Apple iPhone 6 – Price and Specification

Apple has launched the iPhone 6 and there are two models, the iPhone 6 and iPhone 6 Plus. Here we explain everything you need to know about the new smartphone.
iPhone 6: release date
You’ll be able to get your hands on the iPhone 6 on September 19th in the UK. That’s the same date as the US, so there’s no waiting around for a delayed UK release. You’ll be able to get iOS 8for any existing devices, on 17th September. See also: How iOS 8 compares with iOS 7 in screenshots
You’ll be able to pre-order the iPhone 6 sooner: EE, for example, will start taking pre-orders from 8:01am on 12th September.
iPhone 6: price
The iPhone 6 will be available in 16GB, 64GB and 128GB versions – it’s great to see the bigger storage capacities at last. The 16GB version will cost £539, 64GB will be £619, and up to £699 for the 128GB version.
iPhone 6: design
The iPhone 6 will come in the same three hues as the iPhone 5s, but this is quite a different-looking smartphone. The edges are rounded – as shown in leaked images – and this makes the phone look thinner than it actually is.

The new 4.7in screen is one of the iPhone 6′s main features. It’s what Apple is calling a Retina HD display. And it isn’t just about resolution, which is 1334×750 (that’s 326ppi, and 38 percent more pixels than the iPhone 5s). No, the glass front “curves around the side to meet seamlessly with the anondized aluminum back”.

In fact, the resolution and pixel density are nothing special. No QuadHD resolution here (as on LG’s G3), nor on the iPhone 6 Plus. Instead, Apple is focusing on quality: the iPhone 6 has the most accurate (sRGB accurate, in fact) colours on an iPhone yet. It also has a thinner backlight which helps to make it even thinner – it’s just 6.9mm from front to back (around half a millimetre thinner than the iPhone 5s – a difference few people will probably notice).

The polariser is improved and the screen itself is made with a technology called dual-domain pixels, which allow it to have a very wide viewing angles. Contrast is better, blacks are blacker.
The good news is that apps don’t need to be optimised for the iPhone 6′s new display to work: they just appear larger thanks to the built-in scaler. Naturally, developerscanoptimise their apps to work better on the iPhone 6 (and 6 Plus).
If you can cast your minds back two years, you’ll recall Apple telling the world that the 4in screen was made that way because it was the biggest you could comfortably reach with one hand. With the iPhone 6, a great feature in iOS8 – called reachability – helps make the operating system easier to use. When you double touch the Touch ID button, the whole display slides down so you can reach the top without taking your hand off the bottom of the display.
The sleep/wake button is on the right hand side, rather than the top: another feature that helps with the larger form factor.
iPhone 6: specs
As you’d expect, the iPhone 6 gets a performance upgrade. The new A8 processor is 25 per cent faster, with a graphics chip that’s 50 percent faster. To put that in context, it’s 50 times as fast as the original iPhone.
Of course, you don’t want better performance at the expense of battery life, so the A8 is 50 percent more efficient than the A7 (as in the iPhone 5s) which means it can deliver that performance for longer with basically the same battery capacity. So, as we’ve come to expect from Apple, the iPhone 6 will last just as long as before, if not longer, claims Apple.
That means 11 hours of video or Wi-Fi browsing, 50 hours of audio playback and 10 hours of 4G LTE or 3G browsing.
The A8 chip has a new co-processor – you guessed it: the M8. It can tell when you’re cycling, walking, and running. It can also estimate distance and can tell how many steps you’re running and how far you’ve gone. It can also work out elevation, so rewards you for climbing stairs (but hopefully not riding the escalator).
4G gets a boost to 150Mb/s from 100, and support for 20 LTE bands compared to 13 previously.

There’s also a new technology: VoLTE, or voice over LTE, which is much like using Skype, but in theory it should offer even better audio quality. Quite what happened to HD Voice is anyone’s guess.
It’s no surprise to see Touch ID in the iPhone 6. This can now be used with third-party apps. Thanks to the expected built-in NFC chip and ‘Apple Pay’ you can use your iPhone 6 to pay for goods – when they support Apple Pay, that is.
iPhone 6: cameras
The main camera still has an 8Mp sensor, a lens with an f/2.2 aperture and this is all paired with a TrueTone LED flash. What’s new is the sensor itself, which has ‘focus pixels’ which help not only with faster focus, but video too. There’s also phase-detection autofocus, as found on DSLRs, and combined, the system should make the iPhone 6 much faster to focus than any previous iPhone.

There’s also advanced face detection, but only digital image stabilisation (the iPhone 6 Plus gets optical stabilisation).
Here’s a shot taken on the iPhone 6 (resized, obviously)

In terms of video, the iPhone 6 shoots 1080p footage at 30 or 60fps. There’s also slo-mo at up to 240fps (that’s double the iPhone 5s’ speed).

Of course, as we already knew, iOS 8 also introduces time-lapse video. The interval is chosen automatically rather than forcing you to make the decisions. From our tests on an iPhone 5C, this does seem to work well.
Around the front is a new FaceTime camera. It also has a f/2.2 aperture, improved face detection and burst mode (for up to 10 photos per second), just like the rear camera. Plus, the front camera can also shoot HDR selfies.
We’ll bring you a full review of the iPhone 6 as soon as we can.
Summary
General
2G NetworkGSM 850 / 900 / 1800 / 1900 – A1549 (GSM), A1549 (CDMA), A1586
CDMA 800 / 1700 / 1900 / 2100 – A1549 (CDMA), A1586
3G NetworkHSDPA 850 / 900 / 1700 / 1900 / 2100 – A1549 (GSM), A1549 (CDMA), A1586
CDMA2000 1xEV-DO – A1549 (CDMA), A1586
4G NetworkLTE 700 / 850 / 900 / 1800 / 1900 / 2100 / 2600 / 850 – A1549 (GSM), A1549 (CDMA)
LTE 700 / 800 / 900 / 1800 / 2100 / 2300 / 2600 / 750 / 2500 – A1586
SIMNano-SIM
Announced2014, September
StatusComing soon. Exp. release 2014, September
Body
Dimensions138.1 x 67 x 6.9 mm (5.44 x 2.64 x 0.27 in)
Weight129 g (4.55 oz)
– 500 dpi pixel density fingerprint sensor (Touch ID)
Display
TypeLED-backlit IPS LCD, capacitive touchscreen, 16M colors
Size750 x 1334 pixels, 4.7 inches (~326 ppi pixel density)
MultitouchYes
ProtectionShatter proof glass, oleophobic coating
Sound
Alert typesVibration, proprietary ringtones
LoudspeakerYes
3.5mm jackYes
Memory
Card slotNo
Internal16/64/128 GB
Data
GPRSYes
EDGEYes
SpeedHSDPA, 42 Mbps; HSUPA, 5.76 Mbps; EV-DO Rev. A, up to 3.1 Mbps; LTE, Cat4, 150 Mbps DL, 50 Mbps UL
WLANWi-Fi 802.11 a/b/g/n/ac, dual-band, Wi-Fi hotspot
Bluetoothv4.0, A2DP
NFCYes
USBv2.0
Camera
Primary8 MP, 3264 x 2448 pixels, autofocus, dual-LED (dual tone) flash
Features1.5µm pixel size, geo-tagging, simultaneous HD video and image recording, touch focus, face and smile detection, image stabilization, panorama, HDR
Video1080p@60fps, 720p@240fps
Secondary1.2 MP, 720p, burst, HDR
Features
OSiOS 8
ChipsetApple A8
CPUTBA
SensorsAccelerometer, gyro, proximity, compass, barometer
MessagingiMessage, SMS (threaded view), MMS, Email, Push Email
BrowserHTML (Safari)
RadioNo
GPSYes, with A-GPS, GLONASS
JavaNo
ColorsSpace Gray, Silver, Gold
– Active noise cancellation with dedicated mic
– AirDrop file sharing
– Siri natural language commands and dictation
– iCloud cloud service
– iCloud Keychain
– Twitter and Facebook integration
– TV-out
– Maps
– iBooks PDF reader
– Audio/video player/editor
– Organizer
– Document viewer/editor
– Photo viewer/editor
– Voice memo/dial/command
– Predictive text input
Battery
Non-removable Li-Po battery
Stand-by (2G) / Up to 250 h (3G)
Talk time (2G) / Up to 14 h (3G)
Music playUp to 50 h