Apple's rumored 4" iPhone update purportedly leaked again in new photo

AppleInsider · January 25, 2016 1:52PM

A picture of a device said to be Apple's latest rendition of an iPhone with a 4-inch display hit the internet this weekend, this time placed next to an iPhone 5 for comparison.

The device in the photo bears an identical design to the iPhone 6 series, just in a shrunken form factor that barely eclipses the iPhone 5 in size. The shot was shared by a user at Dutch tech site OneMoreThing.nl.

This marks the second time in a week that images of purported preproduction units have been seen -- last Thursday, a white version was shown off in a video from China.

The size of the display is perhaps the only universally-accepted rumor about the forthcoming device. Some have said it would share a design more akin to the outgoing iPhone 5c, while leaked images suggest it will instead be a smaller iPhone 6.

Technical specifications are also up for debate; the device could ship with either the A8 or A9 chip, anywhere from 1 gigabyte to 2 gigabytes of RAM, and possibly Touch ID and Apple Pay.

There is even some question about the name. Some rumors say it will be marked as the "iPhone 6c," while others indicate that "iPhone 5se" will be chosen moniker.

Generally well-connected analyst Ming-CHi Kuo believes that the device will be somewhat of a cross between the iPhone 5s and iPhone 6, keeping the former's style and adopting the latter's curved cover glass.

radarthekat · January 25, 2016 2:00PM

Possibly Touch ID? The 5S has Touch ID, why would a refresh not? The article author got too caught up in the comparison with the older 5 and forgot there's already a 4" model with Touch ID.

thewhitefalcon · January 25, 2016 2:01PM

radarthekat said:

Possibly Touch ID? The 5S has Touch ID, why would a refresh not? The article author got too caught up in the comparison with the older 5 and forgot there's already a 4" model with Touch ID.

Not to mention they'd need TouchID for Apple Pay.

I suspect it'll be a 6c, redesigned chassis, with a down clocked A9 (for battery reasons) and 2GB of RAM. 3D Touch is the only thing I'm unsure of.

mac_128 · January 25, 2016 2:05PM

Or instead of one phone with two rumored completely conflicting set of specs and designs, how about two new 4" phones? One that's an upgrade of the 5S to add Pay at the low end, and one that's an upgrade of the 6S in the middle, so Apple doesn't leave money on the table from those customers who prefer a 4" phone but could otherwise afford a premium model.

boredumb · January 25, 2016 2:11PM

Hopefully, Apple will release it early enough for Samsung to copy in time for the holidays...

/s

bobjohnson · January 25, 2016 2:16PM

radarthekat said:

Possibly Touch ID? The 5S has Touch ID, why would a refresh not? The article author got too caught up in the comparison with the older 5 and forgot there's already a 4" model with Touch ID.

The iPhone 5c, which this would presumably be replacing, doesn't have Touch ID. Not like it's above Apple to use Touch ID/Apple Pay access as a push to buy the more expensive 6s...

antonpablo · January 25, 2016 2:21PM

So..it's basically an iPhone 6 but they're calling it iPhone 5se.. WWHHYY?...

thrang · January 25, 2016 2:25PM

Good secondary option for India and China for those that cannot afford the larger models...

anantksundaram · January 25, 2016 2:49PM

thrang said:

Good secondary option for India and China for those that cannot afford the larger models...

...or the US and Europe....

rogifan_old · January 25, 2016 2:49PM

According to Mark Gurman it's most likely that this phone will have A9 and M9 processors. A8 never made any sense to me. I hope this is a sign Apple is going to give devices the hardware they need to support multiple OS upgrades. Give this phone A9 processor and 2GB RAM and it easily will be able to upgrade to iOS 10 and 11 without performance issues.

rogifan_old · January 25, 2016 3:22PM

sog35 said:

This year's lineup:

iPhone 7+ $750
iPhone 7 $650
iPhone 6s+ $650
iPhone 6s $550
iPhone 6s mini $450

Next years lineup

iPhone 7s+ $750
iPhone 7s $650
iPhone 6s+ $650
iPhone 6s $550
iPhone 6s mini $450

These lineups would stop canibalizing the top tier phones.

So the 6S is going to hang around for two more years with no price reduction in the second year? That makes zero sense. Face it, if people don't want to pay $650 for a phone or don't think the upgrades are good enough to warrant buying the flagship than either Apple needs to lower the price or make the upgrades more meaningful. You're trying to force people to the flagship by not giving them any other decent options. Instead of getting the flagship people just won't upgrade at all.

mac_128 · January 25, 2016 3:29PM

bobjohnson said:

radarthekat said:

Possibly Touch ID? The 5S has Touch ID, why would a refresh not? The article author got too caught up in the comparison with the older 5 and forgot there's already a 4" model with Touch ID.

The iPhone 5c, which this would presumably be replacing, doesn't have Touch ID. Not like it's above Apple to use Touch ID/Apple Pay access as a push to buy the more expensive 6s...

Uh, no. It's pretty clear this is not replacing the 5c. The 5s replaced the 5c. This replaces the 5s. No matter how you parse this rumor that's clear.

thewhitefalcon · January 25, 2016 3:40PM

rogifan_old said:

According to Mark Gurman it's most likely that this phone will have A9 and M9 processors. A8 never made any sense to me. I hope this is a sign Apple is going to give devices the hardware they need to support multiple OS upgrades. Give this phone A9 processor and 2GB RAM and it easily will be able to upgrade to iOS 10 and 11 without performance issues.

Yeah. I suspect it'll have A9 for both performance and power consumption reasons. The A8's 20nm process was inherently crappy, which is why the boost over A7 was so small.

cali · January 25, 2016 3:44PM

My prophesy is coming to fuition.

....Well I don't believe rumors or leaks but this is getting convincing!

thewhitefalcon · January 25, 2016 3:44PM

sog35 said:

rogifan_old said:

So the 6S is going to hang around for two more years with no price reduction in the second year? That makes zero sense. Face it, if people don't want to pay $650 for a phone or don't think the upgrades are good enough to warrant buying the flagship than either Apple needs to lower the price or make the upgrades more meaningful. You're trying to force people to the flagship by not giving them any other decent options. Instead of getting the flagship people just won't upgrade at all.

Yes the 6s is going to hang around for 2 years without a discount. But that is list price only. There will be a ton of discounts. Apple has already done this with the iPad Air2 last year. I've seen iPad Air2 discounted heavily this year. I can see the same thing happenning to the iPhone 6s next year when the 7s comes out. The list price of the 6s will be $550 when the 7s comes out. But the actual price will be closer to $500. And this type of pricing will only happen every other year during the S-cycles.

Reports are already showing the 6s sales are weak because many people are buying the 6 instead. We can't have that during the 7s cycle.

Broken logic; there was no iPad Air 3 so the 2 is still the flagship 9.7" model.

rogifan_old · January 25, 2016 4:04PM

sog35 said:

rogifan_old said:

So the 6S is going to hang around for two more years with no price reduction in the second year? That makes zero sense. Face it, if people don't want to pay $650 for a phone or don't think the upgrades are good enough to warrant buying the flagship than either Apple needs to lower the price or make the upgrades more meaningful. You're trying to force people to the flagship by not giving them any other decent options. Instead of getting the flagship people just won't upgrade at all.

Yes the 6s is going to hang around for 2 years without a discount. But that is list price only. There will be a ton of discounts. Apple has already done this with the iPad Air2 last year. I've seen iPad Air2 discounted heavily this year. I can see the same thing happenning to the iPhone 6s next year when the 7s comes out. The list price of the 6s will be $550 when the 7s comes out. But the actual price will be closer to $500. And this type of pricing will only happen every other year during the S-cycles.

Reports are already showing the 6s sales are weak because many people are buying the 6 instead. We can't have that during the 7s cycle.

"Reports are already showing the 6s sales are weak because many people are buying the 6 instead. We can't have that during the 7s cycle."

OK but you're not getting at the root cause. People are buying the 6 instead of the 6S, why? Is it because they think the 6S is too expensive? Or not enough of an upgrade from the 6? Keeping the 6S around for an additional year with no price reduction doesn't answer that question.

rogifan_old · January 25, 2016 4:07PM

thewhitefalcon said:

rogifan_old said:

According to Mark Gurman it's most likely that this phone will have A9 and M9 processors. A8 never made any sense to me. I hope this is a sign Apple is going to give devices the hardware they need to support multiple OS upgrades. Give this phone A9 processor and 2GB RAM and it easily will be able to upgrade to iOS 10 and 11 without performance issues.

Yeah. I suspect it'll have A9 for both performance and power consumption reasons. The A8's 20nm process was inherently crappy, which is why the boost over A7 was so small.

I just hope it's 2GB RAM. Devices with 2GB RAM run so much more smoothly than their 1GB counterparts. And you wouldn't have people complaining about software updates making their phone laggy.

mac_128 · January 25, 2016 4:09PM

thewhitefalcon said:.
Yeah. I suspect it'll have A9 for both performance and power consumption reasons. The A8's 20nm process was inherently crappy, which is why the boost over A7 was so small.

If that's the case, it might explain why we didn't see a 4" A8 iP6, and why there won't be a 5se based on one now. And if that's true, then this A9 4" phone won't be priced as an entry level phone.

Either way, there's no way Apple will discontinue the iPhone 6, in fact this is even greater reason they will keep it around. It's 3 year old tech that won't cannibalize the 6S ... And to the extent it does, those sales will be offset by all the android and Samsung users Apple gains into its ecosystem by offering an iPhone they want and can afford.

rogifan_old · January 25, 2016 4:34PM

sog35 said:

rogifan_old said:

I just hope it's 2GB RAM. Devices with 2GB RAM run so much more smoothly than their 1GB counterparts. And you wouldn't have people complaining about software updates making their phone laggy.

Why stop there? Why not make it 4GB or 8GB?

Fact is this is a low level phone. Don't expect much.

It's not a low level phone if they're going to charge $450 or $550 for it. 2GB RAM provides a better experience. I thought that's what Apple was all about.

rogifan_old · January 25, 2016 4:34PM

sog35 said:

rogifan_old said:

"Reports are already showing the 6s sales are weak because many people are buying the 6 instead. We can't have that during the 7s cycle."

OK but you're not getting at the root cause. People are buying the 6 instead of the 6S, why? Is it because they think the 6S is too expensive? Or not enough of an upgrade from the 6? Keeping the 6S around for an additional year with no price reduction doesn't answer that question.

but there will be a price reduction at retail. The list price will be the same but you will be able to buy it for cheaper. Apple did this same trick with the iPad Air2 last year. List price did not drop since 2014 but you could easily get $50-$100 discounts.

Here is the list again but with street prices instead of list prices:

This year's lineup:

iPhone 7+ $750
iPhone 7 $650
iPhone 6s+ $650
iPhone 6s $550
iPhone 6s mini $450

Next years lineup

iPhone 7s+ $750
iPhone 7s $650
iPhone 6s+ $600
iPhone 6s $500
iPhone 6s mini $400

You're still not explaining why people are buying the 6 over the 6S.

wood1208 · January 25, 2016 4:37PM

thewhitefalcon said:

radarthekat said:

Possibly Touch ID? The 5S has Touch ID, why would a refresh not? The article author got too caught up in the comparison with the older 5 and forgot there's already a 4" model with Touch ID.

Not to mention they'd need TouchID for Apple Pay.

I suspect it'll be a 6c, redesigned chassis, with a down clocked A9 (for battery reasons) and 2GB of RAM. 3D Touch is the only thing I'm unsure of.

You may be closer to real spec of upcoming 4"incher.

Apple's rumored 4" iPhone update purportedly leaked again in new photo

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