back to article Apple iPhone 6 Plus: GORGEOUS FAT pixel density - but it's WASTED

Samsung doesn’t invent anything: it just "copies Apple." Even judges say so. The only explanation for the new iPhone 6 Plus, then, is that Samsung copied it early. Apple iPhone 6 and 6 Plus Fatboy Slim: Apple's iPhone 6 and 6 Plus side by side As the South Koreans have been quick to point out, Cupertino’s 5.5-inch …

  1. returnmyjedi

    Ten hours video playback on a 5S? Are Apple having a bubble? Mine lasted barely half that on a train journey to Glasgow a couple of months back, even with flight mode enabled.

    1. MikeyD85

      Obviously

      you were watching it wrong. :/

      I'd love to know under what conditions Apple get these figures. Same for most manufacturers really. 10 hours video playback may well be possible, but if that means on flight mode with 10% screen brightness and no apps running in the background, that's certainly a non-real world result.

      1. ilmari

        Re: Obviously

        Linux fanboy checking in here

        The problem with real world is that conditions are random. The problem with background apps is that they perform random crap, through the random quality network environment, and everyone has different set of crapware installed.

        Real world example: At home, on my desk, where even IRDA to celltower would work, standby life without background apps would be on the order of weeks.

        Out at sea on an island, with closest tower being a solar/windpowered byuoy, standby time is on the order of hours.

        There's already massive power use within the fairly wide "full signal" indicated range, let alone when operating with less than perfect signal indicated...

        The only purpose of the batttery life ratings is to compare with other ratings. (and hope they use same methodology across models).

        As a sidenote, and as someone who doesnt use apple, I have to say I'm rather envious that iphone brightness goes as low as it goes, and that the volume can go low too. Most devices these day feel like getting stabbed in the eye at lowest brightness, and bleeding eardrums at one step above muted..

        Then again, I see other people discussîng max screen brightness and volume, as if they actually want even more , to me, ludicrously high levels... Again, shows that one person's real world can be quite different from another's.

    2. SuccessCase

      Yes it lasts at least 10 hours. You either have a bad battery, or you may be using an App like VLC, in which case it will last much less time because it will be doing software decoding.

      1. returnmyjedi

        I was using the native video app with a video libraries from the iTunes store. I hope it is a dodgy battery because a ten minute phone call depletes it by at least a per cent a minute. May have to endure some time with a "genius" (never had a moniker been so inaccurate) to see what's what.

        1. Anonymous Coward
          Anonymous Coward

          I have a 6+ and I gabbed on the phone to someone yesterday for 2 hours and it cost me about 10% in total. The battery life on this thing is incredible and worth the purchase price alone. It's the first smartphone I've owned that really does seem to last a full day on a single charge. Thankfully I won't need to add a battery pack this time.

          1. Dave 126 Silver badge

            Re: Battery life

            There are websites that standardise (as far as is possible) their battery life tests of various handsets.

            Anandtech have a reputation for such tests, and though they haven't yet released their full review and test results for the iPhone 6 and 6 Plus, they have released some preliminary results here:

            http://www.anandtech.com/show/8559/iphone-6-and-iphone-6-plus-preliminary-results

            "As with all of our battery life tests, we standardize on 200 nits and ensure that our workload in the web browsing test has a reasonable amount of time in all power states of an SoC." The test is done on WiFi.

            NB: The founder of Anandtech left the website earlier this year and is now employed by Apple.

          2. Anonymous Coward
            Holmes

            re: all day battery

            @AC - "It's the first smartphone I've owned that really does seem to last a full day on a single charge."

            You've been using shitty phones then. Hell, if all you want is all-day battery, the Moto G will handle that quite well for you for ~$100.

    3. JeffyPoooh
      Pint

      Antennas

      "...requires non-metallic areas to let its radio signals in and out. This time they take the form of narrow plastic stripes..."

      I believe that the antennas *are* the actual external metal stripes around the edges, and the plastic stripes are simply where the antenna ends (plastic = insulators). I don't believe that the explanation that the radio signals are somehow emitted inside and then sneak out through the wee feisty plastic gaps is even the slightest bit valid. At least, not for the primary antennas (might be for GPS and/or bluetooth).

      One design consideration is to keep the high-Z open circuit end of the antenna monopoles, opposite end from the feed point, away from the meat machine's nasty low-Z fingers. The iPhone 4 famous 'You're holding it wrong' problem.

      1. Number6

        Re: Antennas

        It is quite possible for a little gap to *be* the antenna. A basic slot antenna is the dual of a dipole - you feed the two ends of the dipole from the centre or the slot from couple of points either side of the centre of the slot. A horizontal dipole gives horizontal polarisation, a horizontal slot gives vertical polarisation.

        1. JeffyPoooh
          Pint

          Re: Antennas

          "basic slot antenna"

          Yes, yes, yes... It could be. But in this case it's simply not. Think about it: There's no room for the luxury of dipoles. It's busy enough already.

          If you look inside (on the 'net), one will clearly see that the metal bits are (essentially, basically) a pair of different monopoles, fed at the top left. What's left of the metal frame presumably works as a ground plane (as such). Obviously it's a work of vast compromise and it's doesn't exactly match any simplified category of antenna as a pristine example.

          But it's not a slot antenna.

          If you need further proof, look up the SAR compliance documentation.

      2. eAbyss

        Re: Antennas

        "I believe that the antennas *are* the actual external metal stripes around the edges, and the plastic stripes are simply where the antenna ends (plastic = insulators). I don't believe that the explanation that the radio signals are somehow emitted inside and then sneak out through the wee feisty plastic gaps is even the slightest bit valid. At least, not for the primary antennas (might be for GPS and/or bluetooth).

        One design consideration is to keep the high-Z open circuit end of the antenna monopoles, opposite end from the feed point, away from the meat machine's nasty low-Z fingers. The iPhone 4 famous 'You're holding it wrong' problem."

        It's actually not that far fetched. The early iPhones and iPods had a small black plastic rectangle on the back which allowed radio waves through to it's antenna just behind.

        The antennas for the iP6 are actually the metal strips on the BACK at the top and bottom of the phone.

    4. Anonymous Coward
      Anonymous Coward

      "the Note sold well, shifting 10 million units in a year."

      IPhone 6, 10 million in a week.

      1. Jah

        Actually it was over 10 million in the first 30 days for the Note 3

      2. nuclearstar

        Yes but the iphone is an esablished phone, the note was a new form factor and concept. Apple does 1 phone (well 2 now) samsung does 15+ different phones.

        Also, apple fanbois buy the new phone each time it comes out, my work colleague got an iphone 5 10 months ago, and now, not even needing a 6, she bought one. the iphone 5 would last another 2 years easy, but because its a new apple phone, one has to get it?

        I got my note original 3 years ago, everyone said how big and stupid it was, now the same people are bying iphone6 plus's. I am looking forward to my new Note 4 with better resolution, better build quality(doesnt bend) and way more features.

        1. Lallabalalla
          FAIL

          5 months is the new 2 years?

          "Also, apple fanbois buy the new phone each time it comes out, my work colleague got an iphone 5 10 months ago, and now, not even needing a 6, she bought one"

          If she got a 5 10 months ago she clearly DIDN'T get one as soon as it came out, now did she. Your argument fails.

  2. AMBxx Silver badge

    super-saturated hues that only bees can see

    Dull review, but worth reading just for that

  3. Jim 48

    "You won’t be able to touch all areas of the screen without using your other hand"

    I can very easily reach all parts of my OnePlus One's screen with my thumb whilst holding it in the same hand, although admittedly I do have to adjust the position of the fingers that are supporting the device's back but the sandstone finish gives me confidence that it's not going to slip. It'd be interesting to see if it's technically possible to do the same on the 6 Plus but the smooth back & sides makes it feel unstable.

    1. Paw Bokenfohr

      "interesting to see if it's technically possible to do the same on the 6 Plus"

      It is. And it doesn't feel (too) unstable (to me) while in the Apple case.

      I bought it solely* because of the OIS, I would have preferred the vanilla 6, with the thought to return it or sell it on if I couldn't live with it, but it's really not stressing me out to use it - like you have found with your phone, you can do anything you need "one handed" it's just that you have to learn a new method.

      * well, not solely, obviously, I like iOS, have lots of apps, don't hate Apple**, like the resale value etc.

      ** but neither am I a "fanboi" also owning a Nexus 5 for my work phone, and not hating that in any way either.

  4. Anonymous Coward
    Anonymous Coward

    Always Critical of Apple

    Don't you know, its bloody revolutionary. 4.7 inches, who'd have thunk ! And 5.5 inches. Oh, Samsung didn't think it first, did they?

    Ummmmm, what else is revolutionary?

    And they're only £600 plus. Now That's also revolutionary, innnit ?

    Please don't criticise Apple that much, they've already sold 10 million of them. That's 10 million more idiots than last years iteration.

    Now please report something more interesting and technical with an IT angle.

    1. Tromos

      "And they're only £600 plus"

      Seriously, is anyone going to even consider the 16 gig flavour when there is no expansion possible? It is only available as a marketing ploy to set a lower price point. Make that £700 plus.

      1. JeffyPoooh
        Pint

        Re: "And they're only £600 plus"

        "Make that £700 plus."

        Just under Cdn$600 for the top of the line 128GB 6 Plus. Net yet, but maybe for Xmas.

        $485 discount for having an actual generous N GB-class mobile data plan, ah, so, ah, you can actually use it. As opposed to sitting in coffee shops trying to hack into a wifi being used by 127 others.

        PS: Already have the data plan. Just need to agree to extend the contract by two years. Since it's a great plan, ah, yeah.

        Yeah, I could buy one outright for $1080, not have a data plan, save money every month, and then sit at home admiring its beauty. Never venturing beyond Wifi range. Sad.

    2. Anonymous Coward
      Anonymous Coward

      Re: Always Critical of Apple

      10m sold in 3 days and Samsung tool 365 days to sell 10m??

      1. Jah

        Re: Always Critical of Apple

        Yes but only 2.5 million were the Plus. Note 3 sold over 10 million in 30 days

        1. ratfox
          Go

          Re: Always Critical of Apple

          Seriously, is anyone going to even consider the 16 gig flavour when there is no expansion possible?

          I have a 16 GB Nexus 5 here, had it for a year. Never felt I needed more. In fact, I had to check in settings for the first time to know how much memory I had in total (~13 GB, I assume the rest is Android), and how much I was using (~9 GB, of which ~4GB of apps, ~3GB of pics and videos, and ~2GB for music and cached data).

          Unless you have a lot of music or you are hoarding apps, I find 16 GB is plenty enough…

          1. JeffyPoooh
            Pint

            Re: Always Critical of Apple

            "Unless you have a lot of music or you are hoarding apps, I find 16 GB is plenty enough…"

            Or podcasts. Or zillions of pictures.

            My 32 GB iPhone is basically full. Apps aren't that big, and near zero music (except a strange U2 album I don't remember buying - LOL). GB of podcasts, and picture going way back to the 3GS days.

            Next phone will be 128 GB, just cause.

        2. GrantB

          Re: Always Critical of Apple

          You are the second poster to claim that in this thread.

          Sounded a bit high so I actually spent the 30 seconds to Google it.

          Looks like they did sell a lot; claiming 10m sold in 60 days, but not 30.

          Apple will also no doubt sell an awful lot of the 6+ once they fully crank up worldwide, but I guess the most obvious point is that there is serous demand for big-arsed phones. Not sure I get why, but then I use a 4" phone as a phone in my pocket and tablets and lastops when I need more screen real estate

          1. Dave 126 Silver badge

            Re: Always Critical of Apple

            Like most things IT, I want more more storage, more memory and more speed, but I want those things out of habit. I have a 16GB Android phone and for my uses that is just fine. A few dozen albums, podcasts and a few hundred pictures fit on it fine.

            For sure, if it had a larger screen, I might want to stick some movies on it, but no matter. If I spent more time on public transport (as opposed to being in my car with its own SDcard-playing stereo) I might want more storage on my phone, but I don't. So I can understand how some many people would want more than 16GB.

  5. NoneSuch Silver badge

    "It has to be said that, at 401ppi, the scaling really isn’t noticeable"

    Considering that at a distance of 18" the best human eye can only discern 187 ppi its all sorta moot isn't it?

    1. Bush_rat

      But...but...

      What number are they going to make bigger if they don't make the resolution bigger? Screen size is at the point of "Your hands just aren't big enough for this phone", we've already hit 2.5GHz quad-cores and even octa-cores (Yes they're ARM but still, big numbers) and the things weigh less than the sand they are made from.

      What's that you say, focus on battery life? Why? Who wants all those features to last more than half an hour?

  6. Anonymous Coward
    Anonymous Coward

    I'm sure it will sell very well to the huge installed base of Apple phone users who've been struggling with a tiny screen for so long. Nice enough phones if you want or need to spend over £600 I suppose, although very dated look to the UI for my taste - not as dire as iOS 6 but its about time the famed Apple designers earned their reputation. The ease of upgrading iOS rather than the pain Android and Windows Phone give users remains to my mind the best feature of iPhone.

    1. GregC

      Re: OS updates

      The ease of upgrading iOS rather than the pain Android and Windows Phone give users

      Don't know about Windows Phone, but I'm struggling to think of anything painful when it comes to system updates for my Android - I get a message saying an update is ready, I click ok, it reboots and updates. My iPhone owning friends tell me this is also the process for them.

      1. rogue lj

        Re: OS updates

        Yup, same with Windows Phone too. Can take a while, but it's a one-click process.

        1. AMBxx Silver badge

          Re: OS updates

          Only phone OS that I've had a minor problem with is blackberry - battery life is dreadful for the first few days. Supposed to be to do with indexing all the email, but seems to last too long for that.

          My Nexus and Lumia both happily upgrade whenever updates are available.

          I'm tempting fate when I say this, but updates seem to be working pretty well across all platforms right now. Let's see how Windows 9 goes!

      2. Anonymous Coward
        Anonymous Coward

        Re: OS updates

        As I understand it, there are many phones still less than 2 years old without the option of updating to WP 8.1 or Android 4.4 Kitkat, despite it being several months since the release of both OSes.

        Apparently Android L is trying to do something about the parlous state of update availability for future phones.

        Microsoft may be attempting similar with WP9 but whether that helps people with currents Windows phones or thinking of buying a WP8 who knows? The company had no compunction in leaving WP7.x behind with no update path and the fact they seem unable to state that WP8 phones will be upgradable to WP9 suggests they are at least considering leaving the current user base in the lurch again.

        Apple haven't treated their iPhone 4 or 5 badly like this. Just because their smug presentations make many people want to throw, and their pricing takes advantage of the ignorance of many users is no reason not to highlight when they do some things right.

        1. dogged

          Re: OS updates

          As I understand it, there are many phones still less than 2 years old without the option of updating to WP 8.1 or Android 4.4 Kitkat, despite it being several months since the release of both OSes.

          As I understand it, the only Windows 8 phone that cannot be updated to Windows 8.1 is the HTC 8X and this because HTC have not supported it with suitable drivers.

          1. Anonymous Coward
            Anonymous Coward

            Re: OS updates

            C'mon guys. Apple people have always deluded themselves about how easy everything Apple is compared to all of that imaginary fiddling about that the infidels have to do on a daily basis. It's how they justify their huge cash outflow for iStuff. Don't take that away from them!

            1. Anonymous Coward
              Anonymous Coward

              Re: OS updates

              It's not imaginary. I have used both both Mac and Windows kit every day for years. The latter requires constant fiddling. The former only rarely does.

              I can't speak to phones as much since I switched away from BlackBerry to iPhone a few years back. One day I'll try out Android but based on co-worker experience I don't see a big draw.

              Apple kit is not magically delicious but at least they polish off the rough edges before they ship it. They are work tools for me, not toys, so the extra cost is trivial compared to the hassle.

          2. dogged

            Re: OS updates

            HTC are (as of yesterday) now supporting WP 8.1 on 8X and 8S so that's every single WP8 phone upgradable.

      3. robin thakur 1

        Re: OS updates

        Well, if you really want to know...I can't update my HTC One M8 using the OTA updates because it is rooted and this prevents them from installing. I rooted it and now I have to put back on the OTB recovery if I want to update it, supposedly. The last time I did this, it decided to boot-loop, I had to reinstall the image on itto stock and lost all my files and data. So yes...iOS is much easier to update. This is mostly thanks to iCloud backups which you can rely on not to screw up.

        I'm sure there very well may be Android backup equivalents but I don't have a week to waste researching them all then finding which one remotely works. Yes I know that rooting is optional and not OTB but I also can't change the lock screen widget or the dot view case displaying Hangout alerts (which still doesn't really work) without it. It is probably easier on a Nexus 5 but an HTC One M8 is not one of these exotic landfill android phones with no support. Back to Apple I go, I miss usability and reliability.

        1. eAbyss

          Re: OS updates

          You're angry when you're the one who rooted it? You chose to take it out of stock in the first place, you can't just pass the blame to someone else. All tools, tutorials, etc normally come with disclaimers that say that things may go wrong (especially when you're inexperienced) and that you alone are responsible. Sounds like you have an unlocked boot-loader and a custom recovery flashed, I don't know why you don't just flash a custom ROM.

          Now that that's out of the way, everyone here is talking about STOCK updates which as everyone says Android's are at least as easy and stable as iOSs. The power user method of updating to a stock ROM is a little more complex but that's something YOU accept when you do it.

          "Back to Apple I go, I miss usability and reliability."

          Funny, that's what I'd miss after leaving Android. This usability, reliability, and innovation Apple's been pushing are all lies.

          Usability: Apple's locked down, walled garden, you can only do and think what we want you to approach doesn't exactly lend itself to usability. With Android you can customize just about anything to your heart's content, make almost anything function exactly as you'd like, or even flash a different version of the OS. Google also is more relaxed with what can be added to it's store, while keeping it secure, and even allows apps that can compete with it's own, Apple keeps a monopolitive, iron fist approch blocking anything that can compete with it or possibly add functionality that iOS lacks.

          Reliability: There is no evidence to show that one OS is more reliable than the other in recent history...besides the disastrous iOS 8.0.1 that is...

          Innovation: What innovation?

          -Larger screens? Samsung.

          -Apple pay? Simply the EMV standard with Apple's name thrown on it.

          -Screen? It's all rendered non-natively before being down-scaled to 1080p on the 6 plus. This decreases performance and the quality of the picture and would be completely unnecessary if Apple had moved to resolution independent apps like Android did long ago. The iP6 actually renders/up-scales everything at 1242×2208 then down-scales it to the screen's resolution 1080×1920.

      4. eAbyss

        Re: OS updates

        You also usually don't have as many device breaking bugs as iOS updates do.

  7. Drat

    I thought...

    "But there’s no integer ratio between a pixel designed by the software developer and a pixel on your iPhone 6 Plus screen. That’s something the fragmented Android world has long tolerated, but it’s new to perfectionist Apple."

    I thought android forced app developers to cater for all size/shape screens by changing the layout not by scaling anything? This was always seen as a major hurdle for programmers (have to consider multiple views), but the argument for is that all apps are rendered cripsly on any display?

    The Apple solution seems clunky in comparison, seems Android got that one right IMO.

    1. SuccessCase

      Re: I thought...

      It was a major hurdle before screens reached a resolution where ill effects are imperceptible. Now everyone is saying the same thing. In practice it looks great. As a sometimes producer of app graphics, that's very good news and life becomes a lot easier.

    2. hazydave

      Re: I thought...

      Android doesn't cater to absolutely every screen resolution. But yeah, you can support different screen classes, based on both resolution and screen size. Different layouts, managed by the OS, for "phone" vs "tablet" mode -- which is based on screen size, primarily.

      Thing is, most of an Android application is going to be in vectors. So things are drawn specifically to your screen's resolution. Just like your web browser does, your desktop PC does, or pretty much any 3D game does. Sure, there are bitmaps available in Android, and the closest one may be scaled to your specific screen, but that's only one small part of most application displays.

      Apple, on the other hand, has always had just a couple of different resolutions, and at least historically, everything they've done has been in bitmaps. In fact, at least under Jobs, there was no vector rendering built-in to the OS (though some app developers have done this on their own). So it's actually much worse than the Android situation -- there's never a general case in which every screen display on an Android device is being rescaled.

  8. SuccessCase

    "Yes, the software is actually scaling up your 1080p video (reducing its quality) so that the hardware can scale it back down (reducing its quality) to display it at 1080p. Madness."

    Taking a screen-grab establishes no such thing. iOS uses hardware video decoding. You give the video resource to the graphics chip and it does the rest. If it is up-sampling It will be hardware up-sampling (not software) before downsampling. But it may well be simply playing out the video resource at native screen resolution and only up-sampling when a video frame is grabbed and needs to be rendered to a UIImage and given to the application at the native software @3x point layout resolution.

  9. william 10

    "Samsung, you’ll recall, doesn’t invent anything; it just "copies Apple". Even judges say so."

    Being English, I go by what Her Majesty's High Court of Justice in England made Apple admit on the front page of it's Web Site.

    1. airmanchairman

      You have revealed a great deal by your post and the up votes it has received, a great deal about this blog and the identity and nature of its readers.

      Thank you very much!

  10. Richard42

    Costs too much

    It's nice that people can say that iThings cost too much...

    http://www.theregister.co.uk/2014/09/19/smartphones_its_the_economics_stupid/

    Can anyone say "unsustainable manufacturer subsidies"?

  11. dynjo

    Scaling

    The scaling is actually pure genius, read the reasoning behind it here: http://www.paintcodeapp.com/news/iphone-6-screens-demystified

    Also this is fun: http://appleinsider.com/articles/14/09/23/apple-says-ios-8-already-on-46-of-devices-nears-ios-7-distribution

    How is 4.4 going these days guys, you must be near what, 20% now? Keep it up.

    1. sabroni Silver badge

      Re: Pure genius

      my arse.

    2. Dan 55 Silver badge
      Megaphone

      Re: Scaling

      I read the reasoning in the review. Not all of us need to have pictures drawn.

      Some people say it's pure genius, others call it... suboptimal. Imagine an app having three copies of all the resources at 1x, 2x, and now 3x... that's going to fill up storage especially for the 8Gb and 16Gb models. They really need SVG, which incidentally they tried to do it on the Mac too but eventually abandoned it and forced everyone to have two copies of resources at 1x and 2x.

      1. sabroni Silver badge

        Re: others call it... suboptimal

        Are you saying my arse is suboptimal?!?!?!?

    3. Anonymous Coward
      Anonymous Coward

      Re: Pure Genius

      Are you using 'genius' ironically, like the way it's used as the label for Apple store employees?

    4. Indolent Wretch

      Re: Scaling

      This is either sarcasm or possession.

      With an Apple loving comment it's pretty much impossible to tell.

      Assuming it isn't perfectly disguised sarcasm I still don't understand this absurd pride an individual seems to have in the rate of uptake of a piece of free software within a near monoculture of devices.

      Speaking as a developer the scaling is arse.

      A proper system of resolution independence should have been there from the beginning (it's not impossible Android has it, you just have to work for your money), everybody knew the writing would be on the wall at some point as soon as they started doubling resolution.

      This solution is a back of the fag packet kludge to get round the problem because it's too late to fix it properly. Given that they can't fix it properly it is probably the only workable kludge and I'm not sure I'd call picking the only viable option available as genius.

  12. James 51

    "Technically, meanwhile, the 2208x1242 to 1920x1080 scaling is so obviously suboptimal that the iPhone 6 Plus feels like a stopgap, launched to establish a class of device before the technology had been fully worked out. It doesn’t seem fanciful to wonder if, like the iPad 3, it might be rather speedily replaced."

    Given that Steve Jobs was infamously a perfectionist and wasn't shy about berating employees who disappointed him, I wonder what he would make of this (and the watch too).

    1. returnmyjedi

      Stevo didn't seem to have a problem with releasing the iPhone 4 with its rubbish antenna design.

      1. Anonymous Coward
        Anonymous Coward

        Nor an operating system with no sense of resolution independence.

        Hence now.

        1. ratfox

          Nor an operating system with no sense of resolution independence.

          When you control exclusively what devices can use the OS, you don't really need resolution independence. And when you want developers to write a lot of apps for your brand new OS, a single resolution is a feature, not a bug; as mentioned occasionally by Apple on the subject of Android fragmentation.

          But indeed, they are paying for it now. Three different screen sizes, and the downscaling.

          I find this downscaling rather curious coming from Apple. Surely it wouldn't have been very hard to have an actual 2208x1242 screen? Why such a compromise? Maybe the battery life…?

    2. Mark 65

      To answer your question: If a hardware veep had told uncle Steve he couldn't have a nice round integer multiple and instead they'd upscale to downscale he'd likely have torn him a new one before the door hit his arse on the way out. Jobsy was one for getting what he wanted.

  13. Truth4u

    "It doesn't seem fanciful to wonder if, like every Apple product, it might be rather speedily replaced."

    FTFY. I hope the fanboys are enjoying their £16,000 dustbin Macs, because the CPU socket in that is obsolete already. The upgrade path is: place directly in landfill, drop another £16k on a new one.

    1. Piro Silver badge

      Except they have high resale value. All Macs seem to keep some value long after they're obsolete. Check ebay.

      They'll lose a lot from that initial retail, though, because honestly those dustbins are overpriced.

      1. Truth4u

        Even if they lose 60% of their value its still going to be an old CPU you'll never be able to upgrade, and it will still cost 6.4 grand

      2. MankyManning

        Overpriced compared to what? Spec up an equivalent HP workstation with xeon chips to the same spec and it costs about the same. It still won't have PCI attached storage or thunderbolt.

      3. jzlondon

        If they were overpriced, they wouldn't sell. That's the thing about pricing.

        They're just overpriced *for you*.

        1. Truth4u

          How many do you have?

  14. John Doe 6

    Now we clearly see...

    ...what made Steve Jobs Apple something special.

    I hope Apple rediscovers the Jobs in Apple because without it Apple will not be what Apple was.

  15. MrWibble

    Other apps that haven’t been optimised with 3x assets, however, are upsampled considerably before being downsampled again,

    What? That sounds crazy to me - OK, I'm not a developer, but still - can anyone explain why this is a good idea compared to upsampling to the correct resolution?

    1. Neil 8

      It's difficult to explain without a diagram but doing it in one step would result in a jagged image since you'd be visibly dropping pixels.

      By rendering in two steps - First at the imaginary 2208x1242 resolution and then scaling down, you can blend the dropped pixels into their nearest neighbours.

      It's likely that the GPU can do this anti-aliased down-sampling operation in very little time.

      1. Anonymous Coward
        Anonymous Coward

        It's pretty simple really: always do multiplication before division or you lose resolution.

      2. eAbyss

        "It's difficult to explain without a diagram but doing it in one step would result in a jagged image since you'd be visibly dropping pixels.

        By rendering in two steps - First at the imaginary 2208x1242 resolution and then scaling down, you can blend the dropped pixels into their nearest neighbours.

        It's likely that the GPU can do this anti-aliased down-sampling operation in very little time."

        Or you could just use a better quality scaler...

        Of course the best fix would have been to outfit it with a 2208x1242 screen and forget about the down-scaling. It would have barely effected their astronomical profit margins.

    2. Anonymous Coward
      Anonymous Coward

      If you upscale directly; you're just making the pixels bigger...that's OK up to a point; but if you're not upscaling by a whole number then the half-pixels can look messy.

      If you upscale past the desired result; then downscale to the desired size then you are (can be) ironing out some of the jaggies at the cost of some overall blurring. The downscaling bit hides some of the errors created by upscaling.

      It's difficult to explain; but if you can be arsed to try an experiment then try this:

      1) Take an image. Enlarge it x5 in your favourite graphics program. Save the image as an example of direct upscaling.

      2) Take the same original image and upscale it 15x with Smilla Enlarger:

      http://sourceforge.net/projects/imageenlarger/

      ....then downscale it 3x using your favourite graphics program

      3) Compare the images. The directly upscaled image should be blockier; and the up-then-downscaled image should be sharper overall; but with a slight hint of blurriness.

      1. eAbyss

        Anyone who's worked or seriously played around with video or images would tell you that you never rescale more than once unless absolutely necessary. The only case in which it would make an improvement is if you used rather old and rudimentary algorithms such as nearest-neighbor, bilinear, or bicubic. Any of the more modern algorithms would produce a far better result than rescaling twice.

        1. Anonymous Coward
          Anonymous Coward

          ....unless you use a fractal upscaler, specifically designed for the purpose as described above.

  16. Anonymous Coward
    Anonymous Coward

    Samsung did copy the "phablet"

    Not from Apple, from other Android OEMs who did it first. Nevermind that claiming that "same thing, but bigger" is something that can be copied is makes "rounded corners" look like innovation by comparison.

    Besides, Apple isn't aping the Note, because there's no stylus. Pretty sure that's the selling point of it as far as Samsung is concerned.

  17. Jean-Paul

    Everything is big

    yes very big and notable the the register app. Come on update your app, support the new resolutions such that it will be glorious just like the native apps.

  18. Anonymous Coward
    Anonymous Coward

    If screens keep getting bigger, they will reinvent the PC desktop..

    Imagine that, a screen big enough to read sitting at a desk, in comfort!

    There is no end to Appllimagination!

    Like having sex, with a Unicorn!!

    1. Anonymous Coward
      Anonymous Coward

      Re: If screens keep getting bigger, they will reinvent the PC desktop..

      Like having sex, with a Unicorn!!

      According to traditional mythology, you would only ever get to do that once. Matches my experience with Apple products too, once is usually enough.

  19. ItsNotMe
    Devil

    Looks like Dead Steve may have been wrong. But how could that be?

    "When Steve Jobs introduced the very first iPhone, he said, “We’ve designed something wonderful for your hand, just wonderful.” That was a phone with a 3.5-inch screen, a small enough to be held and operated with the fingers on one hand. He insisted that the company had designed the perfectly proportioned gadget, even as rivals running Google’s (GOOG) Android operating system began rolling out bigger phones. “You can’t get your hand around it,” Jobs harrumphed over the inferior products. “No one’s going to buy that.”

    http://www.businessweek.com/articles/2014-09-08/apple-seems-to-think-steve-jobs-wonderful-iphone-was-too-small

    And now...meeelions of the faithful are doing just that. Could it be as simple as "pent up demand"?

    Nah...must be shrewd marketing. Yea...that's it...shrewd marketing.

    And yes...it is some amazing coincidence how this new iPhone6 Plus looks eerily just like my Samsung Galaxy S5.

  20. Joerg

    Rescaling algorithms don't use simple 2x2 pixel blocks and such...

    To rescale pictures complex techniques based on signal theory are used. Complex interpolation algorithms are used. It's not just a simple "double the pixel" thing with Retina. Otherwise pictures and text wouldn't look that good. The simplest "double pixel" techniques were used in the past, ancient for IT, when hardware didn't have the computing power to process more complex, better algorithms.

  21. Anonymous Coward
    Anonymous Coward

    Sapphire Glass

    That they have saved for next iteration at £800 a piece.

    See, you're buying Sapphire ! Hence the costs increase, of course.

  22. RubberJohnny

    Stuff your screen resolutions, more dots per inch give no useful extra to a phone.

    I want: More Battery life, better daylight visibility, good signal reception, ability to withstand being dropped. They are all USEFUL things.

    Extra dots per inch = waste of time.

    1. Mark 65

      You forgot SDXC, the one thing it really is missing above all else.

  23. smartypants

    Odd. No mention of the bending feature

    Apple have been very quiet about a few things, such as battery life, RAM size, cost per GB of storage and another first, the bendable smartphone.

    We all know that such large phones can be uncomfortable in the pocket. The iphone 6 plus is the first one in the world that will magically - MAGICALLY! - bend to a more comfortable shape!(*)

    http://techcrunch.com/2014/09/23/the-iphone-6-plus-gets-bent/

    (*unbending is a feature which will be introduced in the iphone 7)

  24. Irony Deficient

    doubled?

    Adam and Alan,

    The original iPhone, back in 2007, had a resolution of 480x320 pixels. When Apple moved to Retina displays with the iPhone 4, it simply doubled that to 960x640.
    since (480 × 320) pixels = 153,600 pixels, and (960 × 640) pixels = 614,400 pixels, perhaps you’d meant “quadrupled”?

    1. Tromos

      Re: doubled?

      Doubled the resolution, quadrupled the number of pixels.

      1. Irony Deficient

        Re: doubled?

        Tromos, a 480 × 320 resolution is doubled either with 960 × 320 or with 480 × 640 — either of these will accommodate two copies at the original resolution. A 960 × 640 resolution will accommodate four copies at the original resolution — hence quadrupled.

  25. Frank Bough

    We've been here before...

    Surely a neater solution would have been to consider the display comprising 3 x 640 x 960 or 1920 x 960 with a 120 pixel height increase? Especially as the display is implicitly landscape in nature.

    Still, Apple used to have a constant dpi system for their computer monitors too and had to give that up in the fullness of time.

  26. stolennomenclature

    quad not double

    Sorry but going from 480x320 to 960x640 is quadrupling the resolution not doubling it. I know the author knows this, but using the expression "doubling" is rather confusing.

  27. iOS6 user

    With growing screen resolution

    With growing screen resolution in iOS7 was introduced major UI redesign prepared like for not the screen with quadruple bigger pixels numbers but way lower solution than before.

    I have completely no Idea why Apple scraped so good looking UI. To mimic Android? Comon .. if I would simpler UI I would choose Android not iOS :>

  28. eAbyss

    -Unused resolution.

    -Horrible rescaling practices for the illusion of a higher pixel density.

    -Can be bent into the shape of a boomerang just by brushing up against someone or carrying it in your pocket.

    -Overpriced.

    -The plus costs Apple ~$15.50 more to produce than the basic iP6 yet costs $200 more.

    -Locked down and less capable than it's competitors.

    -Childish looking UI.

    -An OS that keeps crashing apps.

    -Have to deal with inappropriately named "geniuses" whenever something goes wrong.

    -A company that steals other companys' ideas and then claims to have actually innovated them it's self.

    -A company that marks up it's products 300%+ and still has the audacity to claim that it can't afford to produce it's products anywhere else than China.

    -A 16GB phone produced only in order to be able to claim a lower starting price.

    Sweet! Where do I sign up?

  29. Sooty

    ipad & iphone apps

    As this has the same, if not higher, resolution than an ipad, and isn't much smaller than an ipad mini, will I finally be able to run my "HD" apps on it that currently refuse to install on an iphone?

  30. PAT MCCLUNG

    Providing pixel density greater than the capacity of the human eye can see is a phenomenon that I truly can't understand. Any androids with enhanced vision out there to use it?

  31. GrizzlyCoder

    Massively missed opportunity by Redmond...

    I've said it before so at the risk of incurring "yawn" responses, I'll say it again.....M$ missed out massively by scrapping the "Courier" -- I would have been definitely first in the camp-out queue to get hold of one of these and it would even now run rings around the competition (it was a 'digital filofax')... to date the nearest I can get is the Sammy Note 2014 but it doesn't fold in two like the Courier....if you have no clue what I am wittering on about, google for it and watch the 2-minute or so demo video

  32. Nosher

    Value for money?

    £790 for a phone? Are people that insane? I've bought a *car* which I got 50,000 miles out of for less than that.

  33. Matt_payne666

    Screen resolutions...

    OK, so the iPhones will sell, no matter what, but If Samsung or HTC or Microsoft or almost anyone else released a brand new, flagship phone with less than 1920x1080 it would be lambasted as archaic, could have tried better or not as high a ppi ratio as an iPhone...

    now that the 6 has some odd, low density display and the 6plus makes do with 1920x1080 its all good and more than anyone needs....

    as for sapphire... Lenovo has a 5" smartphone with a sapphire glass display....

  34. Goat Jam

    Perfectionist Apple

    Died with Steve Jobs. That is all

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