Hey Guys,
I have been busy mocking up my idea of the iPhone 6.
It has the exact same physical dimensions of the 5/5S, yet accommodates a 4.7″ display at 1280 x 720 (vs the 1136 x 640 of the 5 etc.)
The display, being 112% the size of the current 4″, fits perfectly between the chamfered edges of the device. The Touch ID/Home button, Speaker and Camera can be easily repositioned to accommodate the larger display.
In my opinion, the larger display in the same sized body makes the 5/5s look instantly dated.
To scale iOS up to the larger size, the icons would need to be spaced out (as seen on iPad). I attempted fitting extra rows in, and it became very obvious why Apple has vouched for a 4 x 5 icon grid. It just looks cramped.
Below is a picture of iOS stretched out to fill the display vs spaced out to keep in scale.
Just rough and inexperienced concepts, but they give a good idea of my opinion of how Apple will tackle the larger display in the next generation iPhone.
Let me know what you think!
I think this concept is great, as a consumer I really want it but as a developer I hate it. The idea of making my apps fit in a completely new sized screen seriously annoys me. Also, with all of the phones today that are 1920×1080 I really can’t see Apple change the resolution and then not making it as HD as the competiton
Looks great to me! Increasing the screen size significantly, while not making the phone bigger. The bezelless design also looks nice. I’d be really happy with this as an iPhone 6!
I agree with how you implemented the screen, but I would think the body gets a redesign so it’s completely distinguishable from 5 series.
Man, I think that’s genius! I really enjoy the overall size of the 5s, but adding a little more screen would be fantastic!!! Excellent work!!!
The concept looks pretty, except that I think the top bezel needs to have the same thickness as the bottom, for aesthetic reasons. Apple is known to me very mindful about aesthetics. Then they also moved the front cam from the side of the speaker to the top, so they probably won’t go back again.
According to my calculations, a 4.7″ display having 1280×720 res will have a ppi less than the actual 326. And I’m sure Apple is not going down in ppi. A 4.5″ 720p display on the other hand will give an exact 326ppi, which will be greatly favourable for app compatibility. Apps made for the 5/5s can run with a black rectangle around them, just as apps made for 4/4s run with black bars on top and bottom.
Besides at 4.5″, the display won’t become too tall, and one-handed use will be easier. I think 4.5″ is the max size that allows comfortable one-handed use.
Hence, in my opinion, a bezel-less iphone 6 with a 4.5″ 720p display would be the sweet spot and the best way to go.
Would appreciate anyone’s opinion about it..
Thanks for your opinion :)
I haven’t personally tried many other screen sizes before, so I cant comment too accurately about usability.
As for the symmetrical design… I agree, it starts to look like something other than an iPhone once you lose the symmetry. But saying that, what about Touch ID? The iPhone home button was iconic. Why change it? Or maybe the 30-pin connector? With so many millions of devices and thousands of accessories, why change it?
Or most noticeably, what about iOS 7? Need I say more?
Apple have changed the iPhone brand significantly. In ways that people have always said are “un-apple-like”. How about the antenna breaks on the 4? Everyone claimed that it was a fake. Especially having the unsymmetrical like at the top of the phone. Or the “horrible” two-toned back of the 5. Or the Gold of the 5s. Or the “unapologetic” plastic of the 5c.
Change, if for the better, should be the pursued option, should it not?
As for the PPI of the screen, Apple’s retina definition is constantly changing really. I believe it now goes something like this ‘when used at a normal viewing distance, the user can’t distinguish the individual pixels’. They claim that with bigger screens, the user holds it further from their face. I agree it would be silly to drop down in PPI, but so did everyone else with the first-gen iPad mini.
You make a valid point about utilising a 720p panel, though Apple have never been a company to follow screen conventions. Even the latest Mac’s use 16:10 panels instead of the 16:9 most others use.
I’m not saying this is an accurate depiction of the iPhone 6. It probably isn’t. I was just playing around and thought I’d show it to others :)
You are right that Apple does make changes where necessary and that’s a good thing.
About the examples of changes you mentioned, the touchID home button is better looking than the original, so it was welcome even on the aesthetic side. The 30-pin had to go sooner or later because it was wasting to much precious space in the device. It was old technology which someday had to replaced with new tech. The point is that some changes are essential and there are no ways of bypassing them, like the lightning connector, two-toned back of the iphone 5, lower res of the ipad mini 1, in which case Apple was not really going down in ppi – the ipadmini was a new product, not a new version of ipad.
While other changes look awkward because of being different, but are in no way bad, like the polycarbonate iphone 5c, gold iphone, etc. So about the smaller top bezel, I personally don’t see it as essential. Adding a few extra millimetres on top won’t harm anybody. Anyway we need to see which way Apple goes. May be you are right. But I especially don’t feel it nice that they move the front cam again to the side. They made it “better” on top.
About the display size, I made the guess of 4.5″ by calculating the display heights and widths. See below the heights and widths of the different screen sizes and their respective res at 326ppi:
3.5″- 73.89×49.25mm- 960×640
4″- 88.54×49.80mm – 1136×640
4.5″- 99.60×56.03mm- 1278×720
4.7″- 104.03×58.42mm-1335×750
As it turns out, only a few mm will be added to the 4″ height to reach the 4.5″ height, especially if you make the bottom bezel thinner like in your concept. So i think the thumb will quite easily reach the top far corner. I’m a firm believer that a smartphone need to be usable with one hand.
Yeah, and about the ppi, I forgot to say, that I really don’t see the point in going more than actual 326, because the human eye won’t make out the difference anyway, thus it’ll be a waste of resources. Better save that extra power needed to improve battery life.