If you’re a big Android user, or a Windows tablet fan, CES is a truly great place to be: like a kid in a candy store. Apple enthusiasts, on the other hand, have a lot less to look forward to. Some new accessories – sure – but accessories come out all year round, and Apple’s not about to launch a new iPhone or anything at one of these expos. However, while the CES is the big news now in the States, Apple’s manufacturing partners may be up to something of their own in Southeast Asia. Just how large does Apple’s next iPhone (or iPhones, as it may well turn out) threaten to be? Over the past few months, we’ve heard a number of figures rumored, Today we’re getting specific with rumors naming a couple possible measurements for this hardware.
Supposedly, sources at Foxconn have indicated that they’re working on two sizes for upcoming iPhone models, one with a 4.7-inch display, and one more like 5.7 inches (though that figure may be a little loose). That’s interesting, especially if Apple doesn’t keep a four-inch option around; surely, there must be a sizable chunk of iPhone users who are very much enamored with their smaller handsets. The 4.7-incher makes enough sense on its own, but once again the idea of an iOS phablet gives us pause; perhaps after the iPad mini all bets are off, but it still feels like a size that Apple just might not be that comfortable with.
Now we’ve seen a leaked image of the rumored iPhone 6 and this thing just screams “HUGE” and its remarkably thin.we’re not feeling super confident about this really being an iPhone 6 component, but with new sizes and all, who can really tell? When Apple’s thinking outside the box, all bets are off.
How big, though? Well, hands are pretty unreliable for using as a sense of scale, but we’d guess this device might be north of five inches. Presumably we’re looking at this upside down, with that headphone jack actually on the bottom edge, but even flipping this around leaves us with concerns. Will the camera really see through that little opening in what here is the bottom-right? And now we’ve already got another rumor to check out about what Apple’s up to with this new hardware, this time asking the question of what’s going on with the iPhone 6′s camera.
While Apple’s been staying at the eight-megapixel mark for a while now, there had been the suggestion that it was finally feeling pressure to bump that figure up a little, presumably in response to so many 13MP flagships from other OEMs last year.Instead, we hear that rumors out of Taiwan are now claiming that Apple will be returning to the 8MP camp for the iPhone 6. That’s not to say that it won’t be delivering important improvements – indeed, the big one with the iPhone 6 could be some very overdue optical stabilization,versus the software-based system Apple currently employs.
While apparently this rumor is causing investors in component suppliers to freak out, it doesn’t sound that bad to us. After all, the important thing is image quality, not how many pixels it packs, and by-and-large Apple’s always delivered in that area; even staying at 8MP, we have no reason to expect the iPhone 6 will suddenly start letting us down.