Man, that was a keynote, wasn’t it?! Almost all the rumors turned out to be true in regards to the iPhone 6 and iPhone 6 Plus, and the things the rumor mill didn’t know turned out to be sweeter than I was expecting- Particularly when it comes to the battery life of the iPhone 6 Plus. I assumed the rumored bigger batteries were due to the fact that a bigger screen would use more power, but, it sounds like it’s going to just have a longer battery life across the board thanks to the increased battery size.
As detailed on the official Apple site, the iPhone 6 family will come packed with the 64-bit A8 processor. Of course, it wouldn’t be an Apple product page with a load of graphs with big numbers, so try this on for size: The iPhone 6 (and Plus) is 50x faster than the original iPhone, with GPU performance that’s 84x better. It’s built on the 20nm process and is 50% more efficient than the iPhone 5S’s A7 processor.
Like most iPhone refreshes, it’s got a better everything. Faster LTE, a better camera, more sensors (A onboard barometer!) and the iPhone 6 Plus gains image stabilization on its camera. They’ll be available in the same colors as last time: Silver, Gold, and Space Gray. Curiously enough, Apple nuked the 32GB capacity, and instead the devices are available in 16GB, 64GB, and 128GB.
The 16GB iPhone 6 will be available on a two year contract for $199, with the 64GB and 128GB respectively at $299 and $399. The iPhone 6 Plus starts at $299 with a two year contract and 16GB of onboard storage for $299, and similarly going up to $399 for 64GB and $499 for 128GB. If you’re into the unlocked phone scene, the iPhone 6 comes unlocked for $649, the iPhone 6 Plus for $749, and each incrementally going up $100 for 64GB and $200 for $128GB. So, the most expensive iPhone you can buy is an unlocked iPhone 6 Plus for $949.
The resolutions of the screens have increased a bit, with the iPhone 5S sporting the 1136×640 Retina Display and the iPhone 6 “Retina HD" display increading to 1134×750. The iPhone 6 Plus goes even more high res with a 1080p (1920×1080) screen. The iPhone 6 has a slightly better contrast ratio at 1400:1 compared to the iPhone 6 Plus at 1300:1, but I’m not sure that makes any real-world difference.
The additional screen real estate of the 6 Plus was demo’d in interesting ways during the keynote, with more stuff being shown on screen while using standard iOS apps. For instance, instead of just viewing the standard mail client, in landscape mode on the 6 Plus you get a more iPad-styled view with other emails you can select. Pretty neat. It makes me wonder what differences there will be in games, or if everything will just scale up.
Jared is somewhere in the Apple hands-on area right now, getting some face time with both iPhone models and hopefully some games running on them. Stay tuned for hands on impressions.
Which one are you guys getting?!
