Next-gen iPhone rumored to arrive in fall 2012 with LTE 4G, 3.5-inch screen - Page 5

Wait so are you saying all that can't exsist behind the screen. Call me silly but I think there is a picture of the N9 a few posts above that almost has the identical dimensions as the iPhone but with a 3.9" and all that stuff you listed behind the screen. You would rather have a big mechanical home button and a 3.5" screen, got it sorry for wanting something else please continue telling us what is possible or not.

I would settle for this to:



But it looks a lot like this which is ok in book

Get over your Android lust already and buy a Samsung if you want an oversized geek phone.

Disappointed with S4, I settled with Galaxy Nexus instead. Nexus has got 4.65inch with 316ppi and comes with ICS. This is not bulky at all comparing with Iphone 4s with a case. It fits nicely in my pocket and 'I barely know it's there' as well.

Am I happy with my Nexus? Initialy no as I was only camparing with my wife's Galaxy Note (5.3inch). I was disappointed with Nexus due to smaller size, but then I have gradually liked Nexus more because of ICS. Yes I am happy with Nexus.

Talking 3.5inch for future smartphones is a joke to me.

I have 4.65inch phone my wife has got 5.3inch. We both operate one hand when calling and reading emails, but use both hands when texting, playing games, viewing phtos, playing video clips and etc. Are you doing differently with your 3.5 inch phone?

Yes, the interior of the phone will have to be re-engineered, but I think you are overestimating the thickness of the display. At worst, it would entail a 1-2mm increase in the device thickness, and Apple has shown that they are willing to sacrifice thinness for a better display in the iPad3.

Secondly, as tech progresses, components are shrink and/or get consolidated into the SoC; effectively increases the internal room Apple has to work with. How Apple chooses to utilize this effective increase in space, be it more powerful components, increased battery capacity, or, dare I say it, a bigger display, is of course, up to them.

Although I think 3.5" is just too small for a modern smartphone, I would choose my iPhone-4 over galaxy's shovelness and la-a-ags anyday.

Sure Sammy phones may not smooth as Iphones, but much better than boring IOS. Dont get me wrong I like IOS, but just not better than Android to me.

First of all, please realize that I'm responding to posts that claim a 16:9 display is bad for phones purely because it is 16:9 and for no other reason. I'm pointing out that 16:9 displays works in phones because phones are physically close to that aspect ratio themselves.

But since you brought up those points, lets go through them:

1) The home button: The current iphone's home button is 11.2mm in diameter with the center located 10.4mm from the bottom of the device. If we assume a 16:9 screen with equal spacing from the top and bottom, that leaves us with just over 13mm on both sides. In this case, a 11.2mm diameter home button located directly below the screen will have its center located 7.4mm from the bottom of the device, a shift downwards of 3mm.

How much is 3mm? well, if the current home button's diameter is 11.2mm, can you comfortably reach the bottom half the button? If so, you should be able to operate the new home button without issue.

This is assuming the screen is located dead center of the device. As your second mockup shows, we can shift the screen upwards. If we do so by at least 3mm; thus leaving 10mm of space on the top and 16mm of space on the bottom, we can keep the home button as the exact same size, in the exact same shape, in the exact same location as the current device.

2) I've been using the example where the screen is the exact same width as the current 3:2 screen, but taller such that it is in a 16:9 aspect ratio. The current screen has a resolution of 960*640. If we expand the height of the screen to 16:9 while keeping the same width, we'll have a resolution of 1138x640.

In terms of apps, the easiest thing to do would be to run them in a 960x640 container while devs transition to the new resolution.

It seems that you, and a few other posters in this thread are against 16:9 screens on phones, claiming that its a 'ridiculous' resolution, 'only good for media.' I'm trying to show that just because a screen is in a 16:9 ratio doesn't automatically make it bad, or useless for anything other than watching videos.

edit, to drive the point home:
Here is a picture of the iphone 4 next to a droid 2 with the ridiculous 16:9 screen:

You're trying to tell me that the slight differences between those two screens makes the droid 2 useless for anything but videos. Sorry, but I don't buy that.

II'd love to know where I stated or eluded to such a thing. The only thing I recall stating as de facto is that you need a Home Button that gives you visceral feedback. I even made the same argument as to how a larger display could be used with 960x640 app being centered within them providing that the PPI was at or near the same as the new display.

I apologize. On first read, I got the impression that you were among those opposed to 16:9. Upon further review, I sense that that is not the case, I retract my statement grouping you with those people.

My whole discussion into 16:9 screens was spawned by these posts:

I have one already but I didn't buy it, I got it from work and with over 2 million sold so far it's far from just a geek toy. It makes one heck of a business phone though.

I don't want a huge phone, same dimensions as the current iPhone but with a 4" screen.

I think Apple will increase the screen size for the following reasons:

Larger design means more space for larger battery which will be a must for LTE.

Going to an HD class retina display would make everything tiny on a 3.5" screen.

Since Apple does a refresh every other year, that 3.5" screen would be the standard until 2014.

Even a mild increase to a 3.9" screen would be work people into a frenzy and move a few million iPhones even faster. It would decimate android sales, and probably force one android device maker out the market.

LTE is not widespread enough on all carriers to convince people that it is a priority.

CPU and GPU alone refreshes will hit a point of diminishing returns, and become increasingly less appealing with every generation.

46,000 votes total out of more than 70 million existing iPhone owners? Uh...... no.

The way to discredit the poll is to mention the flawed sampling. Properly sampled, 46k votes would be plenty more than enough to get a good confidence. One major problem is that the audience is self-selected, as such, not properly sampled.

The way to discredit the poll as biased in favor of SMALL screen is to note that it does not even have an option where iPhone has the same size, but the screen is 4"+ which is geometrically feasible up to 4.6".

These polls have been done quite a few times but the problem is there's never enough people that take them. I wish Apple would send out questioners, that is the only way we are going to find out for sure. When CNET did theirs back in January, 61% wanted a 4" or larger screen though. I think you'll find this to be true with every poll. The market it so flooded with large screen phones I'm sure your average iPhone user has size envy. We will just have to wait to see what Apple has for us but I would bet money that the next iPhone will be larger if not an additional model.

As JeffDM succinctly points out a self-selected poll is inherently untrustworthy.

I don't think that's a big deal. You may consider that option feasible, but I don't think it's a realistic option.

Maybe it's also worth pointing out that the people claiming a mania for big screens seem to be talking about Android type 4.5" and up, handset size be damned. Whereas that poll shows the vast majority of respondents, insofar as they might like a bigger screen, want it within the current iPhone,s envelope or "slightly larger."

Which comports with what most of the "small screen" folks are saying-- that they have nothing against more screen real estate, but not at the expense of jumbo sized handsets.

Still hope that Apple will come up with some magic as they did with every prior release.
Otherwise what would be the "magic" feature of the next iPhone? I do not think LTE alone can be considered as one nowadays.

We'll see. I liked some of the "iPhone 5" concepts. I think somewhere up to 4" screen and slightly increased length and width is reasonable, beyond that, people increasingly lose out on other human factors considerations, notably, single handed operation and pocketability.

All this talk of how Apple must increase the display size takes away from what I think is more compelling; what will be in the 6th gen iPhone?

Double the storage? I don't think so. Leave that for 2013 after the iPad gets it.
LTE? I think so, and using the 28nm lithography of the MDM9615. That means no need to have a huge phone for LTE and good battery life.
Cortex-A15 based systems? I think so. The time seems right.
Better GPU? Perhaps not drastically because it won't be until next year that Img Tech is ready. I also don't see a need for more cores.
Newer battery tech? I don't see any evidence of that.
Higher pixel camera? It's been a trend but is it really necessary? Better optics all around.
New case design? I think so. 2 years with the same design seems to make sense.
Better display? Not higher resolution but better display seems likely.
Better mics and speakers? I hope so.
NFC? This is probably the only place I think Apple could show everyone how it should be done.