Low-res wallpaper?

[mavis]

Am I the only one this is happening to? Whenever I set wallpaper for my iPhone 6, it goes low-res. As a demonstration, in this wallpaper you can clearly see trees on the third ridge, but when I save it as wallpaper, you can't. Looks pretty bad, really.

Original

Saved as wallpaper

Is this happening to anyone else?

 

[HiRez]

Just curious, do you see the same thing if you disable the perspective zoom effect when you set the wallpaper?

 

[mavis]

Just curious, do you see the same thing if you disable the perspective zoom effect when you set the wallpaper?

Yes. I always disable perspective zoom. Here's another example:

Original:

Saved as WP (perspective zoom disabled):

Is this an iPhone 6 issue, or an iOS 8 issue? Is the 6 Plus also affected?

 

[Ann P]

Low-res wallpaper?!

Yes. I always disable perspective zoom. Here's another example:

Original:
Image

Saved as WP (perspective zoom disabled):
Image

Is this an iPhone 6 issue, or an iOS 8 issue? Is the 6 Plus also affected?

Have a 6 and don't have this issue. When you set as wallpaper, the wall automatically zooms in a bit. You need to pinch and zoom out accordingly.

 

[HiRez]

It looks to me that you also have Display Zoom turned on (based on your carrier/battery bar). I did a test and took screenshots with Display Zoom on and off and when it's on, the wallpaper is definitely a little softer. I'm not sure that's your issue, but try turning off Display Zoom if it's on.

 

[mavis]

Display Zoom is off (the lock screen has had an enlarged 'status bar' since iOS 7)

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Have a 6 and don't have this issue. When you set as wallpaper, the wall automatically zooms in a bit. You need to pinch and zoom out accordingly.

I always do that, to disable perspective zoom without having to hit the button.

 

[HiRez]

OK, I installed some 1920x1080 test patterns as wallpapers, took screen shots, and compared them to the originals. It does appear there is a small bit of blurring happening, hence a loss in sharpness, but it's pretty minor, you have to be zoomed into Photoshop to see it (I couldn't see it just looking at the Plus lock screen). Maybe the downscaler, maybe they apply a little image compression to make load times faster?

 

[mavis]

I figured out how to avoid the problem. It occurs when you use a larger wallpaper (I was using my iMac wallpaper and my rMini's wallpaper). If you size the the wallpaper first, then take a screenshot, the screenshot can be used as wallpaper without going low-res.

Guess it's just an iOS 8 bug

 

[youknome]

I figured out how to avoid the problem. It occurs when you use a larger wallpaper (I was using my iMac wallpaper and my rMini's wallpaper). If you size the the wallpaper first, then take a screenshot, the screenshot can be used as wallpaper without going low-res.

Guess it's just an iOS 8 bug

There's plenty of those around, report it to Apple.

https://www.apple.com/feedback/iphone.html