Rumours be damned! The time for speculation, suggestions and leaked screenshots is over! For now at least, as Apple have finally announced the iPhone that we all knew was coming. Except, there’s a slight twist. Apple didn’t just announce the iPhone 6 today, they also announced its bigger and better brother, the iPhone 6 Plus. So, what’s in a slightly fancier sounding name? As it happens, not a lot, but you can find out all of the info and technical gubbins below.
What you’ll notice first about the iPhone 6 Plus is that it is undoubtedly bigger than the iPhone 5S that came before it. An entire 1 and a half inches bigger, to be exact. In comparison, the iPhone 5S’ dainty 4-inch size meant that it often felt smaller in larger hands and despite all of Apple’s hooting and hollering that their phones are incredibly comfortable, no marketing jargon and posturing could deny the fact that it was a pain in the finger joints to hold. The Plus is also just 7.1mm thick and, just like the leaks suggested, it also has rounded edges all in the name of comfort.
Thankfully, the iPhone 6 Plus’ screen is also 1080p Retina Display HD. What on Earth does that mean? It means two things actually: that Apple are behind the times when it comes to screens because its competitors are all boasting quadHD visuals that blitz 1080p HD out of the water and it also means that finally, Apple have made a phone that’s relatively good for gaming. The iPhone 6 Plus is actually so large that it now qualifies as a phablet (phone/tablet) and that’s good news for those of us who like watch or interact with media on the go but bad news for Apple’s competitors.
Also on the topic of gaming, a plethora of new features have been stuffed into the iPhone 6 Plus’ longer yet thinner container. According to Apple their phone’s new 64-bit A8 chipset makes the iPhone 6 Plus around 50 percent more energy efficient than the iPhone 5S, good news for those who felt that their battery was always worn down in a flash, while the Plus will also be 25 percent more powerful than its predecessor. As I type, Apple are wheeling the phones out for hands-on play-testing and so we won’t know how their claims stand up until tomorrow at the latest but it’s also being suggested that the iPhone 6 Plus is better equipped for gaming. Apple have got Ubisoft, EA and Disney (just to name a few) on board to test out that new chipset along with the new Apple Metal platform which is said to do away with the performance penalties of 3D chips that use OpenGL. Again, there’s no word on how much truth there is to that (to be clear – I’m not calling Apple a liar! – just noting that their claims are yet unproven) but we’ll be able to let you know soon.
Less impressive (on stats alone) is the iPhone 6 Plus’ camera. At just 8 megapixels, Apple are, once again, behind the times. I can list off a dozen phones released in the past 6 months alone that have better cameras than that and not all of them are high-end handsets either. What struck me the most when Apple were boasting about their new photo tech is that they’ve packed a great deal of features in to make it seem better than it is. Namely, there’s phase detecting autofocus, improved face detection and a ‘Best Shot’ mode which will likely be useful for the selfie obsessed mobile user in all of us. The iPhone 6 Plus also comes with ‘optical image stabilisation’ (read: slightly better looking photos than before) which is…something.
On to your bog standard iPhone 6, minus the cool sounding suffix, and not a great deal has changed. Everything on the inside is the same bar one, untested feature. Guess what it is? It’s the optical image stabilisation! The iPhone 6 is also a bit smaller than the Plus (it’s just 4.7 inches) but that’s considered a reasonable middle ground between the Plus and the iPhone 5S.
It’s worth nothing that both phones will have Apple Pay built into them, set to make paying for stuff a breeze. It’ll make use of both phones’ new NFC tech and is looking to replace physical money. A bold claim? Indeed and we’ll have a more in-depth explanation on the site soon.
Finally, we have the prices. The iPhone 6 Plus will be offered for $299, $399, and $499 for the 16GB, 64GB and 128GB models (respectively) and the iPhone 6 will cost $199, $299 and $399 for the 16GB, 64GB and 128GB (respectively). Both phones will be released on September 19th and pre-orders start on September 12th!
Source: Apple
Will you be buying the iPhone 6 Plus? Leave a comment and let us know!
