First if all I'd say an extra 20% battery is not "no benefit" secondly it's thinner than existing iPhones, do you have a problem holding those?
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iPhone 6 Information Leak Sourced from Foxconn Details Dimensions of 4.7-Inch and 5.5-Inch Versions
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First if all I'd say an extra 20% battery is not "no benefit" secondly it's thinner than existing iPhones, do you have a problem holding those?
I think you both have it backward. If unique=hipster, then the "unique" ones out there are phablet users. Way smaller percentage of the market share than 4.0" phone users. I can see adding the 4.7" while also retaining the 4.0" size, but making 4.7" the "small" option is what's making so many people upset. I want the best phone in the smallest size - I'd buy a 128 GB 3.5" iPhone 6 if it was made available.
HobeSoundDarryl
macrumors G5
I agree with your point but you're letting Apple off the hook with "not that it matters", as the solution involves you and everyone else buying an extra thing (a case) to end up with a non-protuding camera.
That would be like buying a 2018 model iMac that is actually just a thunderbolt 7 hub to which you attach a screen, CPU, graphics card, RAM, et all separately while still paying the full iMac price.
Apple should quit playing the "thinner" game since no one seems to gripe about the thickness of the 5s, or 5 or 4, but "thinner" doesn't add to unit costs while filling the new-found space with more battery or other hardware would…. and Apple knows that it's fan base will passionately argue for "thinner" like it's some huge benefit beyond the one-time "ooh and ahh" it gets until one's circle of friends have all seen that thinness ONCE.
If that fact is true, the market share of 4" screen users will almost entirely shift to 4.7" or 5.5" when Apple delivers an iPhone at 4.7" or 5.5". You don't see the Android players making and marketing 4" and smaller phones very hard and they would if there was a huge market paying profitable amounts for those sizes. Instead, they've found profit successes at bigger screens and even Apple is now going there because that's where the money is.
Apple knows it's base will mostly go right with them. If you don't think almost everyone will, don't buy and if a big enough crowd also doesn't buy, Apple will realize it's "mistake" and soon add a 6 at 4" to sell to that segment that refuses to buy 4.7" or 5.5". However, if you look through many of the threads here as any kind of subjective survey, it looks like the vast majority of the 4" base is ready to jump on the 4.7" with a chunk- seemingly as big as about 33%- ready to jump on up to the 5.5". Only a handful seem to share your sentiment. I expect after these are out, even some of those who do share the sentiment will jump on the bigger sizes as if they never said anything about wanting a new 4".
Like said, they have probably been using these schematics for quite some time already to make the goophones and whatnots.
4" is the thing of the past when smartphones were used heavily on phone features. Now, phone features are minorities in smartphones while other tasks take over the primary uses: email, browse, media play, game...I used to spend chunk of my time on phone calls and txt msg, now these only take 10% of what I'm doing on my phone. This is the reason why smartphone sizes need to go big.
So this has presumably been in development for 2 years, and it's thicker, wider, and taller than a phone Samsung just whipped up to counter it in a couple months, the Galaxy Alpha. All with an even smaller battery capacity than that phone. Not impressed if these are the final dimensions/specs. I was expecting much more in the way of thinness if the battery is 1,800mah, or battery if it was super thin.
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4" screen was already too big for women and some people for one hand use, but did anyone complain? People will manage to use it with one hand...so 4.7" is a new standard for one hand use now. 4.7" looks okay on the hand and on the face while 5.5" doesn't for either. However, LeBron James would want a 5.5" and most of big men do...well women too may get into 5.5" since they, most of the times, text not talk on the phone and have a purse for it.
HobeSoundDarryl
macrumors G5
I travel a lot. I've seen lots of little people- including children- with BIG-screen Androids. Those kids probably have them because they cost their parents less than iPhone but I'm still to find even one that is envious of an iPhone's smaller screen vs. whatever they have. The adults who are just little CHOSE to buy those bigger screens over iOS. Why? Because they wanted those bigger screens more than they wanted the added benefits of iOS.
This bias is greatly influenced by years of Apple spin: Jobs proclaiming 3.5" as the perfect size screen, "one handed use", poking fun at bigger-screen competition to help sell what Apple wanted us to buy. But now Apple is going there. Holding on to Apple-sourced biases when Apple themselves is shifting doesn't even make much sense unless one can genuinely think for himself and genuinely believes that anything more than 4" is too big for them. If so, they prove this by NOT buying a bigger-screen iPhone. If there's enough of them, Apple will realize it's mistake and make a 4" iPhone 6 or 6s. But watch what happens after Apple rolls these out.
If there was a strong market at 4" or 3.5", the Android competition would be all over it. They have no tradition of one-size-fits-all. They would make 2" smart phones if they thought they could make a buck. Why aren't they there? Because either the market there is fading, there's fading profit in those smaller-screened phones or they've basically resigned themselves to just surrendering that size screen to Apple. If there's any merit to that last one, Apple vacating 4" will create an opportunity for Android-makers to fill that hole- if there is one. So those that have a 4" or bust mentality should be able to buy new Androids at 4" if you believe there are so many that feel the same that it will be profitable for Android to take renewed interest in that size.
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I like the look for an iPhone, although it's only slightly improved.
The 5.5" model is of interest even though Apple failed at making it as compact as a Note 3. Samsung prevailed with a more spacious 5.7" in a smaller body that's nearly 7mm shorter.
The massive top and bottom bezels on Apples phone are the problem, ugly and fat which aparently even Jony Ive could not overcome.
Being larger than the Samsung Galaxy Note 3 with its larger display, the portly iPhone 6 is going to kill bragging rights for Apple.
158.0 x 78.0 x 7.1 mm iPhone 6 - 5.5" display
151.1 x 79.0 x 8.2 mm Note__3 - 5.7" display
Thanks for this information. I looked at a note 3 today trying to size up the 5.5 iPhone 6. My thinking was it would be smaller ..but larger that may take it out of the phone realm, and off my list.
I just think about how the hell this thing would be carried in a pocket comfortably.
Anecdotal you say ? Ok, I prefer a smaller high-end iphone with a 3.5 or 4 inch screen, because I value the portability more. I use an ipad for music making, drawing, web browsing and so on. I use a lot of apps on my iphone, but I noticed I don't spend much time on my iphone apps (a few minutes usually) - and this is true for a large phone also. So if my iphone is being used only for quick stuff, writing and idea here and there, taking some photos, using some kind of sports apps and so on, I noticed a bigger screen would not be a significant advantage, while posing the disadvantage of awkward size.
I also noticed I tend to use the iphone a lot on the street, with one hand, while carrying something on the other hand. I also never used a case, and with a smaller phone you have a better grip.
I also noticed I tend to use the iphone a lot on the street, with one hand, while carrying something on the other hand. I also never used a case, and with a smaller phone you have a better grip.
You'd like Apple to continue to make a 4" phone. I get it. Fact is, when the larger phones are introduced there will still be ample inventory of 4" iPhones and they will be updated for some time to come. Now if you're they type who has to have the latest and greatest, that's a first world problem with little sympathy from me. Heck, we're posting in a tech forum about an upcoming phone. All of this is a first world problem.
The crux of my issue with your quote is the insistence that larger phones are for the less tech savvy people. Forgive me, but that premise is stupid. Not you, but the premise. What empirical data suggests that a person with a smaller phone is somehow more technically inclined? Forget empirical, I'd settle for anecdotal in this case. There is no correlation. It's like you're looking for an excuse as to why people like larger phones. There is no excuse or single reason. People like what they like for myriad reasons. MR is one of the more technically savvy forums and there are a crap ton of people here with larger phones and a boatload more wanting them. Are they less savvy than those who want the status quo? Sometimes I think we can resort to high drama to get our point across when it's not really necessary.
It's totally okay to express preference without denigrating the alternative.
What doesn't make sense?They choose to have symmetrical bezels and Touch ID.Im quite sure they could shrink the bezels if they wanted too.
In Q1 2014, phablets (5"+) made up almost 40% of world smartphone sales.
That's over 100 million phablets sold that quarter, as compared to about 50 million iPhones.
Phablets are not the majority of world sales (yet... although they're getting close in places like China), but they're far from unique these days, and they far outsell iPhones.
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