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So they are adding 176px to the height of the display? Any idea why they would do that? Apple usually goes for something new exciting, when introducing new products. "We made the iPhone5 taller and added a few pixels on top, so it can display 5 icons on the home screen" sounds like the anti-thesis of excitement.

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Most importantly it allows for more usable screen space when the keyboard is open. In some iOS apps at the current resolution you can end up with less than 30% of the display being usable with the keyboard open.

Since the display is larger and a more suitable aspect ratio for widescreen movies, movie viewing will probably effectively get a ~30-40% larger space.

I've always preferred Apple's 3:2 aspect ratio to the more common 16:9 (used by most flagship Android phones, like the Galaxy Nexus and the Galaxy S III). I use my phone almost exclusively in portrait mode, so I think the advantages of 3:2 in portrait mode far outweigh the advantage of watching widescreen videos in landscape mode.

It will be enhanced in portait mode, showing more information at a time, and also more content when the keyboard is up, as mentioned.

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