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Now 4.9″ iPhone 6 prototype makes rumor rounds -Poll: what size are you hoping for?

There’s no shortage of rumors about Apple experimenting with different screen sizes for its next iPhone. Latest is from mostly unknown Chinese CTECH in which an unnamed source claims Apple is testing an iPhone 6 prototype with a 4.9-inch screen. Yeah sure, why not?

The claim may well be true – in fact, it almost certainly is. Apple is likely to be trying out a whole bunch of different screen sizes to test their usability, but the fact that someone has seen or heard of one of them tells us nothing about what size the company will finally settle on …

So what are you hoping for? Stick to the tried-and-trusted four inches? Go down the phablet route with a cross between an iPhone 5s and an iPad Mini? Or something in between?

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TcqBo4LrM6k

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Comments

  1. Arnaud Ober - 10 years ago

    Funny to see 33.33% for each!

  2. tallestskil - 10 years ago

    Who’s stupid enough to want a larger phone? News flash: every single telephone since the very first one in the 1880s has been usable with one hand EXCEPT the recent Android pieces of Schmidt. Why do you think Apple will give you a device that can’t be used with one hand?

    • meyermed - 10 years ago

      Except for the point that phones are seldomly used for calling people anymore. They’re used in business for emails and texts, their used in homes as tablets while people lay on the couch, they’re used in gyms as portable media player. Only in the latter case do I see the benefit of a phone being as tiny as the current iphone. People want access, they don’t just want to make a phone call. I think options are nice, so you can choose your baby phone, and I can choose my slightly large one. But in the end, most people use their phone to increase their access to the world, not to make phone calls — and when that’s accomplished by typing, most people want a bigger screen and a bigger keyboard.

      • tallestskil - 10 years ago

        So buy a tablet. Magical. Problem solved.

        “People don’t use a phone as a phone” isn’t a rebuttal, it just makes the subsequent argument moot.

    • hmurchison - 10 years ago

      Pieces of Schmidt! I love it!

    • rettun1 - 10 years ago

      Yeah, who is stupid enough to want a choice?

      And what about the old telephones where the mic and the speaker were separate pieces? You needed two hands to operate them didn’t you? :P

      • tallestskil - 10 years ago

        >>choice

        Why should you be allowed to have the choice of stupidity?

        >And what about the old telephones where the mic and the speaker were separate pieces?

        What about them? Do some thinking for five seconds or just watch any movie that had them. You pick up the receiver and then you use a finger ON THAT HAND to jiggle the cutoff for an operator or to dial a number.

      • beta382 - 10 years ago

        @tallestskil

        Are you capable of crafting a reasoned argument WITHOUT personal attacks (or, for that matter, a reasoned argument period)? I would wager that you can’t. A person’s preference on phone size is an opinion. Calling someone, or a group of people (a large group of people, in this case) stupid for their personal preference is inherently calling yourself stupid for holding an opinion of your own. YOU think that the choice is stupid. The other 79% of us disagree.

        What your argument boils down to is “You don’t like what I like, therefore you are wrong” (and the same general base can be established with pretty much every other comment you make). As for the example of the old two-piece telephones, you did indeed need two hands to operate them; one for the mouthpiece, the other for the earpiece. I’d like to see you try to hold both with one hand. (However, old telephone design in no way relates to current phone design, just as current phone design will in no way relate to future phone design. The way design is currently tending is to maximize the amount of information reaching your face, so larger screens are necessarily going to happen)

      • silas681 - 10 years ago

        Tallest skill is renowned for being the biggest douche on the forum, people laugh at him constantly, best not to feed the troll and let him continually embarrass himself!

    • sally (@FedGoat) - 10 years ago

      tallestskil is the biggest troll on this site. If you don’t think like him, or want the exact same thing he does, he trolls their comments with HIS thoughts, which by the way, are ALWAYS the gospel.

      Why can’t apple sell TWO phones. One that is 4″ for the tiny minded people like tallestskil, and a larger one for people who WANT a bigger screen. ‘Buy a tablet’ is NOT the answer. I don’t want TWO data plans. I don’t want to carry TWO devices. I want my phone to function as my sole device and that means I (and millions of others) want a bigger screen.
      I hope for a 5.2″-5.5″ phone. That way Zach Epstein from BGR and tinyskil can both go cry in a corner together.

      beta382 said it best. F off tallest, you are a douche.

      • tallestskil - 10 years ago

        I love that you think your argument is in any way valid when it’s predicated on personal attacks.

        Tell me: what reason does Apple have to create a device that is unusable for the purposes for which it exists?

        None of you ever seem to have an answer for that. Probably because there isn’t one. Okay, BECAUSE there isn’t one.

      • beta382 - 10 years ago

        @tallestskil
        >I love that you think your argument is in any way valid when it’s predicated on personal attacks.

        My goodness you are a hypocrite. I could say those exact same words to you, and they would be entirely based. You just proved your original argument invalid with those words.

  3. weakguy - 10 years ago

    I’m really surprised that the majority of the 9to5 readers prefers 4.6 – 5″. IMO, 4.5″ is the max. Any size larger than that is just unusable and pointless to me. My favorite Android phone is an HTC One mini because HTC One is a bit too much while Max is just way too big. Let’s not talk about those Samsung “is-that-a-phone-or-a-tablet” and “people-who-use-me-will-look-idiotic” devices. My hands are fairly large, so I think 4.5″ is acceptable, but I am pretty sure that I’m not the majority; therefore, a screen size around 4.3″ is best for the next iPhone. Just my 2 cents.

    • Irfan Ahmad - 10 years ago

      because still the phone makers did not accomplished to cut some more edges top and bottom of the screen to utilize the over all phone size , its called smart phone watching movie or fun its not the main purpose .the best looking os made by apple ios and most people enjoy that ios over ipads not over iphone’s thats because its big .
      Apple indicate that most of the browsing over web its because of ipad …

  4. Irfan Ahmad - 10 years ago

    i used iphone when iphone 3g came out after one year i found out its pretty small and useless to pay 30$ data for that phone . if apple go for 5 inch including me many other android fans can go and buy on first day if they make big screen with small size just they need to cut some edges all around screen if u compare iphone with others u will see that iphone front top on screen , bottom of the screen , and side edges they capture pretty much space which is none sense.

  5. bballron - 10 years ago

    I realky hope they go with a 4.6 inch like the HTC ONE. It is perfect. You can use it with one hand easily (unless you have tiny hands). I live and die by Apple but if they don’t increase the screen size I’m switching. 4 inches is just too small for the technology we have. The overall phone size of the htc or galaxy isn’t that much larger than the iPhone 5 but the screen size is much larger. I really hope they fit a 4.6 screen into the smallest phone size possible. that’ll be the prefect phone imo.

  6. alexanderbeauvais - 10 years ago

    I like the 5s screen size. I liked the 4s screen size. I also liked the 3GS screen. The only issue I’d have with a larger phone is pocket size. I like the idea I saw earlier of multiple screen size options for the new phone. Choices. Give me lots of choices. I line that idea.

    • felixg77 - 10 years ago

      Apple can be full of ship….where’s the bigger screen size already.everyone else on the market has bigger size except apple,4 inch screen is not enough…..!!

  7. Poutou Chaton - 10 years ago

    interesting poll. over 70% wants a bigger phone. can’t wait for Apple to make one just so the na sayer can STFU. Probably the same idiots that didn’t want the iPad mini…

  8. Rajiv Goveas - 10 years ago

    I feel apple should come out with 3 models. The iphone mini with 3.5 inches, the iphone air with 4.5 inches and the iphone with 5.5 inches.

  9. Dan Mitchell - 10 years ago

    Samsung seems to do rather well by having several screen sizes – different people want different things from their smartphone, so a range of sizes reaches a wider market.

  10. Unlike the concept above, I think Apple will reduce the bezel on the sides and above & below the screen. To shrink the bezel above, all they have to do is move the camera to one side, below they may have to rethink the home button. Apple will do this to provide a larger screen while maintaining the phones usability. I think Apple will go with a 16:9 aspect ratio for sure – as this allows for usability to be maintained while increasing screen size – as per Apple’s iPhone 5 keynote. (Otherwise you can’t touch the other side of the screen) A 4.7 inch screen will be 2.25 inches wide and 4.0 inches tall. The current iPhone 5s is 2 inches wide and 3.5 inches tall. It’s a moderate size increase and I think Apple can creatively change the phones body to suit the increase.

    • Forgot to mention the iPhone 6c (next gen iPhone 5c) will have a 4 inch screen. This will help Apple to lower the cost of that model while offering a greater variety of solutions to more people.

    • domzerchi - 10 years ago

      Can Apple “creatively” change the size of people’s hands? I already can’t reach apps in the upper left corner of my homescreen and I wear XL gloves.

  11. Teejay1100 (@TeeJaye1100) - 10 years ago

    Apple will follow suit or they will soon be extinct!! They can laugh at Android all they want but the OEM’s of Android have a strategy of bigger screen sizes that work. The laugh will be on Apple when they announce something bigger than 4″ when they said that was the perfect size!! Such hypocrites

  12. sammurrayuk - 10 years ago

    I think Apple’s main selling point right now is the screen size. I much prefer that size device than the influx of phablets we’re getting at the minute.

  13. Yes to larger but needs to be comfortably usable with one hand and fit in my pocket. 4.5″?

  14. domzerchi - 10 years ago

    The iphone 5, which is 4″, is already too big. I have to put “dummy” apps that I don’t use in the upper left corner of my homescreen because it’s a strain to reach that far. I can’t understand why so many readers want bigger screens unless the poll is fake. When I look around most people actually seem to have smaller hands than me, not bigger.

    • Dan (@danmdan) - 10 years ago

      The facts are that most of the smartphone buying public want bigger phones – otherwise why the success of 5″ screens and phablets ?

      I’ve just gone back to using an iPhone 5c instead of a Nexus 5, and now make more typing mistakes because of the tiny on-screen keys. And for watching videos, TV shows, and game playing – all popular usages of smartphones – well all of those benefit being seen on bigger than 4″ screens.

      What’s the obsession with one-handed usage ? – I never do that – I hold my phone in my left hand and type with one finger of my right hand. The only people I see using the one-handed technique are kids, who neither spell or punctuate properly anyway.

Author

Avatar for Ben Lovejoy Ben Lovejoy

Ben Lovejoy is a British technology writer and EU Editor for 9to5Mac. He’s known for his op-eds and diary pieces, exploring his experience of Apple products over time, for a more rounded review. He also writes fiction, with two technothriller novels, a couple of SF shorts and a rom-com!


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