iPhone 6
Plus is larger than its predecessors, and even its 4.7
inch iPhone 6 counterpart, the design has been conceived as subtle
evolution of the sleek, minimalist hardware concept Apple's been
tweaking for years: Aluminum melded with glass into a shockingly thin
profile.
Whereas
the iPhone 5/5S opted for a a flat sides, the iPhone 6 Plus has a more
rounded design, with the pill-shaped volume buttons introduced on the
iPad Air last year. Both versions of the iPhone 6 carry over the 5S'
most important new design feature in the Touch ID finger print scanner
on the home button.
The
phone has a 1920 x 1080 display (401 pixels per inch), which has way
more pixels than the 1136 x 640 iPhone 5S. With the new large phone
Apple is taking advantage of the the space in apps, with new
split-screen modes in both apps and on the home screen. The home screen
view in particular is striking because we're so used to the intractable
vertical line up of app icons.
Despite
rumors Apple would be making good on its huge investments in sapphire
glass that would be potentially less susceptible to cracks, all we're
hearing is "ion-strengthened" right now on the iPhone 6 displays. The
glass curves around the edge to the back handsomely, but we'll have to
wait to if it's still fragile hunk of beautiful design or truly more
resilient.
The 7.1mm
thick iPhone 6 Plus is super slender—even skinnier than the 7.6 mm
iPhone 5/5S, despite its much larger screen. This could go a long way to
ameliorating some of the pains that come with bigger phones by making
it easier to hold and easier to stuff in your pocket.
The iPhone 6 Plus sports Apple's new 64-bit A8 chip, an evolution of last year's pack-leading A7. It's 13 percent smaller than the A7, while being up to 25 percent faster CPU and with 50 percent faster graphics, according to Apple. The phone also caries the newest version of Apple's Motion Processor, the M8, which adds a barometer.
The iPhone 6 Plus is getting a brand new 8 megapixel camera which now
has phase-detect autofocus, a feature that's only recently come to
digital cameras without mirrors. We should note, though, that the
Samsung Galaxy S5 has this feature as well, and some manufacturers have
been able to get blazing fast focus using only older contrast detection.
So don't let that jargon fool you. The new AF mode should help focus
considerably faster, especially in low-light situations.
The iPhone 6
will come in 16GB, 64GB, and 128GB versions available for $300, $400,
and $500. Pre-orders begin September 12th. The phone ships September
19th.
