Report claims next iPhone will feature a large 4.6-inch display

As expected, with the dust of the new iPad announcement settling in, all eyes and ears are turning to what Apple is going to offer next. The rumours of the iPhone 5 have surfaced once more and this time around reports have been speculating that the next flagship smartphone from Apple may feature a display measuring at 4.6 inches. The report states, “Apple has decided on the bigger 4.6-inch display for its next iPhone and started placing orders to its suppliers, the Maeil Business Newspaper said, quoting an unnamed industry source. Its major display suppliers LG Display and Samsung Electronics Co declined to comment.” If Apple does intend to launch a handset with a display measuring at 4.6-inches, it will be quite a significant bump over its existing 3.5-inches size which the brand have maintained for five generations of iPhones and not changing the size of the display at all.

Concept design (Image Credit: Digital Trends)

In a related report regarding the display, MacRumors stated that previous rumours have indicated that the brand would in fact increase the size of the display from 3.5-inches to 4-inches and not 4.6-inches. The report notes, “A 4.6-inch screen, however, would be significantly larger than that has been previously rumored. There have been persistent rumors that the next generation iPhone would carry a larger 4-inch screen. And we are convinced that Apple had exactly such designs in late prototype stages in China. The proliferation of iPhone cases with measurements of at least a 4-inch screen seemed to suggest that a number of suppliers were also convinced of that fact.”

Quoting sources they state, “The next-generation iPhone will not look like the teardrop-shaped version that was widely rumored for release in 2011. We’ve been told that the device will have a 4-inch display and will be 8mm longer than before, with a metal casing (probably aluminum). It is on track to be introduced in summer of 2012, and is still in the engineering phase, not early production. We suspect that poor battery life doomed the prior prototype version, and that this one is being built with LTE-ready battery drain in mind.”

As of now, the only thing that can be gathered from this is that the brand has no intention of sticking to a 3.5-inch display and instead will opt for something larger. With there being no clue of when Apple would host the iPhone 5 announcement, one can only expect the rumour mills to start buzzing a little more loudly now.