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iPhone 5 288ppi vs 326ppi vs 320ppi

Which Option would you choose?

  • Option 1

    Votes: 21 45.7%

  • Option 2

    Votes: 11 23.9%

  • Option 3

    Votes: 8 17.4%

  • No idea :|

    Votes: 6 13.0%
  • Total voters
    46
EarthNeutron

EarthNeutron

macrumors regular
Original poster
Aug 6, 2010
201
0
Earth
The iPhone 5 will probably have one of those resolutions. The iPhone 4 currently has the so-called "Retina Display" 960x640 @326 ppi. That's EXTREMELY high (I don't have an iPhone 4 just a crappy 3gs, but I have seen the Retina Display and I know what I'm talking about).
IFFFFFFFFFFFF the iPhone 5 is going to have a 4 inch screen (which is 80% certain), then there are 3 options for Apple:

Option1: Retain the same resolution as the iPhone 4 due to the large number of apps that would need to be modified if the resolution was higher.
However, the ppi will decrease to 288ppi which is NOT Retina!

Option2: Increase the res to ...x... so that it would retain the same 326 ppi.

Option3.: Increase the resolution to iPad's resolution. That would mean that no apps would need to be modified, and ppi would be around 320 ppi.

What do you think?

I really have no idea which one to chose, but if Apple were to lower the resolution to 288ppi I'll just buy the IP4 cause I don't want a phone that's worse than the previous model.
 
Which is why there is no 4 inch screen update coming along. Why would Apple loose the same iconic design of the iPhone. Sure there have been external changes, but the screen has remained the same.

You don't need a larger screen, you want one just because other smart phones have one. But this is Apple, they don't follow, they lead. By the looks of it, using 3.5 in screen has put them well ahead in the game.
 
I'd say for the most part, the iPhone 4 screen resolution is already high enough to be perfectly fine on a 4" screen. 'Retina Display' is just a marketting term. I think any increased width to get a larger screen in there will make the device more comfortable to hold for texting.
 
mrochester said:
I'd say for the most part, the iPhone 4 screen resolution is already high enough to be perfectly fine on a 4" screen. 'Retina Display' is just a marketting term. I think any increased width to get a larger screen in there will make the device more comfortable to hold for texting.
Click to expand...

Nexus One has around 240ppi and us can DEFINITELY see the pixels, even if it's quite hard to spot them but still. 288ppi would still mean that you'll be able to see the pixles, only a resolution higher than 300-320 will be impossible to spot any pixles.
 
But, Retina isnt a PPI specific measurement. Its a marketing term. If Apple wanted they could still call 288ppi a Retina Display.

As for the question. I dont think there be any increase in resolution. You can toss that one right out the window...
 
EarthNeutron said:
Nexus One has around 240ppi and us can DEFINITELY see the pixels, even if it's quite hard to spot them but still. 288ppi would still mean that you'll be able to see the pixles, only a resolution higher than 300-320 will be impossible to spot any pixles.
Click to expand...

So they'll change the website to say 'Retina Display' means "it's very difficult to see individual pixels."

Problem solved.
 
Wirelessly posted (Mozilla/5.0 (iPhone; U; CPU iPhone OS 4_1 like Mac OS X; en-us) AppleWebKit/532.9 (KHTML, like Gecko) Version/4.0.5 Mobile/8B117 Safari/6531.22.7)

For me, the proof will be in the pudding.

I LOVE the display in my iPhone 4. The clarity, the absolut smoothness and detail, I miss it anytime I use a phone with a "regular" display.

So whatever resolution or technology they go with, I will only consider jumping if it still has that "Wow" factor when using it.
 
I imagine if a 4 inch screen happened they'd find a way to keep it above 300 (retina definition at 12 inches from face according to jobs) but probably not 326 anymore
 
EarthNeutron said:
Nexus One has around 240ppi and us can DEFINITELY see the pixels, even if it's quite hard to spot them but still. 288ppi would still mean that you'll be able to see the pixles, only a resolution higher than 300-320 will be impossible to spot any pixles.
Click to expand...

Doesnt the Nexus have a PenTile display? So its effective resolution is something like half?
 
The only way to increase the screen size is to lengthen the screen in my eyes. Make it 16:10 instead of 4:3. Apps wont be affected because you just will have black bars on top and bottom of the screen. But this is only possible if the iPad goes the same route. Maybe we will see it sometime in the future but surly not in the next iPhone.
 
jav6454 said:
Which is why there is no 4 inch screen update coming along. Why would Apple loose the same iconic design of the iPhone. Sure there have been external changes, but the screen has remained the same.

You don't need a larger screen, you want one just because other smart phones have one. But this is Apple, they don't follow, they lead. By the looks of it, using 3.5 in screen has put them well ahead in the game.
Click to expand...

3.5 put them ahead of the game in 2007. "retina" put them ahead in 2010. Now that all competitors are at 4" or greater, Apple is falling behind. Yes, I do WANT a 4" screen, I don't need it. I have used my friend's samsung focus and loved the extra real estate for web browsing.

As far as resolution goes, I will gladly give up some for the bigger screen. The iPhone 4 is beautiful, and when you hold it up to a 3G or 3GS the difference is obvious. But people are acting like upsizing to 4" will revert back to the old screens. NOOOOOO. It will be a much larger screen that has an amazing display, except the difference between it and the iPhone 4 really isn't visible to the naked eye.
 
Interstella5555 said:
How much sense would it make to have a lower resolution than the iPhone 4?
Click to expand...

Not much.
Why would Apple go 1 step forward and 2 steps back? Assuming they sell the iPhone 4 for $50, and continue selling the iPod Touch until October, it will just be a fragmented ecosystem until then.
 
iPhysicist said:
The only way to increase the screen size is to lengthen the screen in my eyes. Make it 16:10 instead of 4:3. Apps wont be affected because you just will have black bars on top and bottom of the screen. But this is only possible if the iPad goes the same route. Maybe we will see it sometime in the future but surly not in the next iPhone.
Click to expand...
I've thought about this and don't think it's a viable option because the problem with the small 3.5" isn't the height, it's the width. If they can't also widen the screen out, they might as well not even bother. Movies would be better, but everything else would still be cramped as hell.

Interstella5555 said:
How much sense would it make to have a lower resolution than the iPhone 4?
Click to expand...
tigert07 said:
exactly my thoughts. they just announced this "retina display" this generation. Why dump it for the iPhone 5 so quickly? the thing is beautiful.
Click to expand...

300dpi is still considered "retina". Apple could go 3.8", still call it retina and you could never tell the difference in clarity.

jav6454 said:
Which is why there is no 4 inch screen update coming along. Why would Apple loose the same iconic design of the iPhone. Sure there have been external changes, but the screen has remained the same.

You don't need a larger screen, you want one just because other smart phones have one. But this is Apple, they don't follow, they lead. By the looks of it, using 3.5 in screen has put them well ahead in the game.
Click to expand...
Apple is not the leader because of it's 3.5" screen, but despite of it.
If they would have put a 4" screen in the iPhone 4 while they were redesigning the whole damn thing, they would have been kings of the universe.

Re: OP: There's not enough detail in any of your options to make a choice either way. I say go 4". 288ppi would hardly be discernible from 300 unless you had Superman's eyes. Widen the iPhone back out to the 3GS dimensions and get on with it.
 
Last edited:
I'd like to see the option to keep it as it is today.

As I said in another thread, higher screen size + same resolution means lower dpi = bad.

And higher screen size + higher resolution means app fragmentation á la Android....

I really adore the screen of the iPhone 4 :)
 
FortMOney said:
3.5 put them ahead of the game in 2007. "retina" put them ahead in 2010. Now that all competitors are at 4" or greater, Apple is falling behind. Yes, I do WANT a 4" screen, I don't need it. I have used my friend's samsung focus and loved the extra real estate for web browsing.
Click to expand...

You do know that if they give a 4" screen with the same resolution as the 3.5" you really aren't getting any additional space; just bigger pixels. Things will display the same just slightly larger; that's all. To get more space you need a higher resolution.
 
redtape said:
I'd like to see the option to keep it as it is today.

As I said in another thread, higher screen size + same resolution means lower dpi = bad.

And higher screen size + higher resolution means app fragmentation á la Android....

I really adore the screen of the iPhone 4 :)
Click to expand...
What if you couldn't tell the difference between the 326ppi and 300ppi of a 3.8" screen. Would you still be against it on principle?

CylonGlitch said:
You do know that if they give a 4" screen with the same resolution as the 3.5" you really aren't getting any additional space; just bigger pixels. Things will display the same just slightly larger; that's all. To get more space you need a higher resolution.
Click to expand...
I think that's what everyone wants is things bigger so you don't have to zoom in on everything quite so much.

I've got a laptop with 1920x1200 resolution and it's so damn small, I can't read anything. Sure you can get more on the screen, but it's too small to be practical. That's just too high a resolution for such a small screen, but it's fine on my desktop monitors. Bigger screen at the same resolution is what we're after.
 
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