We are probably just two to three months away from a new iPhone. As the rumours fly, it’s easy to get caught up in the excitement of new hardware, but in reality much of what will make the next iPhone another worldwide hit has already been revealed as part of the iPhone 3.0 OS update.
Be that as it may, the current iPhone hardware could do with a bump. Here is my list of hardware changes that I’d like to see introduced with the next iteration of the iPhone legend.
1. 480p video capture
Those of you that are regular readers of Nokia Creative will know that the reason for my passion with those fantastic phones from Finland is partly because of their comparatively excellent video capture. It would appear that the current iPhone hardware is incapable of capturing video at 30 frames per second. I expect the next hardware to be more than up to the task. A 16:9 480p capture would be lovely, but I’ll make do with VGA if I have to.
2. Faster graphics processor
Whilst I do believe that the current iPhone is capable of PS2 quality graphics, only a handful of developers will ever squeeze that level of polygon performance from it. I’m expecting the next iPhone hardware to have – at the very least – twice the polygon performance of the current hardware. This would mean that the bleeding edge of home console polygon performance (circa 2004) would be available in the palm of my hand – quite a thought!
3. Faster CPU
Surely this is a given? CPU performance must increase at regular intervals. The current iPhone ARM CPU is clocked at 412Mhz, expect to see the next iPhone hardware pass the 600Mhz barrier. I’m hoping for something more spectacular, like dual core at over 1Ghz, but the more pragmatic side of me thinks that a bespoke CPU at those kind of speeds will have to wait until the middle of 2010.
4. Better screen resolution
This a really tricky one. On the face of it, upping the screen resolution is an obvious way to boast sales. But as Nokia will confirm, things are never quite that simple. There are now 30,000 iPhone applications that have been written specifically for the resolution of the current iPhone hardware, which has a screen resolution of 480 by 320 pixels. Upping the screen resolution in the next iPhone hardware will mean that those 30,000 apps will have to be stretched or centred (with boarders). Stretching the display will result in a soft image, and placing the application’s screen output in the centre of the new display will mean boarders of some sort. Neither option is perfect, and neither option is something that I can see Steve Jobs approving.
The screen resolution will have to improve at some point, so what are the options? The best solution that I can think of is to double both the vertical and horizontal resolution in one fell swoop! A 960 by 640 pixel display has two big advantages for Apple. First, those 30,000+ applications written for the previous iPhone hardware will look almost as good as on the original hardware – If you’re going to have to scale the screen data, then doubling produces that very best results. Secondly, Apple have been pushing video at 960 pixels wide as good alternative to 1280 pixels for quite some time. Though not a proper HD resolution, 960 pixels wide is certainly much better than the fabricated nHD standard that Nokia keep promoting.
5. Better battery life
If you are reading this there is a good chance that you have to charge you current iPhone at least once every 24 hours. Quite how Apple will increase battery life whilst decreasing the size of the iPhone hardware is beyond me. But then, that’s why Apple’s engineers are just about the best in their field. I expect to see at least another 20% battery life without any increase in the physical size of the iPhone.
What do you think? Have I missed anything? Would you expect to see a physical keyboard, or a much better camera in the next iPhone hardware? Be sure to let me know.
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 …
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.
(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 …
(^_^) 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.
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.
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.