Apple Unveils iPhone 6 with 4.7 inch Display, A8 chip and Improved iSight Camera

| Updated: Wednesday, September 10, 2014, 15:36 [IST]

After several leaks and rumors Apple has finally taken the wraps off from its most awaited iPhone 6 smartphones. The company has surprised most of the purist iPhone users who are quite nice and indulgent with the sharp and edgy iPhones that were launched previously.

Moreover, the new iPhones, which come in two sizes viz. 4.7-inch and 5.5-inch are quite impressive design-wise are also feature rich in terms of UI. Obviously, bigger display means bigger space for the UI to play.

Display

The latest iPhone 6 comes with a 4.7-inches display offering a resolution of 1134 x 750 pixels. What is incredible about the phone is that it is dust and water resistant as well.

According to Apple, the new displays are "Retina HD" displays with cover glass that is ion-strengthened. The displays feature a full sRGB wide color gamut and that "dual-domain pixels on the photo-aligned IPS display give you a wider angle of view."

Design and Build

The device is pretty thin at 7mm and astonishingly it still weights just about 113 grams. Since the display is quite enhanced with 0.7-inches, it will surely allow a sixth row of apps in the user interface.

The most awaited size of the iPhone comes with a full metal finish panel and the edges are pretty rounded, yes, similar to HTC One (M8). The design language of the new iPhone with a larger display, in fact marks the advent of the new form-factor of the iPhone, which was not altered since time immemorial.

Moreover, even the button placements have been realigned. The power button on the iPhone 6 is now placed on the right side of the device. As usual, the volume rockers and the ringtone switch key are on the left.

Power and Processor

The new aspect that Apple has blessed upon its new iPhone is in every way the future of the upcoming phones from Apple. It's not just the design and outer shell that Apple has re-engineered, but at the same time, even in terms of inner beauty, i.e. hardware and processor has been heavily moulded to sync with the appearance of the new iPhone.

Thus, the processor that Apple iPhone 6 comes with a company's new chipset dubbed as A8, which was already a bigger part of the several leaks that surrounded iPhone 6 in the recent past.

Talking about the processor, very much like the A7 chipset used in the previous iPhones, the A8 is also based on 64-bit architecture and is built on a power efficient 20nm process.

According to Apple it is 13% smaller with up to 25% faster CPU performance and up to 50% faster graphics than the previous generation. It is however, a dual-core CPU clocked at 2GHz.

Camera

Although most of the iPhone users might not like the way the protruded camera module in the device but surely, the functions would be of interest, for sure. The new camera module on the Apple iPhone 6 has a wider f/2.0 aperture as opposed to f/2.2 on the previous model and a 1.5 micron pixel sensor.

However, it is still an 8 megapixel sensor. Apple calls it the iSight camera. The front-facing camera also includes a new sensor and a larger ƒ/2.2 aperture, according to Apple.

With the enhancement of the size of the new iPhone, hardware manipulation has become easier, thus, the bigger and better sensor has found way to it. Moreover, the new camera will also be capable of reducing image noise in low-light conditions.

Obviously, the camera will be accompanied by a dual LED flash which contains two LEDs with different color temperature making the camera reproduce accurate color tone.

The larger surface also results in larger pixels and with a larger sensor, the Cupertino giant has managed to lower image noise in low-light conditions and in turn improve the overall dynamic range in high contrast conditions.

However, the camera lacks the Optical Image Stabilization, which is one of the most searched feature in the camera phones these days.

Connectivity and Storage

The iPhone 6 also comes with a new set of connectivity options. These includes VoLTE (Voice Over LTE) and Wi-Fi calling for T-Mobile in the United States and EE in the United Kingdom. Apple has enhanced its LTE radios in its newest chip and it now supports up to 150Mbps downlink along with 20 bands.

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The smartphone also comes with Wi-Fi 802.11ac among other options. Apple's latest iPhone now supports NFC connectivity as well. The NFC chip would be coupled to make purchases via Apple Pay service today.

Apple will be offering the device in three storage variants viz. 16GB, 64GB and the 128GB model. It doesn't have a microSD card slot.

Battery and Fingerprint Sensor

The most highlighted feature of the new phone is the battery capacity. Although it just packs a 1,810mAh battery, according to Apple, it will provide the 4.7-inch newbie 14 hours of 3G talk time, up to 240 hours of standby and up to 50 hours of music playback.

Quite similar to the iPhone 5s, the iPhone 6 also features a touch sensor that Apple calls by the name of TouchID. The TouchID is embedded into the home button and the sensor is hidden behind a sapphire crystal lens. Very mich like the predecessor, the metallic ring guides the finger to activate the sensor.

Price and Availability

Obviously, the iPhone 6 is a bit costly handset. In the United States, the 16GB version will cost you $199 (approx. Rs. 12,105), while the 64GB variant and the 128GB model is priced at $299 (approx. Rs. 18,188) and $399 (approx. Rs. 24,271) respectively on contract.

Apple will follow the traditional 10 day after the launch release strategy with the new iPhones as well. So it will officially start selling from September 19 in the United States and Apple will expand the availability to 115 countries by the end of the year. And, the pre-order starts on September 12.