iPhone 5 set for extra row of icons on taller home screen

By Rich Trenholm on 8 August 2012, 11:47am

The new iPhone 5 is getting extra leg room on the screen -- and filling it with an extra row of apps, it seems.

It looks as though the new blower's home screen will have five rows of apps instead of the current four on the resized screen, which is set to measure 4 inches across and boast a resolution of 640x1,136 pixels.

A series of leaked photos have showed the new iPhone to be taller than the current model when you hold it normally, or wider when you turn it sideways to landscape orientation. That means the screen is now 16:9, meaning no more black bars when you watch movies and TV, allowing your video to make the most of the screen.

9to5Mac discovered the fifth row of apps by changing the resolution of the home screen in the software simulator provided by Apple for developers to build apps. In the current version of iOS, the icons shuffle down a bit with extra space between them. But in iOS 6 an extra row is added, strongly suggesting the finished version of the software will have five rows of apps.

Extra stuff on your home screen is welcome, but I don't think this goes far enough to address the problem with Apple's home screen -- the problem being that it's not dynamic enough. Android home screens feature both unchanging icons like the iPhone and widgets, which show you snippets of information without having to open the app, like the weather or headlines.

Meanwhile, Microsoft is showing both Apple and Android how it's done with Windows Phone's dynamic home screen, consisting of automatically updating widgets called live tiles that strike a calm balance between the neatness of the iPhone home screen and the usefulness of the Android home screen.

Leaked photos also reveal a smaller dock connector, making the phone slimmer as well as taller. The new iPhone 5 is expected to arrive in September.

Would you rather have more icons or widgets that actually tell you something useful? What do you think of the iPhone 5? Tell me your thoughts in the comments or on our Facebook page.

Image credit: 9to5Mac

Comments 21

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anonymous 8 August, 2012 12:07

can't wait to taste it :)

anonymous 8 August, 2012 12:29

Please stop calling this the iPhone 5. It is the sixth iPhone and sixth generation iPhone. With any luck, Apple will call it the iPhone 6 upon release. If you're too pushy calling it the iPhone 5, they might be more likely to call it that, which, in terms of deciphering which iPhone is which, will just be another disaster.

Tim Acheson 8 August, 2012 12:42

- Extra row of icons.
- Taller home screen.

So, basically not that different to the last version.

Is this really newsworthy? iOS is old news.

anonymous 8 August, 2012 12:44

So it can be even more crowded of a screen. Yay!

anonymous 8 August, 2012 12:52

I wouldn't really call 640x1,136 resolution something to "boast" about to be honest and I would have expected better for Apples flagship device. I just hope it's not worse than the 4S in clarity, the 4S' retina display was indeed VERY nice, but peoples expectations are just going to get higher and higher. In fact more 4"+ displays on android are now 720p.

anonymous 8 August, 2012 13:32

Ooooooh, a 5th row of icons! how exciting, I can't wait. So, let's see now, it'll be a little taller, a little thinner and may have a little more processing power............but aside from that it'll be the same, presumably because Apple cannot now use any other shape aside from the 4s because they'll get sued. Oh, and it won't work with any of my existing accessories?

Yeah, no thanks.

anonymous 8 August, 2012 14:01

I HATE widgets! Don't need them. I am happy to go into an app when I need information. Surely alerts and notifications can bring you "breaking news" if you need it!
As for people saying the screen is crowded - thats just silly - you can have as little or as many icons on the screen as you want. If you only want a couple on the home screen , then move the others into folders on different screens! If you want the features an android has, get an android phone! Simple!

anonymous 8 August, 2012 14:04

And why is this news?

anonymous 8 August, 2012 14:52

Same phone with a couple of inches and one extra row of icons.... umnm... in top of that you wont be able to use your accesories because of a diferent port?, thanks, but no thanks.... I stay with my S3.

anonymous 8 August, 2012 18:34

Well more iphones are jailbroken so most if them already have wayy more rows than 5. Apple should really concentrate on actually making a good smartphone instead of suying the competition.

anonymous 8 August, 2012 19:27

I like iOS but its playing catch up to android ...im SURE it will be called iPhone 5 and not 6 like people comment belo saying its the 6th iphone and stuff , there are only 4 Iphone the rest had like sub features so it was (1) Iphone , (2)Iphone 3G, (3) iphone 3GS, (4)
Iphone 4/4S...thats like sayin then Samsung Galaxy S3 is really like Samsung Galaxy 6 becuz they had the galaxy s , galaxy s 2 , galaxy s Blaze , galaxy Exhibit , and the Galaxy s3

anonymous 9 August, 2012 07:41

People. If they r going to call it by the number of iPhones there r then it would be iPhone 7. Remember??? 3S? *******

anonymous 10 August, 2012 10:09

Will it send texts and receive calls?

iStevieC 10 August, 2012 19:40

its good to see so many people fed up with Apple and the crap it tries to feed us!... iPhone was good when the 1st gen iPhone came out, it was new fresh and simple to use, and the same can be said about the 2nd gen and 3rd too.. but now consumers are bored and want some new ground breaking tech! Apple need to pull out all the stops to win peoples hearts again!

anonymous 11 August, 2012 16:27

They will probably go with "The new iPhone" for its name :P I mean the iPad got the same treatment.

anonymous 15 August, 2012 15:53

I wonder what the weather is going to be like next week.

anonymous 15 August, 2012 18:35

I open mouth kissed a horse once...

anonymous 15 August, 2012 18:37

I can't wait to comment on this.. Oh wait!

anonymous 19 August, 2012 10:38

Firstly, they should just call it iPhone and the iPad should be called iPad not iPhone 5 or the New iPad. They don't change the names of their Macs or iPods with every version anymore so why are they doing with the iPhone and iPad? Secondly, why do we care that the next iPhone is likely to have an extra row of icons? We don't! Stop trying to get more visitors by putting stupid stories and bring us some real news!