With the release date of the next iPhone fast approaching one of the most anticipated features of the next device is a larger 4 inch screen. Going by the collection of rumours and leaked iPhone parts we’ve managed to get our hands on it does seem that this larger screen is on the cards, except the extra screen size will be gained from an increase in height only.

The size design would allow Apple to keep the iPhone’s high resolution retina screen fairly easily and still gain extra size. This would mean that for the ‘iPhone 5′ the user interface would remain relatively the same but allow extra room for another row of app icons.
Well via a few tricks by 9to5mac we can see another bit of compelling evidence from the latest iOS 6 update indicating a larger screened iPhone to come.

Thanks to some tweaks to the iOS Simulator application that is included in the iOS development tools, we were able to run the simulator at the rumored next-generation iPhone display resolution of 640 x 1136. We did this running both the current public release of iOS 5.1 and the upcoming iOS 6.0 The iOS 5.1 simulator displayed the home screen with a stretched set of four rows of icons. On the other hand, iOS 6 displayed five complete rows – as our sources said Apple was testing for taller iPhone displays.

As you can see from the pictures when iOS 5.1 the current operating system is asked to run at this new taller resolution it merely stretches out the icons. However when the latest beta release of iOS 6 (that will come Pre installed on the next iPhone) is run at the increased length resolution it runs an extra row of apps. This means that iOS 6 is aware of devices with this increased pixelage and it caters for it.

Furthermore iOS 6 will not correctly display 5 rows of apps on anything other than this 640 x 1136 resolution that is rumoured for the next iPhone.

You can come to your own conclusions but he fact that Apple’s next version of iOS is aware of a device with this resolution, combined with other evidence is a very strong sign that the next iPhone 5 will feature this larger screen.