There are few, if any, products in the world that spark as much consumer interest and press coverage than an update to the iPhone. The next iPhone is on its way but will it be called the iPhone 6, or the iPhone 5S?
The question on everyone's lips is will it be an iterative update using the same chassis as the iPhone 5, just like the iPhone 4S was to the iPhone 4 or the iPhone 3GS was to the iPhone 3G.
Besides wanting to know whether the iPhone 6 will be coming this year, many of the questions surrounding the iPhone 6 launch include whether it’ll get BlackBerry Messenger, whether it’ll get a bigger screen and whether it will follow in the footsteps of Sony’s Xperia Z and be waterproof.
Some of the most fanciful rumours making the rounds centre on the iPhone 6 having a projector, being transparent and having a hologramatic screen. It’s highly unlikely any of these will transpire in the next iteration of the iPhone but concepts and patents filed by Apple fuel the rumours.
We’ll be updating this article regularly but here’s everything we know about the iPhone 6 so far, including how it'll differ from the iPhone 5.
iPhone 6 release date
Apple is sure to unveil its next iPhone later this year. Since 2007 when the first iPhone was released, every year has seen a new iPhone outed.
The release schedule of previous iPhones shows a very clear pattern too – Apple plans its launches with incredible precision.
iPhone – June 2007
iPhone 3G – July 2008
iPhone 3GS – June 2009
iPhone 4 – June 2010
iPhone 4S – October 2011
iPhone 5 – September 2012
The early days of the iPhone series were all about summer launches, but these days Apple has skipped a few months back. Its last two phones were unveiled in September or October.
And, naturally, we’re highly unlikely to see an iPhone 6 arrive in July given we’re already in the thick of it. A September launch is likely.
A July release date was speculated earlier in the year, the source being a leaked document from a Japanese network, but that just goes to show you can never trust rumours.
The first we hear of the Apple launch is likely to be when the invites go out, which could be as late as two weeks before the event itself. However, previous Apple events have been revealed after having their venue booking details leaked. We’ll be back as soon as any such leaks happen.
The next iPhone will launch alongside iOS 7, which was revealed at WWDC 2013 in June, again pointing towards a possible mid-September unveil – Apple says it’ll arrive in the ‘Fall’.
However, if the next iPhone turns out to be the iPhone 5S, it’s likely that we’ll have to wait until 2014 to see the iPhone 6.
That said, there is a third possibility. Some suggest that the long-rumoured ‘low-cost’ iPhone will be called the iPhone 5S, and that the next full-fat iPhone will be the iPhone 6. In that case, both may launch this year.
However, this creates some most un-Apple-like series continuity issues – namely that the iPhone 5 would have higher-end construction than the iPhone 5S.
iPhone 6 price
Apple has a strict approach to pricing. It almost never cuts its prices mid-cycle, only lowering prices when an iPhone goes from being the ‘current’ model to an older legacy phone.
It’s not into doing anything that’ll devalue its products.
This policy is likely to mean the next iPhone costs roughly the same amount as the current one – which starts at £529 for the 16GB model.
The price escalates to £599 for the 32GB model and £699 for the 64GB phone.
iPhone 6 specs
When assessing a phone’s power, there are three main elements to consider – the CPU, the GPU and the RAM.
In pure figures terms, Apple’s iOS series CPUs have never sounded that impressive. They stuck to dual-core chips while Android rivals moved onto quad-core CPUs, but they have actually been quiet trailblazing of late.
The iPhone 5’s A6 processor uses a custom system architecture rather than the ‘off the shelf’ type seen in the vast majority of phones.
However, as our Galaxy S4 vs iPhone 5 feature showed, Apple needs to play catch-up in this area. The iPhone 6 is likely to feature a quad-core processor, rumoured to be clocked at 1.2GHz. 2GB of RAM is also likely.
This would make the iPhone 6 the very first quad-core Apple mobile device. At present, the most powerful in the iOS family is the iPad 4, which stuck with a dual-core main processor.
However, it is rumoured that the iPhone 6 will use the same GPU – the graphics chip – as the iPad 4, the PowerVR SGX554MP4.
This may sound like a disappointing improvement given the iPad 4 was released in 2012, but consider the difference in screen resolution – the iPad 4 screen has over 3 million pixels, the iPhone 5 under one million.
A lower-resolution screen needs less power to render visuals of the same perceived quality.
iPhone 6 Colours
One of the most interesting changes we’ll see in the next-generation iPhone is the introduction of a bit of colour. Claimed leaked prototypes suggest we’ll see five colours, including green, blue, pink and yellow.
Colour joined the Apple family – which has traditionally been all about black, white and silver – with the last iPod touch. You can get the aluminium rear of the music player cast in more-or-less the same shades we expect to see in the next iPhone.
This was only really made possible by the design switcheroo made by the iPhone 5. The previous two generations of iPhones prior to this one were topped with glass on both sides, and creating colour editions would have been a serious manufacturing challenge. Now that the rear of the phone is aluminium, colour editions will be much easier to produce.
However, there have been suggestions that the papped colourful iPhones are the long-rumoured ‘budget’ iPhone.
iPhone 6 software
If the iPhone 6 arrives in 2013 rather than 2014, the phone will definitely run iOS 7. This software was unveiled in June and will power all new iOS devices following its release alongside the next iPhone.
Although the software is not publically available, it has already been released to developers. We know exactly what it looks and feels like already.
iOS 7 is Jonathan Ive’s redesign of the system – he was at the helm of the design team for most of Apple’s iconic products including the iPod and MacBook.
A new look is one of the most important changes. Icons are sharp rather than rounded and other aspects of the interface have taken some cues from Android.
For example, the drop-down notifications menu gives you control over phone features.
However, the system still doesn’t offer home screen widgets, which are what many iOS detractors have been asking for.
iPhone 6 screen
One of the most speculated-about elements of the iPhone 6 is its screen. Will it be bigger? Will it be higher-resolution?
In early 2013, there were rumours that Apple was planning to release two phone in 2013 – a 4-inch phone and a larger 4.8-inch one, the latter most likely to be dubbed ‘iPhone 6’.
iLounge’s Jeremy Horwitz clarified the rumours with his own sources, saying that while a 4.7-inch device was in prototyping stage, it’s “certainly not expected in 2013.”
Horwitz wrote in January that the iPhone 5S will arrive in 2013, will have a 4-inch screen like the iPhone 5.
It is also possible that the next-generation iPhones will use Sharp IGZO screens rather than the Sharp IPS displays used in the iPhone 5. These offer more efficient power consumption than the current type.
iPhone 6 camera
The next iPhone is likely to use a Sony camera sensor similar to those seen in the Sony Xperia Z and Samsung Galaxy S4, if the iPhone 6 is to follow the series’s current direction.
Both the iPhone 4S and iPhone 5 use an 8-megapixel Sony sensor – much as people may think Apple only uses its own components, it does not. Using the same sensor for three generations of iPhones is highly unlikely.
Most of this year’s top phones, including the Galaxy S4, use 13-megapixel Sony-manufactured camera sensors.
The two most notable exceptions are the 8.7MP Nokia Lumia 925 and HTC One, but both of those use rather different technologies to make their cameras stand out.
It’s unlikely that the iPhone 6 will make the same moves. The iPhone 6 is likely to be too slim to fit in the OIS components needed to copy the Lumia 925, and using a low-resolution, high pixel pitch sensor like the HTC One’s is a move that could misfire marketing-wise.
We expect the iPhone 6 to use a higher-resolution sensor and a familiar LED flash. Improvements in image quality are likely to be down to an improvement in lens construction and better noise reduction algorithms in the camera’s software.
There are clear improvements to be made in the iPhone 5’s camera lens too. It’s a reasonable f/2.2 construction, but beaten by several others these days, including the F/1.9 Lumia 720 and f/2.0 HTC One.
These figures are the cameras’ f-stop rating, which is the ratio between the diameter of the lens aperture and the focal length of the lens. The lower the figure the better – indicating that it’ll let in more light within the same exposure time, therefore giving the potential for faster shooting in good light and better low-light performance in gloomy situations.
iPhone 6 rumours
The rumour mill is always flying around the launch of another iPhone but what are the rumours to look out for?
Fingerprint scanner
The integration of a fingerprint scanner in the iPhone 6 has been heavily rumoured. Apple patents suggest it could be hidden within the phone's bezel.
Plastic iPhone
Could the iPhone 6 be made of plastic? Not likely but there are plenty of rumours suggesting a budget iPhone may be launched on the same release date as the iPhone 6.
Summer release date
In June pics of the iPhone 6 or 5S were reportedly snapped on a production line. If that's the case and production is already underway we could see an early release date in August.
iPhone 6 – Worth the Upgrade?
If we assume the iPhone 6 is to arrive this year, it’s unlikely to be a huge upgrade. All the rumours point to a sensible rather than hugely dynamic generational shift. We’ll get more power, a more advanced screen and updated software – although all recent iPhones will get the latter.
If the iPhone 6 is to land in 2014, it could well be a more dynamic device that, like the iPhone 5 did, changes the form of the device altogether by adding a larger screen. However, it’s too early to tell, especially given Apple is unlikely to have finalised the design of a product more than a year in advance.
