Apple and U2’s big day finally arrived at Cupertino Tuesday when they introduced two new iPhones with larger screens, which seemed to be more significant than any other feature improvement. The iWatch or rather the Apple Watch also made its debut and finally on a totally non iPhone related note, we saw U2 do their thing and announce their latest album “Songs of Innocence,” which they decided to give away for free to more than 500 million iTunes users for Free. Now getting back to the serious stuff, here’s what we know about the iPhone 6 and iPhone 6 Plus.
The iPhone 6 Features
The iPhone 6’s most noticeable feature is the size, which is a significant improvement over its predecessor. It sports a 4.7 inch display, with a screen resolution of 1334 x 750 and a pixel density of 326 ppi. Apple is calling its new display Retina HD. The other noticeable thing about the iPhone 6 is its curvaceous glass sides. The front glass is said to be ion strengthened according to Apple marketing head Phil Schiller.
The iPhone 6 is 6.9 mm thin, when compared to the 7.6 mm of the previous generation iPhone 5S. There’s a new chip on the Phone 6, the 64 bit A8 processor, which is supposed to be 50 times faster than the original iPhone with graphics up to 84 times quicker, but remember these comparative numbers are with the original iPhone, which you probably don’t remember using anyhow. Nevertheless, the speeds are faster than before and that’s good news.
Similar to the iPhone 5S, the iPhone has a motion coprocessor, the M8. The phone also has a barometer which is a sensor that can measure distance and elevation traveled. The battery life is a slight improvement over the previous models offering up to 11 hours of continuous playback.
The iPhone 6 Teaser
The iPhone 6 supports over 200 LTE networks worldwide, with speeds up to 150 megabits per second. It also supports voice over LTE (VoLTE) and will be the first iPhone to support 802.11ac Wi-Fi networks for up to 3x speeds. Impressed? There’s also built-in Wi-Fi calling and the ability to switch over calls from Wi-Fi to cellular network and back while the call is still active.
As far as the iPhone 6 camera goes, it still only has an 8MP sensor, but its all new “Focus Pixels ” sensor will ensure that focusing is twice as fast. Digital image stabilization is also present in the iPhone 6. The camera is capable of capturing 1080p footage at 60 fps with continuous autofocus while recording. The Slow motion mode is also capable of going as slow as 240 fps for really slow footage. The improvement in the front facing camera is that it has a burst mode for quickfire selfies. Its new 2.1 MP sensor can capture 81% more light.
The iPhone 6 will be available in gold, white and space grey colors and will go on sale on September 19 in the U.S for $199 for a 16GB model, $299 for a 64GB model and $399 for 128GB (with a two-year contract). Pre-orders will begin on September 12th.
The phone will also be available on the same days in Canada, the UK, France, Germany, Australia, Hong Kong, Singapore and Japan, while the rest of the world will get it later. In India, the iPhone 6 is expected to land on Stores on October 17th but there’s still no word on pricing.
The iPhone 6 Plus Tech Specs
The iPhone 6 Plus is the big brother of the iPhone 6, sporting pretty much the same tech specs with a few exceptions. The device sports a 5.5 inch 1920 x 1080 display with a ppi of 401. Another marked improvement over the iPhone 6 is that the iPhone 6 Plus camera has optical image stabilization.
The iPhone 6 Plus will be available in gold, silver, and space gray and will land in the U.S, Canada, the UK, France, Germany, Australia, Hong Kong, Singapore and Japan on September 19th. It will be available at $299 for a 16GB model, $399 for a 64GB model and $499 for a 128GB model (with contact.) Pre-orders begin this Friday.
Apple is still maintaining its signature home button with an integrated fingerprint scanner on both models. An additional feature improvement in the NFC which will be handy in its proprietary payment system Apple Pay, which the company is setting up initially with Visa, Mastercard, and a few other big names in the industry.
Apple is also bringing a feature called reachability to both devices to help in one hand operations. So when you double-touch the home button, the current screen on your display slides down about halfway.
Both the iPhone models will run iOS 8. One of the key points one should remember when comparing the tech specs of Apple products with that of Android is that while Apple doesn’t necessarily sport impressive hardware like that of the former, they are highly adept at squeezing more out of it through low level optimization.
Comparing the iPhone and iPhone 6 Plus Tech Specs
| Feature | iPhone 6 | iPhone 6 Plus |
| Display | 4.7 inch Retina HD display | 5.5 inch Retina HD display |
| Resolution | 750 x 1334 pixels, (326 ppi pixel density) | 1080 x 1920 pixels, (401 ppi pixel density) |
| Dimensions | 138.1 x 67 x 6.9 mm (5.44 x 2.64 x 0.27 in) | 158.1 x 77.8 x 7.1 mm (6.22 x 3.06 x 0.28 in) |
| Weight | 129 g (4.55 oz) | 172 g (6.07 oz) |
| Capacity | 16/64/128 GB | 16/64/128 GB |
| Front Camera | 8 MP, 3264 x 2448 pixels, autofocus, dual-LED (dual tone) flash | 8 MP, 3264 x 2448 pixels, optical image stabilization, autofocus, dual-LED (dual tone) flash |
| Camera Features | 1.5µm pixel size, geo-tagging, simultaneous HD video and image recording, touch focus, face and smile detection, image stabilization, panorama, HDR | 1.5µm pixel size, geo-tagging, simultaneous HD video and image recording, touch focus, face and smile detection, image stabilization, panorama, HDR |
| Video | 1080p@60fps, 720p@240fps | 1080p@60fps, 720p@240fps, optical image stabilization |
| OS | iOS 8 | iOS 8 |
| Rear Camera | 1.2 MP, 720p, burst, HDR | 1.2 MP, 720p, burst, HDR |
| Chipset | Apple A8 M8 motion coprocessor | Apple A8 M8 motion coprocessor |
| Sensors | Accelerometer, gyro, proximity, compass, barometer | Accelerometer, gyro, proximity, compass, barometer |
| Price | $199 – 16 GB $299 – 64 GB $399 – 128 GB | $299 – 16 GB $399 – 64 GB $499 – 128 GB |
| Colors | Silver, Gold, Space Gray | Silver, Gold, Space Gray |
Are the iPhone 6 and iPhone 6 Plus models exciting enough to tempt you to line up in the prestigious Apple queues once again?
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