Sorry it took some time. I’ve been a bit
busy lately as I embarked on my first working (internship) experience. I’m
still trying to find time to fit all of my usual activities and I do hope that
after this I would still have time to write more entries to techylh. Well the iPhone 6 and 6 Plus
still haven’t been released here in Malaysia so I guess I’m still early xP.
Normally they would reach here in around 2-3 months of the official launch
date. So mark your calendar around end of October or early November. Fingers
crossed that it will come sooner. I have
seen a few imported units of iPhone 6 and they do look nice. Holding the iPhone
6 in my hands doesn’t feel awkward even though it now has a bigger screen. In
fact I can say that it still feels nice to hold the iPhone 6 (no say about the
6 Plus).
The most obvious
difference between the new iPhones and the old ones are, of course, the screen sizes. As rumoured, the iPhone 6 has now a 4.7-inch (1334x750) screen size while
the “bigger than big” iPhone has a 5.5-inch
(1920x1080) screen size. iPhone 6 has the same number of pixels per inch (ppi)
as the previous iPhones with Retina display (321), but it is touted to have the
new Retina Display HD with the technology that is supposed to display
brighter colours. The iPhone 6 Plus also
has the Retina Display HD technology but with a higher 401ppi. As the screen
size of the iPhone 6 Plus is gigantic, Apple has come up with a way to make it
easier for you to touch the top of the display without shifting your fingers
around the phone. It is called Reachability. It is activated by double-touching,
I repeat double-touching not tapping the home button. This would bring the top
of the screen down to half the screen and thus allowing the user to touch top
buttons easily. The convenience of this
method remains to be seen. Although the screen went for a rise, the thickness decreased
even more. The iPhone 6 has a thickness of only 6.9 mm while its bigger sibling is slightly (not even that
noticeable) thicker at 7.1mm.
With bigger
screen sizes, comes the need for bigger batteries. Compared to the small 1440
mAh battery found in the iPhone 5S. The iPhone 6 has now an 1810mAh battery
sealed closed inside it while the iPhone 6 Plus has a 2915 mAh battery. So far
reports and test doesn’t suggest much improvement in terms of battery life hours
obtained on the new iPhones, they are said to last just a full-day with normal
usage.
In terms of
design, it now looks closer to the iPads with its rounded edges compared to
previous square design. All three colours are available (Space Grey, Silver,
and Champagne Gold). Both the iPhones now have the power button relocated to
the right side of the phone. This tremendously helps us to better reach it
(something that they may have been inspired by from Samsung). Other than that
most of the buttons are in the same place with the headphone jack, speaker, and
microphone still on the bottom side of the phone. The microphone port now has
fewer holes than the speaker port. Not to forget, both models have the Touch ID feature first found on the
iPhone 5S.
Zooming to the
inside, they have both a 1.4 Ghz A8 (Apple’s second 64-bit desktop class ) chip combined
with an M8 motion coprocessor and 1GB of ram, it might not be the best specification
in the market but you have to take into account that the iPhone 6 is running
iOS instead of Android. iOS in general doesn’t require as much memory and
processing power as an Android (another similar OS in this case would be
Windows Mobile). It still offers a
smooth user experience that we all enjoy while, and quoting Apple, while being
able to handle even the most demanding and intensive games. The A8 chip is said
to be exponentially better in terms of processing power compared to the A7
chip.
For those of you
who need more storage space exceeding 64GB, you’re in luck! Apple has finally
heard your calls and have thus started offering a maximum storage space of
128GB (That’s like half of my laptop’s capacity =_=) Nevertheless, extra of
anything is welcomed as long as it doesn’t hinge the practicality and usability
of the device. They have also kicked out
the 32GB option, so now you have the 16, 64, and 128GB options. Personal
opinion, they should have just stopped the 16GB model and maintained the 32GB but this is maybe a way to reduce the
cost/price.
I would not
touch much about the software aspect as that should be covered in an article
dedicated entirely to the new iOS 8.
Apple
has decided to stick with the 8-megapixel
shooter (manufactured by Sony) on its new iPhones amidst other competitor
churning out devices that have cameras on average with 13-megapixels. Like they
say, it’s not the megapixels that count; it’s the end results. And what the
iPhone capture are stunning! The iSight camera now has a new sensor with Focus Pixels. The photos produced are
clear improvements over the 5S. In terms
of video recording, both are now capable of taking super-slow motion video (240fps compared to 5S’ slow-mo of 120fps).
The new camera can also record Full-HD video at 1080p, and as extra it can now
take time-lapse videos. Included
with the new camera app on iOS 8, we now have more control over the settings of
our camera. On the iPhone 6 Plus, you’ll find an Optical Image Stabilization
(OIS) that’ll help you take better videos. This is another feature that
differentiates the 6 Plus from the 6.
With
the addition of NFC to the iPhone
(something not new to the market but new to Apple), Apple has released a new
feature called Apple Pay which allows you to pay at any accepting stores by tapping your iPhone towards a
sensor (much like the touch&wave credit card feature). It remains to be
seen if this feature would be useful in Malaysia as it depends a lot on the
stores. Most of those that signed up with Apple are found and are limited to
the USA.
The
new iPhone has even more LTE bands
than before with up to 20 of them. This
essentially means that the iPhone is a more international phone, allowing the
user to connect to different LTE networks in different countries that uses
different frequencies. Other than new
bands the iPhone now could reach download speeds of up to 150Mbsp. Now it’s
your turn telcos! A new Wi-fi antenna (802.11ac) means that the iPhone could
reach higher download speeds than before. In anticipation of pairing the iPhone
with the Apple Watch, Apple has added Bluetooth
LE (low energy) that would essentially allow the iPhone to pair with the
smartwatch without draining the smartphone’s battery too much.
To
summarize, the iPhone 6 and iPhone 6 Plus are improvements over the previous model as Apple is just
catching up with the market (bigger screen size and NFC) in terms of
specifications. But still, don’t let this article discourage you from buying
it. If you are an avid photographer, this is a model you wouldn’t want to miss.
And if you are planning on upgrading from at least iPhone 4S, this is a no-brainer decision. With a bigger screen, you’ll get to see more of your favourite
contents now and get an overall better smartphone experience ;D
