iPhone 6 and iPhone 6 Plus - Everything you need to know ~ The World is Mine

Sep 9, 2014

iPhone 6 and iPhone 6 Plus - Everything you need to know

9/09/2014 08:05:00 PM

dannzfay

If you were holding back to buy the best phone on the market because of the screen size, now you have no excuse. The iPhone 6 is here with a 4.7-inch diagonal display, while the iPhone 6 Plus has a 5.5-inch screen. Apple describes it as "bigger than bigger" and we take it for a spin to show you the most important features.

The screen looks great. Its curved edges fit nicely with the back cover and the over-all design. Apple calls it the new Retina HD display, but it is just a new marketing name for a 1334 x 750 display with a resolution of 326 PPI. The larger one is 1920 x 1080 with a resolution of 401 PPI.

The design of the iPhone 6

The phone comes with a thickness of 6.9mm and because the screen is larger, Apple changed iOS to work differently on this device. New features like Reachability help you interact with a the screen in other ways. For example you can double touch the Home button and the entire screen shifts down closer to your thumb. In Mail or Safari you can also swipe from left to right to go forward. The larger, 5.5" iPhone Plus is 7.1mm thick. For this one you can make use of the Landscape mode and two pane apps. The design has been changed to look similar to the iPad and the iPod touch. The volume buttons are elongated. The Sleep/Wake button has been moved to the side of the device so it is going to be in reach.

What is the Retina HD display?

Retina display was HD, so what's with the new name? Nothing, just a marketing gimmick. Sure, the screen is larger, but it's not like you would notice the individual pixels on this screen or on the Super Amoled or UHD screens of other phones. As long as your eyes cannot discern individual pixels, you just have a good screen in front of you. Apple prides itself in adding some innovation to that screen. First of all, we're talking about higher contrast and dual -domain pixels for a better color and improved viewing angles. They achieve that by using a UV light to position the display's liquid crystals to lay exactly where they should and by improving the polarizer. You can now view your iPhone screen in any orientation with your sunglasses on.

With a larger display comes a new feature: Display Zoom. You can either see more, or choose to see larger targets. Not only you will increase the size of the text, but the icons on the home screen as well.

The A8 CPU

This is a second generation 64-bit architecture. While the Samsung or any other Android devices are still on a 32-bit CPU, Apple just release the second generation. This translates in better battery life, faster graphics, and overall performance. M8 motion coprocessor can now measure activity from advances sensors, including a barometer and altitude.

How is the battery?

Apple increased the battery life on its new devices. For example, the iPhone 6 can get up to 50 hours of audio, 11 hours of HD video, up to 14 hours of 3G Talk and 10 days Standby. The iPhone 6 Plus sports a 80 hours battery life for audio and 24 hours of 3G Talk. You can also keep it in standby for 16 days.

The protruding camera

This is one design line that we don't agree with. The lens of the new camera come out of the device just like like on an ugly Samsung Galaxy phone. They probably chose to do that in order to adapt a newer, better lens system and did not want to increase the thickness of the device. iSight (back facing camera) has an eight megapixel sensor, with an aperture of f/2.2. The Camera app comes with Focus Pixel, Face Detection, Exposure Control, Auto Stabilization, Optical Image Stabilization (in iPhone 6 Plus) and the Panorama mode can take photos that are up to 43MP.

The video camera can shoot 1080p HD video at 60 fps. There's continuous autofocus and cinematic video stabilization included in the package. We know Android users are going to brag about their 4K Video, but who has a 4K TV in their living room or a Retina display monitor on their desk to really make use of that?

Connectivity

The iPhone 6 comes with faster LTE and it also features Voice over LTE (VoLTE) which is just like VoIP but it works much better and you get clear conversations and video streaming. The phone supports 802.11ac so it is going to work much better with the new Time Capsule, for example. See below the introduction video for the new iPhone 6 models.