Apple’s iPhone 6 unveiled
Apple announced its new flagship iPhone 6 which is a big change from what has been launched before. It features 4.7 inch display screen, LED-backlit IPS LCD display, 8 MP camera, Wi-Fi, GPS, Bluetooth. Apple promises 50 hours of audio playback, 11 hours of video or Wi-Fi browsing, 10 hours of LTE or 3G browsing for iPhone 6. This is a big-screen iPhone with its anodized aluminum body, stainless steel buttons, and rounded edges with a slim profile that’s just 7.1mm thick. It has a spacious screen size of 4.7 inches, a new display resolution which Apple calls Retina HD that incorporates design cues from the latest iPod touch and the iPad Air, sRGB accurate with an ultra thin LED backlight, photo-aligned IPS liquid crystal, improved polarizer and ion-strengthened glass. Apple’s iphone 6 Plus has a snappy new processor, a 64-bit A8 chipset which Apple claims, comes with 2 billion transistors making it 25 percent faster for any ordinary computing tasks and 50 percent faster for graphics than the earlier models which featured the A7 chip. In addition to the A8, there is also new M8 motion co-processor primarily designed for fitness apps, for example, Health app, which tracks daily activities and workouts. It can now differentiate between the activities like running and cycling, can calculate the distance travelled, and can measure elevation with the iphone barometer. Apple estimates up to 14 hours of talk time, 11 hours of video and 10 days of standby. The iPhone 6 has new advanced wireless capabilities. Both 6’s sport VoLTE (Voice over LTE). The LTE connectivity is 150 Mbps as compared to 100 of the previous models, up from the 100 of previous Apple phones. The rear camera has a DSLR-style phase detection to speed up focus and a new imaging chip with better noise reduction and improved color tones. The iPhone 6 and iPhone 6 Plus camera have f/2.2 aperture like the iPhone 5s did but only the iPhone 6 Plus comes with Optical Image Stabilization. IPhone 6 has digital image stabilization. Apple has brought in a variety of changes, be it hardware or software to the iSight camera on the iPhone 6 and iPhone 6 Plus. The new features are 1080p HD videos at 60 FPS, slow motion videos at 240 FPS, time-lapse videos, continuous autofocus and cinematic video stabilization. Apple brings forth Focus Pixels for faster phase-detection autofocus. The 8-megapixel True Tone sensor is paired with a 5-element lens as well as an image signal processor in the Apple A8 chip. The camera comes in at 1.5µ pixels, with a ƒ/2.2 aperture, true tone flash. There is a dedicated hardware block for advanced face detection, faster face-finding for autofocus, and advanced blink & smile detection, and a new Best Shot mode which will be particularly useful for burst photography. You will be able to shoot 1080p video at either 30 or 60 frames per second and even slower shots for slow-motion video. The 6 Plus come with an NFC chip and will support Apple’s new Apple Pay mobile wallet system which stores all your credit or debit card information and you can just swipe your mobile phone just like you swipe your credit/debit cards at stores that are accepting it. Apple is tied up with Amex, Visa, MasterCard and 6 other US banks to promote this functionality. For video, Apple has introduced cinematic video stabilization. The iPhone 6 sports the new Time Lapse feature also. Photo alignment technique is used to create higher-resolution Retina HD display. Wider angle viewing and larger displays make sharing easier. For stunning clarity, the new Retina HD display has dual-domain pixels to enable color accuracy at all angles. Retina HD has an improved polarizer. With the new technologies and tools like Swift and Metal users and developers will be able to create amazing new apps and games.
iPhone 6 versus iPhone 6 Plus: There are no noticeable design differences between this model and its little brother, iPhone 6, which is 6.9 mm while iPhone 6 Plus is 7.1mm thick. The iphone6 Plus will be the ideal one for those who want a bigger screen with sharper display. Screen sizes are notably different, iPhone 6 being 4.7-inches with a resolution of 750×1334 pixels and 6 Plus 5.5-inches with a resolution of 1080×1920 pixels. Only the iPhone 6 Plus comes with Optical Image Stabilization. IPhone 6 has digital image stabilization.
The iPhone 6, on comparison with the previous models has bigger screens, sharper displays and is thinner than the iPhone 5s. The screens have ion-strengthened glass on top which makes it more durable. Whether the device is scratch-proof, is not clear. Retina HD is a new feature of iPhone 6’s. Also, there are several new wireless features for the iPhone 6’s including faster Wi-Fi that achieves speeds of up to 3 times faster than the previous models. Apple claims an improved battery for the 6’s. iPhone 6 has up to 14 hours Talk Time on 3G and iPhone 6 Plus has up to 24 hours Talk Time on 3G. The iPhone 5s had only 10 hours Talk Time on 3G. Unlike the iPhone 5s, iPhone 6’s come with an NFC chip, sport s the Apple’s new Apple Pay mobile wallet system. The iPhone 6’s comes in 16GB, 64GB and 128GB storage variants while the Note 4 comes with an internal storage of 32GB and a microSD card slot for expansion. Samsung takes the lead with a QHD resolution (2560x1440p) with Apple’s iPhone 6’s only with a full-HD display (1920x1080p).
The iPhone 6 is available in silver, gold, and space gray and comes in 16GB, 64GB and 128GB storage variants and are priced at £539, £619 and £699 for the 16GB, 64GB and 128GB models, respectively, with the usual two-year contract. The iPhone 6 will launch in the US on September 19 with pre-orders starting on September 12. By the end of 2014 it will roll down the markets of multiple countries. The key selling features will be the larger screens, anodized aluminum frame, improved battery life, enlarged memory and the NFC-enabled Apple Pay.
