Introducing the iPhone 6
By Mike Eide
Well like clockwork yesterday Apple released their newest iPhone like they do every year. What made this generation of iPhone (iPhone 6) so different was that this was their biggest (pun intended) release ever.
Size Does Matter
Lets start with the biggest new feature in the newest iPhone, the size. In the worlds worst kept secret the new iPhone is coming in two sizes, a 4.7” display iPhone 6 and a 5.5” display iPhone 6 Plus. These screen sizes rise from the 4” display on the iPhone 5 (released 2012) and the 3.5” original iPhone. With the added screen size comes a new retina HD display giving the user brilliant colors, deeper blacks, and sharper text on their phone. The resolutions on the iPhone 6 will work out to 1334 x 750 pixels (326 pixels per inch). The larger iPhone Plus comes with a huge 1920 x 1080 (401 pixels per inch, full 1080P resolution or the same as an HD TV).
While the increased screen sizes are not ground breaking in the smartphone world, it is what consumers are asking for now a days and Apple had no choice to comply.
Not only did Apple manage to make the screens bigger, but also they are thinner then ever. The new iPhones 6 measures in at an amazing 6.9 mm thick while the iPhone 6 Plus weights in at 7.1 mm thick. In contrast the iPhone 5 came in at 7.6 mm thick so you can see what Apple has done here to make a bigger phone, which is still capable of being used with one hand.
The World’s Most Used Camera
Another huge set of features Apple introduced yesterday was the updated camera on the phone. The camera is 8 mega pixels which is not as high as some other smartphones in the market, but what they did was added a feature called Focus Pixels which helps you have a better/faster focus when taking pictures. Exclusive to the iPhone 6 Plus is a feature called Optical Image Stabilization, which help compensate the movement of the hand while taking the picture.
Much like the original iPhone helped change the way the world takes pictures, with this new release they have put a lot of emphasise on the way recording video works on the phone. Video can now be recorded at full 1080p HD resolution at an amazing 60 frames per second, or with a new slo-mo setting of 240 fps.
Changing The Way We Pay
It has been rumoured for the last few iPhone releases that Apple would come out with a phone with NFC technology (Near Field Communication) much like other smartphone in the market. With the new iPhone Apple took it one step further incorporating the finger print touch sensor to help increase security on the phone and while paying. With Apple Pay you can soon use your phone for one touch purchases by linking it to your credit card’s and using your finger print to authorize the payment. With this new feature Apple hopes to eliminate the need for consumer’s to use credit card’s to make purchases or use your phone as a digital wallet.
The Rest
There are far too many features to list them all here in detail so I will briefly touch on them. The phone itself includes a new A8 chip inside which is faster, gives better graphics and is more energy efficient adding to better battery life. They have added a new wireless technology that gets you up to 3x faster Wi-Fi speeds. The new phone will come preloaded with Apple’s newest operating system iOS 8. To learn more about the newest operating systems features click here.
In closing the newest versions of Apples iPhone are big advancements over the older iPhones. While they don’t really go above and beyond other smartphones in the market, the increased screen size once the app developers can get up to speed with developing apps to that size have countless opportunities to help us in our everyday life. This combined with the new camera features help make this a must own upgrade for personal, or business use.
What’s your opinion of the new iPhone 6? Are you planning on upgrading when they are released next week?