The iPhone 5 resolution will change

[self]

Has anyone considered 1024x768?

Not a massive increase from the current 960x640 and it would give apple a massive advantage with the current ipad(2) as the the phone and ipad could share resolution, meaning that iphone apps would scale correctly.

Could also mean they can increase the size slightly and keep the retina tag.

That occurred to me last night in a moment of clarity. I'm going to put my chips on that.

 

[iEnvy]

Who is to say they won't change the resolution? Android developers have to work with a variety of resolutions. App store developers would just have to deal with it. Besides, if they amp the resolution to the original iPad's, it won't cause much of an ordeal. I hope Apple will implement a bigger screen. Not too big, but at a size that seems just right. 3.8-4" screen would be perfect.

 

[Tones2]

I'm not sure what your point is other than perhaps that the interpolation is too demanding for the A5 which I think you'd have a hard time demonstrating is the case.

That's EXACTLY my point. There is no way an iPhone with an A5 or even dual core A6 can do that even bilinear interpolation and still maintain any kind of battery life and graphic speed. It takes 3-5 TIMES the graphic power to do this interpolation. For each pixel in each frame (and some games have 30 frames per second), it has to determine the color of the 4 pixels (at minimum) to determine what color to fill the gaps caused by interpolation without cauing extreme pixelation. Here's an article that describes it somewhat:

http://www.cambridgeincolour.com/tutorials/image-interpolation.htm

There's no way the iPhone can do this without significant increased CPU / GPU cycles, which would totally slow down the graphics for games and drain the battery significantly. Why the heck do you think they went with the Retina display double resolution in the iPhone 4 instead of some fractional lessor resolution?

Note however this only applies to existing apps that used the old pixel resolution, not apps that are native to the new resolution. Also note that interpolation is not REQUIRED for fractional resolution scaling - one method would be just to choose the color of an adjacent pixel without any calculation. However, the screen would be a pixelated mess if that was done.

Note that a whole integer multiple increase in resolution requires NONE of this interpolation. It's just straight duplication by the integer factor.

And yes, I'm a graphics programmer.

Tony

 

[Eso]

That's EXACTLY my point. There is no way an iPhone with an A5 or even dual core A6 can do that even bilinear interpolation and still maintain any kind of battery life and graphic speed
...
There's no way the iPhone can do this without significant increased CPU / GPU cycles, which would totally slow down the graphics for games and drain the battery significantly.

How do you know that? You have no facts that demonstrate that's the case. You are quite overstating the processing power to interpolate images. The iPhone already does this type of interpolation in real-time just fine when zooming in on images, webpages, and when launching/switching apps, etc.

It takes 3-5 TIMES the graphic power to do this interpolation.

3-5 Times the power of what?

For each pixel in each frame (and some games have 30 frames per second), it has to determine the color of the 4 pixels (at minimum) to determine what color to fill the gaps caused by interpolation without cauing extreme pixelation.

Decreasing the resolution a game runs at increases performance despite interpolation. For example, running a game on at the screens native resolution is more graphically intensive than running it at a lower resolution and interpolating the image to fit on the whole screen. The point is that it would require less processing power for the iPhone to render games at the old resolution while upscaling with interpolation than it would be to run the game at the new resolution.

Regardless, most apps just use static images which means that they must be interpolated only when the app is loaded into memory. The only consequence of interpolation would be increasing load times.

 

[mikethebigo]

That occurred to me last night in a moment of clarity. I'm going to put my chips on that.

This would make the aspect ratio of the phone 4:3 instead of 3:2. Definitely not happening - it's not ergonomic to have something so wide in one hand.

 

[Bathplug]

apple won't care if their new bigger iphone won't fit your pocket, register, desk, case etc lol

also yes the resolution will prob change but normal retina apps will still look fine. It won't be as big as a jump going from none retina apps to retina. So what if devs have to update there apps.

 

[dccorona]

This is correct. If the screen is bigger than 3.8" then it won't be what Apple considers 'retina'.

I doubt we'll see a 4-inch screen (or even a larger screen in general) one revision after they decided to change the resolution. I'm putting all of my bets on a 3.5 inch screen.

thats not necessarily true

"retina display" is all linked to wether or not the eye can distinguish pixels. Part of this calculation includes viewing distance. For example, a 50" HDTV at 1080P viewed from 12' away is by definition a "retina display"...you can't discern individual pixels on the screen. Likewise, the high res display on the 15" MBP, viewed from a comfortable distance (read: not up close) is a retina display

depending on what apple determines the "normal" or "comfortable" viewing distance for a 4" screen to be, it could qualify for retina at that resolution.

 

[kre62]

Apple is not going to increase the screens resolution. There is no reason to, and it'll still be retina no matter what the pixel count. That is all.

 

[disarticulate]

Also, if nobody wants a larger screen at the same resolution, why doesnt everyone have a 19" HDTV? At the end of the day sometimes a larger screen is just nicer because it makes things bigger, not because it fills the screen with more stuff.

This would make much more sense if it wasn't so exaggerated. A 4" iPhone screen will only be 33% larger than the current 3.5" screen. A 42" HDTV (average family tv) is 500% larger than a 19" hdtv.

A more accurate comparison would be "why doesn't everyone have a 37" HDTV?" Unless of course you think the next iPhone screen size will be 8".

 

[cbongiova]

I have read rumors of up coming Android phones (Nexus Prime/Droid Prime & Incredible HD) will have HD screen resolutions (720 x 1280) and that they are coming out in the next few months. I doubt Apple would allow these phone to get an upper hand in screen resolution.

If apple only releases a iPhone 4s phone they are going to get killed. Android phones will have higher resolution, bigger screens, Super AMOLED Plus, and LTE. I think Apple will have to have at least a better screen resolution and competitive screen size to fend off the Android onslaught.

1200 x 800 resolution is a must for Apple. I think a 4.3 - 4.5 inch screen is also needed.

 

[Sedrick]

One of two things are going to happen in the coming weeks:
1. Apple goes 4" and I'll be laughing my ass off at all the di-hards who wanted to stick to 3.5" screens but will then say how 4" is the perfect size phone.
or
2. Apple sticks with the outdated 3.5" screen and I'll be crying in my beer.

 

[SiftWinnow]

There's just simply no chance that the screen stays at 3.5" with the iPhone 5.

It's been almost 15 months since the iPhone 4 was released and there's just no way that after all this time Apple will release what would essentially amount to an upgraded iPhone 4 with the same 3.5" screen as the iPhone 5 (not iPhone 4s--if also released).

The iPhone clearly doesn't have to have to and never will have the biggest screen to remain on top, but at 3.5" vs. 4+" for all the competitors, it would start to be a serious disadvantage. Yes, most iPhone users are different from other smartphone users in that they don't necessarily want as large of a screen as possible, but I think we all have seen the renderings that show that a 4" screen could quite easily be done with only a small increase in overall form factor.

Think about it: smartphones now--and especially the iPhone, are pretty much all screen. Forgetting about the first three versions of the iPhone which were different because the iPhone was so far ahead of any competitor, starting with the 3GS one of the only ways to clearly improve the phone over the previous versions is to increase the screen resolution and/or size.

It doesn't make sense to implement both advancements at once because you need to introduce improvements gradually, so it would stand to reason that the resolution increase comes first, as it did with the iPhone 4. Then, for the very next version you wait an extra 3-4 months over the normal refresh cycle because the iPhone 4 has sold so well, and you introduce a new model with a larger screen.

Plus, another way to think about it is really to back in to some realities that would result if the iPhone 5 didn't have a bigger screen. Mainly, that even after a release of the latest and greatest iPhone 5 presumably in October of 2011 not only would the screen be only 3.5" compared to essentially every competitor with 4"+, but more importantly it would mean that it would be October of 2012 at the very earliest that the iPhone may offer a screen larger than 3.5".

As much as I think the iPhone is clearly the best phone out there, they will start to put themselves at a serious disadvantage if they don't offer a phone with a screen larger than 3.5" until October of 2012 at the earliest and I think they are well aware of this.

Plus, Apple has always done a great job of introducing new products that have improvements over the previous version that are significant enough to make people want to upgrade to the latest version. If the iPhone 5 has the same form factor/screen size as the iPhone 5 with only upgraded specs and camera, I think it will be the first time that a large percentage of previous version owners (iPhone 4) don't feel compelled to upgrade to the latest version. Again, I think this is something that Apple is aware and will not let happen.