Moments ago on stage at Flint Center in Cupertino, California, Apple got straight to business without the usual opening introductory self-congratulating and excessive growth stats. Apple CEO Tim Cook handed the stage over to Phil Schiller and out came Apple's new iPhones. “We think at the end of the day you wil agree that this too is a very key day to Apple,” Cook said before yielding the floor to Schiller, who then lifted the veil on iPhone 6 and iPhone 6 Plus.
The phones feature what Apple is calling the Retina HD displays, “a new generation” of mobile display technology. It’s “ion strengthened” to make it stronger and still uses sRGB-active LCD technology.
As per the rumors, Apple is providing the new iPhone in two screen sizes: a 4.7-inch variant called the iPhone 6 and a bigger iPhone 6 Plus outfitted with a 5.5-inch panel.
The iPhone 6 has screen resolution of 1,334-by-750 pixels and the iPhone 6 Plus has a full HD 1,920-by-1,080 pixel resolution screen — that’s 185 percent more pixels than the iPhone 5s’s 1,136-by-640 display. Both screens have a “broader” viewing angle and tap a number of technologies to make the display assembly thinner, such as ultrathin backlight, photo-aligned IPS, an improved polarizer and ion-strenthened glass (no word on sapphire).
Both the iPhone 6 and iPhone 6 Plus are equipped with Apple A8 64-bit chipsets which also tout a new M8 motion coprocessor for even better performance than its predecessors. While Apple hasn't made any mention of RAM, we're going to assume that it sports the same 1GB of RAM as its predecessor until we hear any different.
Then there’s the iPhone 6 Plus, which as expected, greatly exceeds the battery life of its predecessor. Note that the larger handset will play audio for double the amount of time of the 5s, will allow for more than double the amount of 3G talking, and offers an extra 6 days of standby time over both the new iPhone 6 and the 5s.
The iPhone 6 and iPhone 6 Plus will both feature built-in NFC functionality that will work seamlessly with Apple's new payment system, Apple Pay. This method combines NFC and Touch ID in order to allow you to make payments with your iPhone across thousands of merchants in the United States.
The rear facing iSight camera in the iPhone 6 has an all new sensor that should handle everyday photography better than ever. HD video recording and slow-mo video have also gotten boosted to 60 fps and 240 fps, respectively. The front-facing FaceTime camera appears to remain largely unchanged.
Pricing for the iPhone 6 will start at $199 for a 16 GB version. Apple has done away with the 32 GB version altogether and the 64 GB variant now take the mid-range position with a 128 GB option now available. Each step up in storage capacity will cost you $100 more. As always, pricing and availability may vary slightly from country to country.
