On today’s edition of Rumor Rundown, we will go over all of the rumors and news surrounding the successor to the iPhone throne, the iPhone 6. Rumors have been plenty surrounding Apple’s upcoming flagships, while some have proven legitimate, some have been downright wrong. From increasing the screen size to scratch-resistant glass, we’ll give you the rundown.
One of the most prevalent rumors, which indeed is reality now, is that the iPhone will receive a bump-up in size. Apple has long been one of the manufacturers that sell devices with a small in today’s standards phone. The first three generations of the iPhone all featured the same 3.5 inch display. It wasn’t until the iPhone 5 was released that Apple decided to increase the screen size to a sub-standard 4 inches. The average screen size today is over 4.8 inches.
The new iPhone 6 will come in two different screen sizes however. The first iPhone 6, will have a 4.7 inch display with a resolution of 960 x 1704 and a ppi of 416. Although Apple is also increasing the resolution, it still isn’t the mobile standard of 1080p. The iPhone 6L, or so its rumored to be called, will come with an above average 5.5 inch display. Rumors on this device have been slim, but it could feature a 1080p display to keep the ppi above 400 (it would come in at 401).
The one thing that always comes with a bigger screen is a bigger battery. At first it was reported that the iPhone 6 would receive an upgrade to 1810 mAh, up from 1570 mAh of the iPhone 5s. This was a welcome change, however most phones that sport a 4.5 inch plus display usually run around a 2000+ mAh battery. This could cause some concern for users who use their device heavily throughout the day.
The latest report on the battery came out a few days ago in a new leak. The purported pictures show that the 4.7 inch model will sport between a 1810 – 2100 mAh battery, while its 5.5 inch counterpart would come with a 2915 mAh battery. This would be a welcome increase, seeing as Apple’s direct competition, the Galaxy Note 4 is expected to come with a massive 3400 mAh battery.
While these batteries may seem a bit low compared to the market standard, iOS is very efficient when it comes to battery life. The 5s has 1230 mAh less than the current Galaxy S5 and will still throughout a day. Apple definitely users their operating system to its advantage to squeeze every ounce of life out of the smaller batteries.
One of the biggest possible selling points of the upcoming iPhone device won’t necessarily be the screen size, but the front panel that goes over the display. Rumors surrounding the expected sapphire crystal display have been running rampant. Our best look at it has come from fellow phone reviewer MKBHD, when he put the iPhone 6 front panel through a scratch test. The video can be seen below.
If sapphire crystal sounds familiar, that is because it is already used on iPhones today. If you have an iPhone 5s, it comes with the material in two places. The rear-facing camera on the iPhone 5s has sapphire crystal to protect the camera lens, also to resist scratching. This keeps the lens as high-quality as possible. The other location is on the home button. This is to keep the fingerprint scanner as clear as possible to make sure your log-in is safe and secure. Both these pieces are made out of pure sapphire to have the highest resistance.
This video peaked the interest tech reviewers and consumers alike due to the durability of the front glass. In every day use, it seems that the sapphire crystal front panel is unscratchable. It is only scratched when it comes into contact with sandpaper. To give you a perspective of how strong one hundred percent sapphire is, it comes in on the Mohs Scale at a nine, while Corning Gorilla Glass comes in at a six.
Granted, this is pure sapphire that reaches a nine on the scale. If the front panel were to be made entirely out of sapphire, it would be much too expensive for manufacturing. Believe it or not, a solid piece of sapphire may be more scratch-resistant, but it doesn’t flex as much normal glass. This would make the front panel less durable and more prone to breaking.
It was rumored that because of the extra cost to manufacture the sapphire crystal display, Apple was going to release two variations of the iPhone 6. Both the 4.7 and 5.5 inch devices would see a launch in the coming months, where the premium variations with the sapphire crystal display could come out at a later date. If Apple were to do that, it could diminish their overall sales on the debut phone, because of consumers holding out for the premium models. The sapphire crystal will be a huge selling point. This rumor seems to be busted, seeing has Apple has come up with a new manufacture process for the high-tech glass.
Apple has patented a way in which they synthetically bond the sapphire crystal to regular glass to keep costs down. They use a very thin layer of sapphire on the top of the panel towards the surface, and have regular glass on the bottom. This gives the phone added protection without the added cost.
The iPhone 6 will also ship with a brand new CPU. Apple has continuously been upgrading their devices at every release, and this will be no different. On the iPhone 6, expect Apple to debut the dual-core A8 processor, which will be clocked at 2.6 GHz. This is a huge upgrade from the current iPhone 5s with A7 CPU that is clocked at 1.3 GHz. It is also rumored that Apple could ship the iPhone 6L with quad-core processor. While it will still be called A8, it could just be a different variation. Another first for Apple is will be their expected jump up in RAM. The iPhone 6 is expected to come with 2GB of RAM whereas its 6L counterpart may ship with 3GB. Both are around the industry standard in 2014. If you thought the 5s was fast, expect the 6 to blow it out of the water, especially with iOS 8.
One of the latest details surround the upcoming iDevice has been the name. At first it was reported that Apple executives have decided not to use the ‘6’ moniker, instead going with something along the lines of Apple iPhone Air. This would make sense, it is a bigger and thinner device, differing from original iPhones. It also could coincide with the release of the new iPad Air 2, however that has changed… again. Just the other day, it was reported that the ‘Air’ name wasn’t going to happen and they were going to stick with the iPhone 6.
Regardless of what the new iPhone is called, it will still be debuted September 9, 2014 with a late September to early October release. Apple appears to be throwing every upgrade possible at its upcoming flagship device. The iPhone 6 will be a completely new device, coming with a new design, new specs, and maybe even a new name. The iPhone 6 countdown continues with 23 days until its highly-anticipated debut. Thanks for reading today’s edition of the Rumor Roundup! Below you can see a quick reference of the upcoming iPhone 6 specs.
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Screen size: 4.7″
Resolution: 960 x 1704 (416 ppi)
Camera: 10 megapixels (rear) – 2.1 megapixels (front)
Hardware: Apple A8 processor (2600 MHz) – dual-core
Battery: 1810 mAh
RAM: 2GB
Storage: 32-128GB
Water resistant: No
Features: fingerprint scanner, pressure sensor
Expected debut: September 9, 2014
Release date: Late September – October 14, 2014 (tentatively)
iPhone 6L: 5.5″
Screen size: 5.5″
Resolution: 1080 x 1920 (400 ppi)
Camera: 13 megapixels (rear) – 2.1 megapixels (front)
Hardware: Apple A8 (2) processor (1300 MHz) – Quad-core
Battery: 2915 mAh
RAM: 3GB
Storage: 32-128GB
Water resistant: No
Features: Scratch resistant glass, fingerprint scanner, pressure sensor
Expected debut: September 9, 2014
Release date: Late September – October 14, 2014 (tentatively)