Apple By Ryan Whitwam Feb. 12, 2014 12:50 pm
The rumors just don’t stop, even with months separating us from a new iPhone announcement. New reports out of China claim that the upcoming iPhone 6 will come in two sizes — a 4.7-inch variant and a 5.5-inch monster. These panels will reportedly sport a layer of protective sapphire glass and a higher resolution to rival the current crop of Android devices.
Apple recently made news when it secured a source of durable sapphire glass from manufacturing partner GT Advanced Technologies. The company’s Arizona plant has the capacity to produce enough sapphire protective displays to equip hundreds of millions of phones with this feature. Sapphire glass is already used in the camera lenses on Apple’s devices, but the next iPhone might be the first to have a full sapphire glass overlay on the screen.
The Retina Display resolution on the iPhone is starting to fall behind as Android devices have hit 1080p and may even be stepping it up to 1440p in the coming months. The report states Apple is looking to boost the resolution of its new panel to hit about 441 pixels per inch — the iPhone 5s is 326 ppi and the Nexus 5 is 445ppi. On a 4.7-inch phone, that would put the iPhone 6 in the vicinity of 1080p. It seems unlikely Apple would fragment its ecosystem by using two different resolutions in the same generation, so perhaps the larger of the two phones (if it exists) will have a lower ppi.
The iPhone 6 announcement could also be the end of the line for the beleaguered iPhone 5c. Apple will reportedly discontinue the 5c in favor of a cheaper version of the 5s as the budget option. It might have additional color options, but a more mature design.
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Apple recently made news when it secured a source of durable sapphire glass from manufacturing partner GT Advanced Technologies. The company’s Arizona plant has the capacity to produce enough sapphire protective displays to equip hundreds of millions of phones with this feature. Sapphire glass is already used in the camera lenses on Apple’s devices, but the next iPhone might be the first to have a full sapphire glass overlay on the screen.
The Retina Display resolution on the iPhone is starting to fall behind as Android devices have hit 1080p and may even be stepping it up to 1440p in the coming months. The report states Apple is looking to boost the resolution of its new panel to hit about 441 pixels per inch — the iPhone 5s is 326 ppi and the Nexus 5 is 445ppi. On a 4.7-inch phone, that would put the iPhone 6 in the vicinity of 1080p. It seems unlikely Apple would fragment its ecosystem by using two different resolutions in the same generation, so perhaps the larger of the two phones (if it exists) will have a lower ppi.
The iPhone 6 announcement could also be the end of the line for the beleaguered iPhone 5c. Apple will reportedly discontinue the 5c in favor of a cheaper version of the 5s as the budget option. It might have additional color options, but a more mature design.
More...
