Upcoming new iPhones rumored to upgrade to even sharper, higher-resolution Retina screens

iPhone 6 Retina HD

Apple’s upcoming iPhone refresh—tentatively dubbed by the press ‘iPhone 6s’ and ‘iPhone 6s Plus’—should feature sharper Retina displays thanks to a rumored screen resolution boost, according to the latest report coming out of Chinese blog Feng.

The publication is claiming knowledge that a 4.7-inch ‘iPhone 6s’ will feature a Full HD screen, literally matching the 1,920-by-1,080 Full HD pixel resolution screen of the current-generation 5.5-inch iPhone 6 Plus. As for an ‘iPhone 6s Plus,’ Apple’s phablet-class device should match high-end Androids by going from a Full HD Retina screen all the way up to a 2K one.

The report stops short of giving us hints of a possible iPhone 6s Plus resolution. 2K resolution typically denotes screens having horizontal resolution on the order of 2,000 pixels.

Some high-end Android devices have 2K screens with an ultra-high resolution of 2,560-by-1,440 pixels, often referred to as “Quad HD”.

As Full HD has the same vertical resolution as 2K screens (1,080 pixels), existing 1080p content like photos, video and graphics assets can be more or less easily utilized within the 2K resolution canvas.

A 2K iPhone should provide a noticeably sharper image when browsing your photos and playing Full HD video. Although the difference between a Full HD and 2K display in terms of sharpness isn’t that noticeable to an untrained eye, a higher resolution screen on the other hand can show more content.

This means fewer taps and less scrolling through iOS menus and more space for your content like webpages in Safari, images in Photos and more.

The Feng report also reiterates that the new iPhones will pack Apple’s force-sensing screen technology called Force Touch, a twelve-megapixel shooter out the back, a faster A9 processor with twice the RAM of its predecessors, a brand spanking new rose-gold color option, improved Touch ID, strengthened chassis, sapphire-coated screen for the iPhone 6s Plus and 32GB as a new entry-level storage tier replacing measly 16GB devices.

iPhone 6 inside view retina hd display

Apple does not change the screen resolution of iOS devices quite as often as its Android competitors do. For years, iPhones were stuck with four-inch 320-by-480 screens before Apple introduced the Retina moniker with the iPhone 4, which was unveiled in 2010 with a screen resolution of 640-by-960 pixels.

The iPhone 5 brought us a slightly taller four-inch screen maxing out at 640-by-1,136 pixels. It wouldn’t be before last year’s iPhone 6 and iPhone 6 Plus refresh that Apple again increased both the size and resolution of the iPhone’s display.

Again, the present-generation iPhone 6 has a 750-by-1,334 pixel resolution screen while its larger sibling tops out at Full HD resolution of 1,920-by-1,080 pixels. In line with the resolution increase, Apple is marketing these new iPhone screens as “Retina HD”.

While all Retina-enabled iPhone models have a pixel density of 326 pixels per inch, which is slightly above Apple-imposed Retina threshold of at least 300 pixels per inch, the iPhone 6 Plus files as the only iPhone with a sharper screen at 401 pixels per inch.

Source: Feng (Google Translate)