Thursday 11 September 2014

iPhone 6 release date, specs, new features, UK price & photos: iPhone 6 unveiled by Apple!






On 9 September 2014, Apple finally announced the highly anticipated iPhone 6, with a 4.7in screen, a Retina HD screen and an all-new design, alongside an iPhone 6 Plus. Here, we bring you everything you need to know about the iPhone 6, including the UK release date, specs, new features, UK price and photos of the design of the iPhone 6 so you can see it for yourself.
Apple also unveiled the new Apple Watch (which we originally thought would be called iWatch). You can read all about the Apple Watch here.

iPhone 6 release date UK: When is the iPhone 6 coming out?

The iPhone 6 will be available to buy in the UK on 19 September, as previously expected. It'll be released in the US, Canada, France, Germany, Australia, Hong Kong and more on the same day, and Apple will try to launch the iPhone 6 in 115 countries by the end of the year.
Ahead of its release date, the iPhone 6 will become available to pre-order from 12 September. See also: How to buy an iPhone 6 in the UK

iPhone 6 price UK: How much does the iPhone 6 cost?

The iPhone 6 starts at £539, which is actually £10 cheaper than the starting price of the iPhone 5S when it was launched. That's for the 16GB model, though. After that, the 64GB model starts at £619 and the 128GB mode is £699. There's no 32GB model for the iPhone 6.
The iPhone 5S is still available to buy from Apple in 16GB and 32GB capacities. It now starts at £459, reduced from £549. The iPhone 5C seems to be approaching an early death, though, as it's now only available as an 8GB model for £319.
The iPhone 6 Plus costs more than the iPhone 6. Find out more about the iPhone 6 Plus pricing here.

iPhone 6 design

As expected, the iPhone 6 has rounded edges, and is larger than the iPhone 5s with a 4.7in display. It's just 6.9mm thick compared with the iPhone 5S's 7.6mm, too.
Apple says that the iPhone has a glass front that curves around the side to meet seamlessly with the anodised aluminium back, with a stainless steel Apple logo.
Of course, Apple has always put emphasis on the idea that you should be able to use a smartphone one-handed, so the company has introduced a new gesture called Reachability for the bigger screen.
To use Reachability, users will double touch the Touch ID fingerprint sensor, which will make the whole display slide down to allow you to reach the top without taking your hand off of the bottom of the display. We'll have to wait and see how well this works!
As expected, the iPhone 6's sleep and wake button is on the right side of the device instead of the top.

iPhone 6 specs: iPhone 6 display



That aforementioned 4.7in display is higher resolution than the iPhone 5S's 4in display, and Apple is calling it "Retina HD." The resolution is 1334x750 pixels, which is a pixel density of 326ppi. That's actually the same as the iPhone 5S so not as impressive as we'd hoped, but at least Apple has added 38 per cent more pixels for the 4.7in screen. The iPhone 6 Plus, on the other hand, has a 401ppi display, so is much more impressive.
The LCD is made with a tech called dual domain pixels, which Apple says lets it have a very broad angle of view. You can see a breakdown of the new display technology in the image below.


iPhone 6 specs: iPhone 6 processors & battery life

The processor inside the iPhone 6 is, as expected, called the A8 processor. It's 64-bit like the A7 processor in the iPhone 5S, but is 13 per cent smaller and delivers up to 25 per cent faster CPU and up to 50 per cent faster GPU.
That actually means that the iPhone 6 is up to 50 per cent faster than the original iPhone. Impressive.
We're sure you'll be pleased to hear that Apple has taken battery life into consideration when building the A8 chip too. It's designed to deliver the better performance with 50 per cent more efficiancy, so it should be able to sustain performance over a longer period of time.
Apple touts 50 hours of audio playback for the iPhone 6, 11 hours of video or WiFi browsing, 10 hours of LTE or 3G browsing.
There's also a new version of the motion co-processor, unsurprisingly called the M8. It works with the sensors in the iPhone 6 to determine when you're walking, cycling and running, and it can estimate distance. It cal also estimate elevation, so it'll know when you're running up the stairs, for example.
The iPhone 6 also has a new sensor: the barometer, which measures relative pressure. This was rumoured ahead of Apple's announcement, too. Developers will be able to take advantages of this new sensor with their fitness apps.
During the keynote, Apple revealed that it's opening up the Touch ID fingerprint sensor to third party developers, so that coul be interesting for future apps!

iPhone 6 specs: Capacity

Apple surprised us a bit with its capacity options for the iPhone 6. As expected, we now get the option to buy a 128GB iPhone 6, but that seems to be at the expense of the 32GB version, which has been removed from the line-up. You'll be able to buy the 16GB, 64GB or 128GB models.

iPhone 6 specs: iPhone 6 connectivity

On to connectivity now and the iPhone 6 has new advanced wireless capabilities. The LTE in the iPhone 6 is 150Mbps LTE compared to 100 Mbps, and there's support for 20 LTE bands compared to 13 previously, so that's more than in any other smartphone.
Apple has also built NFC into the iPhone 6, which will work with its brand new mobile payment service called ApplePay. Find out more about Apple Pay in our Apple Pay FAQ

iPhone 6 specs: iPhone 6 camera

When it comes to the camera, the iPhone 6 has an 8Mp iSight camera, True Tone flash, 1.5 micron pixels and an f/2.2 aperture. That all sounds very familiar (that's the same as the iPhone 5S) but Apple says there's an all-new sensor.
The iPhone 6 camera has fast autofocus built in, called "phase detection autofocus."
There's also advanced face detection and digital image stabilisation, which should mean vastly improved photographs.
Video can be captured at 1080p, and at either 30fps or 60fps. Slo-mo video can be recorded at 240fps, too. For video, Apple has introduced cinematic video stabilisation.
Thanks to iOS 8, the iPhone 6 will get a cool new Time Lapse feature, too.
The front-facing camera has been improved on the iPhone 6. The FaceTime HD camera has a new sensor, a larger, f/2.2 aperture, and the ability to let in 81 per cent more light.
The front-facing camera is now able to use the Burst mode, which could result in significant increase in selfies. Great...
HDR has been introduced to the front-facing camera too.
We're updating this article as we get more information about the iPhone 6, but you can read what we wrote before the announcement on page two and beyond.