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What is the absolute perfect size for the iPhone's screen?

  • 3.5 Inches

    Votes: 56 16.6%
  • 3.7 Inches

    Votes: 24 7.1%
  • 3.8 Inches

    Votes: 19 5.6%
  • 4.0 Inches

    Votes: 175 51.8%
  • 4.3 Inches

    Votes: 41 12.1%
  • 4.5 inches

    Votes: 9 2.7%
  • 4.7 Inches

    Votes: 10 3.0%
  • Other size not listed.

    Votes: 4 1.2%

  • Total voters
    338
Well I accept it because...

a. I'm not a designer

b. Have never made a phone before

c. Don't know whats best for the optimized working of a phone

d. etc

I wouldn't admit your ignorance to research and thinking for yourself as a valid reason for blind obedience. Whether its true or not.
 
I recently had a flight and was sitting by a younger gentleman with an SII. We were both watching movies on our phones but I couldn't help from look at his quite a bit (I'm a phone nerd lol). I could see his better with him holding it then I could see my 4s. It just looked like an upgrade.
 
I wouldn't admit your ignorance to research and thinking for yourself as a valid reason for blind obedience. Whether its true or not.

I can have all the opinions in the world but they probably aren't any good as making phones isn't my profession.

----------

I recently had a flight and was sitting by a younger gentleman with an SII. We were both watching movies on our phones but I couldn't help from look at his quite a bit (I'm a phone nerd lol). I could see his better with him holding it then I could see my 4s. It just looked like an upgrade.

Did you laugh when he had to stop half way through the film because his battery died?
 
Depends on what you want? It will only be catch up if they're doing something wrong. Which I don't believe they are?

the reason apple will change from 3.5 to 4inch+ is becuase the competition forced them to. Not becuase they want to as its cheaper for them to make 3.5 inch screens and sell them at bigger profit margins.

the 4s was apples big mistake. Especially how the much rumoured iphone 5 never appeared and all they gave out after 16 months was a speed upgrade and voice commands.

galaxy s2 outsold the 4s in the UK in november & december. Its easy to see why as it looks like better value for an upgrade. bigger screen, thinner & lighter.
 
I hope Apple does not get caught into the mine-is-bigger-than-yours race.
The 4.6 inches of the Galaxy Nexus are plain ridiculous: the thing has the footprint of a 10 euro note but you can't fold it in your wallet :rolleyes:
If Ive manages to reduce the current generous bezels around the screen and get to 3.8 I will be happy.
 
But Steve Jobs said people don't know what they want, so how can people have a preference? :rolleyes:

Let's face it. For those that prefer 3.5, that's Steve Jobs talking, not them.

You get it wrong. People do not know what they want until they see it and thats a fact. But this is not the point with the whole screen size debate. It is more about the total footprint of the iPhone itself then that a screen can be to big.

:apple:
 
the reason apple will change from 3.5 to 4inch+ is becuase the competition forced them to. Not becuase they want to as its cheaper for them to make 3.5 inch screens and sell them at bigger profit margins.

the 4s was apples big mistake. Especially how the much rumoured iphone 5 never appeared and all they gave out after 16 months was a speed upgrade and voice commands.

galaxy s2 outsold the 4s in the UK in november & december. Its easy to see why as it looks like better value for an upgrade. bigger screen, thinner & lighter.

The 4S clearly wasn't a mistake?? Where have you been?

The 4S had record sales for Apple so weather or not the SII "outsold" it is pretty irrelevant.
 
I recently had a flight and was sitting by a younger gentleman with an SII. We were both watching movies on our phones but I couldn't help from look at his quite a bit (I'm a phone nerd lol). I could see his better with him holding it then I could see my 4s. It just looked like an upgrade.
Watching movies on the iPhone's screen REALLY highlights how small it is.

I often wish Apple would make a BIG 4.3 inch screen version of the iPhone and keep the 3.5 inch one for the people who CLAIM that 3.5 is always better. We'd see Apple drop the 3.5 incher after a year out of "lack of interest".
 
the 4s was apples big mistake. Especially how the much rumoured iphone 5 never appeared and all they gave out after 16 months was a speed upgrade and voice commands.
This is the biggest reason the 4 inch screen is winning so hard in this poll. Last year, it was split 50/50 between 3.5 and 4 inch.
 
This is the biggest reason the 4 inch screen is winning so hard in this poll. Last year, it was split 50/50 between 3.5 and 4 inch.

url


:D
 
4" isn't too big but still allows enough room for many new possible app layouts. Also supports movies and games much better.
 
the 4s was apples big mistake. Especially how the much rumoured iphone 5 never appeared and all they gave out after 16 months was a speed upgrade and voice commands.

galaxy s2 outsold the 4s in the UK in november & december. Its easy to see why as it looks like better value for an upgrade. bigger screen, thinner & lighter.

The 4S clearly wasn't a mistake?? Where have you been?
The 4S had record sales for Apple so weather or not the SII "outsold" it is pretty irrelevant.


Where have you been?
You make ridiculous comments abouts s2 batt time, yet you missed all the threads on MR about the battery probs with the 4s? (probs so big Appled had to do an immediate firmware update) Did you miss all that?



It was a mistake on Apple's part, as it dissapointed millions of guys waiting 18 months for a new phone, and then got stuck with the same old phone. HUGE Dissapointment! Now all the new, non-apple phones will be coming out shortly, and many will jump ship, rather than wait til the end of the year for an expected device that will probably not be able to be JB for a long time, if ever.

After 5 days of tweaking, my 4s is kick butt, I love the heck outta it, but am sick to my stomach over the tiny 3.5" screen. What a HUGE dissapointment having such a powerful device, and then having to squint to watch a movie, vid, or play a game. :eek:

I agree with sneaky butcher, the 3.5" screen was a huge fail for Apple, a mistake they might eventually regret.
 
4" isn't too big but still allows enough room for many new possible app layouts. Also supports movies and games much better.
Web browsing and typing is the biggest thing for me. Movies not so much because its not a 16:9 screen, but the fact that it's not that aspect ratio behooves the need for a bigger screen even more so.
 
Web browsing and typing is the biggest thing for me. Movies not so much because its not a 16:9 screen, but the fact that it's not that aspect ratio behooves the need for a bigger screen even more so.

So for you web browsing is the #1 task for your phone? You better get an iPad 3G ;)
 
If Apple made the iPhone 4 inches, you'd say how great it feels, simply because Apple made it.

No. They could make 4" pretty palatable, but it would never as as good as 3.5". The reason these Android phones are so big is that they need the bigger battery packs. I wish that they would make high-end Android phones in the 3.5-3.7" range, just without LTE (obviously on AT&T, since Verizon only accepts LTE phones now).

I think Apple made the right choice by sitting out LTE, and keeping the device small. Of course I am saying this as an AT&T customer, where we already have 4Gish performance without actual 4G.

The main reason that Android phones have such large screens is to fit the massive battery that's needed for LTE. Hungrier chips = bigger battery. Phones either had to get thicker or longer.

If the next-gen iPhone is to be LTE, it'll probably have a new battery technology.

The chipsets for LTE are going to get better, this happened with the first UMTS devices, and they will eventually be power efficient enough to use in something like an iPhone.
 
No. They could make 4" pretty palatable, but it would never as as good as 3.5". The reason these Android phones are so big is that they need the bigger battery packs. I wish that they would make high-end Android phones in the 3.5-3.7" range, just without LTE (obviously on AT&T, since Verizon only accepts LTE phones now).

I think Apple made the right choice by sitting out LTE, and keeping the device small. Of course I am saying this as an AT&T customer, where we already have 4Gish performance without actual 4G.



The chipsets for LTE are going to get better, this happened with the first UMTS devices, and they will eventually be power efficient enough to use in something like an iPhone.
what makes 3.5" good as you say? I think your still missing the picture, we have a 3GS, 4 and 4S. My i777 GS2 has a 4.3" screen, and Samsung did that with a footprint (case) size that's barely any larger then the iPhones casing, I mean if that very slight actual size difference makes such a day/night use factor to somebody then they have other issues they should worry about lol. Plus the phone is lighter and thinner and shaped great.

If Samsung could do that with a 4.3" screen, then Apple can do the same thing (4-4.3") w/o a chassis that's large or bulky.

Now I don't care for the 4.5"+ bigger phones and some have noticeably larger and bulkier cases. But I think your missing the picture here, my phone doesn't have LTE either. I definitely agree on AT&T's hspa+ network though, I'd rather have that then LTE (till they can make it an efficient process), I mean the speeds my GS2 or the 4S get on it are more then plenty for mobile uses when out and about, hell I avg speeds similar/better to most peoples average wifi setup at home (though my home network is still blazing fast lol). but the phones get awesome speeds on hspa+ w/ the same battery life as 3G, that's a win win right there.
 
SJ didn't say customers don't know what they want until Apple tells them in the context of Apple al;ways beign right and its customers being blind followers.

"You can't just ask customers what they want and then try to give that to them. By the time you get it built, they'll want something new."

"It's really hard to design products by focus groups. A lot of times, people don't know what they want until you show it to them."


Calidude doesn't actually want honest opinions on which screen size people want, unless it backs up his belief that everyone wants larger screens. This is proven by his mocking of anyone who says they like the 3.5" screen. This thread should have been called "The current screen size is too small, what is the perfect larger size for the iPhone's screen?".

There are a couple of reasons why Android phones are getting larger. First, the 4G chips are too large to fit in phones the size of iPhones. So to fit the larger chip the phones have to be physically larger, and they need larger screens or the bezel will appear too big.

http://www.anandtech.com/show/4925/why-no-lte-iphone-5-blame-28nm-maturity

Secondly, if Google increased the screen format to 1280x720. Had they not increased the screen size the UI elements would have been too small.

"Android OEMs and Google responded to the 3.5-inch 960×640 Retina display by improving the pixel format to 1280×720. But because Android renders text and graphics like desktop OSes (e.g. Windows, OS X) increasing resolution above 320 ppi means smaller UI elements. The display had to grow in size to compensate for shrinking UI elements. iOS renders the Retina display not by shrinking UI elements by one fourth but by doubling clarity and sharpness. Unless Google adds an additional “DPI level” beyond XHDPI, Android smartphones that match or beat the iPhone 4/4S in resolution will always be bigger, much bigger."

http://www.displayblog.com/2012/01/16/why-android-smartphones-are-bigger-than-the-iphone/

Beyond that, many people do want larger screens, and batteries are good enough to where they can drive the larger screens while still having good battery life. A little more choice is a good thing so having a variety of screen sizes addresses a need.

I actually feel that 4" is the sweet spot for phone displays, and while I don't have to do a bunch of zooming to read webpages a little larger would be nicer. I think Apple will increase the size some, but not at the cost of introducing another resolution target for devs to hit unless iOS6 is built on vector-based resolution independence. The current res at 4" would be around 285ppi which is pushing what could be called retina, but going from 3.5" to 3.7" isn't really enough of a size increase to feel like an upgrade.

But.

Dismissing people who like the current size as blindly following what Apple did four years ago just makes you and your POV look ignorant, and turns you into the same anti-choice brigade you are calling others.
 
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Having directly compared phones with larger screens to my iPhone, I voted 3.5". The reason: I found one handed use with my thumb much easier on the iPhone than on anything else. I'm not just saying that because it's a popular justification fanboys use or something. I actually tried it and noticed a significant difference. But, of course, it's just personal preference. I realize not everyone cares about that or has thumbs the same size as mine. But, I use my iPhone one-handed 90% of the time. The other 10% of the time accounts for entering text or pinching to zoom. So, for me it is a pretty big deal.

Edit: I think how people answer this is also heavily dependent on what people use their phones for. I don't watch video on my phone very often. So, I don't really need a bigger screen for that. When I browse the web, I don't find the screen size limiting at all. This is in part due to the fact that a good chunk of the websites I frequent have good mobile sites. Even when that isn't the case, I'll usually just zoom in on what I want to read with a double tap.
 
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Calidude doesn't actually want honest opinions on which screen size people want, unless it backs up his belief that everyone wants larger screens. This is proven by his mocking of anyone who says they like the 3.5" screen. This thread should have been called "The current screen size is too small, what is the perfect larger size for the iPhone's screen?".
Yet I didn't make such a thread title did I? This is just your opinion of my intentions, yet you pass it on as fact. If I didn't want honest opinions, I would have rigged things a lot more.

Dismissing people who like the current size as blindly following what Apple did four years ago just makes you and your POV look ignorant, and turns you into the same anti-choice brigade you are calling others.
I've already said in this thread that I'd be fine with a 3.5 inch iPhone option as long as there was a larger model to go with. It's only the anti-choice brigade that says that there can NEVER be a larger iPhone.
 
Having directly compared phones with larger screens to my iPhone, I voted 3.5". The reason: I found one handed use with my thumb much easier on the iPhone than on anything else. I'm not just saying that because it's a popular justification fanboys use or something. I actually tried it and noticed a significant difference. But, of course, it's just personal preference. I realize not everyone cares about that or has thumbs the same size as mine. But, I use my iPhone one-handed 90% of the time. The other 10% of the time accounts for entering text or pinching to zoom. So, for me it is a pretty big deal.

Edit: I think how people answer this is also heavily dependent on what people use their phones for. I don't watch video on my phone very often. So, I don't really need a bigger screen for that. When I browse the web, I don't find the screen size limiting at all. This is in part due to the fact that a good chunk of the websites I frequent have good mobile sites. Even when that isn't the case, I'll usually just zoom in on what I want to read with a double tap.
I agree with alot of what is said here. Maybe two months ago, I would have easily said 4 inches or even 4.3 as my max.

But I realized with my Focus (4-inch screen) that the phone feels a little uncomfortable using one-handed. I have fairly smaller palms for my height, but have long fingers. I didn't vote for any choices because I think it depends on the WIDTH for me. I have seen some phones with 4-inch screens anywhere between 62-66mm in width. My ideal width is nomore than 62mm. My Focus is at 64mm and my old BlackBerry Bold 9000 was at 66mm and neither one felt that comfortable one-handed like my Nexus One (59mm/3.7-inch screen) and iPhone 4 (58mm) when it rests in my palm. Even a 5-6mm wider difference can feel significant in the palm of my hand.

The only newer phones that can fit my width limit and I have an interest in is the Nokia N9/Lumia 800 which have a 3.9/3.7 inch screen, respectively. So the absolute perfect size isn't about screen. It is about the overall width of the phone. Ideal width should be nomore than 62mm for me.
 
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