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| iPhone 6 and iPhone 6 Plus Source: www.apple.com |
Looks
Both phones sport the same curved design. Compared to the iPhone 5s, chamfered edges are out and are being replaced with a curved glass edge instead that meets seamlessly with the familiar yet equally curved aluminum uni-body shell. Likewise, the two glass pieces found on the back of the iPhone 5s are also being replaced in favor of the aluminum uni-body and separated with some more prominent antenna breaks. As most would assume, both new iPhones are also keeping the Touch ID sensor and flat home button first broguht to the iPhone 5s. Speaking of buttons, the sleep/wake button has been moved to the right upper side of the phone to make the button more accessible and the volume buttons are still found on the left. However, Apple has given both buttons the rounded treatment and elongated the volume buttons. It also looks like the buttons have been recessed a bit in order to prevent accidental presses. The iSight camera (that now protrudes ever so slightly) on the back is still on the top left corner a long with a new circle shaped Tru-Tone Flash. Color options stay the same as before; Black with Space Grey, White with Silver and White with Gold.
Retina HD Display
Both phones get a new "Retina HD Display", as Apple calls it, which makes sense if you pay attention to their new resolutions. The 4.7 inch model touts a resolution of 1334 x 750 maintaining the same 326ppi found on the iPhone 5s and the 5.5 inch has a resolution of 1280 x 1080 making that 401ppi. If you do the math that's over 1 million pixels on the iPhone 6 and over 2 million pixels on the iPhone 6 Plus. While the screen has grown larger the actual depth has been reduced to only 6.9 mm on the iPhone 6 and 7.1 mm on the iPhone 6 Plus.
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| iPhone 6 Source: www.apple.com |
Apple A8 Chip
Each phone gets a new A8 chip giving it a great increase in performance and efficiency. The A8 chip has 2 billion transistors (yes, that is correct!) thanks to a new 20 nanometer process used to fabricate the chip. In comparison to the A7, Phil Schiller jokes, "The A7 had[sic] 1 billion, so it's a lot more". He goes on to explain that meant the A8 is 13% smaller and up to 50% more energy efficient yet it achieves up to 25% increase in CPU performance and up to 50% faster GPU performance. That's a whole lot of numbers and percents but it's an impressive upgrade from the A7 chip in the iPhone 5s.
| Battery Life Expectations (hrs) | |||
|---|---|---|---|
| iPhone 5s | iPhone 6 | iPhone 6 Plus | |
| Audio | 40 | 50 | 80 |
| Video | 10 | 11 | 14 |
| Wi-Fi browsing | 10 | 11 | 12 |
| LTE browsing | 10 | 10 | 12 |
| 3G browsing | 8 | 10 | 12 |
| 3G talk | 10 | 14 | 24 |
| Standy (days) | 10 | 10 | 16 |
M8 Coprocessor
The iPhone 6 and iPhone 6 Plus also come with Apple's next-generation motion coprocessor, the M8. If you don't know what that means then I don't blame you. Its a fairly new concept that was introduced with the iPhone 5s and is intended to use a more energy efficient coprocessor to calculate and track motion instead of the main chip. The main benefit I would see here is for fitness related apps that want to track movement, steps taken or even calories burned. Using the new barometer in the M8 chip, it'll now be able to track distances traveled and elevation changes. Those features could be useful for those that want know how many miles they've traveled during their routines or how many flights of stairs they've climbed. Its a great complimentary addition to becoming more aware of your activity.
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| Source: www.apple.com |
Advanced Wireless
Some great new advances to wireless communications come to us in both new phones. For starters, they now have a LTE speeds of up to 150 Mbps thanks to "carrier aggregation". They also have support for up to 20 LTE bands which is more than any other smatphone and more LTE roaming. That makes over 200 carriers that Apple is working with to support LTE on the iPhone 6 and iPhone 6 Plus. They've also added support for VoLTE (Voice over LTE) which means that voice calls can be made using 4G LTE instead of 3G resulting in clearer sound quality on phone calls. It also allows simultaneous data and voice, so you can talk to your friends and family and still access the internet at the same time.
Apple announced they will be rolling out VoLTE support for the following carriers:
- Verizon,
- AT&T
- T-Mobile
- U+
- Hutchison Telecom
- kt
- StarHub
- SmartTone
- SK telecom
iSight & FaceTime HD Camera
The iSight camera still has the same specs as the iPhone 5s (8MP, 1.2 u, f2.2) but uses a completely new sensor with some new technologies. One such feature is Focus Pixels which helps speed up the time it takes to autofocus the camera while taking photos. Phil Schiller compares it to the way that high-end DSLRs also perform autofocus making it almost twice as fast as the iPhone 5s. Phil Schiller also mentioned next-generation local tone mapping and advanced noise reduction which should add up to some even more incredible photos done effortlessly. He goes on to explain that the 3 most important things that determine the quality of the photo is the iSight's 5 element lens, the image sensor and the A8's image signal processor.
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| iSight Camera on iPhone 6 & iPhone 6 Plus Source: www.apple.com |
All of this rings true for both but here's where the difference lies between the iPhone 6 and iPhone 6 Plus: the iPhone 6 will use Digital Image Stabilization to compensate for photos taken with shaky hands and minimize blur while the iPhone 6 Plus will use Optical Image Stabilization (OIS) which allows the camera to move up, down and side to side to achieve even more precise stabilization to minimize blur. OIS will use the M8 to automatically determine where the camera should shift to stabilize the blur. The example benefit given is during low-light conditions where the camera will take more time to capture the image (longer exposure) and the phone's position might shift during that time.
The specs might not have changed but the camera certainly has improved. Video recording has also been improved; you can now record video in 1080p HD at 60 FPS, up from 30 FPS and Slo-mo at 240 FPS up from 120 FPS. Together with Image Stabilization this means it videos will be buttery smooth and no more blurry photos.
The FaceTime HD Camera also gets an all new sensor that lets in 81% more light and improved face detection for a "killer selfie". It also gains burst mode, single-shot HDR photos and HDR videos. All these enhancements make FaceTime HD Camera a compelling camera to take selfies on.
Apple Pay
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| Apple Pay in action Source: www.apple.com |
After the iPhone 6 and iPhone 6 Plus reveal, Apple also introduced Apple Pay. Apple Pay is a service that uses Passbook to digitally load your credit card as a "pass" to pay for goods or services. Currently it is only available in the US but Apple is looking to add new countries to it's service. The iPhone 6 and iPhone 6 Plus have a new technology called NFC (Near Field Communication) and secure element. NFC is used in conjunction with the Secure Element and Touch ID so you can use your phone to pay for goods and services in stores and restaurants that support Apple Pay and authenticate with Touch UD. But wait, there's more! You can also use Apple Pay without NFC readers to pay for items in an app like OpenTable to pay for your check or Uber to order a car without an Uber account. This obviously leaves out previous generation iPhones that neither have NFC and the Secure Element nor Touch ID which is a bummer (but not for me since I plan on buying one hehe).
Price
The pricing pattern has seen a bit of a shake up. Not only is Apple introducing two new phones but they are also changing the amount of storage capacity in the mid and high-end models. They will be available for pre-order (presumably online) beginning September 12th in 9 different countries: USA, Canada, UK, France, Germany, Australia, Hong Kong, Singapore and Japan. You can also watch the TV ads by clicking here. Here's the break down:
| iPhone Pricing (2 Year Contract) | ||
|---|---|---|
| iPhone 6 | iPhone 6 Plus | |
| 16GB | $199 | $299 |
| 64GB | $299 | $399 |
| 128GB | $399 | $499 |
Final Thoughts
Apple has delivered us 2 new iPhones with a larger screen and has definitely been hard at work at making the phone thinner, faster and bigger than last year's offerings. Photos and videos look great but I really can't wait to get one in my hands and see it for myself. This is just what we know so far, let's see what else Apple has in store for us ahead!
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