Apple launches iPhone 6 and iPhone 6 Plus

by Mark Tyson on 10 September 2014, 09:40

Tags: iPhone, PC

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Apple has launched its new iPhones and a smartwatch. The iPhones are called the iPhone 6 and the iPhone 6 Plus. These differ in screen size but they both are much larger than any previous iPhone. As widely rumoured the two models sport 4.7-inch and 5.5-inch screens respectively, however they are its slimmest smartphones yet. The designs are similar to those seen in numerous pre-launch leaks too - so there were really no surprises on the smartphone front. The Apple Watch made its official debut. This is the company's first wearable and Apple, with typical confidence, said it offers "innovation in every interaction."

Apple iPhone 6 and iPhone 6 Plus

We all expected Apple would go large with its new iPhones and it indeed has done so. It uses this odd sounding strapline to describe the new smartphones: "bigger than bigger". Let's look at the key features via a bullet list…

  • Screen: 'Retina HD' displays, iPhone 6 offers 1334 x 750 pixels and the iPhone 6 Plus offers full HD 1920 x 1080 pixels.
  • Processor: Apple's A8 64-bit processor is said to offer more power and tax your battery less. Again Apple deploys a co-processor, this time its dubbed the M8.
  • Camera: Apple says this new camera ups the ante for smartphone video. This 8MP main camera uses a new sensor with more sensitive 'Focus Pixels'. Video can be shot at 1080p and 60fps and as fast as 240fps at 720p.
  • Other: Apple also included a payment system, Apple Pay, which joins Touch ID and NFC to make store and on-line purchases simple and 'secure'. That system will roll out in October. iOS 8 will also be installed as standard with a range of new apps, especially health and fitness tracking, and features including third party keyboards.

The iPhone 6 smartphones are available for pre-order from 12th Sept, depending upon your region, and availability will start from 19th Sept. They will be available in Gold, Silver and Space Grey with built-in storage of 16GB, 64GB and 128GB. It will cost from $199 on a contract.

Apple Watch

The long awaited Apple Watch has been unveiled but it won't start to ship until "early 2015". The functionality of the smartwatch doesn't really leapfrog the existing wearable rivals we have seen in the run up to this launch event, however Apple seems to have addressed the fashion aspect much more comprehensibly. That's probably extremely important for watches and wearables, to achieve good adoption rates.

Apple offers many permutations of Apple Watch to consumers. It does this by offering six watch chassis finishes, six watch bracelets and two watchface sizes. Customers can mix and match to get the right design for their fashion feeling. It has also assembled it's own signature 'collections' which are ready made to appeal to certain market segments as you can see below.

Watch face size choices are 38mm or 42mm tall. Watch chassis finishes are Stainless Steel, Silver Aluminium, 18-Karat Yellow Gold, Space Black Stainless Steel, Space Grey Aluminium and 18-Karat Rose Gold. Wristband options are steel link bracelet, plastic sports band, leather loop, classic buckle, modern buckle and Milanese metal mesh. Beyond the physical appearance users can change the look of the Apple Watch dramatically thanks to changing the display style appearance. Apple uses a new Watch OS for this customisation.

Apple's Watch OS was specifically designed for watches and isn't a version of iOS. It shares a lot of key system apps but the OS but is built to work with Apple's new watch crown and pressure sensitive display UI. Apple says the new interactions are "entirely new yet immediately familiar". The watch crown dial and screen work together for users to get around the interface and use apps quickly. Apple also has got Siri in there for voice based assistant duties.

Standard Apple Watch apps include Calendar, Music, Maps, Apple TV, iTunes, Remote Camera, Stopwatch, Timer, Stocks and Photos. Apple also has a new type of messaging app for Watch users called 'Digital Touch', where users can etch-a-sketch, walkie-talkie, and 'tap' each other. There's also the option to send other users your heart beat… Like other smartwatches Apple's device offers a range of health and fitness functions via an array of sensors built-in. A paired iPhone is required for most Watch communication functions, much like with the early Android smartwatches.

The Apple Watch will arrive in early 2015 priced from $349.

HEXUS Forums :: 31 Comments

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Posted by crossy - Wed 10 Sep 2014 10:05
The new, more rounded, iPhones look quite appealing to me (at least going on the pictures here and elsewhere). And kudos for doing them in two different sizes rather than trying to force everyone into a single size. It'll be interesting to see how comfortable the Plus is to hold compared to my LG G3, which also has a 5.5“ screen.

The iWatch though - oh dear - not exactly the mold-breaking triumph of form and fashion is it? And as the article says, it's not doing anything that Pebble, Samsung, LG, Sony and Motorola aren't doing. So much for the ”watch this space and we'll show you how it should be done" from the iFans. Think the Moto 360 is still the most attractive, although the new LG G Watch R might be in with a shout too, (apologies if this, along with the G3 comment above, makes me sound like an LG fanboy - which I'm not).
Posted by AlexKitch - Wed 10 Sep 2014 10:19
Quite interested in the iPhone 6. My Galaxy S3 is starting to show its age a little and I'm keen for a change of scenery again. Personally, I don't like larger phones. The 4.7" would be ample for me.

As for the watches - not for me. I ditched watches when phones essentially replaced them, and don't see myself going back to them.
Posted by LSG501 - Wed 10 Sep 2014 10:33
iPhone… welcome to the android party :p

In all honesty, yes they look ok and I'm sure they're relatively well made, and feels better to hold with rounded edges, but if you look at it subjectively the key ‘features’ are at least a year old or more in most cases. I'm not going on cpu/gpu as iOS has always worked well on it's hardware but 1GB of ram, 1080p max screens, finally getting nfc etc is pretty low/mid level specs these days. Now this is the bit which gets me, for years apple has been going on about one size fits all mantra and now they have to support multiple resolutions and they look to be taking a similar track to android in how it changes it's layout like android does, a perfect example is the email app, it switches into a 2 column view… just like android has for years.

Now the iWatch, yes they can call it Apple Watch but it's the iWatch, why because it's absolutely useless without the iPhone, now don't get me wrong android wear currently needs an android phone too but Google are working towards being able to do certain things without the phone (gps if hardware is there, music playback, fitness stuff I assume) where the iWatch is basically a glorified second display and is likely always going to be that way.

As to the interface… all I'll say is that dial, sorry digital crown, looks like a pita for someone with normal size hands and the argument about covering your screen is just mute in my opinion, it's not exactly hard to lift your finger and I'd argue it's easy to do that than play with a small dial.

When I saw the ‘announcement’ all I could do was lol at the ‘animated smileys’… I remember those from msn and most people hated them back then. Having said that I did like the nfc being on the watch and linked to the phone/payment system, not sure how secure that would be as it's easier to swipe an arm than a phone in a pocket but I like the ‘idea’

Then they had the price… US pricing shows it will start at $50 more than the moto 360 with the metal strap… I'd hate to think how much the most expensive model will cost as that base price is likely for the plastic strap.

But at the end of the day it doesn't really matter how much we dislike apple's latest products, or that there are better products out there, they'll sell like hotcakes for one reason… marketing. Apple get so much free, imo biased, marketing from newspapers/tech blogs saying how wonderful everything is that most other brands don't get a look in. I've seen reviews were good products get lacklustre reviews purely because it's not apple or it's made out of plastic not metal….
Posted by azrael- - Wed 10 Sep 2014 10:37
“iPhone 6 Plus has a resolution of 1920 by 1080 with 401 pixels per inch. That’s full 1080p HD resolution.” (as seen at: http://www.apple.com/live/2014-sept-event/)

My oh my! Brilliant! What ever will they think of next at Apple. It'll take ages for Android phones to catch u… Hold on a minute. Android phones are at 2560 x 1440 pixels? Never!
Posted by CAT-THE-FIFTH - Wed 10 Sep 2014 10:38
I will be interested to here what improvements are made to the A8 SOC - A7 was quite groundbreaking as the first 64 bit ARM based SOC released for a mobile device.

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