4 ms·

This Is The Reason Why The iPhone Will Always Have A 3.5-inch Screen

4 points by Garbage 15y ago

cheald 15y ago
Ugh, not this again. * The SGS II is shown as relatively larger than it actually is, compared to the iPhone. * The SGS thumb circle is smaller. The iPhone will always have a 3.5" screen because the 3:2 aspect ratio makes the phone unusably wide if you increase the diagonal by any marketable number. Those 4.3" Android phones run at a whopping 16:9, and are only slightly wider than the iPhone as a result (2.11" vs 1.94"). A 4.3" diagonal iPhone would be a behemoth 2.39" wide. iPhones are locked to a 3:2 aspect ratio because apps are all designed with the promise of a 3:2 aspect ratio, and a different aspect ratio would break the layout of every single app in the app store today. Apple had to increase the resolution of their offering with the iPhone 4 to compete with the high-resolution Android handsets being released, but they had to increase it by an integer factor, or else applications would be blurry/laid out slightly wrong due to the pixel-oriented layouts iOS apps use, so they doubled the resolution, kept the screen size the same, and marketed the shit out of the resulting DPI. The iPhone will always have a 3.5" screen because Apple has a tremendous amount of legacy software on the platform that would break in all the most un-Apple ways if they were to create a larger phone. Here is an exactly to-scale comparison of the phones' screen sizes, done by yours truly: http://i.imgur.com/b7UI3.png http://i.imgur.com/b7UI3.png And for fun, here's a comparison of what a 4.3" iPhone screen would be like next to a current iPhone and the SGS II: http://i.imgur.com/du83N.png http://i.imgur.com/du83N.png
- beej71 15y ago
  The SGS thumb circle is smaller I would never have noticed that if you hadn't pointed it out, but it is, indeed, smaller. Not that it matters; my thumb extends usably well beyond the opposite edge of the iPhone. And you know what they say about guys with long thumbs: they can use bigger phones.
suivix 15y ago
I just compared my Droid X to my iPod Touch and don't see a large ergonomic advantage with the latter.

4 points by Garbage 15y ago

Ugh, not this again. * The SGS II is shown as relatively larger than it actually is, compared to the iPhone. * The SGS thumb circle is smaller. The iPhone will always have a 3.5" screen because the 3:2 aspect ratio makes the phone unusably wide if you increase the diagonal by any marketable number. Those 4.3" Android phones run at a whopping 16:9, and are only slightly wider than the iPhone as a result (2.11" vs 1.94"). A 4.3" diagonal iPhone would be a behemoth 2.39" wide. iPhones are locked to a 3:2 aspect ratio because apps are all designed with the promise of a 3:2 aspect ratio, and a different aspect ratio would break the layout of every single app in the app store today. Apple had to increase the resolution of their offering with the iPhone 4 to compete with the high-resolution Android handsets being released, but they had to increase it by an integer factor, or else applications would be blurry/laid out slightly wrong due to the pixel-oriented layouts iOS apps use, so they doubled the resolution, kept the screen size the same, and marketed the shit out of the resulting DPI. The iPhone will always have a 3.5" screen because Apple has a tremendous amount of legacy software on the platform that would break in all the most un-Apple ways if they were to create a larger phone. Here is an exactly to-scale comparison of the phones' screen sizes, done by yours truly: http://i.imgur.com/b7UI3.png http://i.imgur.com/b7UI3.png And for fun, here's a comparison of what a 4.3" iPhone screen would be like next to a current iPhone and the SGS II: http://i.imgur.com/du83N.png http://i.imgur.com/du83N.png

beej71 15y ago
The SGS thumb circle is smaller I would never have noticed that if you hadn't pointed it out, but it is, indeed, smaller. Not that it matters; my thumb extends usably well beyond the opposite edge of the iPhone. And you know what they say about guys with long thumbs: they can use bigger phones.

suivix 15y ago

I just compared my Droid X to my iPod Touch and don't see a large ergonomic advantage with the latter.