Next-Gen iPhone & iPhone Nano Speculation

[RudeCurve]

I like the iPhone 4 design so I like the iPhone 5 design. People who complain and dislike the new design will just lose out on the better technology. Fact is there's only so much you can do to change the industrial design of a smartphone and have it look good without eventually running out of ideas. Change for the hell of it isn't necessarily a good thing as it could backfire. People need to realize you cannot improve on the looks forever. The iPhone 4 is already near the pinnacle of smartphone industrial design, that's why the 5's design was a sideways move. Are there any smartphones in existence that are more stylish than the iPhone 4/4S? I personally can't name any.

 

[wco81]

I guess they want something with practically no bezel. But is that only possible with AMOLED because there's no backlight?

 

[anexanhume]

I guess they want something with practically no bezel. But is that only possible with AMOLED because there's no backlight?

With IGZO, in-cell and gorilla glass 2, they could significantly cut down on backlight strength needed for a given brightness.

So is 32nm A5X for the iPhone 5 likely? It seems a little early to refresh the iPad 3 with a 32nm A5X, even with a silent update, without causing a large PR stir with early buyers.

Personally I think A5X lives only on the iPad as we know it now. Too big, too hot, too much power. It was a brute force design to run the retina display. iPhone doesn't need it and it would break too many budgets, even at 32nm.

If Apple could release Rogue this year, would they do it without OpenGL ES 3.0 support? While references to what is thought to be the A6 has shown up in iOS 6 there's been no reports of OpenGL ES 3.0 references. With the Haiti spec not yet finalized and the conformance tests probably still in flux, I doubt there's enough time between now and a September launch to prepare certified drivers. I suppose Apple could launch Rogue this year on iPhone with OpenGL ES 2.0 and enable OpenGL ES 3.0 in iOS 6.1 alongside the iPad 4 launch, although that probably wouldn't be as strong a Rogue introduction as IMG would like.

They were behind an OpenGL version on their desktop platform in recent years. It wouldn't surprise me.

 

[ams]

That said, [SGX543MP2] GPU clock frequency will be nearly double on iphone 5 vs. iphone 4s, so no doubt the GPU performance will be very good in comparison.

While I do believe I am correct with respect to overall performance of the iphone 5 GPU, it actually is quite probable that this smartphone will use a die-shrunk A5X-based SoC with reduced GPU operating frequency vs. ipad 3 (rather than an A5-based SoC with double the GPU operating frequency). After all, a die-shrunk A5X is still part of the plan in ipad 3 as this model will be sold by Apple for at least the next year and a half.

 

[anexanhume]

New iPhone battery snapped:

http://9to5mac.com/2012/08/09/photo...acity-battery-3-8v-1440-mah/#vanilla_comments

It's 3.8V. All previous iOS devices (iPhone, iPod touch and iPad) have had 3.7V batteries. Almost all smartphones do too.

Is this an indication of a significant internal change, new SoC, etc?

 

[Rys]

Is this an indication of a significant internal change, new SoC, etc?

I think the only thing it really points to is a change in battery chemistry.

 

[anexanhume]

I think the only thing it really points to is a change in battery chemistry.

My second thought. Question is why. Slimmer battery necessitated it? Faster charging or longer lasting battery?

 

[Mariner]

Similar to this report, perhaps:

http://www.anandtech.com/show/4910/motorola-droid-bionic-review-dual-core-with-4g-lte/2

I'd imagine that there must be some sort of advantage in changing the battery chemistry. Cooler operation, perhaps, or less chance of a meltdown?

 

[anexanhume]

Similar to this report, perhaps:

http://www.anandtech.com/show/4910/motorola-droid-bionic-review-dual-core-with-4g-lte/2

I'd imagine that there must be some sort of advantage in changing the battery chemistry. Cooler operation, perhaps, or less chance of a meltdown?

Thanks. If it's not a lifetime advantage, it must indeed be cooler, quicker charging or something.

 

[ltcommander.data]

Since battery capacity has only increased 2% does this limit what Apple can do with the SoC? The screen size has increased which won't help battery life. Qualcomm's 28nm LTE baseband is more battery efficient than current 40nm LTE baseband's, but does it use less battery power than the iPhone 4S's current 3G baseband? Otherwise, the iPhone 5's SoC looks to have less power envelope to play around with assuming Apple wants to maintain the same battery life specs. The iPhone 4S was already more power hungry than the iPhone 4 so ideally Apple would be targeting better battery life than the iPhone 4S for the iPhone 5 which would further constrain the SoC choice.

http://www.macrumors.com/2012/08/06...o-entire-ios-lineup-including-ipad-this-fall/

On another note, the rumours are that all iOS devices and iPods will be updated to use the new mini Dock connector including the iPad 3. This would seem like a good opportunity to shrink the iPad 3 to iPad 2 thickness and weight while relying on display improvements, a 32nm A5X shrink, and a move to a 28nm LTE baseband to maintain battery life despite a smaller battery.

 

[anexanhume]

New iPhone screen could be in-cell and/or IGZO, both of which reduce power. With both, it could use even less power than the old screen.

 

[wco81]

The thing with components using new tech like IGZO is whether they could build up the supply chain to ramp up to iPhone volumes.

 

[anexanhume]

The thing with components using new tech like IGZO is whether they could build up the supply chain to ramp up to iPhone volumes.

Indeed. But supposedly Apple wanted iPad 3 to have IGZO and that fell through. If they've been working on it since then and these screens have significantly less area, they may have had time to iron the kinks out.

 

[Mike11]

Anandtech analyzes the latest iPhone rumors:

[...] Based on everything we've seen, and the analysis on the previous pages, it seems likely that the next iPhone will feature a dual-core Cortex A9 SoC built on Samsung's 32nm LP (HK+MG) process, with a PowerVR SGX 543MP2 driving a larger 4-inch display. Battery capacity will see a slight bump, but battery life itself should be measurably better compared to the iPhone 4S thanks to a move to 28/32nm silicon for the baseband and apps processor. LTE and TD-SCDMA support will likely be driven by a Qualcomm MDM9x15. Evolutionary improvements in the WiFi stack are a reasonable expectation, however NFC support isn't. There are still questions about final details (e.g. camera sensors) but a lot of what Apple has been doing with the iPhone closely follows an aggressive 2-year design and silicon cadence. It's the relentless competition and hyper Moore's Law curve in the smartphone space that drive Apple's development cycle here. I don't expect much change here for the next couple of years at least.

Despite the annual release schedule and a 2-year cadence for most silicon elements, Apple also appears to remain relatively conservative in how it adopts new technologies. Process nodes, new chip architectures, and new wireless standards are all evaluated with a fairly conservative eye. Apple's iPhone business is a well oiled machine at this point, any unnecessary risks are consistently avoided.

http://www.anandtech.com/show/6196/preparing-for-the-iphone-next-rumors-analyzed

Update:
No NFC is confirmed:
http://www.loopinsight.com/2012/08/28/nfc-on-the-new-iphone/

 

[iwod]

That to me sounds.... bad.

I will be buying a phone with the same SoC as 4s, May be 200Mhz faster on the CPU front. But i hate to admit, iPhone no longer feels so much faster compare to Android. As a matter of fact SG3 is incredibly powerful.

Would a TI OMAP4470 be faster then A5 then?

As everyday went by with all those leaks, if they were true, the Next iPhone are queueing up to be a massive disappointment.

 

[Mike11]

For those who still like to believe in an A6 in the next iPhone:

Beware: it's a sketchy picture of a picture on a monitor...

http://9to5mac.com/2012/08/30/more-iphone-parts-a6-processor-more-new-9-pin-cables/

Edit:
There's some speculation that even if Apple's next SoC is called A6 it might still just be a higher clocked A5R2 (because it's just branding). But I don't think Apple would do that.

 

[Lazy8s]

Apple has tended to debut the bigger headlining features, like 3G/GPS with the iPhone 3G and the retina display with the iPhone 4, in the year between the upgrades in the processor architecture that the iPhones 3GS and 4S brought, so the average consumer and the media generally view these years as the major upgrades to the platform. Even though the LTE and larger display as headlining features this time around will just be playing catch-up to competitors to some degree, Apple is good at showing how their products get the best out of them.

Their circumstance this time around isn't so dissimilar to the iPhone 3G situation.

 

[silent_guy]

As everyday went by with all those leaks, if they were true, the Next iPhone are queueing up to be a massive disappointment.

Let's hope for Apple that it's as much as disappointment as the 3G, the 3GS and the 4S. Especially the 4S, which was blasted in the press everywhere for being meh.

 

[wco81]

Too early still for A15 ang Rogue cores right, especially in the kind of volumes Apple is going to expect?

 

[anexanhume]

Too early still for A15 ang Rogue cores right, especially in the kind of volumes Apple is going to expect?

I'm not sure I completely grasp this argument? Why is it too early for those cores if Apple supposedly has had working silicon back? I can see it being a development time issue, but not a volume one. 32nm is ready to go. That being said, I expect dual A9 and 543MP2 again.