Anyone want to take a bet on iphone 5 hardware?

Forums › Apple iOS and devices › Anyone want to take a bet on iphone 5 hardware?

toyonut

1508 posts

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#98963 9-Mar-2012 19:31

Anyone want to take a bet that the hardware spec in the ipad 3 is going to find its way into the iphone 5 with a new case?

The original ipad and iphone 4/ipod touch pretty much shared hardware, then the ipad 2 came out with the dual core a5 and the 4s has followed suit.
Now there is a dual core/quad graphics core ipad hd with 4g. Anyone else think this hardware will find its way into the iphone 5 at the end of this year?

Maybe Apple is going to jump the competition on screen size and the rumoured 7 inch ipad is actually the new iphone! Maybe not, but I would not be surprised if the shared hardware happened again though.

Try Vultr using this link and get us both some credit:

http://www.vultr.com/?ref=7033587-3B

SteveON

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#592954 9-Mar-2012 20:48

paulmilbank: Anyone want to take a bet that the hardware spec in the ipad 3 is going to find its way into the iphone 5 with a new case?

The original ipad and iphone 4/ipod touch pretty much shared hardware, then the ipad 2 came out with the dual core a5 and the 4s has followed suit.
Now there is a dual core/quad graphics core ipad hd with 4g. Anyone else think this hardware will find its way into the iphone 5 at the end of this year?

Maybe Apple is going to jump the competition on screen size and the rumoured 7 inch ipad is actually the new iphone! Maybe not, but I would not be surprised if the shared hardware happened again though.

Well they have a long way to catch up, the Wifi in the 4/4s is complete balls and most of the specs the 4s released with were 6 months behind.

But it will have a A5X chip and 4G/3.5G that is for sure!

tdgeek

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#593008 9-Mar-2012 21:56

SteveON: the Wifi in the 4/4s is complete balls

Thats interesting, I've had no issues with wifi on my 4 and 4S. Do you mean range, stability, or speed?

My experience is:

Stability. Always been stable, no issues with dropoffs.

Range. My laptop connects at the opposite end of my property to my modem, and inside a metal clad sleepout. Tested the 4S tonight, and its online and more then browsable. Inside next door neighbours house, the 4S is always on wifi fine.

Speed. I used to 2 weeks ago tethering to my laptop. Download speed on the laptop was 550 KB/sec, so the 3G was fine and that is wifi to the laptop, which was in the same room.

tdgeek

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#593009 9-Mar-2012 22:03

paulmilbank: Anyone want to take a bet that the hardware spec in the ipad 3 is going to find its way into the iphone 5 with a new case?

The original ipad and iphone 4/ipod touch pretty much shared hardware, then the ipad 2 came out with the dual core a5 and the 4s has followed suit.
Now there is a dual core/quad graphics core ipad hd with 4g. Anyone else think this hardware will find its way into the iphone 5 at the end of this year?

Maybe Apple is going to jump the competition on screen size and the rumoured 7 inch ipad is actually the new iphone! Maybe not, but I would not be surprised if the shared hardware happened again though.

I agree. I feel that quad in a phone is wasted power and wasted battery. If the 4+1 ends up using the +1 often, then its a waste. The A5X dual core CPU and quad core GPU certainly seems a great option. Clearly, the 21Mbit 3G and 4G would be in the 5.

Screen size. I did a few casual measure ups recently. If they kept the 4/4S form factor, and went to the edge of the sides, and edge of the earphone and home button, they can do close to a 4" If the ear and home were moved up/down, and home button made slimline-ish, I think I measured that to be a 4.2" If the 5 was a little longer, and a little wider, and they maximised the phone as true full screen with slimmer home button and raised earpiece, a 4.7" I think was what I measured. Add NFC by then, I can't think of too much eklse a phone needs.

Ham

462 posts

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#593015 9-Mar-2012 22:16

My bet is similar specs to ipad3. Also better battery life than current model (more efficient processor), and smaller size but with same screen size, apple won't change the screen size due to all the apps designed for 3.7", and the fact that most peoples thumbs won't reach across a bigger screen.

tdgeek

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#593043 9-Mar-2012 23:04

Ham: My bet is similar specs to ipad3. Also better battery life than current model (more efficient processor), and smaller size but with same screen size, apple won't change the screen size due to all the apps designed for 3.7", and the fact that most peoples thumbs won't reach across a bigger screen.

Interesting comments re screen size, Ham

The iPhone is actually 3.5". Holding mine just now, and with your comment, I can use it if the screen was as large as feasible, which is 4.3" I can get my thumb to the opposite edge without a stretch. If the 5 was a tad wider and longer, a 4.5" will still be just ok thumb wise, perhaps a minor stretch, but that is just the edge to edge which is worst case.

I don't feel there is an issue with another screen size. The Retina 3.5 apps would scale fine to 4.3-4.5, or they could make a higher res/pixel version easily enough?

I cannot see Apple keeping the 3.5". The norm seems to be around 4", and bigger is often better, to a point, i.e. the S2 at 4.6" is often too large for the reasons you made.

But, maybe you are right, if they keep the form factor = good manufacturing as no real major changes needed. Move the earpiece and camera up to the top. Make the Home button rectangular and slim, and lower. Then you can full screen the rest = 4.3". best of both worlds?

SteveON

1916 posts

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#593048 9-Mar-2012 23:19

tdgeek:
SteveON: the Wifi in the 4/4s is?complete?balls

Thats interesting, I've had no issues with wifi on my 4 and?4S. Do you mean range, stability, or speed?

My experience is:

Stability. Always been stable, no issues with dropoffs.

Range. My laptop connects at the opposite end of my property to my modem, and inside a metal clad sleepout. Tested the 4S tonight, and its?online?and more then browsable. Inside next door neighbours house, the 4S is always on wifi fine.

Speed. I used to 2 weeks ago tethering to my laptop. Download speed on the laptop was?550 KB/sec, so the 3G was fine and that is wifi to the laptop, which was in the same room.??????????????

Rang stability and speed. Im left handed and hold the phone with my right hand and touch with my left. Wifi will cut out and switch to 3G, it does this up to 10 meteres from numerious routers.

KiwiTT

122 posts

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#599821 25-Mar-2012 18:57

Do you think it will have NFC ?

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mattbush

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#599990 26-Mar-2012 06:23

FM radio would be great!

Ham

462 posts

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#600008 26-Mar-2012 08:19

mattbush: FM radio would be great!

Will never happen, Apple don't want you to have content that is free.

JimmyC

726 posts

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#600178 26-Mar-2012 12:31

The screen size is an interesting one. It was always SJ's belief that anything you couldn't comfortably navigate with one hand (even small hands) defeated the purpose and ease of use he wanted.

Personally, I'd like to see a slightly bigger screen, but nothing so daft as 4.5"+. I use Siri for dialing and txt'ing on the go so a lot of the thumb navigation has been replaced by simply lifting the phone to my ear and talking.

I don't see the need for quad core CPU on a phone, nor GPU for that matter. I think some manufacturers are getting a bit carried away with phone specs, it's still about the actual experience using the phone so redundant grunt just wastes battery. Some mobile OS's need all the help they can get however...

Having said all that, Apple keep making new iPhones noticeably snappier than the last, so I'm sure there'll be something in the new one to keep that trend going. Where I'd like to see the biggest updates is in iOS itself, but that's a whole other story.

trig42

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#600190 26-Mar-2012 12:45

I'd like to see the same form-factor, but an edge-to-edge Retina Display screen (even do away with the hardware button?)

tdgeek

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#600203 26-Mar-2012 12:57

JimmyC and Trig42 I agree fully.

But get out a ruler or tape measure, you'd be surprised how big a screen they could do, almost edge to edge, by raising camera /earpiece, and lowering and slimming Home button. A 4.6" + screen is great but if you can do that with no, or little change to the iPhone4/4S form factor, that would have to be a winner.

scuwp

3885 posts

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#600230 26-Mar-2012 13:20

I hope they don't increase the overall size. If they can fit a bigger screen within the same form factor then great. That's one of the reasons I opted for an iPhone over an Android equivalent...they were just too damn big for a phone.

Whatever they do you can be assured there will be millions lined up salivating in expectation.

Lazy is such an ugly word, I prefer to call it selective participation

KiwiTT

122 posts

Master Geek

#600386 26-Mar-2012 17:05

I think in my mind ... I have decided an iPhone 5 is for me. While the 4 is tempting, especially in 4S dress, I can wait for the 5, as I am in no hurry.

stevenz

2802 posts

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#600393 26-Mar-2012 17:26

tdgeek:
I agree. I feel that quad in a phone is wasted power and wasted battery. If the 4+1 ends up using the +1 often, then its a waste. The A5X dual core CPU and quad core GPU certainly seems a great option. Clearly, the 21Mbit 3G and 4G would be in the 5.

Screen size. I did a few casual measure ups recently. If they kept the 4/4S form factor, and went to the edge of the sides, and edge of the earphone and home button, they can do close to a 4" If the ear and home were moved up/down, and home button made slimline-ish, I think I measured that to be a 4.2" If the 5 was a little longer, and a little wider, and they maximised the phone as true full screen with slimmer home button and raised earpiece, a 4.7" I think was what I measured. Add NFC by then, I can't think of too much eklse a phone needs.

A quadcore CPU should use no more power than a dualcore in such a device, when inactive the extra cores go to "sleep", and when required they fire up to get the job done quicker and then go straight back to sleep. In theory total power consumption should be reduced, assuming the entire system is appropriately multithreaded.

There's not a lot they can do with the existing form factor, the next revision will probably need another hardware redesign, but really what can they do other than shove in a faster CPU/GPU, bigger/better camera sensor. Making the device bigger would seem too much like listening to customer demand which they seem to actively avoid, but they may not have much choice - if they can make the display bigger without making the overall device bigger, that'd be reasonably likely.

I doubt they'd be very keen to support NFC, particularly given that it's something that Google is actively supporting. They'd be more likely to provide a competing "standard", probably something more iCloud reliant. If they could pull that off and skim 0.1% per transaction, then they'd do pretty well out of it. If they can't come up with an alternative that they think they can make profitable, then they may resort to NFC.

LTE is a no brainer, dual-cell HSDPA support perhaps, Bluetooth 4.0 support? An even slimmer case is likely, maybe some exotic materials (ceramics, carbon fibre etc?)

@KnightNZ