Next-Gen iPhone & iPhone Nano Speculation

They'll probably eventually release a 4" version. I think there probably isn't any great need to yet as the phone itself is not much of an improvement over the previous model aside from the larger screen, so keeping the older phone to fill that position until the 6S makes sense.

 

I would be surprised if they did. Apple abandoned 3.5" without a backwards glance and are changing iOS in ways that are cramped on smaller screens.

If Apple releases another 4" phone model, it will be the 5s in a cheaper case to take over the 5c's position as next year's budget tier, and it will be their last.

 

Now that 1 GB ram in the 6 Plus is confirmed, it would be interesting to see if Safari tab and apps reloading is as bad or worse.

 

I think a lot depends on which way the market moves. The ever-increasing sizes of phones isn't appreciated by everybody and, for me, one of the best new phone releases is the new Sony Z3 Compact. This has a screen just 0.1" smaller than the new iPhone 6 but is a good deal more compact - over a centimetre shorter and a few millimetres narrower - and this with IP68 certification as well. It's a little thicker, but weighs the same and has excellent battery life.

If phones such as this are successful, then the market may well change and we could see an end to the inexorable enlargement of phones!

 

Well saw the Plus tried switching between Safari and some other apps, saw it reloading tabs.

Would have helped if reloading felt a lot faster than my 5s which is still running 7.1.x.

Certainly dulls the enthusiasm, though I will have to look at it again if browsing at least is now viable.

 

I do find the idea of having just 1 GB RAM in a flagship phone late in 2014 completely baffling. Memory is (relatively) as cheap as chips these days and my cheapo Chinaphone (cost, less than a quarter of that of the new iPhone 6) came with 2GB when I purchased it 6 months ago. Heck, some of the budget phones coming out of China now have 3GB RAM!

Limiting the new iPhones in this manner which otherwise have high-end hardware seems a truly bizarre decision to me.

 

Agreed...though the midrange 6 comes with 64GB now instead of 32GB.

 

Memory is cheap, but keeping memory running is costly (in terms of power).
Maybe a better way is to implement some sort of page file on a small SLC flash (4GB should be goo d enough). However, I don't know how much power it takes to write to a SLC flash.

 

Apple is "nuts" and too much focussed on maximizing sales margin. 1 GB for a 1080p device is too small.... the 6+ renders at 2208x1242 (3x the virtual display size), then downscales to 1080p. A decent chunk of the memory will be allocated to frame buffering and render targets.

On my iPad Air the reloading of Safari tabs and frequent crashes are (still) very annoying.

The same can be said for 16 GB flash memory. 16 GB is getting too small these days. 3-4 GB is taken by the OS and with ever increasing app sizes (though 2GB is the limit) it's way too cramped. The cost price difference between 16 GB and 32 GB is in the order of 5 USD, so what are we talking about.

App sizes also took a hit when they introduced the 64-bits A7. AFAIK, 32-bit code and 64-bit code is in the same container.

Imagine when iOS9 or 10 comes and you have to basically remove all apps from your iPhone to be able to do an OTA upgrade. On an 16 GB iPhone 5 I had already free up 4.6 GB.

 

Well, that's at least one part that has been taken care of, with the 32GB level being replaced by 64GB. Though I've never come close to filling up those 32GB. I had to delete 4GB of pictures from my wife's 16GB iPhone 5 to upgrade to iOS 8.

Speaking of which: 5 app crashes in 2 days (1x mail, 4x Safari). Something that I hadn't seen in ages.

 

Saw an article that says Apple delivers a lot more iPhone 6 than 6+.

The latter may be limited by availability. A few of my friends sold their 6+ to get a 6 instead.

I think the old PDA crowd may prefer a 6+ while the rest get 6.

If all goes well, I might get a 6 too.

 

The new iPhones support 802.11ac ? Better battery life, slightly bigger screen and better camera are my top 3 needs for a newer phone.

I don't care so much for larger RAM at the moment. 1GB RAM eats up less juice.

Since Apple Watch is around the corner, perhaps they will focus on smaller devices in the next wave. Forcing the developers to be efficient may help ease their ports to the smaller devices ?

 

Stopped by the Sprint store today to check out the 6...fairly underwhelming aesthetics. Looked huge compared to the 5. The thing is a mini tablet...not a phone.

I'll see if I could buy one tomorrow but since my credit is not that great I might have to shell out $299 up front for the 64GB model, which isn't a big deal but I want to use that money to spend on other toys..

 

You're talking about the 6+ right ?
6 is only slightly bigger.

 

To be honest I wasn't sure which model it was but I think it was the 6+. They didn't have both 6 versions on display.

 

If it looked huge it has to have been the plus.

In either case, the reason larger iphones look so big is because of their symmetric bezel design which has to fit that large round home button. I wonder if/when Apple will drop that, as it's becoming an impediment for them. The Xperia 3 looks gorgeous with its slim top/bottom bezels, I'd love for Apple to rip off Sony (again!), heh, if they can develop an accurate, low-profile fingerprint sensor.

 

First impressions of the non-plussed 6 after a day of intensive use:
- most important for my pants fan club: you'll be happy to hear that it fits my regular pockets just fine, but not my jeans coin pocket: you can just wiggle it in there if you try, but too much is sticking out at the top. Don't worry all: with mental fortitude and persistent retraining, I will survive and overcome this serious set-back.

- I had no problem with the ultra-thin iPod touch of my daughter, but I do have one with this phone: I feel like it can drop any time. Practice will make perfect. Or better a phone case to make it bigger again. Strange world we live in.

- That Android-style predictive word guessing on top of the keyboard? I'm a very fast touch screen typist. I'm completely in tune with the old predictive guessing: it only requires pressing space to auto-complete, which you have to do anyway. Having a list of words on top of the screen slows me down immensely: it's distracting even when you don't use it, and scanning the list takes more time than typing the thing in the first place when you do use it. It also takes a lot of screen space. Disabled that POS feature in a heart beat.

- It will take a while before I get unused to 7 years of the same iPhone width. The one-handed operation is really an issue. On the iPhone 5, I was annoyed by the power button being on top of the phone, resulting in uncomfortable stretches of the thumb. That's fixed now. But everything else has become harder. The reachability feature (2 light taps on the home button to shift the whole screen down) is surprisingly effective. I use it all the time. I think app writers will simply adapt their UIs.

- the finger print sensor is fantastic. I considered breaking contract for a 5s just for this feature. It's fulfills its promise.

- recording at 240fps is cool.

 

What kind of jeans coin pocket fits any smart phone?

Hmm is it like 48 inch waist? Or baggy jeans?

 

Bog standard Levi's 501. 32" waist. I've carried my iPhones in them for years. They fit like a glove.