Since our last iPhone 6 rumors article a lot of new information has emerged on Apple’s upcoming release.
Also since our last article we haven’t heard about certain rumors that were believed to be accurate at that time. Usually if a rumor comes out last year and we don’t get any confirmation of it again, it’s not likely to be possible.
This article is going to round up our previous rumors and any updates on them, as well as eliminate unlikely speculations that were made back then. We will also share the newer and proof-backed rumors going around.
The Screen of the iPhone 6
The iPhone 5 had about 730,000 pixels in total with a resolution of 1136 by 640 pixels. Then the iPhone 5s was speculated to have twice as many pixels, or nearly 1.5 million, but that theory fell though. The iPhone 5s pixel count actually didn’t increase at all.
Credits: Martin Hajek
It’s very likely that Apple didn’t improve the iPhone 5s’ screen by because it was saving the technology for the iPhone 6. Analyst Ming-Chi Kuo, who works at KGI, claims that Apple is going to release two iPhone 6 models. One will have a large 5.5” screen with a resolution of 1920 by 1080 (or about 2 million pixels), and the other one will have a 4.7” screen with a resolution of 1334 x 750 (or about 1 million pixels).
The interesting thing about this analyst report is that even the “small” version of the iPhone 6 will still have a screen that is .7” bigger than the current iPhone 5s. If Ming-Chi Kuo is right that means that Apple will effectively offer two phones that are both bigger than the iPhone 5s.
Forcing consumers to get a bigger phone is something Apple has never done in the past. All of its phones so far have had the same width: so it will be quite surprising if Apple changes this for the first time. If they still offered a smaller phone that would appeal to people happy with their iPhone 5s, but forcing everyone to get a bigger screen is unnecessary if true.
Two Phone Models
By this point it’s quite obvious that Apple loves the idea of offering an “expensive” iPhone and a “cheap” iPhone. Even though the iPhone 5c didn’t perform as well as expected, it still managed to boost sales of the iPhone 5s beyond what they would have been if consumers didn’t have the iPhone 5c to choose from.
Basically Apple has discovered that instead of consumers going to Google and searching for “iPhone 5s vs Samsung Galaxy S5,” they should instead Google “iPhone 5c vs iPhone 5s.”
Credits: Martin Hajek
The decision between an iPhone 5c and iPhone 5s will always profit Apple, but a decision between their phone and Android won’t. Because of this there is a really good chance that Apple will offer an iPhone 6 and an iPhone 6c. Consumers will have the chance of choosing between two iPhone 6 models and they will be less likely to consider other Android phones as a comparison.
The 6c will cost $100-200 less than the iPhone 6, but it will also not include all of the great features that the iPhone 6 will. The 6c is also very likely to have a smaller screen than the iPhone 6 as mentioned above.
Gaze Technology
Last year we speculated that the iPhone 6 might come with gaze technology, a feature that allows the phone to see where your eyes are focused. For example: if your eyes move away from the screen a movie will auto-pause and if your eyes move to the left of the screen in the photos app, then you scroll to the next photo.
This interesting gaze feature is already available in the Samsung Galaxy S4 which came out last year. But we haven’t heard any more rumors about Apple integrating gaze technology into this year’s upcoming iPhone 6. It’s still possible that Apple may include this feature but there is no evidence to back it up at the moment.
NFC Technology
By this point it has become quite accepted that Apple will include NFC technology into their iPhone 6. Ever since NFC came out in Android phones, users have been asking for it in their iPhone 4s, iPhone 5, iPhone 5s, and so forth.
Now that Apple has given NFC technology room to grow they are confident in it being something that everyone can benefit from. If everyone can benefit from this feature then Apple will want to integrate NFC so that they can entice customers to buy their iPhone 6.
Analyst Kuo is one of many analysts that believes that the iPhone 6 will feature NFC. And if Apple doesn’t include it, it will be a bad decision for them considering the opportunity NFC gives them to grow into the mobile-payment market.
It’s very likely however that the iPhone 6c will not have NFC capabilities.
The iPhone 6’s Bezel
The bezel on the iPhone 6 is expected to be 10 to 20 percent smaller than the 5s. Kuo also believes that Apple will move the power button from the top of the phone to the top of the right side. This change is probably to make turning on the phone with one hand easier: especially because the size of the phone will take up more space in your hand.
Possible curved bezels. Credits: Martin Hajek
Another reason for moving the power button is possibly for a new feature that may require “frequent presses of the power button.” Although Kuo stated that this feature may be a possibility, he did not state what purpose the power button would serve when being pressed frequently. Such a statement sounds so vague that one might wonder if it was a crude joke or typo.
When it comes to the “smart bezel” rumors that we mentioned last year, nothing else has come up on the topic. It was believed back then that the sides of the iPhone 6’s screen would be used as buttons in some apps. No sources have been able to confirm further rumors on this topic though.
Apple owns a smart bezel patent but it’s unlikely that they will incorporate such technology into the iPhone 6. It’s unlikely that they would incorporate such technology even into the iPhone 6s because “s” models are meant to increase technical specs and not necessarily phone features.
The biggest and maybe the only phone feature Apple added to an “s” model was the fingerprint scanner on the iPhone 5s. With that in mind it’s a safe-bet we won’t be seeing smart bezels come out any time this year on Apple products.
The New iPhone 6 Processor
As always we expect iPhones to be twice as fast as their predecessors. It’s not crazy then to expect the iPhone 6 to be twice as fast as the iPhone 5s. In fact, Apple may make the iPhone 6 a bit than twice as fast as the iPhone 5s. Such processing power upgrades would make it hard for competition to follow.
iPhone 6 Battery Rumors
Today the iPhone 5s provides up to ten hours of talk time. But the iPhone 5s is a lot smaller than the iPhone 6 and 6c are expected to be. This means that the iPhone 5s has a smaller battery. This problem will be eliminated with the iPhone 6 and 6c because a larger screen means more room for battery expansions.
It’s impossible to determine how much better the new batteries will be but you should expected them to bump up to at least 12 hours of talk-time. Some phones like the Sony Xperia Z1 can last 27 hours during talk-time tests. So Apple really has a lot of catching up to do when you think about it.
The majority of other Android phones last up to 11 hours, so if Apple’s new and larger iPhone 6 can hit 12 hours it will be a great selling point for them.
iPhone 6 Storage
The iPad and iPad mini both offer 128GB storage models. With the new iPhone 6 increasing in screen size there will also be room for more storage components.
It’s very likely that the iPhone 6 will be the first Apple phone to offer 128GB models. And even in the Android phone-space, 128GB is unheard of. Such an option will be another big selling point for iPhone 6 and the people that need that amount of storage. Photographers, video editors, music enthusiasts, and app users can easily eat up 60GB of space with large data today.
128GB may sound like a lot for a phone today but in a year or two from now it might be necessary for most people. 4K quality videos are starting to roll out for example and they take up a lot of space! Some apps on iOS take up 2-3GB as well. So there is a big need for more space options.
The Price of the iPhone 6
Many analysts have been suggesting that the iPhone 6’s 5.5” screen will force Apple to raise its price by at least $100. It makes sense that with a larger screen, a bigger battery, and NFC capabilities, the phone should cost more.
If this is true the iPhone 6 will cost $299 with a contract and the iPhone 6c will cost $199 with a contract. At that price-point we may see more people getting the 6c than the 6. This will push the 6c model more equally among consumers and make the “c” model much more successful than the iPhone 5c.
Also worth mentioning is that Apple may get rid of the 16GB model. Without a contract the prices for an iPhone 6 might look like this: 32GB for $749, 64GB for $849, 128GB for $949. The iPhone 6c without a contract will have the same storage models available but for $100 less.
Getting rid of 16GB will allow Apple to claim that they’ve scored a “win” for the phone user because they were able to keep the iPhone 6c price the same as iPhone 5s while doubling storage.
iPhone 6 Camera
As we said last year it’s kind of hard to tell how much better the iPhone 6’s camera will be than the iPhone 5s. The camera is usually a component that increases at a steady rate, but that may not be the case with the iPhone 6.
iPhone 6 Mockups Credits: Martin Hajek
Since Apple has been lacking in camera quality when compared to Android, they may take the opportunity of a bigger and expensive to also go big on the camera.
Color accuracy, quality, autofocus, and many other features of the iPhone 6 camera are still unknown and will probably remain that way until someone tests its camera. We could wait for Apple’s WWDC announcement of their new camera but it’s unlikely that their claims will fall in line with real-world tests. So the camera is the one thing we actually have to wait for to see for ourselves.
Also, last year we speculated that the iPhone 5s would have a 15MP camera but it ended up still coming with an 8MP camera like the iPhone 5. With that in mind we’re going to save you the disappointment and not get your hopes up in case Apple decides not to go big on their camera quality.
iPhone 6 Casing
Credits: Martin Hajek
On the iPhone 6 case all we have to go off of at the moment is the work of Martin Hajek. Based on leaks from China he created mockups of how the iPhone 6 may look. As you can see above it will likely have the same color options of the iPhone 5, but the case will be slightly different.
It’s speculated that the speakers will return back to one side of the bottom, and that the bezels of the screen will form a natural but thin “bumper” around the phone. Such bumpers will protect the screen from damage if dropped.
But the bumpers will also insure that the integrity of the case is intact even though the bezel size has been reduced and so has the thickness of the phone itself. It’s unlikely that these edges will raise higher than the screen itself because if they did it would make the phone feel weird under your fingers.
Wireless Charging
Last year we said that wireless charging wasn’t showing up in the iPhone 5s and that it wasn’t going to be ready for the iPhone 6 as well. This still remains a fact.
It’s not possible to determine at the moment when Apple will integrate wireless charging into their phones: if ever…
iPhone 6 Software
The iPhone 6 will feature iOS 8. In fact it’s almost a fact that these two products will go hand-in-hand at the WWDC announcements.
Credits: Engadget
Some other interesting software updates include mobile-payments that are outside of iTunes. With NFC technology in the iPhone 6 we could see wallet software that protects credit cards with fingerprints.
We could also see Apple offer their users a way to purchase physical goods using their iTunes account and credit card. This would take the successful model Apple has with iTunes and expand it into something big enough to compete with Amazon. However, these are all loose-speculations made by analysts and there isn’t much evidence to back them up.
The one thing we can say on the matter is that Apple has hundreds of millions of credit cards stored through its iTunes service. With all of this information all Apple needs to turn into a mobile-payment solution is their customers permission.
Conclusion
The iPhone is going to see a big change with the release of the iPhone 6.
iOS 7 was the first major change in software style ever seen by Apple since their first iPhone. With iPhone 6 we may witness the first major change in hardware by Apple ever since their first iPhone as well. First the software takes a complete 360 and then the hardware. It’s going to be a good year for Apple sales and fans.
A larger screen is something that Apple hasn’t done before. Yes, they did increase the height of the iPhone 5, but they never increased the width like they will with the iPhone 6. Everything from the new screen size of the iPhone 6 to its NFC and a $100 rise in price are things which will change how Apple does things in the future.
Steve Jobs was once quoted as saying that they will never make a “7 inch [tablet], [because] we don’t think they’re good products, we’d never make one.” Then Apple went ahead and released an iPad mini that was 7.9 inches.
Steve Jobs also said that he’s not interested in making iPhone bigger (and wider) because they are so big you “can’t get your hands around [them].” Then with the iPhone 6 we’re going to see Apple release a phone so big that the power button has to be moved so it can be reached by hands.
Apple has been breaking away from many of its minimalist ideals from the past, as well as Jobs’ beliefs, so the iPhone 6 is going to be a huge change. It may sadly also be the beginning of an era where Apple will have no option but to keep up with Android features to remain a leader in the phone market. 7 inch tablets, NFC chips, and large phone screens are all things that Apple has been forced to adopt because Android already has. Apple was the first one to release a successful touch-screen phone and they were the ones getting copied, but it seems that the tables have turned.
Whatever will happen with the iPhone 6, it’s going to be even more interesting to see where Apple takes it from there in the future.