iPhone 6+ Lag

[Zinthar]

I don't see why they wouldn't... considering they've done it when transitioning from 4S to 5. Unless I'm wrong on the implementation there. I don't want to sound like I know anything about how iOS renders for different resolutions, but I do genuinely want to learn.

Prior to the iPhone 4, all iPhone displays were 480x320 and that matched exactly the number of virtual "points" that developers designed around. When Apple doubled the vertical and horizontal pixel count of the iPhone 4 to 960x640, they kept the 480x320 points intact and simply had the iPhone 4 scale UI elements x2 so that a 1x1 point came out as exactly 2x2 pixels on the device and the device had 326ppi.

For the iPhone 5, Apple just increased the resolution to 1136x640 and the points to 568x320 -- this kept the scaling factor for the phone @ 2x again and maintained 326ppi. Legacy apps simply ran letterboxed until updated.

With iPhone 6 (4.7"), Apple increased the resolution to 1334x750 and increased the points to 667x375, and again kept the scaling factor @2x with 326ppi. Apps updated to take advantage of this point target will be able to display ~38% more content than 4" iPhones because of the point increase (667x375 vs. 568x320).

With the 6 Plus, the display resolution is 1920x1080, but the rendering resolution is actually 2208x1242. This came about because Apple wanted to be able to display more content on 6 Plus for obvious reasons, and thus needed a higher point count than 667x375. The number they settled on was 736x414, which ends up showing about 22% more content than the 4.7" iPhone 6 and 68% more than the 4" iPhones. With a 736x414 point count, Apple could have chosen @ 2x scaling, but it would have resulted in a 1472x828 display for a 5.5" phone -- far too low of a ppi. So they went up to @ 3x and had the phone render at 2208x1242.

Presumably 2208x1242 displays were too difficult for Apple's partners to make in sufficient quantity for the 6 Plus launch, so Apple used more readily available 1080p displays and has the phone render at 2208x1242 and then downscale by ~15% to hit 1080p.

Anyway, TL;DR -- because of the way iOS and its point system works, UI elements for the iPhone 6 Plus in standard mode *must* be 736x414. The only future alternative is for Apple to pick some other point target that scales evenly with 1080p, but that probably isn't feasible because it would result in UI elements that are either far too large or small depending on the point targets chosen. For instance, they could have chosen 960x540 and scaled @ 2x, but this would have made all of the UI elements tiny and unusable. 640x360 @ 3x is also an option, but this would have resulted in the 6 Plus displaying less content than the 4.7" phone, which obviously wouldn't work.

Edit: Apologies to any iOS developers if I misused the terminology (I'm an engineer, but in a different field) -- please correct me if there's an error with this explanation.

 

[booksbooks]

Prior to the iPhone 4, all iPhone displays were 480x320 and that matched exactly the number of virtual "points" that developers designed around. When Apple doubled the vertical and horizontal pixel count of the iPhone 4 to 960x640, they kept the 480x320 points intact and simply had the iPhone 4 scale UI elements x2 so that a 1x1 point came out as exactly 2x2 pixels on the device and the device had 326ppi.

For the iPhone 5, Apple just increased the resolution to 1136x640 and the points to 568x320 -- this kept the scaling factor for the phone @ 2x again and maintained 326ppi. Legacy apps simply ran letterboxed until updated.

With iPhone 6 (4.7"), Apple increased the resolution to 1334x750 and increased the points to 667x375, and again kept the scaling factor @2x with 326ppi. Apps updated to take advantage of this point target will be able to display ~38% more content than 4" iPhones because of the point increase (667x375 vs. 568x320).

With the 6 Plus, the display resolution is 1920x1080, but the rendering resolution is actually 2208x1242. This came about because Apple wanted to be able to display more content on 6 Plus for obvious reasons, and thus needed a higher point count than 667x375. The number they settled on was 736x414, which ends up showing about 22% more content than the 4.7" iPhone 6 and 68% more than the 4" iPhones. With a 736x414 point count, Apple could have chosen @ 2x scaling, but it would have resulted in a 1472x828 display for a 5.5" phone -- far too low of a ppi. So they went up to @ 3x and had the phone render at 2208x1242.

Presumably 2208x1242 displays were too difficult for Apple's partners to make in sufficient quantity for the 6 Plus launch, so Apple used more readily available 1080p displays and has the phone render at 2208x1242 and then downscale by ~15% to hit 1080p.

Anyway, TL;DR -- because of the way iOS and its point system works, UI elements for the iPhone 6 Plus in standard mode *must* be 736x414. The only future alternative is for Apple to pick some other point target that scales evenly with 1080p, but that probably isn't feasible because it would result in UI elements that are either far too large or small depending on the point targets chosen. For instance, they could have chosen 960x540 and scaled @ 2x, but this would have made all of the UI elements tiny and unusable. 640x360 @ 3x is also an option, but this would have resulted in the 6 Plus displaying less content than the 4.7" phone, which obviously wouldn't work.

Edit: Apologies to any iOS developers if I misused the terminology (I'm an engineer, but in a different field) -- please correct me if there's an error with this explanation.

If this is all accurate... very good post. I love my 6 Plus but the performance is crap. I mean I'm really noticing it more and more as I use the phone. It's iPad 3 all over again. When I really get into a groove of using the phone, I see the stutters all over the place. Laggy, stutters as UIs struggle to draw themselves up; choppy App transitions; some things take a long time to load; etc.

My fear is that Apple released the 5.5" too soon and this could be one of the reasons why: downscaling because of an inability to make a screen with a resolution high enough that has the proper, proportional number of points compared to smaller iPhones. The result is crap performance.

 

[ammophobia]

Prior to the iPhone 4, all iPhone displays were 480x320 and that matched exactly the number of virtual "points" that developers designed around. When Apple doubled the vertical and horizontal pixel count of the iPhone 4 to 960x640, they kept the 480x320 points intact and simply had the iPhone 4 scale UI elements x2 so that a 1x1 point came out as exactly 2x2 pixels on the device and the device had 326ppi.

For the iPhone 5, Apple just increased the resolution to 1136x640 and the points to 568x320 -- this kept the scaling factor for the phone @ 2x again and maintained 326ppi. Legacy apps simply ran letterboxed until updated.

With iPhone 6 (4.7"), Apple increased the resolution to 1334x750 and increased the points to 667x375, and again kept the scaling factor @2x with 326ppi. Apps updated to take advantage of this point target will be able to display ~38% more content than 4" iPhones because of the point increase (667x375 vs. 568x320).

With the 6 Plus, the display resolution is 1920x1080, but the rendering resolution is actually 2208x1242. This came about because Apple wanted to be able to display more content on 6 Plus for obvious reasons, and thus needed a higher point count than 667x375. The number they settled on was 736x414, which ends up showing about 22% more content than the 4.7" iPhone 6 and 68% more than the 4" iPhones. With a 736x414 point count, Apple could have chosen @ 2x scaling, but it would have resulted in a 1472x828 display for a 5.5" phone -- far too low of a ppi. So they went up to @ 3x and had the phone render at 2208x1242.

Presumably 2208x1242 displays were too difficult for Apple's partners to make in sufficient quantity for the 6 Plus launch, so Apple used more readily available 1080p displays and has the phone render at 2208x1242 and then downscale by ~15% to hit 1080p.

Anyway, TL;DR -- because of the way iOS and its point system works, UI elements for the iPhone 6 Plus in standard mode *must* be 736x414. The only future alternative is for Apple to pick some other point target that scales evenly with 1080p, but that probably isn't feasible because it would result in UI elements that are either far too large or small depending on the point targets chosen. For instance, they could have chosen 960x540 and scaled @ 2x, but this would have made all of the UI elements tiny and unusable. 640x360 @ 3x is also an option, but this would have resulted in the 6 Plus displaying less content than the 4.7" phone, which obviously wouldn't work.

Edit: Apologies to any iOS developers if I misused the terminology (I'm an engineer, but in a different field) -- please correct me if there's an error with this explanation.

So if in later models, Apple is able to get a feasible supplier for 2208x1242 displays, thus omitting the need to downscale, will the performance match the 4.7" iPhone (assuming the same specs), or will it still be inferior because of 3x scaling instead of 2x?

 

[Zinthar]

If this is all accurate... very good post. I love my 6 Plus but the performance is crap. I mean I'm really noticing it more and more as I use the phone. It's iPad 3 all over again. When I really get into a groove of using the phone, I see the stutters all over the place. Laggy, stutters as UIs struggle to draw themselves up; choppy App transitions; some things take a long time to load; etc.

My fear is that Apple released the 5.5" too soon and this could be one of the reasons why: downscaling because of an inability to make a screen with a resolution high enough that has the proper, proportional number of points compared to smaller iPhones. The result is crap performance.

Speaking as an owner of the 4.7" 6 who's on the fence about switching: if I were you, I'd try to focus on the fact that it's part of a trade-off that gives you a higher ppi than the 4.7" 6, plus OIS and 20-40% better battery life.

I agree, of course, that it does indeed suck that they did it this way.

Edit: One other advantage for the 6 Plus is that zoomed mode takes the 667x375 points of the 4.7" 6 and then scales them @ 3x to 2001x1125, and then downscales to 1920x1080. If they had an even scaling factor for standard mode, then the zoomed mode would have likely been stuck rendering at a resolution below the display resolution. Their downscaling solution allows both standard and zoomed modes to be accommodated without either being completely crippled.

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So if in later models, Apple is able to get a feasible supplier for 2208x1242 displays, thus omitting the need to downscale, will the performance match the 4.7" iPhone (assuming the same specs), or will it still be inferior because of 3x scaling instead of 2x?

I don't know enough about the effect of 3x scaling on iOS to answer that with any confidence. My instinct would be yes, but I'm not sure it'll matter because if they use a 2208x1242 display, it'll probably cripple the zoomed mode that renders at 2001x1125 (it'd be forced to upscale) -- so they may just stick with 1080p and try to improve the performance through the SoC.

 

[bizack]

Speaking as an owner of the 4.7" 6 who's on the fence about switching: if I were you, I'd try to focus on the fact that it's part of a trade-off that gives you a higher ppi than the 4.7" 6, plus OIS and 20-40% better battery life.

I agree, of course, that it does indeed suck that they did it this way.

Edit: One other advantage for the 6 Plus is that zoomed mode takes the 667x375 points of the 4.7" 6 and then scales them @ 3x to 2001x1125, and then downscales to 1920x1080. If they had an even scaling factor for standard mode, then the zoomed mode would have likely been stuck rendering at a resolution below the display resolution. Their downscaling solution allows both standard and zoomed modes to be accommodated without either being completely crippled.


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I don't know enough about the effect of 3x scaling on iOS to answer that with any confidence. My instinct would be yes, but I'm not sure it'll matter because if they use a 2208x1242 display, it'll probably cripple the zoomed mode that renders at 2001x1125 (it'd be forced to upscale) -- so they may just stick with 1080p and try to improve the performance through the SoC.

I don't think Apple is going to swap out displays. If you fire up the simulator in Xcode, you'll see that Apple supports 'resizable' iPhones and 'resizable' iPads. This points towards an architecture where scaling (always down, presumably) 'fixes' the physical to non-physical pixel mismatch.

Re:MacBook Pro comment that someone made - the software 'fix' was a rewrite of Safari that made better use of OpenGL in WebKit. The rest of OS X still had lag, but that was eventually fixed with more software optimizations. The key point is that the MacBook Pro display is 2880x1800 and has a GPU with 1GB of RAM. The display on the iPhone 6 Plus is 2208x1242, has a higher pixel density but a less powerful GPU with less RAM (same goes for the CPU, which could be used for software optimizations) than a MacBook Pro. This is borderline magic.

It's impressive what they accomplished, but the tradeoffs are visually apparent if you go searching for them (a 'normal' consumer either won't notice or care).

Anyway, enjoy your phone! It's a great device and this will all be a moot point 1-2 years out.

 

[MikeVera]

Odd... I haven't noticed lag....

I mean I have a very occasional lock up (which could be software related), but all the UI effects seem to be very quick... hmmm

 

[JFazYankees]

Trust me. There isn't.

I'm not going to argue this anymore. You're not right.

 

[qnet]

I played with the Iphone 6+ at Best Buy and the At&t store. Compared to past Iphones I've used, it does lag. It's just not the same. My friend said he actually liked the operation of my OnePlus One compared to the new Iphone 6+ after comparing them in the store.

I'm a big Android user, have rooted phones and make vids about them. I also like the Iphone and have gotten every one of the major design change phones since the Iphone 4. I've never got an S model.

One of the things that always impressed me about the Iphone was just how fluid and smooth it operated. It was just such a nice experience when you combine it with the design and feel of the phone. The only thing I didn't like was the small screen compared to my Android phones.

The Iphone 6+ was my dream phone, finally a big screen Iphone. Hopefully they will push out some more updates and optimize the software more. The in-store models were still IOS 8.0 and had not been updated.

 

[CrAkD]

I think it's just apps not being updated for the 6+ once developers update the apps it won't have to scale them and all stuttering will be gone

 

[2IS]

I think it's just apps not being updated for the 6+ once developers update the apps it won't have to scale them and all stuttering will be gone

Apparently, nothing is optimized for it, not even IOS since it stutters without any apps open at all.

 

[WilliamG]

I'm not going to argue this anymore. You're not right.

You don't have to argue. I have three devices here to actually compare.

 

[CrAkD]

Apparently, nothing is optimized for it, not even IOS since it stutters without any apps open at all.

Other than keyboard bugs and unoptimized apps my 6+ has been running flawlessly

 

[2IS]

Other than keyboard bugs and unoptimized apps my 6+ has been running flawlessly

If you lived closer I'd invite you over for a bbq and show you otherwise. But if you don't notice the jittery operation, more power to you. I notice it, and not just on my own personal 6+

 

[vito]

No lag on mine. Possibility is that you got a crappy device.

Same here, no lag at all

 

[M5RahuL]

I can't deny that I am seeing some lag eg. tapping a contact name from favorites leads to some lag before the dialer appears, and when opening certain apps the screen goes black for a couple of seconds before the app launches - Facebook is an example for me..

I'm hopeful future updates will address this issue and optimize their code to work seamlessly with the Plus model, and these are mere teething issues for a completely new product line.

 

[MatthewStorm]

For those of you with lag, or serious impatience as it's sometimes known, did you set up your phone as New or Restore from a previous iPhone?

 

[mag2001]

I am noticing a lag scrolling but it maybe normal. I am coming from a galaxy s5 and it had smoother scrolling.

 

[2IS]

For those of you with lag, or serious impatience as it's sometimes known, did you set up your phone as New or Restore from a previous iPhone?

It has nothing to do with impatience. It has to do with the worst performing new iPhone ever released in the history of iPhones. If you weren't an Apple apologist you'd recognize the nature of these complaints.

 

[wgr73]

Here's the thing:

"little bits of lag here and there" or "not really noticeable" or "minor" or "not impacting my experience" are all COMPROMISES.

The folks that can "live with it": GFY (good for you...).

I couldn't. But that's what makes the situation so great: You can have a larger phone that gives you .8"s of extra real estate and comes with a bunch of "I can live with it's" of you can choose the 6, give up that screen size, and not have to make those sacrifices.

And for the "it's a software issue" folks, riddle me this:

Why does the + need a "desktop class" scaler to begin with?

Hmm? Makes you think it might be HARDWARE related, don't it?

Keep "living with it" if it makes you happy, but no new phone should jitter and lag the way the + does. It was a poor choice by Apple to force it to downscale, but as long as people are willing to compromise, they're happy to take your $$$. They won't get mine

Dude, .8" isn't the only thing. For me BATTERY was the key. OIS is a plus, but probably not needed, and definitely not important to me.

If I could get a FULL day out of the i6 then I'd go for that phone, heck I still may give it a shot. This i6+ is just ridiculous with the amount of time it lasts, for me. I have no worry that I will use the battery in a full day.

 

[vgamedude]

I am noticing a lag scrolling but it maybe normal. I am coming from a galaxy s5 and it had smoother scrolling.

Oh boy, not good when Samsung of all things is smoother than the kings of smooth.

Apple needs to get this fixed.

 

[AppleRobert]

Oh boy, not good when Samsung of all things is smoother than the kings of smooth.

Apple needs to get this fixed.

Not my experience. I HAD a S5, no more. TW and bloat no more as well.

 

[vgamedude]

Not my experience. I HAD a S5, no more. TW and bloat no more as well.

I had a note 3, I hated touchwizz quite a bit but I never had too much lag on it. Ran pretty well, I didnt have it long though so I'm sure that's part of it.

 

[AppleRobert]

I had a note 3, I hated touchwizz quite a bit but I never had too much lag on it. Ran pretty well, I didnt have it long though so I'm sure that's part of it.

TW, bloat, and ram management good be way better on the S5. My Moto X smokes it.

 

[JoJoCal19]

Still waiting on my Plus, but the 45 mins I had of hands on at the Apple store last week exhibited no PERCEIVABLE lag, and that was before and after I closed all the apps people had opened. As well, today I got another 45 mins with one at the AT&T store, again no PERCEIVABLE lag and that was after I had been looking for some since reading this and the other lag thread last night.

 

[AppleRobert]

Still waiting on my Plus, but the 45 mins I had of hands on at the Apple store last week exhibited no PERCEIVABLE lag, and that was before and after I closed all the apps people had opened. As well, today I got another 45 mins with one at the AT&T store, again no PERCEIVABLE lag and that was after I had been looking for some since reading this and the other lag thread last night.

Setting mine up last week when I got it, I left most everything under the sun opened. Music, games, browser, mail, camera, calculator, weather etc .etc.

The Plus never even blinked! Thank you Apple!