Once
again, Tim Cook has taken the stage to announce the newest iPhones and
claim that these are ‘the best smartphones in the world’. Of course,
it’s hard to argue with this affirmation, but what thing is for sure –
it is definitely the most desirable smartphone across the world.
We’ve already seen plenty of details regarding the newest iPhone duo being leaked, and Apple is now just merely confirming almost all of them. The design and aspect of the new iPhone 6S and the iPhone 6S Plus have remained the same, but there are plenty of updates being done on the inside.
First of all, the new iPhones are made of stronger new 7000 series aluminum and will be available in silver, gold, space gray and rose gold, with the last one being a new option. According to Apple, the displays are covered by a brand new Ion-X glass, which is allegedly the strongest in the industry. So it seems that Apple’s tango with sapphire has ended here, at least for now.
The Force Touch technology has been upgraded to 3D Touch, which stands for traditional actions that you can do with your iPhone’s screen – tapping, swiping, and pinching, but which are going to be seriously revamped. In other words, if you press lightly you get a specific action and if you press hard, you get another one. Apple refers to 3D Touch as a dynamic system that is deeply integrated into iOS 9.
The new iPhones come with capacitive sensors integrated into the backlight of the Retina display, measuring the distance between the glass and the backlight. There’s a new taptic engine on-board which enables what Apple calls nini-taps and full-taps. 3D Touch enables two new ways to interact with the iPhone, which Apple is calling “peek” and “pop.” I don’t know about you, but I have a feeling that this new functionality might take some getting used to for new users. But that’s just a side thought.
Moving along the innards department, the new A9 chip is present in the iPhone, bringing a new transistor architecture which is allegedly capable of 90 percent faster “console class” (ahem!) graphics. Apple claims that the new chip is 70 percent faster than the A8 that we saw on the iPhone 6 and 6 Plus.
With the 2015 iPhones, the M9 motion coprocessor is embedded and always on, thus allowing it to more accurately monitor your movements. A second generation touch ID is present on the handsets and the new new iSight camera has been bumped to 12 megapixels. The autofocus is now more accurate and Apple has reduced the crosstalk and noise, as well. Considering all the hardware upgrades, this must be the biggest bump up on the new iPhone 6S and 6S Plus.
The new iPhones are 4K-able, as well, thus lining up with some premium smartphones already available. Selfie lovers will have only have a 5MP FaceTime camera at their disposal. A new ingenious feature is Retina Flash, allowing the entire display to light up to 3 times brighter than usual to be a flash for the front-facing camera.
One feature that has impressed the audience is called Live Photos, which basically makes use of 3D Touch to bring to life pictures that you’ve taken. Basically, the photos animate into short videos (with audio) with a single press on the display. While Apple hasn’t gone into details, taking too many pictures like these might quickly decrease your storage space. Although Apple calls it an “entirely new technology”, we have previously seen it on Lumia Windows Phones.
When it comes to connectivity, the LTE is twice as fast with support for 23 bands, and so is the WiFi. Apple has also demonstrated a new app for Android users which allows them to easily switch to an iPhone. We’ve actually seen this app being originally announced during this year’s WWDC.
The new iPhones have the exact same prices, as it was pretty much expected – $199 to $399 for the 6S, $299 and up for the 6S Plus, all on two-year contracts. The downside is that storage tiers have remained the same, which means that the base model will only bring 16GB of internal storage, despite hearsay suggesting it will be bumped to 32 gigabytes.
It seems that Apple wants to keep consumers interested in their iPhones and that’s why the company has come up with a new iPhone Upgrade Program. Starting at $32 per month, this allows consumers to opt for a 24-month installment plan to get a new unlocked iPhone every year with a carrier of your choice. This is a big blow to telecom operators as Apple is now going to run its own leasing plans.
The iPhone 6S and the iPhone 6S Plus are going to be available from September 25th in those usual launch countries, with iOS 9 going live next week on September 16th. Apple also announced a new iCloud storage pricing: 50GB for 99 cents a month, 200GB for $2.99/mo, 1TB for $9.99/mo.
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