John Gruber Confirms 4" iPhone 5 Screen & How It's Done

[Jordan921]

God, no. Anything other than a 3:2 aspect ration looks horrible on a small screen like a smart phone. 16:9 wide screen gets too rectangular as the screen size gets smaller. If the widescreen galaxy tablets look so weird and unnatural in portrait mode, you can imagine how bad it will be on a smart phone. It is silly. And who the frick cares about letter boxing in movies on smartphones? A smartphone is used for other things 99.5% of the time, a majority of which it is in portrait mode. So please stop this nonsense of 16:9 or 9:5 aspect ratio for smartphones.

I just don't want them making a huge iPhone.

 

[thelatinist]

Now this might not be that bad. It looks a little odd to me right now, but I think I could get used to it. And keeping the same width would be a big plus.

There is still going to be the issue of easy one-handed use, at least for those of us with smaller hands. I've measured, and my thumb's vertical reach is almost precisely 2.9 inches. That's over half an inch of screen (and a whole row of icons) that I won't be able to reach single-handed.

 

[terraphantm]

Now this might not be that bad. It looks a little odd to me right now, but I think I could get used to it. And keeping the same width would be a big plus.

There is still going to be the issue of easy one-handed use, at least for those of us with smaller hands. I've measured, and my thumb's vertical reach is almost precisely 2.9 inches. That's over half an inch of screen (and a whole row of icons) that I won't be able to reach single-handed.

How do you figure? By my math, with a reach of 2.9 inches, you should be able to encompass a well over what a 4" iPhone (with dimensions of 3.5x1.9) would require.

Assuming you meant a 1.9" reach - you'd still be able to reach 83% of the screen - not taking into account our ability to adjust our hands while holding something.