Apple yesterday announced two new smartphones – iPhone 6 and iPhone 6 Plus – to replace the year-old iPhone 5c and iPhone 5s as its spearheads.
The Cupertino-based giant termed the new phones as “the biggest advancements in iPhone history”. The new models come with 4.7-inch and 5.5-inch Retina HD displays, respectively, and are the thinnest iPhones to date.
In a marked turnaround of the trend where others were being ‘inspired’ by the ‘leader’ earlier, the tech titan seems to have been inspired by its rivals, including HTC, Samsung, Sony, LG and even Google in some of the new features that it unveiled in the new spearheads.
The new iPhone 6 and iPhone 6 Plus are the thinnest ever iPhones – and thin is something that Apple’s arch-rival Samsung has been gunning for in a while. “iPhone 6 and iPhone 6 Plus are the biggest advancements in iPhone history,” said Tim Cook, Apple’s CEO.
Additionally, all smartphones manufacturers are trying to establish their phones as ones with ‘sharpest’ display, and Apple seems to have taken a lead with its new devices that cram many more pixels in the display.
Pic: AFP
“The iPhone is the most loved smartphone in the world with the highest customer satisfaction in the industry and we are making it much better in every way. Only Apple can combine the best hardware, software and services at this unprecedented level and we think customers are going to love it,” said Cook.
Listed below, in no particular order, are what we believe are the 5 killer features of the new iPhones. Let us know in comments below if you agree/disagree with our choice.
Pic: AP
Feature: Better Retina HD
Inspiration: Samsung Galaxy Note 4, Lumia 730 Dual SIM/Lumia 735, LG G3
As mentioned earlier, Apple has outshone its rivals with the new Retina HD display, which is actually an ultra-thin IPS display with 326ppi pixel density for iPhone 6, capable of wider viewing angles.
The iPhone 6 features a 4.7-inch Retina HD display with 1334 x 750 resolution, providing 38 per cent more viewing area than iPhone 5s, Apple says. The iPhone 6 Plus, on the other hand, features an even bigger 5.5-inch Retina HD display with 1920 x 1080 resolution, providing 88 per cent more viewing area and nearly three times the pixels than iPhone 5s.
Apple maintains its Retina HD displays offer advanced technologies including higher contrast for deeper blacks and dual-domain pixels for more accurate colours at wider viewing angles.
In this domain, Apple is obviously competing with the Lumia 730 Dual SIM/Lumia 735, which has a 4.7" AMOLED screen with 720p resolution. On the other hand, the Samsung Galaxy Note 4 and the LG G3 have upped the screen resolution to Quad HD at 515ppi and 538ppi, respectively.
Feature: Unibody enclosure of anodised aluminium
Inspiration: HTC One and M8
The new iPhones feature a “precision unibody enclosure of anodized aluminium,” which in some ways is an extension of what Apple has been doing all along, but is also at the same time acknowledgement of HTC’s design prowess and the finesse of the HTC One and the HTC One M8.
The new iPhone have (more) curved edges, and Apple maintains the aluminium design conforms seamlessly with the shaped glass of the display, resulting in a completely smooth and continuous surface.
Feature: Ion strengthened screen
Inspiration: Samsung Galaxy S5
It isn’t Gorilla Glass anymore, or even the rumoured Sapphire screen. Apple has once again changed the goal post and introduced a completely new ion-strengthened screen.
Based on iPod touch looks, the Apple iPhone 6’s screen is protected by ‘Ion-strengthened glass’, which is curved around the edges and is supposed to offer a much more gratifying swiping experience than in the past – or compared with rivals.
Apple will have to beat Samsung Galaxy S5 in this arena, whose screen has been dubbed ‘the best performing smartphone display’ by DisplayMate, which carried out in-depth screen tests on the smartphone. It packs a 1080 x 1920 resolution and boasts Super AMOLED technology to ensure a bright, colourful display.
Feature: Metal, 3D app and game engine
Inspiration: Sony Xperia Z3
Apple also unveiled the “second generation 64-bit” A8 chip with desktop-class architecture, and maintains that the all-new chip offers faster performance and is more energy efficient, delivering higher sustained performance with great battery life.
In fact, the chip’s performance is high enough for serious gameplay, says Apple. “With Metal, a new graphics technology in iOS 8, developers can take performance of the A8 chip even further to bring console-class 3D games to iPhone,” it says. This was a surprise move by Apple to perhaps steal a march on the newly announced Xperia Z3, which is the first Sony phone to use Sony’s PS4 Remote Play app.
Sony’s Remote Play app lets you use your phone as a remote screen to connect and control your games on your PS4 – for the times when the TV is being hogged by other family members not interested in game play. Apple’s new A8 chip also includes a new, powerful Apple-designed image signal processor that enables advanced camera and video features, again great for game play.
Feature: M8, Motion co-processor health chip
Inspiration: Galaxy S5 S Health, Nike+
Apple’s M8 health chip has become better, with the ability to measure relative distance and elevation, and can tell the difference between cycling and running. Both its models include the M8 motion coprocessor that gathers motion data from the accelerometer, gyroscope, compass and the new barometer, which senses air pressure to provide relative elevation.
This gobbledegook means that the M8 motion coprocessor can distinguish between sports such as cycling and running. It also can calculate distance and elevation using an onboard barometer to measure air pressure changes, if you’re climbing stairs, for instance.
In addition, the M8 chip continuously measure your motion data, even when the device is asleep, saving battery life for fitness apps that use the sensors all day. With iOS 8, motion data from M8 appears in the Health app so you can see how many flights of stairs you've climbed, or how far you've walked or run. Developers can use CoreMotion APIs that take advantage of M8 and HealthKit to create apps that help you take better care of your health and fitness.
The iPhone 6 competes here with the Galaxy S5, which comes with a built-in heart rate monitor and an installed personal wellness app called S Health to help users keep track of their health and fitness measures. In addition, it also rivals Nike+ app, which too showed relative elevation on hikes by using the barometer.
Feature: Apple Pay
Inspiration: Google Wallet
Finally, the iPhone 6 and iPhone 6 Plus introduce Apple Pay, which offers contact-less payments across 220,000 stores in the US, and this will soon be rolled out across other markets. Instead of swiping a credit card, users of the service can swipe their iPhones (or Apple Watches), which can be preloaded with customer’s debit and credit cards using the Passbook application.
Essentially, Google has tried this with its Wallet and, importantly, failed at it. Google struggled with payment card options for months but perhaps Apple won’t face the same carrier obstacles that Google did. And Apple has the iTunes service to hit the ground running.
Still, with the recent iClouds hacking debacle, all users may not be as enthusiastic as Apple would hope them to be, and things may come down to whether or not Apple can manage a sustainable Apple Pay community for it to be successful.