The unlikely 4-inch iPhone
Since over a year back there have been various rumors and speculation about wether there will be a bigger display, usually a size of 4 inches is tossed around, in the next generation iPhone. It didn’t happen for the iPhone 4, which a lot of people thought it would and it also didn’t happen with the iPhone 4S last fall. Why do I think that it is unlikely for Apple to put a 4-inch screen in the iPhone? Follow me, and I shall try my best to explain.
Physical size
In terms of physical size, the whole device would have to be bigger in order to contain the bigger screen. Under the assumption that Apple chooses the path of the least resistance, which would be a screen at the same resolution and ratio as the current display, the whole unit would have to be longer and wider because such a screen would no longer fit in the same dimensions as the current iPhone. Add to the mix that we still need room for speakers, microphones, sensors and the front-facing camera above and below the screen. There is no way to stuff a screen of the same ratio into the same physical dimensions as the current iPhone models.
Given that the 3.5 inch display size that has been in every iPhone so far has widely been considered the best average for most people, there aren’t really too many reasons for Apple to change the size of the display in any future iPhone. While some people might stand up and cheer at such an announcement, there are many, many more who would consider it too big to handle comfortably on a daily basis. Many people already complain about the size of their smartphone as it is today, and we have plenty of them around that are bigger than 3.5 inches as it is.
Resolution
If we make the screen bigger, we have two choices of what to do with the “extra” physical space we find ourselves with. Either we use the extra space for more pixels and increase the total resolution of the display, making it have more pixels than the 960x640 that the current 3.5 inch screen has. In doing so we introduce a compatibility problem with older software which does not take advantage or accommodate this higher resolution. If you stretch an old app to fit over the whole screen it wouldn’t get 1:1 pixel-mapping and it would look blurry as a result. Developers would also get another display resolution to think about when they develop apps for iOS, which will most likely not make any developer pleased.
Another option would be to keep the same resolution despite the difference in physical size, so it would be a 4-inch display with 960x640 resolution. But then we would have a pixel density of 288 pixels per square inch, a good 41 pixels less per square inch in comparison. This would lower the density under the barrier for what Apple themselves have coined “retina display”. While one could argue that most eyes won’t be able to see the difference anyway, I’m not convinced Apple thinks the same. Once Apple latches onto some sufficiently advanced technology that works well, it’s unlikely that they will degrade below it in any way in a future product.
Ratio
Theoretically Apple could put a much more widescreen ratio display in the iPhone, but in doing so they would introduce a new element of having to both make some hardware aspects smaller as well as taking care of software compatibility in software. Any new app can be designed to use the extra pixels in height, but for old apps there would have to be a lot of updates and tinkering to maintain compatibility between the various different iPhone screen sizes. Developers wouldn’t appreciate that all too much. There would also not be any huge gain from making the display larger in this matter, other than to have a number to toss around in marketing, which is not exactly how Apple plays the game.
And let’s not forget about the simple fact that Apple doesn’t follow trends in the market all too much. Just because everybody else is competing over who can shoe-horn the biggest screen into their smartphone/small tablet computer, doesn’t mean Apple will join in the fight.
All these factors make me think that it is unlikely to see a bigger display in a future iPhone model, despite what analysts and people who have contacts in the upstream manufacturing process have to say on the matter. Too many things point towards that there would be too much effort for little to no positive outcome as well as that there would be annoyance in the developer camp, incompatibilities in software and hardware (accessories).
