5-inch iphone

Apple won't make a larger screen iPhone while trade-offs exist

By Derek Kessler, Tuesday, Apr 23, 2013 a 6:33 pm

There's been rampant speculation, rumor mongering, and punditing that Apple must be, has to, is, or really should be making an even larger iPhone. Recall that from the original iPhone launch in 2007 up to the iPhone 4S of 2011, the screen size was a steady and unchanging 3.5-inches. Then with the iPhone 5 in September of 2012, Apple jumped to 4 inches while much of the rest of the smartphone industry was powering on to 5 inches and beyond. Heck, just two weeks ago Samsung announced a pair of new Android-powered smartphones with 5.8-inch and 6.3-inch screens.

The "iPhone 5S" problem

By Rene Ritchie, Monday, Mar 11, 2013 a 11:35 pm

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Apple may or may not release a product called the "iPhone 5S" this year. The presumption, however, fueled by Apple having previously released the 2009 iPhone 3GS-as-in-speed, and the 2011 iPhone 4S-as-in-Siri, is that 2013 will see an iPhone 5S-as-in-something update. Whether it ultimately proves real or not, the perception of a yearly update cycle and its tick-tock nature, is becoming problematic.

iMore show 336: Power vs. empowered

By Rene Ritchie, Monday, Feb 11, 2013 a 10:06 am

Rene talks jailbreak evasi0n, iWatch rumors, more on the 5-inch iPhone and less expensive iPhone, on getting stuck between Dropbox and iCloud, and Apple retention. This is the iMore show!

Using the iPad mini as a phone

By Rene Ritchie, Friday, Feb 8, 2013 a 12:21 pm

Last week I left home and headed to the airport, on my way to Macworld|iWorld 2013. My flight was delayed thanks to freezing rain, so I sat at the airport in Montreal for a couple hours, finally made it to Toronto, and then got smacked with another 8 hour delay. With my iPhone 5 at 20% and dropping, thanks to the poor quality Rogers reception at Pearson, I reached for one of the several Lightning cables I'd packed for my trip... only to find not a single one. I'd left them all at home.

Of course, neither the iStore (airport electronics shop) nor the Best Buy vending machines had Lightning cables. I was stuck. I needed my iPhone for when I landed in San Francisco, so I had to conserve as much power as I could. But I also needed a phone to use while I was at the airport all day.

So I reached for my iPad mini.

More on a 5-inch iPhone and scaling the interface

By Rene Ritchie, Sunday, Feb 3, 2013 a 1:27 am

Just over a week ago I ran the numbers on a bigger screen iPhone, and presented several ways Apple could go, including just taking the current screen and stretching it out to almost 5-inches, which would give it the same 264ppi pixel density as the Retina iPad 4 screen. Since Apple used the iPhone density to make the iPad mini, using the iPad density to make the iPhone maxi has a certain symmetry to it.

But would stretching out the icons, buttons, text and other interface elements just make them look bigger, or would it make them look silly? Let's find out...

Tim Cook talks larger screen sizes, says Apple picked the right one at 4-inches

By Rene Ritchie, Wednesday, Jan 23, 2013 a 6:32 pm

During today's Q1 2013 conference call, Apple's CEO Tim Cook was asked about larger screened iPhones. There were two separate questions, one about price and screen size variants and how they might effect Apple's business outside the US, and the the other concerning how competitors use screen size to differentiate from Apple, and whether there are dynamics or long term cases for a bigger screened iPhone.

Imagining a 5-inch iPhone

By Rene Ritchie, Tuesday, Jan 22, 2013 a 10:31 am

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Never mind rumors of an awkwardly named 4.8-inch "iPhone Math", the concept of a much larger iPhone has been floating about ever since the realities of early LTE chipsets -- and the batteries that came with them -- forced Android and Windows-based competitors to break the size barrier. Before the 16:9 iPhone 5 was announced, I examined some of the different ways Apple could go to 4-inches. More recently, following the launch of the iPad mini and the Droid DNA, I took a quick look at how Apple could achieve a 1080p+, 440ppi+ phone, one that would sit between 4-inches and 7.9-inches.

Going big

By Rene Ritchie, Monday, Dec 10, 2012 a 10:41 pm

In 2012 Apple increased the screen size of the iPhone from 3.5- to 4-inches, and introduced the iPad mini with a 7.9- rather than 9.7-inch screen. Between those devices, the old-but-still-on-the-market iPhone 4 and iPhone 4S and iPhone 5, and the iPad mini and iPad, there's a noticeable gap. No 4.5- to 5-inch phone. At least for now.