So by doing some digging, I've come up with some info that many have seen and possibly others haven't. Thought I'd share my iPhone 5 findings. One picture is an actual part that's been confirmed as ordered in who knows what kind of quantity, while the other picture is simply a mock-up. Discuss.
A larger display is either going to make retina less believeable than it was already or change the resolution and piss off a thousand developers
I hope they make it the same density, with apps optimized for normal Retina Display simply taking up the space where they would before, so there is a border making it look like you have an iPhone 4.
I'm almost certain the Retina Display 960x640@326ppi would remain the same. The reason why I would assume that is because no one can touch it still. (I believe there's 2 "Japan only" phones that offer Retina Display currently). Although not a phone, Sony's brand new PSP (NGP) still in the works, will only boast a resolution of 960x544 (Source) making iPhone 4's Retina Display still a very good contender in the phone market until next year. So although the screen will finally see 4 inches (rumoured), I think there's no reason to upgrade Retina Display until iPhone 6. On top of that, many developers still haven't even upgraded to or mastered the usage of Retina yet. Just my $.02.
There's utterly no point in a ~4" display using any higher resolution/DPI than the Retina currently has. Furthermore even if the display is enlarged to a full 4", the difference in your ability to see the pixels will still be negligible.
Hopefully they get rid of the retina display in the iPhone 5 and go back to the one used in the previous models. All it's done is bloat the size of games and give people something to whine incessantly about. "Why doesn't game X support the retina display? This photo looks like crap on my iPhone 4! I'm not going to buy app X until it gets retina display support! I like to bitch about negligible quality differences on a 3.5 inch display.. whine whine whine!"
So Apple should go backwards and have lower resolution screens because people are too cheap to upgrade their devices, keeping up with the new technology? Retina Display is close to a year old now, so yes, as an iP4 owner, I expect my games and applications to be taking advantage of the current technology that was introduced this time last year. It's not whine, whine, whine, it's I paid good money for the technology and I expect all developers to keep up with the trend. Do you think PC games graphics should be getting worse because people are too cheap to upgrade their PC's?
To be fair the complaints that come from customers are mostly due to the devs not evolving the apps to the newer tech. With 3 different devices and 3 resolutions to develop doesnt seem hard but some devs totally abandon perfectly good apps. Nobody's gonna stay with old tech (in most typical cases) just because those devs don't update the app and apple sure as hell ain't gonna stop improving on their side leaving the app store in a "survival of the fittest state" as more people buy the new....the old gets phased out. In time if your app isn't comparable with the standard it might get tossed out of the store if not updated.
Or perhaps it's that I want to stay out of the Apple bubble where a rehash of the same old stuff every year with minimal changes is alright and that I'm obligated to buy every single iteration so I don't appear "too cheap." Come on, man, crapping your pants over others' frugality gets you nowhere. Anyway, the Retina's here to stay, no doubt about that. I'm certain that more than a few people would be outraged if such a technology were taken away, consumer and developer alike. But the Retina's likely not going to get bumped in resolution, either; it's already nearly impossible to distinguish individual pixels, so any bump would just be a number and an extra wad of cash.
*Rumour Update* April 5th, 2011: CNN: "A South Korean news site reported this week that Apple plans to release the phone in the fourth week of June. According to a translation by the MacRumors site, ETNews.co.kr reported that Apple has confirmed that time frame." "Earlier this week, comments by Sony CEO Sir Howard Stringer suggested that his company is making a camera sensor for the new iPhone. He said sensors for Apple will be delayed because of damage to 15 of Sony's plants in Japan."
You know I wasn't serious, right? My comment mostly stems from the complaints a friend of mine made about wallpapers for the older devices "looking like crap" on his iPhone 4 right after he got it. I've set the 3GS down next to the 4 and quite honestly I think any graphical difference in games is barely noticeable on the 4 due to the screen size. The resolution is also so ridiculous it doesn't need to go any higher at any point unless they plan on releasing a 4.2" or larger iPhone and even then it would be overkill. I can't even see a difference between 480p and 720p video on the iPad, how much worse can anything look at 3.5" half a foot from your face? Also remember, most of us are on a 2-3 year upgrade cycle. Not everyone has an iPhone 4 yet and it's not because they are "too cheap" to upgrade, it's because buying a new piece of hardware every 12 months is freaking nuts. I bought my 3GS in June '09 knowing that I'd be getting an iPhone 5 (hopefully) in June '11 and the hardware is still amazing despite the battery life shortening.
Well that's the thing, because the legitimacy of the retina display is already under dispute. Many doctors/opticians/etc say that the pixels are in fact legible for someone with good enough eyesight at the distance Apple claims they won't be. Making them even slightly bigger would almost certainly cross that threshold. They should definitely keep it though despite the one person in this thread (and the world) that doesn't like it, games look absolutely amazing. It even makes playing on home consoles feel different when you start noticing jagged edges on the likes of Gears of War and Crysis 2.
I never said I didn't like it but when I get my iPhone 5 I'm certainly not going to be complaining about low res apps. I regularly play iPhone games on the iPad without feeling like the graphics are hindering my experience in any way with or without RetinaPad installed.
I'd take an iPad's size over a retina's pixel density any day. What's the point of something being so gorgeously pixel dense if it's crammed onto a screen so small? (talking about gaming here)
