Why The iPhone 5 May Not Have A Larger Screen

Posted Feb 17, 2011 at 4:50AM EST by QJ Staff

Listed in: Apple iPhone 5 Tags: apple, ios, news, rumors

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The current iPhone 4 retina display screen comes with a resolution of 960x640, an aspect ratio of 3:2 and a pixel density of 326ppi (pixel per inch). Now take the following theories into account:

• Say the iPhone 5 came with a 4 inch screen. To start off, the size of the iPhone would have to increase. Secondly, keeping the same resolution would result in a lesser pixel density of 289ppi. This mean the iPhone’s screen would no longer classify as a retina display. To maintain a 4 inch sized retina display, the iPhone would have to increase its resolution to around 1080x720.
• So what if Apple decided to increase the iPhone’s resolution? The problem then arises for iPhone software developers who would have to deal with 3 different sets of screen resolutions. Resizing applications from the 960x640 resolution to 1080x720 resolution is much more difficult than from older iPhone resolutions to the current iPhone’s resolution. Also, if they decided to ‘zoom’ their apps for the new resolution it would result in terrible looking apps.

• Now, what if Apple decided to change the iPhone 5’s aspect ratio? Apple could easily make it the 4:3 ratio the iPad supports, meaning that the resolution would be the same as the iPad’s (and the iPhone can still maintain a retina display). This would also be easy for developers since they could develop common apps for both the devices. The problem in doing this is the fact that giving the iPhone a 4:3 ratio would result it in changing the shape of the device. The iPhone 5 would have to be much wider and more squarish. It may no longer be very comfortable to use it as a phone and may also not look as stylish as it looks currently.

• So what’s the solution to all this? Well, the most reasonable assumption is that if the iPhone 4 has to have a 4 inch retina display then the aspect ratio must change to either 16:9 or 16:10. At this aspect ratio, the resolution may not have to change too much and can become 1024x640 allowing apps to run, except that there would some wasted blank space on the sides of the screen. The iPhone may have to be elongated vertically to be able to fit the bigger screen.

So finally, it is safe to say that changing the size of the screen and resolution for the iPhone 5 may come with its own limitations especially for app developers. Considering that most people are happy with the iPhone 4’s screen size and consider those 4 inch plus android phones to be a bit on the bigger size, Apple may continue the same 3.5 inch screen size for the iPhone 5. Of course it will be much faster and powerful but that’s another story.

Let’s just wait and watch for Apple to surprise us.

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