Apple’s long awaited September keynote has come and gone. In that keynote they announced two new iPhone’s, the iPhone 6 and iPhone 6 Plus. So the rumors were confirmed that we would be seeing a 4.7″ and 5.5″ display on the new iPhones. Gone is the iPhone 5c and iPhone 4s. The new lineup will consist of the iPhone 5s, iPhone 6 and iPhone 6 Plus.
There was much to show on both these new iPhones. This is Apple’s first offering of a larger screen device and frankly long overdue. The 4.7″ iPhone 6 looks about the size of a Nexus 5 or HTC One M7. For Android users thinking of jumping to the iPhone 6 it should pretty comfortably in the hand. The iPhone 6 is also 6.9mm thin nearly 1mm thinner than the iPhone 5s and has rounded edges, a departure from the 5s’s chamfered edges. The power button has been relocated to the left edge and the volume and silence buttons remain on the right, though redesigned to a more iPad look. Touch ID is still present on the both new iPhones
To accommodate one-handed use Apple has given a new functionality to the home/Touch ID button, simply double tap and the screen will move down so you can reach the top left and right corners. One of Apple’s early arguments against larger phones has always been you cannot use them one-handed. This feature is all it took to make them change their minds, apparently. Android has been doing large phones for sometime now and have been quite successful at eating into Apple’s market share.
The displays have been upgraded to Retina HD displays, 1344 x 750 pixels (326 ppi) for the iPhone 6 and 1920 x 1080 pixels for the iPhone Plus (401ppi). While the displays are impressive there are still Android phones that beat those numbers. Apple will argue their display technology is better and stands its own against higher resolution Android phones, you will just have to be the judge of that.
A new 64bit A8 chip will be powering both these phones and of course it clocks in faster (both CPU and GPU) than the iPhone 5s, as well it should. Apple bragged that there are 2 billion transistors in the A8 and 1 billion in the previous A7 yet they were able to make the A8 smaller which helped them achieve a thinner chassis.
New cameras and optics also come in both iPhone models. From the sample pictures shown the iPhone continues to be one of the best cellular cameras you can get. They’ve also made their slow motion video capture 240fps and added burst shot to their front facing HD camera.
NFC has been added to these iPhones along with Apple’s own mobile payment system aptly named, Apple Pay. You can use NFC to pay at the existing 200,000 NFC terminals and Apple will be working with major retailers to include their Apple Pay alongside them. This is a feature that has long been in some Android phones with the ability to use Google Wallet.
Wi-Fi calling was also a feature touted by the Apple team, yet another service offered through some Android handsets. This is one that could be convenient for city dwellers who have a lot of Wi-Fi connections to use, it would save on data use for them. It’s a feature I never did use on Android and will likely not use it on iOS either.
Hits
- Bigger phones, both 4.7″ and 5.5″
- Design and aesthetics, no question they can design great hardware
- Double tap to pull down window for one handed use
- Touch ID is still the best fingerprint scanner
- Cameras, although still 8MP Apple’s optics have always been leading in the industry
- NFC and Apple Pay
- Better notifications on par with Android
- Landscape mode on iPhone 6 plus
Misses
- iOS 8 is still iOS, needs more user control
- User interface needs another polish, same rounded icons are getting old
- The protruding camera looks like it could be a pain
There is no word on final price other than contract pricing so we will have to see what this will cost straight up. For you contract purchasers the pricing is as follows for a 2 year contract.
iPhone 6 16GB – $199
iPhone 6 64GB – $299
iPhone 6 128GB – $399iPhone 6 Plus 16GB – $299
iPhone 6 Plus 64GB – $399
iPhone 6 Plus 128GB – $499
There is so much more to talk about with this phone and we hope to have one in house sooner than later so we can bring you a full review. In the meantime you can check out some iPhone 6 and iPhone 6 Plus hands on video from The Verge below.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nfNeEsTeKvw
Last Updated on November 27, 2018.
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