IMO the biggest technological leap was putting a standardized operating system into the phone with an app store and making it all touch screen. It's all about the OS and the app ecosystem. Rewind before iOS and Android. The Japanese where making amazing phones the US didn't have, hardware and feature wise. They even had phones that could act as credit cards before we had iPhones and Apple Pay. Problem was they didn't conceive and implement a standardized OS, so there phones where all fragmented and of low volume.
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Other What was the biggest technological leap in the history of iPhone?
- Thread starter tonybarnaby
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I like your logic. One of the key elements with the iPhone and it’s loyal base is iOS. It’s because it’s so simplistic, fluid and seamless with communication between other devices as well.
5 to 5s was pretty big IMO. Touch ID made its debut on the 5s, and it was the first time you get such a tech on a mainstream product, and it was working well day 1 on top of being a new tech on iphone. Then we got 64 bit A7 processor. The gold color also made it special for its time. These internal changes were pretty big considering how much similar the 5 and 5s looked.
I’d say getting my iPhone 3GS and suddenly the App Store felt more alive. The first two iPhones used the same processor and RAM but with the 3GS, for the first time that changed. The Retina display on the iPhone 4 is a close second. The second time I noticed a big performance leap was going from an iPhone 6 Plus to an iPhone 6s. The extra RAM seemed to make all the difference for me and all the multitasking I do. The iPhone X OLED @3X retina is almost as good as getting the first retina display. The iPhone 6 Plus display is close behind that as it was almost @3X and huge.
This summarises it just perfectly - never before or since have you lost out so much by not being on the latest iPhone. It just wasn’t the same with the 5 to 5s or even the 7 to X, there’s not that sense of really missing out on the full iPhone experience. Perhaps that reflects more just how good iPhones have gotten that each iteration is harder to top, but it’s perfectly possible we’ll never again see such a compelling reason to upgrade from even the last iPhone to the latest.
Before iOS and Android, we had standardized phone OSes like BREW, Symbian, Palm OS, Blackberry OS, and Windows Mobile/CE... all with downloadable apps and some with touch screen support.
But I think you're right about apps being the most important thing...
To me, the biggest jump from one iPhone to the next was the iPhone 3G.
The second iPhone brought 3G, native apps, app store, MMS, video, all sorts of things that smartphone users of the time expected. It was the first iPhone that was actually a smartphone.
Prior to that, the original iPhone was locked to the apps that came with it.
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I think there are those who are not used to Face ID or have not used it yet, immediately Shun the idea that face ID not is a technological advancement, but being that it’s using 3-D sensing facial mapping, that’s fairly innovative technology in a smart phone, which I don’t think most realize how advanced it is over 2D mapping, and how much more secure it is.
I vote 6 -> 6S, especially on the Plus side.
The A8 was massively underpowered with only 1GB RAM and unable to support the 1920x1080 6+ screen consistently.
The A9 on the 6S Plus was a huge leap forward with double the speed, memory, better camera, Live Photos, 4K, 12MP iSight, 5MP FaceTime camera.
The A8 was massively underpowered with only 1GB RAM and unable to support the 1920x1080 6+ screen consistently.
The A9 on the 6S Plus was a huge leap forward with double the speed, memory, better camera, Live Photos, 4K, 12MP iSight, 5MP FaceTime camera.
I don’t believe the A8 was massively under powered, I think the struggle was because of one GB of RAM. The same A8 chip that’s used in the iPhone 6 is also used in the HomePod. Especially the 6 Plus was the worst experience with only Having 1 GB.
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The implementation of an App Store.
Retina display...
Touch ID...
Face ID...
IMO the 3GS to the 4 was the biggest leap and still to this day remains the biggest design change Apple has made to an iPhone.
The iPhone 4 was an absolute thing of beauty in every aspect.
Retina display...
Touch ID...
Face ID...
IMO the 3GS to the 4 was the biggest leap and still to this day remains the biggest design change Apple has made to an iPhone.
The iPhone 4 was an absolute thing of beauty in every aspect.
iphone 3GS to 4
retina display, CUSTOM BUILT chip...emphasis on premium design and materials. Think about that last one. Before the iPhone 4, noone cared how 'beautifully crafted' a phone is.
Today, even the OnePlus 6 is beautifully crafted with great finish and great materials. I think Apple pushed that forward significantly, starting with the iPhone 4 ("like an old Leica")
retina display, CUSTOM BUILT chip...emphasis on premium design and materials. Think about that last one. Before the iPhone 4, noone cared how 'beautifully crafted' a phone is.
Today, even the OnePlus 6 is beautifully crafted with great finish and great materials. I think Apple pushed that forward significantly, starting with the iPhone 4 ("like an old Leica")
Lots of people have been saying the biggest leap was from 3GS to 4.
Those people are correct.
In retrospect, the first three generations of iPhone felt like iterations on a prototype. The iPhone 4 was the first iPhone that felt fully-realised in terms of design, build quality, and performance. It's like that was the iPhone Apple had planned to build and sell from the beginning, but they had to wait for technology, manufacturing, and economies of scale to catch up with that vision.
Every iPhone since the iPhone 4 has been a slow but steady iteration on that exterior design, including the iPhone X. And the iPhone 4's A4 processor, Retina Display, FaceTime camera, and advanced (for its day) rear camera all laid the foundations for subsequent generations.
Those people are correct.
In retrospect, the first three generations of iPhone felt like iterations on a prototype. The iPhone 4 was the first iPhone that felt fully-realised in terms of design, build quality, and performance. It's like that was the iPhone Apple had planned to build and sell from the beginning, but they had to wait for technology, manufacturing, and economies of scale to catch up with that vision.
Every iPhone since the iPhone 4 has been a slow but steady iteration on that exterior design, including the iPhone X. And the iPhone 4's A4 processor, Retina Display, FaceTime camera, and advanced (for its day) rear camera all laid the foundations for subsequent generations.
I would have to say the first iphone, it introduced multitouch to the mainstream world, changed the world and killed off the hard keyboards. Everything else has not really been a game changer, probably 3GS with apps was also big and 5S with touch ID was cool too. But everything else has lacked any real wow factor.
It wasn't massively underpowered, i agree, however It was just not a big upgrade from the A7 or the iPhone 5s internally. The A8 is really a smaller A7, most of the performance updates were in the GPU. The CPU in the A8 is more or less identical to the one in the A7.
At its time it was still the most powerful device around
1GB of Ram didn't help but that same argument could also apply to the 5s. Even in 2013 1gb of Ram was tight for the 5s, let alone the 6 the following year.
The 5s and 6 used the exact same type of Ram as well, not just the same amount. The front cameras identical, the rear cameras very similar. They really were very similar devices and there's nothing wrong with that. It just goes to show how advanced the A7 was in its day. I do agree the A8 gets unfairly viewed because of that, however the A8 was also a "perfect" version of the A7. The iPhone 6 did have some other features, design aside, that are modern like the NFC and wifi ac support
The A8 is way more power than one needs for the functions a homepod performs. I believe the A8 supports "hey Siri" when plugged into an outlet so that works well from a cost perspective I suppose.
Even today the iPhone 5s on iOS 11.4 runs pretty well, and works perfectly fine as a smartphone (I'd say the same about the 6), it's just people have become accustomed to newer devices and sometimes view these older ones unfairly. That, and iOS 11 was bugriddled at release - Apple has really improved performance on the last few versions for older devices. My 6 runs great now
Being able to take video with the camera was a HUGE step.
Retina display? That's nicer than it was but it didn't really change anything but made the phone nicer to look at.
Touch ID was also a big one.
Retina display? That's nicer than it was but it didn't really change anything but made the phone nicer to look at.
Touch ID was also a big one.
i'd say the original iPhone, vs what we had before. iPhone defined what smartphones would become, all the rest are just innovation / improvements , with at it's core a touch screen display as pretty much the only user interface.
the next step would be Siri , voice control is the next big thing, and while far from perfect, the fact that it is on to something is proven by all other types around (alexa, cortana etc.)
the next step would be Siri , voice control is the next big thing, and while far from perfect, the fact that it is on to something is proven by all other types around (alexa, cortana etc.)
HomePod doesn’t have nearly the same compute power requirements as the 6 Plus. Thus, the chip was still massively underpowered for its application as a 6 Plus CPU. Not so much for HomePod.
The iPad Mini 4 and ATV 4 A8 versions had 2GB RAM.
From a design standpoint the iPhone 4.
From a technology standpoint the 6S. We doubled the ram, added 4K recording and went from 8MP to 12MP after 4 years. The A9 chip alone was a beast and even a year after its release in 2017 was still beating some flagships to the ground.
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From a technology standpoint the 6S. We doubled the ram, added 4K recording and went from 8MP to 12MP after 4 years. The A9 chip alone was a beast and even a year after its release in 2017 was still beating some flagships to the ground.
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The A4 was great, but was sabotaged by Apple from the beginning. Pushing the Retina Display sometimes yielded worse performance than the 3GS. The whole appeal to the iPhone 4 was iOS 4. It really introduced so many things that iOS needed.
I would say from 3Gs to iPhone 4. The design was unheard of and the retina display was one of a kind at the time.
I don't think so. The A4 on the iPhone 4 was not bad, and was only beaten up with iOS7 (due to much higher GPU requirement). Its 512MB RAM helped a lot (compared to the A4 on the original iPad with just 256MB of RAM, and couldn't even run iOS5 well). 512MB of RAM was a lot back then.
The neutered one is the A8 on the iPhone 6 as Apple only gave it 1GB of RAM, and it suffers. The A8 with 2GB RAM (eg. on the mini 4) is surviving newer versions of iOS much better.
OT: I'm seeing a pattern here, thus I will only upgrade my 6S to an iPhone with at least 3GB of RAM. RAM is becoming a huge bottleneck, and considering how "cheap" it is (plenty of Chinese OEMs shoving 4 to 6GB of RAM on their phones), I am kinda on the side of more is better.
For me, I wish the next big thing would be ability to use the pencil. I absolutely love it on the iPad Pro. It would be so handy to be able to use for signing documents on my 6S Plus.
I don’t see Apple ever allowing Apple Pencil support, especially given they don’t even really believe in the fact of using a stylus, which Steve Jobs was not a fan of either. Also, the current Apple Pencil would have to be minimized I think, because the iPad version seemingly is more tablet orientated, and I would want something smaller, even for a 5.5/5.8 display.