The day has finally come, folks. Today’s the day that the steady stream of iPhone leaks comes to an end — for now, anyway — and we get to officially meet Apple’s new smartphone hardware.
The iPhone 6 and iPhone 6 Plus have just been officially introduced by Apple. The two devices feature “Retina HD” displays with what Apple describes as an “ultrathin backlight.” Just as rumored, the two screens measure 4.7 and 5.5 inches, with resolutions of 1334x750 and 1920x1080, respectively.
So how will those bigger displays affect usability? Apple thinks it has the solution. It moved the power button from its place at the top of the iPhone 5s to the right side of the iPhone 6 and iPhone 6 Plus, and it’s also introduced a new feature dubbed “Reachability.” Users can activate Reachability by double-tapping the Home button to slide the screen content down, making it easier to reach the buttons at the top of the display.
Moving around to the back of the new iPhone 6 models, Apple has used an 8-megapixel sensor in its camera and paired with with an f/2.2 aperture and True Tone flash. The company is also using a new feature called Focus Pixels that it says makes autofocus nearly twice as fast as previous generation iPhone models and also includes advanced noise reduction. Finally, the iPhone 6 includes software image stabilization while the iPhone 6 Plus offers optical image stabilization.
Up front is a new FaceTime HD front-facing camera with a new sensor and an f/2.2 aperture. Apple says that it also offers improved face detection and a “burst selfies” mode.
The iPhone 6 and iPhone 6 Plus internals include a new Apple A8 chip that’s of the 64-bit variety. Also included is 150Mbps LTE, Voice over LTE (VoLTE) support for carriers like Verizon, AT&T and T-Mobile and Wi-Fi 802.11ac. Speaking of Wi-Fi, the iPhone 6 models will support Wi-Fi calling, with T-Mobile in the US and EE in the UK coming out the gate with support first.
So how about that pricing info? Apple says that the iPhone 6 will be priced at $199, $299 and $399 for the 16GB, 64GB and 128GB models. Meanwhile, the iPhone 6 Plus will retail for $299, $399 and $499 for the same configurations. Both models will be available in gold, silver and space gray color options. The iPhone 6 and iPhone 6 Plus will ship on September 19 with pre-orders starting on September 12.
With the launch of these new iPhone 6 models, the iPhone 5s will drop down to $99 with a two-year contract and the iPhone 5c will be priced at free on-contract.
On the software side of things, Apple says that iOS 8 will roll out on September 17, two days before the launch of the iPhone 6 and iPhone 6 Plus. It’ll be available to the iPhone 4s, iPhone 5, iPhone 5c, iPhone 5s, iPod touch 5th generation, iPad 2, iPad with Retina display, iPad Air, iPad mini and iPad mini with Retina display.
Via Apple