Apple reportedly working on 4-inch iPhone 5 successor

Japanese tech blog Apple Mac Otakara claims that Apple is knee deep in the development process of a smaller 4-inch smartphone not unlike the iPhone 5s. The alleged smartphone has been in the rumor mill for quite some time, but has propped up yet again by another independent source. According to the tech blog, the new iPhone will sport much more powerful compared to the iPhone 5s including the Apple A8 SoC as found on the current iPhone 6 and 6s Plus, 802.11ac WiFi, Bluetooth 4.1, and an improved FaceTime HD webcam with a f/2.2 aperture.

This supposed "iPhone 5s Mark II" is expected to come to market by early to mid 2016. What the phone will not offer, however, is 3D Touch as found on the iPhone 6s and 6s Plus. The technology would have allowed the touchscreen to respond accordingly depending on how soft or hard the user taps on the display. A similar feature can be found on the Android Huawei Mate S where it is called Force Touch.

The current iPhone 6s and 6s Plus have received very positive reviews from multiple publications. However, it may be hard for most users to go back to a smaller 4-inch screen as 5-inch displays and larger are quickly becoming the norm.

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