All eyes are currently on the brand-new Apple launch event, which should see the last products that are going to be released next year. The Apple iPhone 6 is already the subject of hearsay and surmises, and reports and trickle have already started to flow. Now a fresh report suggests that the iPhone 6 could possibly have a curved display and that the display is also likely to be larger.
Sapphire Display
Apple iPhone 6 would look like with a larger screen, thinner bezel, rounded edges and no home key. Another growing possibility for the iPhone 6 is sapphire glass being used in the display, and not just for the iTouch fingerprint sensor home button and camera lens protection. as on the present iPhone 5S. Now a source said to be “familiar with the plans” has told how not only is Apple working on iPhones with larger screens, but that they could also feature curved glass.
Although sales of the iPhone are high, the Android competition has all moved to large-screen Full HD models, with the HTC One, Sony Xperia Z and Samsung Galaxy S4, so it makes sense for Apple to compete on screen size.
iPhone 6 Screen
It seems pretty clear at this point that the iPhone 6 is going to have a larger screen than any iPhone released to date. Early rumours suggested that there would be a 4.8in screen, but more recent rumours have suggested that the iPhone 6 could have a 5in screen. According to Japanese tech publication MacFun, the 5in screen will have a Full HD resolution of 1,920x1,080. From a certain point of view this makes a lot of sense, as there are already a lot of Full HD phones out there. However, we think that the resolution could be wrong, mostly because of the way that Apple works.
Resolutions
Apple has always been very careful in its resolution choices, so that apps look right on all of its devices. So, when Apple first went Retina with the quadrupled the resolution of the iPhone 3GS from 480x320 to the iPhone 4\'s 960x640. Quadrupling means that the horizontal and vertical resolutions are doubled, which makes scaling of old apps easy. When the company went widescreen, it kept the same horizontal resolution of 640 pixels, so old apps would run properly, but just with black bars at the top and bottom of the screen.
Moving to 1,920x1,080 would mean scaling up the current iPhone\'s resolution of 1,136x640 by 1.69 times vertically and 1.69 times horizontally. That is not such a clean method of scaling and there could be some issues with getting apps to work properly. As a result, Apple may decide to go for more resolution than it technically needs for a Retina display, quadrupling the current iPhone\'s resolution to 2,272x1,280 instead.
iPhone 6 iOS 7
We already have iOS 7, so it makes sense that this operating system will be used for the iPhone 6. It is possible, given that the iPhone 5S has features specific to it, that the OS will be updated to introduce new features with the new handset. For example, it could enable NFC is Apple decides that it wants the technology to use for mobile payments.
Camera
For the iPhone 5S Apple upped the physical size of its 8-megapixel sensor, meaning that each pixel gets more light. In addition, it upgraded the lens from an f/2.4 model to an f/2.2 model, increasing low-light performance again. Combined with the A7 SoC, the camera has a couple of neat modes, including a 10fps burst mode that goes on until the phone\'s memory is full, and a 120fps slow-motion mode. It would make sense if Apple was to use this sensor in the iPhone 6, although, given it is a bigger phone, with more room inside for components, it could well up the pixel count, with a 12- or 13-megapixel on the cards.
iPhone 6 Storage
In terms of storage, 64GB has been the top model for a couple of years, and continues to be so for the iPhone 5S. We are not expecting this to change for the iPhone 6, although we know that the Apple can make a 128GB model, thanks to the recent launch of a 128GB iPad 4. The new model doubled the maximum capacity of the previous high-end iPad (64GB). This update was said to be about increasing the variety of uses for the tablet, with Apple stating that more storage was good for large files for use in applications such as CAD and music production. It\'s also a more useful amount of storage for photos and videos.
iPhone 6 A7 SoC
At the moment, the Apple A7 system-on-a-chip (SoC) is the main focus for the company. This is the first 64-bit mobile chip and it\'s extremely fast. In fact, in our benchmarks on using the iPhone 5S, we found that the A7 is by far the fastest mobile processor. Apple has now used the A7 chip in both the iPad Air and iPad Mini with Retina Display.
Pricing starategy
Apple typically releases its new models at the same price as the old ones. If that holds out, then, and assuming that the 16GB model is dropped, we had expect the 32GB model to cost £529, the 64GB model £599 and the 128GB model £699.
iPhone 6 release date
Guessing Apple\'s release dates is a complete and utter nightmare, with practically every prediction wrong. It is clear, given that the iPhone 5S was only released in September, that we are not going to see the iPhone 6 until 2014 now.