You can change the resolution of your computer monitor on
demand, so why shouldn’t the same logic apply to the display on your smartphone?
It seems like a ridiculous limitation, and if you were thinking along the same lines, then you might enjoy a free jailbreak tweak called Upscale by iOS developers bd452 and Julio Verne.
As you may have inferred from the tweak’s name, Upscale lets
you change the resolution of your iPhone’s display. Above, you can see an
example of my iPhone 6 running at stock resolution (left) compared with the
native iPhone 6 Plus resolution (right); and for good measure, here’s another example:
If you couldn’t already tell, the iPhone 6 Plus sports a
higher resolution, enabling more content to fit on your display at a glance. In
fact, I’d even go as far as to say that it looks nicer than the iPhone 6’s native
resolution.
Once installed, Upscale adds a preference pane to the
Settings app where you can customize it to your liking:
Here, you can:
- Pick between any of the following iPhone
resolutions:- iPhone 4/4s
- iPhone 5/5s/SE
- iPhone 6/6s/7/8
- iPhone 6 Plus/6s Plus/7 Plus/8 Plus
- iPhone X/XS
- Enter custom resolution X/Y values
- Apply your custom resolution
- Save the custom resolution to your pre-set list
Upon tapping on a pre-set resolution, you’re prompted with an alert message that tells you what resolution you’re about to set and asks if you want to proceed; you can cancel at any time.
As you might come to expect, entering custom display resolutions
isn’t recommended, and you use this feature at your own risk. In our testing,
we were perfectly satisfied with the developer’s presets, and we think you will
be too.
Do keep in mind that adjusting your display resolution to one higher than Apple’s native preset puts more stress on the device’s internal graphics hardware. That said, you could experience artifacts, lagging, or battery drain after applying a custom resolution.
If you’re interested in trying Upscale, then you can download it for free from Julio Verne’s beta repository in Cydia. The tweak supports all jailbroken iOS 11 iPhones and iPads.
What resolution will you be changing your iPhone to use?
Share in the comments section below.
