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Comment by untog | Hacker News Reader

It's ironic - the addition of extensions, custom keyboards and the like was possibly going to be enough to bring me back to iOS from Android - I always preferred the hardware, just wanted a little more flexibility from my software.

But now Apple has totally ditched the 4" hardware factor - the main reason I liked the hardware so much. To me, Apple has lost an edge by doing that.

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What do you get from an iPhone 6 4" over the current models there? Better processor, NFC, nicer camera? While the screen is a big part of battery drain, I'll bet that moving to the A8 also justified a bigger battery, and all these things got more room to fit in. You might have to give up something for a 4" form factor. But I'll also bet that as they hone the new architecture, you'll see it trickle down to the lower price slots, a la iPad mini Retina.

The ability to USE them? I for example can barely use my Moto G with one hand, most of the time holding it with two hands (one in the top left, one in the lower right) so I can access all of the screen easily. My hands are just too small, I can't use a Nexus 5 at all without two hands, really annoying.

So, for all us people with small hands, what do you think we should do? Buy a 5.5" phone and use it like a tablet? That's not really practical :/

Sorry, I meant, "What would you get from an iPhone 6 4" over the current 4" models?" Trying to determine what's actually important in the new models aside from screen size, beyond the feeling that you're not buying something "old".

Funny, I feel the same way about the new Moto X. I think the larger screen was a mistake, and Motorola would have been better served to update the existing 4.7" phone and release a 5.5" or larger separate device.

I will be very interested to see if Apple continues having 4", 4.7", and 5.5" phones in its line-up over the next few years. It seems like a natural spread that covers a good number of different use cases.

eh, totally ditched? the 5s and 5c remains available.

Apple's iPhone support cycle is such that there are significant downsides to getting a device from an older generation.

For example: The iPhone 4S was released in October 2011. In October 2013, Apple released iOS 7. While iOS 7 supports the 4S, it increases RAM overhead to the point that switching from app A to app B kills app A the vast majority of the time. (This is terribly annoying when you're writing, you switch to a web browser to look something up, and when you switch back the thing you were writing disappears.)

The user adoption rate of new OSes is ridiculously high. This means you will have maybe 3-6 months after the new OS comes out before apps no longer support the old one.

Really? iPhone 4S can't handle iOS7? I'm using an iPhone 4 on iOS7 without any problems whatsoever, and I'm a heavy user+developer.

I use a 4S with iOS 7. I can't wait to get the new phone, iOS is so slow now on my device. I guess there aren't any problems per se except that I pretty much hate using my phone.

32GB model?

The 8GB really bogs down and the 16GB has noticeable lag.

Aren't the differences only in storage?

Presumably that also affects the amount of swap space available.

iOS doesn't swap like traditional OSes, although it does persist a small cache of metadata about running app instances. The file system is not particularly fast, though, so I could see low space conditions (that might trigger reclamation or defragmentation) slowing things down in general.

Yes, 32GB. Although I don't know why it would make a huge difference (not saying it wouldn't).

i have a 4s that i got in 2011 that works fine on iOS 8. frankly their support cycle is far better than with any other options. perhaps the year old phone won't last quite as long as the new phone, but it will probably last long enough to want a new phone. the 5s is a great phone and will be supported for at least the next 3+ years

Anecdotally, my old 4S on iOS7 runs great. I almost can't tell the difference between that and my iPhone5 (well, other than screen size).

I know folks using iOS7 on a 16GB iPhone4 with no issues either (it's slower, but quite usable).

They're old models, though - and they won't get updates.

So I could go through the process of switching from Android to iOS for... one phone generation. Doesn't seem quite so worth it then.

EDIT: by updates I mean hardware updates. The 4" form factor is still alive in terms of devices you can buy, but it's dead in terms of development.

The 4s is supported by IOS 8, it seems reasonable to expect that the 5s would be supported by IOS 9 and possibly 10.

The fact that Apple still sells iPhone 5S at 32Gb in addition to 16Gb means that there might still be hope for 4" fans.

If you're about to switch ecosystem and hate anything but 4", I'd get the 5S, it's still a fantastic phone with a top-class processor, top-class camera, awesome screen, good battery, and whatnot. It'll still be updated for 2-3 years software-wise, so it's more than enough for an ecosystem jump; after all, in 3 years, you might want to jump again somewhere else for different reasons.

Why do you assume that there won't be a 4" model going forward? Do you know how many of those devices they sold? Its dead in terms of development is unwarranted exaggeration at the least.

I assume there won't be a 4" device because they didn't announce one. I'd love to find out that I'm wrong.

It's possible that the 4" model will continue to be updated as a lower-end version. So the iPhone 6c will be an A8 while the 6S/6S+ will have an A9.

The 5S is an excellent 4" device which is more than powerful enough to run iOS8. Sales numbers will determine whether they produce new 4" models next year.

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