ALL iPhone generations released so far have a CSS pixel width of 320 pixels. But the iPhone 6 is the first to change this. It looks like Apple is finally bumping this up! This means a bit more text can fit on each line when holding the phone vertically for websites using <meta name="viewport" content="width=device-width">:
- iPhone 6 is 1334x750: CSS pixel width is likely 375px (pixel ratio = 2)
- iPhone 6 Plus is 1920x1080: CSS pixel width is likely either 432px (pixel ratio = 2.5) or 360px (pixel ratio = 3). It would make sense to implement a ratio of 2.5 as it would be 15.2% more CSS pixels for a screen 17.0% wider. But on the other hand (1) Apple designers are perfectionists and a fractional ratio means an image slightly less sharp, and (2) maybe with the Plus model Apple wants to attract smartphone buyers who dislike tiny text on a tiny display so it would make sense to provide fewer CSS pixels on a bigger screen... I am really curious to know which way they went.
This all needs to be confirmed with a device in hands...
I wonder how this will affect many of the apps where devs have hard coded the screen resolution and depend on the current DPI. The iPhone 4 doubled the DPI and the resolution so that it would be fairly seamless to devs. The iPhone 5 made the screen a bit wider but kept the same DPI. It looks like the iPhone 6 changes both DPI and resolution so this might break many existing apps.
This is going to throw advertising firms into an epic tizzy. The de facto mobile web ad size has been standardized around the 320px (320x50 usually) width of portrait iPhones since basically the dawn of smartphone advertising. Now suddenly they have 3 widths to worry about just for iPhone.
Too bad there is no longer a high end 4" model. The iPhone 5S won't support Apple Pay since it doesn't have NFC, and it is no longer available in 64 GB.
I would have thought that Apple understood they have customers that actually prefer the 4" size, or else they wouldn't have had any sales the last years. Let's hope for a iPhone 6S mini next year.
I like the look of my iPhone 5s much better. This iPhone 6 thing looks like a Galaxy. The throwback to iPhone 1 is interesting but count me out. Not liking the design at all
The protruding camera is also really weird. I wonder if Jobs would have signed off on that...
Who knows though. Maybe once I hold one personally I'll end up liking it more than the 5s. But I would be surprised :)
The iPhone6+ looks just like one of those giant Android monsters from Nexus or Samsung. This makes me sad.
I have small-person sized hands and often struggle even with the normal iPhone5 and the trend for making phones bigger and bigger makes me angry and sad at the same time. I hate it and always, always, when my friends would ask why I prefer Apple over cheaper and better speced devices, my answer was "Because Apple is the only phone that doesn't compete on screen size".
I have big hands and I still agree with you. I hung on to my Nexus One well past its expiry date because of the size of it. Eventually I had to move up and being in the Android realm I came VERY close to buying the Moto X because of its narrower form factor in my hand. In the end I went Nexus 5 but it still feels big to me.
According to the keynote, you can double-tap (somewhere? home button?) and the top of the screen will move down to where you can reach it with your thumb.
Truth be told, even though I switched from iOS to Android recently (and been quite happy), I have admired Apple when they stuck to their guns w.r.t screen size. It showed to me that they were being sensible about respecting the dimensions of our hands. The iPhone (hardware) just feels quite comfortable to use and hold. Also, iPhone 4's design was excellent - I kinda got used to the distinctive feel of an Apple phone in my hand (with its cuboid geometry).
iPhone 6's exterior just looks a bit strange (now we are going back to the original iPhone?) - it feels off in a way that I can't fully explain. But who knows, maybe it would be just fantastic to hold and use. [Like how the quick reports coming out from people who have held the Watch saying that it feel really nice]
Having used a range of phone sizes, the iPhones have always felt quite small to me. And while I'm a happy Nexus 5 user, I admit that it's ever so slightly too big. I really think 4.7" is the magic number for most peoples' hands (based on my experience trying out a Moto X), and adding 5.5" gets them a chance at the "phablet" crowd.
Gruber is going to have to set aside about a month's worth of updates to get through all the claim chowder from the people who gave the Galaxy Note shit for being 'hilariously' or 'ridiculously' or 'stupidly' large.
I had a Moto X. If you're a current iPhone user, and haven't been a dedicated Android user, my advice would be don't. You'll regret it. "Active Notifications" are in all ways inferior to Apple's Notifications, and that's about the only thing the Moto X has going for it over a Nexus 5 besides being a bit smaller/lighter and having better battery life.
RAM matters a lot more on an Android, and even with more cores, running faster, with more RAM, it will be objectively slower at most things than an iPhone 5C (and that much slower than an iPhone 6 I'm sure). Plus actually using it will eat through battery quicker (it wasn't a 36-hour device for me like the iPhone 5C was, despite similar usage) and (this one surprised me) eats more data.
Not to mention if you have kids, the lack of iMessage and the inability to forward an HD video over to your spouse of the kids is almost a deal-breaker all by itself.
Anecdotal, my 2c, etc. But I owned a Nexus One, every iPhone except the 3GS and 5S, a Samsung Galaxy S2, Moto X, Palm Pre, Palm Veer (loved that little guy, just too buggy) and most recently an LG G2.
Discounting Apple on the basis of hardware and perceived performance would be a big mistake IMO. They're head and shoulders above everything else on those counts IME, and age so much better.
I got so tired of the quirky G2 (I swear there was a 1 in 3 chance that just unlocking the phone would launch the Alarms app for no reason, and that forced Menu button... GRRRR) I swapped my SIM into an old iPhone 4S I had lying around yesterday. It's not quite as snappy. But it's not half bad either. From a perceived performance perspective (say that three times fast!), the G2, a flag-ship Android phone released only 12 months ago, is slower in every way than an iPhone 5, a phone twice it's age (and yup, the G2 has 2GB of RAM, the iPhone 5 had 1GB).
If you prefer Android more power to ya. But if you're a long time iPhone user... Maybe I'll convince you to save some heart-ache (and $$$). ;-)
While I will buy a 6 for development purposes, I too was disappointed to find out that RAM is staying at 1GB. It's nearly 2015. More RAM does affect battery life, but still...they could have struck a balance here with 2GB.
Why does this matter? Apps run great as is. If the phone was slow I could understand but it isn't.
>> base storage still at 16 gigs really annoys me.
They pay a little extra for the larger models... It would have been nice to have a 32gb base model and it's a little strange they didn't do it but it's not like they don't offer larger storage versions.
The protruding camera kind of bothers me, probably much more than it really should. But I feel like Apple's obsession with thinness may have gone too far if they need to protrude the camera like this.
Nexus 5 owner and general android fanboy here. I'd agree with you if not for the fact that the Nexus 5's camera is still not nearly as good as the iPhone 5/6's. In fact it can be downright terrible at times.
True unless someone has made years of investments in iTunes-sourced content, then moving over to a cheaper phone with the same feature set is no longer an apples-to-apples comparison. I have a collection that goes back to iTunes' and the iPod's very first days. I'm not terribly keen going through any conversion/repurchasing process.
Actually, I've had a Nexus 5 for the past 6 months, and I'm considering buying an iPhone 6 to replace it. I've never had an iPhone, so I'm curious to see how it compares to Android phones (my previous phones have been Samsung Galaxy S3, Nexus 4 and now Nexus 5).
Really disappointed that the iPod touch didn't get any love. I get that it isn't a priority, but I do love the product.
I run a flip phone and the battery lasts a week and change. So does my iPod. Friends with iPhones are constantly pulling out their phones with dead batteries.
The thinness obsession has always irked me. Apparently it's what the market wants, but I wish they would use the space and weight savings for more battery. Were it not for battery life I would purchase an iPhone and just run it with T-Mobile prepaid and no data.
I might get downvoted by fans here, but the most commented change for the new iPhone being the addition of a barometer shows a certain decline in the innovation department from Apple, or at least, lack of ability to surprise.
I think when Apple starts to EOL the iPhone 5 and 5s, so probably in 1-2 years, there will be the iPhone 6M, which will be the iPhone 5s size with iPhone 6 internals.
I'm sure this will be downvoted into oblivion but I have Karma to burn preaching some truth. Between big phones (even the small iphone 6 is bigger!), the watch and NFC, Apple is clearly repositioning themselves as fast followers and letting Samsung et. al. foot the bill on R&D and market building. They're probably hoping they can provide higher quality (and more profitable) offerings in markets that somebody else has bled to create. I think this started to happen once they lost market dominance, and I think it's a really smart move on Apple's part. Samsung has shifted their focus on clumsily trying to innovate and get things to market first, and it's worth it for Apple to sit back, see what works and doesn't work and then just execute the hell out of what they intend to do.
After years of hearing that the "current" iphone size is just perfect for the size of the human hand, neither of the current phones are that size. It's unbelievably annoying to listen to all the bizarre justification that goes on about Apple products, and I'm sure this size shift and abandonment of their previous sizes completely will get some kind of fence moving justification. [1]
But I applaud Apple for just doing it and catching up with where the market has moved to. I've been in too many phone stores where I've heard people think the iPhones for sale are the old crappy smartphones from last generation and run over to where the larger phones are.
It took a couple years, but Apple finally listened and the new phones look really nice.
edit I'm also reminded that the "c" model has been dropped. Sales figures didn't seem to be very high and I think the experiment has been deemed a failure. It wasn't what anybody really expected or wanted anyways but it was a curious and weird diversion.
edit2 Here's gruber's take on the phone sizes the notorious Apple shill finally admits that it's time for bigger phones, but hasn't come up with the justification framework yet
Some people want to buy them. It doesn’t matter why. For some it might be games. For others, being able to carry one device as a hybrid phone/tablet. For others, it might be about reading — making the iPhone more usable as an e-book reader. It doesn’t matter what the reasons are. The simple fact is that many people want huge phones — not just bigger ones, but huge ones — and they’re willing to pay a premium for them. Apple has played a one-size-fits-all game for seven iPhone generations. The market shows that one size does not fit all. I don’t know that they should have done it sooner, but it certainly feels like the time for multiple iPhone sizes has come.
Let's also see what he has to say about this
I’ll be very disappointed if this is just a device that shows a fake analog watch face, displays notifications from a tethered iPhone, and tracks your footsteps and heart rate.
Because there it is on record. Gruber's already disappointed in the iWatch. I'm not. I'm glad it's out there, improving the market for all consumers, iWatch wearers or not. There's some nice ideas and design there.
Everybody that pumped-up the $GTAT stock in anticipation of sapphire seemed to me to be forgetting that Apple is not ambitious with new technology. 3G, LTE, NFC, etc. To me, I couldn't understand why Apple would put themselves in a position where a small, young company like GTAT could cause delays in an iPhone release.
Why? From what I understand, sapphire is more brittle than Gorilla Glass (although supposedly scratches can contribute to the likelihood of cracks), so what I think for most people the common breakage case is quite possibly not any better. Additionally, sapphire is more reflective than glass which is problematic all in itself.
Apple reserving sapphire screens for watches makes perfect sense to me.
[+] [-] mrb|11 years ago|reply
- iPhone 6 is 1334x750: CSS pixel width is likely 375px (pixel ratio = 2)
- iPhone 6 Plus is 1920x1080: CSS pixel width is likely either 432px (pixel ratio = 2.5) or 360px (pixel ratio = 3). It would make sense to implement a ratio of 2.5 as it would be 15.2% more CSS pixels for a screen 17.0% wider. But on the other hand (1) Apple designers are perfectionists and a fractional ratio means an image slightly less sharp, and (2) maybe with the Plus model Apple wants to attract smartphone buyers who dislike tiny text on a tiny display so it would make sense to provide fewer CSS pixels on a bigger screen... I am really curious to know which way they went.
This all needs to be confirmed with a device in hands...
[+] [-] giulianob|11 years ago|reply
[+] [-] bane|11 years ago|reply
http://daringfireball.net/2014/08/larger_iphone_display_conj...
Spot on for the 6, off for the 6+. So what does this mean for 6+ users and developers?
[+] [-] thathonkey|11 years ago|reply
[+] [-] Mandatum|11 years ago|reply
[+] [-] sp332|11 years ago|reply
[+] [-] eisa01|11 years ago|reply
I would have thought that Apple understood they have customers that actually prefer the 4" size, or else they wouldn't have had any sales the last years. Let's hope for a iPhone 6S mini next year.
[+] [-] cryptoz|11 years ago|reply
Biggest question: Can we access it to read raw atmospheric pressure? There seems to be no documented API.
[+] [-] rlu|11 years ago|reply
The protruding camera is also really weird. I wonder if Jobs would have signed off on that...
Who knows though. Maybe once I hold one personally I'll end up liking it more than the 5s. But I would be surprised :)
[+] [-] Swizec|11 years ago|reply
I have small-person sized hands and often struggle even with the normal iPhone5 and the trend for making phones bigger and bigger makes me angry and sad at the same time. I hate it and always, always, when my friends would ask why I prefer Apple over cheaper and better speced devices, my answer was "Because Apple is the only phone that doesn't compete on screen size".
This throws that out the window. Great.
[+] [-] pxlpshr|11 years ago|reply
[+] [-] 51Cards|11 years ago|reply
[+] [-] sp332|11 years ago|reply
[+] [-] polym|11 years ago|reply
[+] [-] unknown|11 years ago|reply
[deleted]
[+] [-] guybrushT|11 years ago|reply
iPhone 6's exterior just looks a bit strange (now we are going back to the original iPhone?) - it feels off in a way that I can't fully explain. But who knows, maybe it would be just fantastic to hold and use. [Like how the quick reports coming out from people who have held the Watch saying that it feel really nice]
[+] [-] delecti|11 years ago|reply
[+] [-] andyfleming|11 years ago|reply
[+] [-] santaclaus|11 years ago|reply
[+] [-] kawsper|11 years ago|reply
[+] [-] tylermac1|11 years ago|reply
[+] [-] furyofantares|11 years ago|reply
Besides almost half the population already carries a purse
[+] [-] unknown|11 years ago|reply
[deleted]
[+] [-] Marazan|11 years ago|reply
[+] [-] ascendantlogic|11 years ago|reply
[+] [-] ssmoot|11 years ago|reply
RAM matters a lot more on an Android, and even with more cores, running faster, with more RAM, it will be objectively slower at most things than an iPhone 5C (and that much slower than an iPhone 6 I'm sure). Plus actually using it will eat through battery quicker (it wasn't a 36-hour device for me like the iPhone 5C was, despite similar usage) and (this one surprised me) eats more data.
Not to mention if you have kids, the lack of iMessage and the inability to forward an HD video over to your spouse of the kids is almost a deal-breaker all by itself.
Anecdotal, my 2c, etc. But I owned a Nexus One, every iPhone except the 3GS and 5S, a Samsung Galaxy S2, Moto X, Palm Pre, Palm Veer (loved that little guy, just too buggy) and most recently an LG G2.
Discounting Apple on the basis of hardware and perceived performance would be a big mistake IMO. They're head and shoulders above everything else on those counts IME, and age so much better.
I got so tired of the quirky G2 (I swear there was a 1 in 3 chance that just unlocking the phone would launch the Alarms app for no reason, and that forced Menu button... GRRRR) I swapped my SIM into an old iPhone 4S I had lying around yesterday. It's not quite as snappy. But it's not half bad either. From a perceived performance perspective (say that three times fast!), the G2, a flag-ship Android phone released only 12 months ago, is slower in every way than an iPhone 5, a phone twice it's age (and yup, the G2 has 2GB of RAM, the iPhone 5 had 1GB).
If you prefer Android more power to ya. But if you're a long time iPhone user... Maybe I'll convince you to save some heart-ache (and $$$). ;-)
[+] [-] downandout|11 years ago|reply
[+] [-] ripter|11 years ago|reply
[+] [-] k-mcgrady|11 years ago|reply
Why does this matter? Apps run great as is. If the phone was slow I could understand but it isn't.
>> base storage still at 16 gigs really annoys me.
They pay a little extra for the larger models... It would have been nice to have a 32gb base model and it's a little strange they didn't do it but it's not like they don't offer larger storage versions.
[+] [-] sniuff|11 years ago|reply
[+] [-] mikeash|11 years ago|reply
[+] [-] kalleboo|11 years ago|reply
[+] [-] bratsche|11 years ago|reply
[+] [-] cylinder|11 years ago|reply
[+] [-] philangist|11 years ago|reply
[+] [-] oatmeal_coffee|11 years ago|reply
[+] [-] runeks|11 years ago|reply
[+] [-] arielweisberg|11 years ago|reply
I run a flip phone and the battery lasts a week and change. So does my iPod. Friends with iPhones are constantly pulling out their phones with dead batteries.
The thinness obsession has always irked me. Apparently it's what the market wants, but I wish they would use the space and weight savings for more battery. Were it not for battery life I would purchase an iPhone and just run it with T-Mobile prepaid and no data.
[+] [-] cseelus|11 years ago|reply
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EY4c2mh15Yk
[+] [-] baddox|11 years ago|reply
[+] [-] Thimothy|11 years ago|reply
[+] [-] jarjoura|11 years ago|reply
[+] [-] nostromo|11 years ago|reply
[+] [-] programminggeek|11 years ago|reply
[+] [-] polym|11 years ago|reply
[+] [-] bane|11 years ago|reply
After years of hearing that the "current" iphone size is just perfect for the size of the human hand, neither of the current phones are that size. It's unbelievably annoying to listen to all the bizarre justification that goes on about Apple products, and I'm sure this size shift and abandonment of their previous sizes completely will get some kind of fence moving justification. [1]
But I applaud Apple for just doing it and catching up with where the market has moved to. I've been in too many phone stores where I've heard people think the iPhones for sale are the old crappy smartphones from last generation and run over to where the larger phones are.
It took a couple years, but Apple finally listened and the new phones look really nice.
1 - https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EY4c2mh15Yk
edit I'm also reminded that the "c" model has been dropped. Sales figures didn't seem to be very high and I think the experiment has been deemed a failure. It wasn't what anybody really expected or wanted anyways but it was a curious and weird diversion.
edit2 Here's gruber's take on the phone sizes the notorious Apple shill finally admits that it's time for bigger phones, but hasn't come up with the justification framework yet
http://daringfireball.net/2014/09/prelude
Some people want to buy them. It doesn’t matter why. For some it might be games. For others, being able to carry one device as a hybrid phone/tablet. For others, it might be about reading — making the iPhone more usable as an e-book reader. It doesn’t matter what the reasons are. The simple fact is that many people want huge phones — not just bigger ones, but huge ones — and they’re willing to pay a premium for them. Apple has played a one-size-fits-all game for seven iPhone generations. The market shows that one size does not fit all. I don’t know that they should have done it sooner, but it certainly feels like the time for multiple iPhone sizes has come.
Let's also see what he has to say about this
I’ll be very disappointed if this is just a device that shows a fake analog watch face, displays notifications from a tethered iPhone, and tracks your footsteps and heart rate.
Because there it is on record. Gruber's already disappointed in the iWatch. I'm not. I'm glad it's out there, improving the market for all consumers, iWatch wearers or not. There's some nice ideas and design there.
[+] [-] twodayslate|11 years ago|reply
[+] [-] encoderer|11 years ago|reply
[+] [-] Amezarak|11 years ago|reply
Apple reserving sapphire screens for watches makes perfect sense to me.
[+] [-] heyheyhey|11 years ago|reply