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iPhone 6 Specs Seen by Analyst as 'Locked In' with 4.8-Inch Display and 802.11ac Wi-Fi

Casiotone said:
Note that in all of your examples of retina transition, the screen size remained the same between the non-retina and retina version. The iPad resolution is not a multiple of the iPhone resolution.

When Apple used 2x, it was so that developers wouldn't have to make major changes to their UI code as iOS took care of multiplying legacy coordinates by 2.

It worked because the PPI was also increased by the same proportion, keeping UI elements the same physical size on the screen.

What you're proposing is doubling resolution but not PPI resulting in a bigger screen size, which negates the advantage of not having to redo layouts.

It would result on a different, non-multiple minimum size in pixels for touch targets and buttons which would mean unprecedented work for iOS developers.

As of now, a dev can use the same exact button size across all iOS devices (doubled or halved automatically by iOS depending if they use virtual or real pixels in their code). I don't think Apple will want to break that when 95% of users wouldn't be able to notice the increase in PPI anyway.

Simply keeping 326PPI and increasing the resolution to make a bigger screen would mean much less work for devs than what you propose.
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One does need to take into account that if apple is considering to keep its ongoing practice alive (Basically one phone structure, screen etc for 2 years and changing the specs) then your 326 Ppi screen is going to have to last you 2 years specially when 498-500 PPI LCD's are already advertised in the market (Sharp) and when your main competition in the high end smartphone domain is going to launch a 2k display with a 500Ppi before you. I predict that by the end of 2014 Samsung (atleast them) would have atleast 2 2k displays with 500+Ppi (Galaxy S5 and Galaxy Note4)..And this time they are seriously considering a High PPI LCD version as well (probably based on the Sharp LCD with IGZO 498 PPI displays)....I know apple does not go out and out with spec comparisons, but they can also not totally disregard what is going on in the display world especially when they like to lock their display tech for a period of 2 years. If they are to bite the bullet and work with devs to bring the neccessary changes then i would rather have them go all out and establish a new benchmark for themselves for display tech and keep it for 2 years as opposed to starting out with something that has been done a few years ago and keeping it for another 2 years.

And before we bring the entire quesiton of power requirements for bigger, more powerful screens, we do need to remember that Chips have become more efficient, battery tech has advanced in 2 years and a larger iphone will spot a bigger battery.
 
prowlmedia said:
REEEEEEEAAAAALLLLLY, I never knew that. :roll eyes:

I understand that... the point is I don't want a 5.9" phone in my pocket. They are massive... and I am not blind... and if I want a bigger screen, I move it closer to my face
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It's a good thing Apple isn't making a 5.9" phone. ;)

But phones larger than 4" have been making the rounds for the last four years or so. There definitely is a market.
 
brdeveloper said:
After using a Galaxy Note or S4 you'll never get back to a smaller screen. It's very comfortable for typing and reading.
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I ALMOST pulled the trigger on a 5S, but instead went with a Note 3. So glad I did, the extra screen real estate is huge for me(pun intended). Sure Android might not be everyones cup of tea, but all of the apps are there, and the stylus is a huge bonus for me.
 
GeneralChang said:
Seriously, though, I think you’re probably right. And I prefer gesture based interfaces anyways.
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I like gestures, as long as there are alternative methods available.

Not everyone likes moving their thumb/finger that much.

Also, hidden gestures can be unfriendly to new users, who might not know about them, and end up wondering why the heck the screens change sometimes :)
 
Another +1 to hoping its about the moto X size. I switched from my 5 to the moto x and I love the larger screen. Android just doesn't do it for me, so I'll definitely be in line to get a new larger iPhone if/when it happens
 
No iPhone is being held back by slow wifi. Whats hurting it is the battery life. I'd rather they focus on more efficient wireless N than bring us AC.
 
3 months ago, I switched from iPhone 5 to Moto X. The form factor of Moto X is perfect and I mean PERFECT for average size hands. As someone commented above, android just didn't do it for me either... switched back to iPhone 5 for iOS. I really miss the extra real estate and awesone form factor ofMoto X. I wish i6 comes close to that kinda form factor.
 
trifid said:
You are right, they can easily take a hit as a company in the short term, but their position in the smart phone market would suffer greatly. Consider Android is eating away Apple's marketshare, their stronghold is falling, and this would just catalyst that.

I've personally been considering switching to Android just because of the larger screen (and inductive charging), it's so much more comfortable and liberating. I've been seeing a ton of people going for Android simply because of the larger screen. Theverge and other tech publications are all clamoring for a larger screen.

Note that investors are already weary on whether Tim Cook can keep Apple on the innovation edge, we saw some signs in the stock market reacting to that last year. If Apple stays stuck in an old form factor it'd be a huge hit in Apple's credibility as the innovator. That's why I described it as Apple is done, it'd mean Apple is out of touch and losing vision.
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Another individual that does not get that market share is only important to Android users and analysts. Apple will continue to enjoy the higher profit margins even with smaller market share. They have continued to sell more phones each quarter despite a shrinking market share. Google and Apple have completely different business models, market leaders HTC and Samsung are to Google as staples are to Bostitch and Swingline. Google cares very little about who makes Android devices as long as they continually fall in price making them available to increasingly more people. Google makes money from eye-balls not by developing the OS with the largest market share. The market leader for Android-based devices a decade from now is very likely not even showing on the radar. We have not even begun to hear from the Indian sub-continent.

The data is very clear on user behavior, despite the larger installed base of Android, iOS devices owners consume more bandwidth, visit more websites, and spend more on eCommerce per handset. Google touts these stats as a reason to use their mobile ad-network. Google is VERY happy to see a growing and healthy iOS ecosystem.
 
Neither my wife nor I are interested in lugging around one of these enormous clunkers. If they do decide to stuporsize the iPhone, I hope they keep the smaller ones in the lineup as well.
 
vomhorizon said:
One does need to take into account that if apple is considering to keep its ongoing practice alive (Basically one phone structure, screen etc for 2 years and changing the specs) then your 326 Ppi screen is going to have to last you 2 years specially when 498-500 PPI LCD's are already advertised in the market (Sharp) and when your main competition in the high end smartphone domain is going to launch a 2k display with a 500Ppi before you. I predict that by the end of 2014 Samsung (atleast them) would have atleast 2 2k displays with 500+Ppi (Galaxy S5 and Galaxy Note4)..And this time they are seriously considering a High PPI LCD version as well (probably based on the Sharp LCD with IGZO 498 PPI displays)....I know apple does not go out and out with spec comparisons, but they can also not totally disregard what is going on in the display world especially when they like to lock their display tech for a period of 2 years. If they are to bite the bullet and work with devs to bring the neccessary changes then i would rather have them go all out and establish a new benchmark for themselves for display tech and keep it for 2 years as opposed to starting out with something that has been done a few years ago and keeping it for another 2 years.

And before we bring the entire quesiton of power requirements for bigger, more powerful screens, we do need to remember that Chips have become more efficient, battery tech has advanced in 2 years and a larger iphone will spot a bigger battery.
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It's called Retina for a reason. Yeah it's a marketing term, but the idea is that at one a point there won't be any reason to increase resolution, which is a fact of human eye resolution.

And while 326 PPI may be under this limit, it's not by that much. I think the vast majority don't care/notice, and may not even care in 5 years.

Just because some people said "SD is good enough, HD is an overkill!" at one point doesn't mean that the same thing will happen with this.

If you can notice pixels in some 3D games at 326 PPI, it's because of the lack of polygon edge anti-aliasing, this will be fixed with a GPU upgrade sooner than later.
 
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So no one is taking into account the old facts about HDTV's is that to actually see the 1080p benefit you need a screen that is 42 inches or bigger?

Were talking cell phones here. As nice as the screens are for Samsung and everyone else they can't seem to nail "accurate colors" rather they focus on specs and nothing else I.E. (Nokia Lumnia 41MP)...Yawn

I'm not going to argue about a new iPhone that isn't even out just yet. I want to see the final specs first before jumping to conclusions.

Yes, I would love to have a 4.8 inch iPhone. This is something I've been looking forward to since the iPhone 5 came out.
 
brdeveloper said:
After using a Galaxy Note or S4 you'll never get back to a smaller screen. It's very comfortable for typing and reading.
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So is a 17" laptop vs a 11" MacBook Air but people have different needs and use their gadgets in different ways, which is also one of the reason that the most popular laptop size is not the one with the bigger screen.
 
It's called Retina for a reason. Yeah it's a marketing term, but the idea is that at one a point there won't be any reason to increase resolution, which is a fact of human eye resolution.
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Thats all well and good in theory..If I see a difference between an LCD that is "retina" at 326 Ppi..vs another LCD 1080P @ 498 PPI then I'd rather trust my expereince over whatever theory is behind the science of it. In fact Most folks would rather use their own judgement to come out with a preference of one display sollution vs another rather then go by marketting by either company. If retina is the be all end all of all display specs, do you recomend apple stick with this for 5, 10 or 20 more years?

http://www.theverge.com/2012/6/1/3056490/sharp-caac-igzo-498-ppi-display-prototype

Were talking cell phones here. As nice as the screens are for Samsung and everyone else they can't seem to nail "accurate colors" rather they focus on specs and nothing else I.E. (Nokia Lumnia 41MP)...Yawn
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Color representation in my opinion is due to conceptual differences when it comes to LCD vs AMOLED or OLED that Samsung seems to have recently preffered with its devices. Sharp However offers LCD IGZO's to Apple (i believe they are on the new Ipads) and as Samsung has stake in that company they may well make use of the LCD's sharp has been talking about since last year that bump up quality and put a whopping 498 Ppi onto a 5 inch mobile display. IGZO gives you better power management so the hit wont be so hard.

I'll reserve judgement on what the recent advances Samsung has made and would love to see a 2k display against my 5s retina display..I think i would be surprised as Samsung has been a leader in displays for some time and even apple uses them...It all has to do with how much they specify on quality vs raw specs adn i think having had quality and color representation issues earlier they may nail it on this one..

http://www.phonearena.com/news/Sams...ade-by-Sharp-AMOLED-on-the-backburner_id50997
 
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Only a larger screen will make me come back to an iPhone.

All the people grumbling about it being too big don't need to buy it. You are not the center of the universe, there is a market that doesn't include you :rolleyes:
 
I wonder if you would have more screen real-estate or just a larger image (like iPad mini to Air)
 
dazed said:
Only a larger screen will make me come back to an iPhone.

All the people grumbling about it being too big don't need to buy it. You are not the center of the universe, there is a market that doesn't include you :rolleyes:
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And neither are you. Apple and the rest of the world would not give a damn whether you come back to iOS or not.
 
itpromike said:
NO NO NO, no more non-standard, non Full HD, random, and odd screen resolutions. It's becoming absurd! Please Apple stop this practice. What will be easier for developers is if they can use standard resolutions and multipliers... i.e. 1080P or 2X1080P. This way their assets can be the same as most other platforms they develop for and they don't have to hand craft specialized sizes just because Apple decides to use some odd ball resolution. Furthermore it would make content viewing much more predictable since content (especially video and the web) are usually scaled to real standard resolutions. Lastly don't go through all the trouble of introducing a larger display and STILL have a lower PPI count and lower resolution than already come standard on other platforms. [...]
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I disagree with pretty much everything you've said. That whole rant didn't prove how a 1080p display would be easier for developers. In fact, it only proved you're clearly not a developer.

You think having to save bitmaps in separate resolutions for iOS and Android adds any significant time to a project, really? Developping for iOS is fundamentally different than developing for Android, but using different resolution for bitmaps is really the last of concerns.

Having to use a completely new, different convention than the current point system, however, would be a pain. And there's simply no ideal way to keep the current point system other than choosing an integer multiplier, otherwise Xcode and lots of APIs would need a complete overhaul to support a new dimension convention, for example using multiple AutoLayout contraints measured in pixels conditional to the device resolution.

What you call an "oddball" resolution is only oddball when you consider the resolution of TVs, laptops, and smartphones on other platforms. But why would this all matter in the context of iOS development? It simply doesn't. In terms of iOS development, 1080p is the oddball resolution, so is any resolution that would require a non-integer pixel multiplier to display older apps.

Please don't speak in the name of developers if you're not one. You honestly only seem to be concerned about the fact that competing phones have a higher resolution like it's some kind of pissing contest. I'll take the strong (and backwards compatible) ecosystem before the useless spec whoring to impress Android users.

Even taking the developers thing out of the equation, just from a consumer perspective, pixel density has diminishing returns at that point, and I think increasing battery life would make a lot more iPhone users happy than having 450 PPI instead of 400 PPI.
 
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a0me said:
So is a 17" laptop vs a 11" MacBook Air but people have different needs and use their gadgets in different ways, which is also one of the reason that the most popular laptop size is not the one with the bigger screen.
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I didn't say there's no place for a 4" iPhone. If I was an Apple executive, I would keep the classic form factor, but would add the newer one to the portfolio. I just said you'll feel very comfortable with a bigger screen. I rarely carry a phone in my jeans pocket, so 5" is not an issue. Also at winter or in colder countries you usually wear a jacket.

Moreover, I wouldn't restrict my digital experience just because of a pocket size. There are other ways to carry a phone (jacket pockets, briefcase, cargo pants, etc). As a bonus, you won't need a tablet anymore (at least a mini tablet like the iPad Mini).

I'm a enthusiast of convergence. Someday I believe we'll have a smartphone that can be used as a desktop computer. Just attach a HDMI display on it and you'll have an all-in-one computer.
 
So if this happens, I wonder if Samsung swoops in to try to get the small screen market that Apple would be abandoning?

(They might actually get me to switch that way. Even the 5/5S is too big for me. Really wish I could just upgrade the internals of my 4S and keep the superior small screen size!)
 
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