In Cupertino, Calif. Tuesday, Apple announced its largest iPhone yet—the new iPhone 6 Plus with a 5.5-inch display.
Confirming longstanding giant iPhone rumors and leaks, the company pulled out the phablet-style version of its popular smartphone, which will go head to head with large smartphone-compact tablet mashups offered by the likes of Samsung and other competitors.
See also: What’s The Difference Between The iPhone 6 and iPhone 6 Plus?
CEO Tim Cook said the company “pushed further and enlarged what the iPhone could be.” Boy, he wasn’t kidding.
This and the smaller 4.7-inch iPhone 6 look largely the same as the leaks and rumors indicated, with rounded buttons, rounded corners, a protruding camera and a gold version. The glass front appears to spill over onto the side, curving its way around. The phone features an anodized aluminum back and stainless steel, fronted by Retina HD Displays composed of various layers, including an improved polarizer layer and “Ion-strengthened glass,” a super sturdy material to help guard against shattering.
The 6 Plus has 185% more pixels than the previous iPhone 5S, says Apple, suggesting more beautiful visuals on that screen than iPhone users are used to. It measures 7.1mm, shaving 0.5 mm off the previous flagship phone as well.
It also offers a beefier internals, like a new 64-bit A8 processor, and the company claims better battery life over the iPhone 5S.
The M8 “motion coprocessor” Apple introduced last year is also on board. (Of course it is. It’s designed for fitness apps, and the company’s pushing fitness and health this year.)
For camera buffs, the 6 Plus comes with an Apple-designed image signal processor (ISP) to help with shaky hands and low-lighting situations.
Other camera details:
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8MP camera, with true-tone flash, 1.5 micron pixels and a f/2.2 aperture and new iSight sensors, for faster autofocus and face detection.
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Panoramas of up to 43 megapixels
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Optical image stabilization
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Burst selfie mode
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Video: 1080p at 30 or 60 frames per second, with slow motion capture at 240 FPS, “cinematic video stabilization” (to rid the jitters), and continuous autofocus while shooting vids
These join other details, such as:
- Barometer (to track elevation)
- Supports 20 LTE bands, for better roaming capabilities
- VoLTE support, i.e. Voice over LTE, for better call connectivity and clarity
- Faster, next-generation Wi-Fi (802.11ac) and Wi-Fi calling (as part of iOS 8)
- Near Field Communication technology, allowing users to tap their phone to pay for goods in store
The new iPhone 6 Plus, like the iPhone 6, will ship with iOS 8 installed.
The iPhone 6 Plus starts at $299 for 16GB, $399 for 64, and $499 for 128GB on contract. Ships on September 19 in the U.S., with pre-orders starting September 12.
Lead image by Michael Hilton
