Comments on: New iPhone Hardware Wish List

By: James Burland

James Burland — Sat, 18 Apr 2009 23:37:21 +0000

Pixel density is one of those things that doesn’t seem to matter until it actually matters… does that make any sense?! ^_^

Put it this way Leon. A printed page in a magazine has a pixel destiny of 2400 dot per inch, (Massively better than the iPhone screen!), which is one of the reasons why people still like printed paper so much.

Apple *will* increase the screen resolution at some point. Perhaps not this year, but certainly in 2010. Only when they do will we understand what a big difference is makes.

However, I do totally understand your point. There are plenty of other factors to consider besides screen res. Thanks for commenting.

By: leon

leon — Sat, 18 Apr 2009 23:27:14 +0000

With respect to higher resolution screens – I think there is absolutely no chance of this owing to the fact that it will create complications with respect to applications in the Market place AND will render the device more expensive, and for what? In all the time I’ve had my iPhone I’ve never longed for higher resolution, it is sharp as it is, and a higher resolution screen won’t make apps look any better as these apps will have been made to work with earlier iPhone models and therefore won’t be sharper. There is also the consideration that higher resolution screens demand higher processing power: a 320 by 240 screen for example requires 25% of the processing demands of a VGA screen. I think Apple chose a sensible resolution for the iPhone and will stick with it indefinitely. As it stands the only part of the OS that would benefit from a higher pixel count would be Safari, but the smooth pinch/pull and scroll mechansim of the iPhone makes this lower resolution practically irrelevant. I enjoy browsing on the iPhone far more than I did on the Touch Diamond, despite the fact that there is less information on screen at any one time, and the simple reason for this is that safari, the screen and the user interface have been expertly tailored by Apple. Higher resolution would certainly not be at the top of my wish list.

What I’m surprised WASNT mentioned with respect to the screen is OLED technology: a change to OLED would not only result in brighter, popping colours and deeper contrast but would significantly reduce the power consumption of the device, such that battery life could increase by at least 20% just by a change of the screen hardware.

By: James Burland

James Burland — Fri, 17 Apr 2009 12:09:33 +0000

(^_^) Does your wife have your original iPhone? Mine does. She was quite upset to find that it didn’t have GPS like my shiny new iPhone 3G! I think O2 will be offering cheap (and immediate) upgrades, along with a brand new 2 year contract to sign! I have no real problem with that. I can’t see any other phone on the horizon that comes even remotely close to the iPhone. Having said that, I would like to have an extended play with a decent Android based phone.

By: Gerry White

Gerry White — Fri, 17 Apr 2009 12:04:06 +0000

(I loved my motorola – granted, I might have had to charge it every 12 minutes, but as a desktop phone replacement (it had a cradle included) and with a megadrive emulator it was awesome.)

I just hope that O2 give us the ability to upgrade our phones on the cheap, although I have a feeling my wife won’t want another of my cast offs …

By: James Burland

James Burland — Fri, 17 Apr 2009 11:11:09 +0000

I nearly bought one of those A925’s. Fortunately I read a few reviews first and ended up with a decent Nokia, the rest is history… kind of.

The closet thing to the iPhone from that era would be the SE P900. A really classy device, if a little fragile.

Regarding the camera; I’ll be impressed if Ives and the team manage to squeeze any kind of auto-focusing camera into the next iPhone.

By: Gerry White

Gerry White — Fri, 17 Apr 2009 09:26:05 +0000

External Memory, I know this will never be done, but a MicroSD card would be great …

I know you mentioned the camera, but I will rant til I am blue in the face that above about 3 megapixels doesn’t matter as much as the quality of the hardware – i.e. lenses etc.. I want to be able to take in focus, in the poor light photos of my baby, dog or whatever else I like (irregardless of how ugly it is).

Just talking to colleagues about this, but check out the Motorola A925 from about 5 years ago to see where the iphone should have advanced from …