640 on a 10" than a 3.5" screen. Despite the comparatively low pixel density. So from that standpoint, who cares if the next screen is 4" and the pixel density is much lower. It would be a great usability enhancement.

Still, I'd rather keep the iPhone small, even if that means a 3.5" screen. It's a portable, handeld, pocketable device. Small size should be the first priority.

 

[greenchiliman]

From MR homepage:
It is unclear, however, how Apple would deal with potential issues related to screen resolution, either keeping the same pixel density and increasing pixel count by a small amount or decreasing the density and maintaining the same 960x640 resolution.

 

[mrockm01]

I'm guessing mrockm01 means density rather than resolution.

This. Sorry about the mixup

 

[theLimit]

Wirelessly posted (Mozilla/5.0 (iPhone; U; CPU iPhone OS 3_1_3 like Mac OS X; en-us) AppleWebKit/528.18 (KHTML, like Gecko) Version/4.0 Mobile/7E18 Safari/528.16)

Larger screen at same resolution, thus lower PPI. The 300 PPI makes individual pixels indistinguishable at twelve inches from the eye. That is what Apple marketing refers to as a Retina Display. Increase both the screen size and distance from the eye, and the same effect is attained with a lower PPI.

tl;dr
If you can see the pixels, you're holding it wrong.