Are Bigger iPhone Screens A Good Option For Apple
The rumors around the iPhone 6 repeat the same idea of bigger
screens, presumably 4.7'' and 5.5''. Before the upcoming WWDC 2014
reveals anything, and before the release of the next-gen iPhone,
expected this fall, it's quite interesting to think how bigger iPhone
screens would affect iOS development. Are they a good option at all?
Less
than a year ago iOS 7 came out with its drastic changes, which required
adjustments and redesigns. But what will it all look like? Well, the
homescreen will hardly be littered with an extra column. But that's for
users. What is truly interesting for developers and software owners, is
the screen resolution. What will it be? Will it be necessary to make
huge redesigns? We'll try to answer all of these questions below.
What The Resolution Of A Bigger Screen Will Be?
There
have been lots of ideas on what the screen resolution of the new iPhone
will be. Both users and developers are interested in it. The main
suggestions circulating in the web are 750?1334, 1080?1920, 1600?966.
The last option is not an option actually. Each iOS developer uses a
relative value for rendering objects on the screen - so-called points.
Here is the structure of CGPoint:
struct CGPoint {
CGFloat x;
CGFloat y;
};
The
coordinates have the data type with a floating point. It could seem
strange, since pixel is an atomic value - there's no such size for
drawing as half a pixel. However, it's here that the very idea of Retina
display was outlined. 1 point used to equal 1 pixel, but now for Retina
it equals 2 pixels. Apple has always cared about the appearance of iOS
and its apps; and has cared as well about convenience for developers.
That's why with the release of Retina display developers didn't need to
alter the code of their apps - designers had to draw the resources with
double resolutions. All developers had to do was to add them to the
project with the suffix @2x. The system automatically substituted the
needed resource.
Let's take a look at this code:
[[UIView alloc] initWithFrame:CGRectMake(0, 0, 1, 100)];
It
creates a view 1 point wide and 100 points high. If we launch it on
iPhone 3GS (320x480), we'll see a line 1 pixel wide and 100 pixels high.
But if we launch the same code on iPhone 4 (640x960), we'll see that
our view has the same physical size on the screen, but is 2 pixels wide
and 200 pixels high. The same code will work well on both Retina and
non-Retina displays.
Let's exemplify our opinion with button size.
If we take a look at iOS Human Interface Guidelines (the Layout
section), we'll see that Apple recommends to make buttons sized no less
than 44x44 points for convenience on a touchscreen. This equals 44?44
pixels on non-Retina and 88?88 pixels on Retina. Now let's consider
resolutions 750?1334 and 1080?1920.
Let's take screen width for
non-Retina in points as the reference value; and let's make a simple
ratio for estimating the rate for re-calculating points into pixels:
750?1334:
750/320 = 2,34375.
1080?1920:
1080/320 = 3,375.
This
means the size of the button, according to iOS Human Interface
Guidelines, must be 44*2,34375 = 103,125?103,125 pixels and 44*3,375 =
148.5?148.5 pixels.
This will not happen. With this approach there
will be an inevitable problem - images will be scaled, compressed, lose
their sharpness and lose pixels. We can suppose that it will be
invisible for the eye with such density of pixels. But Apple values its
name and its well-known quality high enough not to take this step. A
typical iOS user expects quality even in the slightest details. At the
same time it would be a problem for iOS developers, who would have to
rewrite lots of code, change UI of their apps, face the issues with
compatibility, and so on. In its turn this situation would weaken
Apple's position on the market; they surely wouldn't allow it with their
ambitions to be ahead of everyone.
The conclusion is obvious: we
will probably get the doubled resolution (1280?2272) and switch to @4x
resources. The 16:9 ratio of display sides will remain the same. Let's
make calculations for the doubled resolution:
1280?2272:
1280/320 = 4,0.
The button size, according to iOS Human Interface Guidelines, must be 44*4 = 176?176 pixels.
Looks good. We believe it's the way it will bee, and designers should get ready to use @4x resources.
Thoughts And Conclusions
#1.
Doubled resolutions will require more processing powers - and bigger
capacities. When an app is installed on an iOS device, resources for all
supported devices are stored there. If it's an app that supports
iPhone, iPad, Retina, and non-Retina, resources for all four screen
types are stored on the device, being just an idle load. With the growth
of resolutions this issue will become more and more acute, and Apple
must already be struggling to find the solution.
#2. There must be
sufficient state-of-the-art technologies for mass production of such
displays and chips. It's hard to say whether Apple is ready for a
breakthrough on the market with the iPhone 6, or the company will have
to postpone it and lose the leading positions. Taking Apple's strategy
into account, such a breakthrough is rather believable. We don't have to
wait long to know the answer.
Bigger screens can be a good option
for Apple, if they are ready to cover all the technical problems that
go along with it. And what will happen, rumors aside, WWDC 2014 will
show on June 2. For the rest of the answers we'll have to wait until the
release of the iPhone 6.
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