Apple CEO Tim Cook has warned in an interview with the Wall Street Journal that price hikes on Apple products are unavoidable because the price of memory has increased to a degree that the company must now pass on increases to customers. The outgoing chief executive of Apple did not disclose the scope of the increases or when to expect them to happen, though the warning itself is noteworthy.

Cook said in the interview that price increases had become necessary due to skyrocketing prices of LPDDR and 3D NAND memory, which the company uses in its PCs, smartphones, tablets, and other products. He noted that Apple had attempted to offset rising component costs and protect customers from higher prices, but indicated in the interview that the company could no longer absorb the increases indefinitely. While Cook declined to discuss timing or the magnitude of the planned price hikes, some Apple products may see higher prices sooner rather than later. The company already raised the base price of its Mac Mini last month and eliminated its highest-end model.

TechInsights estimates that Apple will need to hike the price of a flagship iPhone Pro model by about $270 to maintain its current gross margins, which could push flagship iPhone pricing into a substantially higher price band. To make matters worse, Apple faces rising DRAM requirements as it expands memory-hungry on-device AI capabilities.

Apple is a unique company in the sense that it is both one of the world's largest suppliers of smartphones and one of the industry's biggest PC OEMs. Still, its Mac business is negligible compared to the iPhone business.

Memory makers are more inclined to ship non-volatile NAND memory to smartphone makers as they can ship LPDDR with it, according to Nelson Duann, a senior vice president of Silicon Motion, speaking in an interview with Tom's Hardware. If Duann is correct that NAND makers prefer smartphones because they can bundle NAND and LPDDR sales, then Apple should be among the most favored customers in the industry, not among the disadvantaged ones.

Also, keep in mind that historically Apple has used long-term supply agreements, prepayments, equipment financing, and advance capacity reservations to secure key components, including DRAM, NAND flash, displays, advanced packaging, and even semiconductor foundry capacity. As one of the world’s largest electronics manufacturers and semiconductor buyers, Apple is among the few companies capable of negotiating with memory suppliers from a position of considerable strength.

As a result, Apple is not in a situation where it cannot get enough memory; it can probably get more than other suppliers of smartphones and PCs, but it surely has to buy both DRAM and NAND at a premium. That said, it is not surprising that Apple will have to increase prices; what remains to be seen is the magnitude of the increase.

Apple is 50 years old. The consumer tech giant, famous for the iPhone, AirPods, and, yes, its Mac laptops and desktops, has a larger footprint than ever. It also now encompasses TV production, music streaming apps, a massive App Store, and even a $599 system for the masses, the MacBook Neo. But all of that is rooted in a tradition of hobbyist computing, starting with the company's first product: the Apple-1.

Apple Computer Inc. was founded in 1976 as a partnership between Steve Jobs, Steve Wozniak, and Ronald Wayne (of Atari fame, who was at Apple very briefly and worked on documentation). The company was built around the Apple-1, designed by Wozniak, and officially incorporated in Cupertino, California, in January 1977.

In retellings of the Apple legend, Wozniak was the true engineer, who was working at HP at the time. Jobs had an interest in electronics (and was reportedly pretty good at soldering at his job at Atari), but he was more of a marketing guy.

Either way, the pair, along with the early team they built, didn't have a company based on lifestyle – at least not yet. It was based in the hobbyist PC space. The Apple-1 came without a case, a keyboard, or a power supply, but did include a MOS Technology 6502 microprocessor and four kilobytes of memory. If you wanted to run Integer BASIC, you needed to do it on a cassette. Only about 200 were ever made, mostly for Byte Shop in nearby Mountain View.

At the time, the Apple-1 delivered a surprising amount of convenience for personal computing. Even though you still had to bring many components, the board was built and tested. Wozniak would show it off at the Homebrew Computer Club in Silicon Valley, to acclaim.But it was the Apple II that brought Apple's computers to the masses, assembling everything together, including the keyboard and case. You would use a television to serve as the screen. Heck, BASIC was even stored in memory. The Apple II was an iconic beige box that would be popularized by two further advancements in computing: a floppy disk drive and VisiCalc, an early spreadsheet program, which boosted its popularity.

There would be many variations on the Apple II, including the ill-fated Apple III, the upgraded Apple IIe, and the Lisa, the first commercially available PC with a GUI and mouse (inspired by work at Xerox's Palo Alto Research Center, such as the Xerox Alto), which was quite expensive at $9,995.

But in 1984, following an internal power struggle, a second computing group within Apple revealed the Macintosh (later the Macintosh 128K), bringing forward the idea of the "all-in-one" PC, which included a monitor. There would be many variations in the Mac line, but they'd become popularized again in 1998, when Jobs, back from his exile from the company from 1985 through 1997, announced the iMac G3, designed by Jony Ive, in Bondi Blue. That would be followed by multiple colorways on the portable iBook laptops.

There would be hits (the iMac G4, with a modern design between a lamp and a flower) and misses. The Power Mac G4 Cube was a gorgeous machine with cosmetic issues in the injection-molded plastic and cooling issues thanks to its fanless design. The press release about Apple suspending production lives on on its website.

In 2001, Apple released the iPod, promising "1,000 songs in your pocket." The third-gen iPod, in 2003, added support for Windows, helping propel it to be one of the most popular consumer devices of all time. In 2007, Apple would launch the iPhone, which would take over the American smartphone market, become the company's largest focus and flagship product, and introduce the App Store, a huge business success for the company, as well as other services like iCloud, Apple Music, and Apple Pay. (The iPhone would ultimately lead to the death of Flash and the headphone jack on phones, but change the way many people use devices forever.)

But the next biggest hit would be the MacBook Air. By this time, Apple was firmly in its Intel era. Sure, it was extremely expensive when it launched in 2008, starting at $1,799 with an 80GB HDD and a 1.6 GHz Intel Core 2 Duo processor (a 64GB SSD was an upgrade option!). But when Jobs pulled that computer out of a manila envelope, the tech world was stunned. It was stunned again when, in 2010, Apple redesigned the Air in two sizes: 11- and 13.3-inches, starting at $999 for the smaller model and $1,299 for the larger one (and it got rid of the spinning hard drive).

The MacBook Air would push leading PC companies to chase Apple in laptops for well more than a decade, as Dell updated the XPS line, HP jumped to the premium Spectre, and even Lenovo's ThinkPads saw the X1 series.

The MacBook Air would stay in the spotlight, 12 years later. Following some hum-dum upgrades in Apple's last Intel years, including the lackluster Touch Bar (in fact, in 2018, with little attention, I wrote for Laptop Mag that Apple needed to either upgrade or kill the laptop), it would be one of the first machines, along with the MacBook Pro and Mac Mini, to ditch Intel and move to Apple's first in-house silicon, the M1 system-on-a-chip. It was widely seen as a success.

Today, Macs don't have the kind of modularity or upgradeability they had when Wozniak showed off the Apple-1 at the Homebrew Computer Club. But with the release of the $599 MacBook Neo, time has caught up with Apple at 50 years old. There's another computer that feels like an all-in-one package for more people. But there are more challenges to come, as Apple faces a new world focused on AI, with new players and competitors. While the company still seems to be trying to deliver on promises around Apple Intelligence, the company has partnered with Google to use Gemini models to make an AI-focused Siri.

The 50-year anniversary has inspired celebrations, with museum collections, like the Mimms Museum of Technology and Art in Georgia showing off over 2,000 artifacts related to the company's history, and the vaunted Computer History Museum in Mountain View offering special programming. Apple has had an array of concerts and other performances at stores globally. But for most, it's just Wednesday, even if you have an iPhone in your pocket.

A smartphone performance enthusiast has shown pictures of their cooler-boosted iPhone 17 Pro Max on Reddit. T-K-Tronix indicates that their Rube Goldberg-esque multiple passive PC SSD cooler contraption elevates the flagship device’s Steel Nomad Light stress test stability score beyond 90% in 3D Mark's Stress Test. From their comments, we think T-K is aiming to improve performance stability for Apple ProRes mode video recording, which is known to make these devices very toasty over prolonged high-resolution recording sessions.

17 Pro Max Cooling with M2 SSD Cooler 90% Stabilty in 3D Mark Stress Test from r/iphone

When boasting about their new stability score, it would have been better if T-K supplied a baseline stability score for the same device, ahead of strapping on the motley array of SSD coolers. While we can’t find any baseline scores from the OP to compare, we found a Max Tech YouTube video where the iPhone 17 Pro Max achieved a 69.4% stability score across a standard set of Steel Nomad Light runs.

Let’s be bold enough to compare these scores, and if we do, T-K's 90.5% performance stability is a significant step up from Max Tech's 69.4%, and could be worth it in sustained Apple ProRes recording sessions. Better sustained and consistent performance stats like this will probably also catch the eyes and imaginations of smartphone gamers.

Vapor chamber cooling is not enough for ultra-enthusiasts?

Apple made a major design detour with the release of the iPhone 17 Pro models. The glass back construction was swapped out in favor of an aluminum wraparound unibody, with a much reduced sliver of glass on the back, left to maintain wireless charging and MagSafe compatibility.

The A19 Pro chip inside the new flagship iPhones is certainly a great performer, and we recently compared it to other platforms, including the AMD Ryzen 9 9950X. However, Apple seems to have recognized the need for sustained non-throttling performance by reworking its flagship smartphone cooling to employ vapor chamber tech for the first time.

At launch, Apple indicated that the vapor chamber, filled with deionized water, dissipates heat throughout the system. When combined with the aluminum unibody, the firm asserted the new system was 20 times better at cooling than the titanium used in the iPhone 15 Pro and iPhone 16 Pro.

A high-tech tinkerer has managed to get Apple’s iOS to run on the Nintendo Switch. Don’t get too excited, though, as PatRyk on X wryly admits they have created “the world’s slowest ‘iPhone’.” Booting this Nintendo ‘iPhone’ currently takes 20 minutes, and all the apps they tried crash – but it’s a start.

Baby steps

While the gaming tech world is all a flutter with the recently launched Switch 2, PatRyk spent two days attempting to shoehorn Apple’s mobile OS onto the best-selling hybrid console. This enthusiast’s modesty seems to be matched by their patience, as the new Nintendo ‘iPhone’ takes 20 minutes to boot. We wonder how many times they waited that length of time, or even longer, for the boot process to hang or otherwise fail?

Using the mobile OS also sounds like an incredible life-sapping chore, with this ‘iPhone’ in its current state. PatRyk says that the system “kernel panics every 2nd thing you do, can’t open any apps (they all time out and crash).”

At this stage, the project might sound dire, but it shows that running iOS on the original Switch is possible – it just needs optimization. But you aren’t going to be ditching your real Apple iPhone for a Switch any time soon.

Underlying technology - the versatile QEMU

Apple reportedly preventively shipped five planeloads of iPhones, PCs, and other devices from India to the U.S. in late March to avoid paying 10% import duty in the U.S. and to temporarily stabilize prices in America, reports The Times of India. By sending five aircraft laden with smartphones and PCs, the company stocked its warehouses for the next few months, according to TrendForce.

This move gives Apple an inventory buffer in its largest market. With stocks full, the company now has time to assess how the new tariffs policy affects its supply chain and adjust its operations accordingly without a rush. Though it remains to be seen how exactly the massive import duties imposed by the Trump administration will affect its operations in the U.S., Apple did not comment on the story, so we do not know how accurate the report is, hence, take it with a grain of salt.

Apple's manufacturing base spans several countries. According to TechNews, all models of iPhone are produced in China, but 15% of iPhones are made in India. Some parts come from Vietnam. Macs are produced in China, Vietnam, and in Texas (though quantities of the latter are small since the site only builds ultra-high-end models). iPads and Watches are built mainly in China, though some are assembled in Vietnam. Earbuds are mostly produced in Vietnam, with some made in China.

While the new U.S. government's tariffs policy affects over 180 nations, Apple may benefit from spreading its supply chain. The U.S. now imposes a 26% duty on Indian goods, which is still lower than the 54% applied to Chinese imports and 46% on Vietnamese products. However, given the limited output of Apple's (well, Foxconn's) production capacity in India, the company will still have to ship many products from China and pay the duties, which will affect its costs and prices in the U.S.

Foxconn, Apple's main production partner, has been expanding its production capacities outside of Asia, specifically in Mexico. Hence, it is possible that some of Apple's products will be assembled in Mexico over time, though we can only wonder when this is set to happen.

 iFixit published information about the iPhone 16's repairability, giving it a 'provisional' repairability score, as it does for many devices. What stands out in this report is the demonstration of a unique adhesive used to seat its battery.

The adhesive can be debonded by 'hotwiring' a 9V battery to the device, giving a more controlled way of replacing batteries when needed. The application is enormous as it allows technicians to debond glue from any device with this application by using a small amount of current, with the iPhone 16 being the first to use such adhesives.

The debonding method for the battery took a minute and a half with a 9V battery, according to Apple's repair manual. Using battery clips attached to the 9V battery, the positive clamp is secured on the silver tab on the iPhone 16's battery, with the black connector clipped to the lower right screw on the bottom of its speaker for grounding. The result? The power agitates the applied adhesive underneath the batter, making it easily removable with no resistance. 

For replacing batteries on previous models, a repair technician would use a solvent underneath the battery, which can damage other components if it overapplies or spills during this debonding method. Hence, this method increases the repair feasibility. The iPhone 16 also has specially machined ridges and rough surfaces for the glue to settle in within the frame, ensuring the possible bonding for the battery. 

Battery removal using other power sources

It is mentioned in the guide that the removal time may increase with the product's life. Though the demonstration used a 9V battery, the guide also mentions using 30V and above for faster removal and DC power supplies. iFixit did so using its portable FixHub Power Station. Since the device was brand new and hence the applied adhesive- it took 60 seconds to debond at 12 volts with no force required. Though the process eliminates the need to use solvent for debonding, iFixit and Apple recommend using isopropyl alcohol to clean the remaining adhesive.

iFixit also spotted a research paper that explains the mechanism of this adhesive in detail. The new electrically dependable adhesive was critical for recycling, repairability, and reuse of electrical components, but making it work in real conditions was challenging. Several debonding methods were proposed over the years; however, no experiment using various materials worked until an ionically conductive material showed a good level of success. Eventually, a method was devised where electrodes could be used to make an electrochemical reaction to agitate the applied adhesive.

Using adhesive on devices like smartphones, tablets, and notebooks is very common. However, debond glue passes a low-volt battery and speeds up battery replacement while not affecting other components in the device. This would also require these types of adhesives to be readily available in the market, as the new batteries will need to be secure using the same method.

Changing the binding material for batteries has improved over time. Most recently, research published last year showed that changing the binding material increased the battery life by up to 10%. We may see such electrically debonding adhesive widely available for different applications with different levels of strength needed for varying electronics and components.

Apple may be late to the party with its artificial intelligence projects, but it certainly doing its best to catch up. On Monday the company said that its Apple Intelligence pack of AI features will roll out from next month with iOS 18.1, iPadOS 18.1, and macOS Sequoia 15.1. This new AI-driven feature set will assist with tasks such as writing, organizing photos, and managing notifications, and it will first launch in U.S. English, with more languages and features arriving in the coming months.

As expected, Apple Intelligence will come to Macs based on Apple Silicon processors (M1 and newer) running macOS Sequoia 15.1; iPads based on M1 and newer chips and running iPadOS 18.1; and iPhones with 8 GB of more memory (i.e., iPhone 15 Pro/Pro Max and iPhone 16/16 Plus/16 Pro/16 Pro Max) featuring iOS 18.1. 

Apple Intelligence blends generative AI with personal context, making it easier to perform everyday tasks. Notable features include tools for refining writing, summarizing content, and providing smarter notifications, all while prioritizing user privacy through on-device processing. 

The system includes advanced writing tools that allow users to rewrite, summarize, and proofread their text in apps like Mail, Notes, and Pages. It extends this functionality to third-party apps as well, ensuring that users can polish their text anywhere they write. 

In Photos, a new Clean Up tool enables users to remove unwanted objects from the background of pictures without affecting the main subject. In addition, Photos will come with improved natural language search for both images and videos, which should greatly simplify content organization. Users can now also search within videos and create personalized photo memories by simply typing a description. 

Apple Intelligence introduces smarter notifications across various apps with the Reduce Interruptions capability that filters out unimportant alerts, and Priority Messages, which highlights time-sensitive emails in Mail. Notifications are summarized for quick review, showing key information instead of lengthy previews, and Smart Reply helps users quickly respond to emails with suggested replies. 

Additional upcoming features include Image Playground and Image Wand, which will allow users to create playful visuals and enhance notes with quick, contextual images. Another upcoming feature Genmoji will let users create custom emojis from text descriptions or photos of people they know. 

Apple Intelligence will also integrate with ChatGPT, giving users access to its knowledge and document understanding capabilities. Users will be able to leverage this integration within iOS 18, iPadOS 18, and macOS Sequoia without switching apps, providing a somewhat seamless experience for accessing both generative AI and traditional tools. 

Siri has been significantly upgraded to become more intuitive and context-aware. It now retains context across multiple interactions, making it easier to use for extended conversations or complex tasks. Users can seamlessly switch between typing and speaking to Siri, and it has enhanced knowledge of Apple products, answering questions about device features or settings.

Most tasks will run on-device, but more complex functions will use Private Cloud Compute, ensuring that personal data is never shared with Apple or stored on its servers. Even when users choose to use ChatGPT through Siri, privacy safeguards will obscure their IP addresses, and no data will be stored by OpenAI, Apple stressed.

Apple's next iPhone chip is the A18, powering the new suite of smartphones and Apple's first lineup touting Apple Intelligence features, created specifically for the iPhone 16.

The new chip, based on TSMC's second-gen 3-nanometer technology, combines two performance cores, four efficiency cores, and a 16-core neural engine, which Apple says is twice as fast as previous chips for machine learning. It also boasts 17% more system memory bandwidth.

Apple compared the chip to the A16 Bionic, the chip in the previous non-Pro iPhones, as opposed to the A17 Pro. Apple says the new chip is 30% faster than the A16 Bionic.

Apple says that the new 5-core GPU in the A18 is up to 40 percent faster than the GPU used in the A16 Bionic (used in the iPhone 15). This “desktop class” GPU also performs this feat while using 35% less power.

The company said that Apple can allow for 30% higher sustained performance for gaming than previous versions. The company showed illustrations of optimized motherboards and thermal substructures to allow for better heat dissipation. 

For gaming, the company again touted hardware-based ray tracing, including shadows and reflections, and shows Honor of Kings: World with an ultra graphics mode for iPhone 16. Some big games that required the iPhone 15 Pro's A17 Pro chip will work on the regular iPhone with A18.

The iPhone 16's biggest addition outside of Apple Intelligence feature is the Camera Capture button, which can add overlays that let you zoom, switch lenses, and use other options with haptic feedback. It can also work with Intelligence features to recognize objects and locations, add concert posters to your calendar, and send photos to ChatGPT.

iPhone 16 will start at $799, while the larger iPhone 16 Plus will begin at $899.

A18 Pro

Like the IPhone 16, the iPhone 16 Pro and Pro Max are get a the A18 Pro. It's also on a second-gen TSMC 3nm node. The system has a 16-core neural engine capable of 35 trillion operations per second and a 17% bump in memory bandwidth. 

Like the A18, the A18 Pro has two performance cores and four efficiency cores. Apple claims this chip is 15% faster than the A17 Pro, and that it can deliver the same performance at 20% less power. Apple is also promising programmable next-gen machine learning accelerators, faster USB3 speeds and ProRes video recording. You can now capture 4K 120Hz video in HDR.

iPhone 16 Pro will start at $999 (128GB), while the Pro Max will begin at $1,199 (256GB). Pre-orders begin on Friday and will be available on September 20.

Just yesterday, Twitter/X user @NTDEV_ posted a series of screenshots showcasing the Tiny11 Core build of Windows 11 running on their iPhone 15 Pro. The emulated specifications provided through the UTM SE PC emulator include a 1 GHz, 1-core virtual QEMU CPU and 2GB of RAM, so this is hardly an ideal use case for Windows 11 or an iPhone 15 Pro, but it's a fascinating showcase of both.

An important distinction to make before proceeding is that "emulation" and "virtualization" are two different concepts. Emulation imitates a specific hardware architecture and allows for hyper-specific software (a la software only released on obscure arcade boards or long-dead PC architectures) to be run on emulator-targeted platforms. Virtualization can be used for emulation, but instead refers to the ability of supported hardware to create virtual pools of resources (CPU cores, RAM, etc) to be dedicated to separate operating systems (often the same OS for different simultaneous sessions/clients) inside a virtual machine.

Close examination of the screenshots raises some red flags right away. For example, the resolution and aspect ratio are both quite cropped compared to the full extent of the iPhone's display, suggesting dreadful limitations in either emulation performance or configuration options. The screenshots all show very limited, single-window use cases, though text rendering and such still seems to be fine.

It's still impressive that this runs at all — particularly considering the much higher performance overhead inherent to emulating disparate CPU architectures compared to more standard same-architecture virtualization — but it's obvious that the main iOS 17 and upcoming iOS 18 will provide the more usable, visually-enjoyable experience.

As noted by @NTDEV_, the performance here isn't what one would call "usable" despite the acquirement of four screenshots. Taking twenty minutes to boot into any operating system on any modern machine is hardly tolerable, and iPhones don't have the same x86 software or hardware optimizations as modern Macs and Macbooks do. At this time, experiments like these are still in the range of "experimental" phone operating systems in general, like the 9-year-dead FireFox OS (RIP). It's quite the flex for both UTM SE and the Tiny11 guys, though.  

Despite Apple’s initial rejection of the emulator app and the developers’ initial decision to give up, UTM SE was approved and released on the App Store Sunday. The “retro PC emulator” allows you to run classic operating systems, software, and games on the iPhone, iPad, and Vision Pro.

UTM is a popular alternative on the Mac to applications like Parallels, VMWare, and VirtualBox. It acts as a graphical interface to the command-line-driven emulator Qemu. It’s never been officially available to iOS users, though, because Apple didn’t allow emulators of any sort on the iOS App Store until April 2024.

When Turing Software first submitted UTM SE to the App Store, Apple rejected the app. Apple also refused to notarize it for third-party app stores in the European Union. Part of the problem was that the app relied on Just In Time (JIT) compilation to provide a satisfactory emulation experience. JIT compilation means compiling code as a program is running rather than beforehand, something Apple deems a security risk on iOS.

Gaming emulators like DolphiniOS have also been rejected for needing JIT support. DolphiniOS depends on the technique to emulate newer Nintendo consoles. UTM used it to translate PowerPC code to run on the Arm-based chips found in current Apple devices.

Unwilling to resubmit the app without JIT support because doing so meant a subpar experience, it seemed as if UTM would not come to iPhones and iPads without jailbreaking the devices. However, help for the project came from another Qemu developer. Qemu is the actual emulation layer UTM uses to allow you to run software as if it was on an old i486 or PowerPC-based Mac.

The team implemented a version of the Qemu Tiny-Code Threaded Interpreter (TCTI). Qemu TCTI interprets the code rather than compiling it, allowing Turing Software to get around the JIT ban. Mind you, this results in a rather slow experience even by the standards of the emulated hardware. That’s why the app includes the “SE” tag at the end — “SE” stands for “Slow Edition.”

That being said, the approval is good news for other emulator developers. For the more general audience, you can install UTM SE from the App Store to run classic games or operating systems on emulated x86, PPC, and RISC-V architectures.

Just a few years ago, the idea of gaming on a Mac was a joke among the enthusiast PC community. But I'll give Apple this — it's clearly putting in the work. And while it definitely can't compete with Windows PCs or consoles on its library just yet, Apple does have one trick up its sleeve that I think, in time, may be able to draw a certain type of person to gaming on its platforms: the ecosystem.

At a small showcase, Apple showed me what a few years ago would have been unthinkable: a series of Macs running recent releases and previews of upcoming games, natively on Apple Silicon. It's a huge step that games like Assassin's Creed: Shadows and Frostpunk 2 are set to come day and date with PC, Xbox, and PlayStation releases. (Frostpunk 2 was on display. Assassin's Creed: Shadows was not.) And that's not all — the iPad and iPhone were also playing intensive games, thanks to Apple's shared chip architectures.

The company is catching up on some recent releases, like Palworld, which is set to release later this year. But toss in new developer tools and the idea that your games could carry over to other Apple devices, and that's where things get interesting.

Game Porting Toolkit 2

Announced at WWDC, this year's update to the Game Porting Toolkit should further help to streamline Apple Silicon Mac development for games already designed for the PC, and also, crucially, bring Mac games to the iPhone and iPad. 

The new version of the Toolkit includes AVX2 support, ray tracing, and improved performance. There are also new human interface guidelines, and new debugging tools for shaders in Xcode to help convert them to Metal (and unified shaders that should work once across the Mac, iPhone and iPad).

Apple showed off Control: Ultimate Edition running through the Game Porting Toolkit. The game is coming natively to Mac later this year, five years after the game's initial launch. A bit late, but it's a great game! 

Using the Windows version of Steam and the DirectX 12 version of the game, a MacBook Pro with an M3 Max played the title at 46 - 50 frames per second on high-quality settings and high ray tracing with a resolution of 1728 x 1117. I picked up the DualSense controller Apple had in front of the Mac and took on some Hiss guards as Jesse Faden, and it felt largely ready to go. If this is what convinced Remedy to port the game over, I can kind of see why it happened. With the M3 series and M4 chips supporting ray tracing tech, the game looks great.

The Unified Gaming Platform

Where Apple may have an advantage is where it typically excels: in its ecosystem. If games are released for the Mac, but then you can play them on your iPad or iPhone, it could open up gaming to tons of people who wouldn't have done so previously — and make it easier for enthusiast Mac gamers to play anywhere.

Playing anywhere has been a bit of a white whale for gaming companies lately. Think of cloud services like Game Pass from Microsoft or GeForce Now from Nvidia. The idea was you'd stream games to play them anywhere.

Apple's vision strikes me as a slightly more traditional version of the idea. Never mind streaming, but how about running the game locally on each device? Apple showed Resident Evil 7: Biohazard, which launched on Apple's products in July, running across the latest iPhone 15 Pro, iPad Pro with M4, and Macs . This particular game supports Apple's Universal Purchase functionality, so if you buy once, you get it across your Apple ecosystem. And the game uses iCloud to sync save data, so you can pick up where you left off on other devices.

Assassin's Creed Mirage has similar tricks, but only across the iPhone and iPad (and it looks excellent on the M4 iPad Pro's tandem OLED display, by the way). Rather than using iCloud, it uses Ubisoft Connect for syncing.

Apple needs to beef up its gaming library

As much as I liked seeing more games run well, particularly on the Mac, it still needs a lot more games to make it the main place for anyone to play. Ubisoft and Capcom are great partners — big studios with games people want to play. But the gaming PC is popular because it supports just about every major game outside of some console exclusives, and has a backlog going back decades. 

Apple needs to start somewhere. In my view, that's primarily with future games. I don't know how many people didn't play Death Stranding or Control a few years ago that will only play them because they're on the Mac. I think recent games like Palworld and upcoming games like Frostpunk 2 are better bets — get people when the games are new.

That also means it will take a significant amount of time for Apple to get its gaming efforts anywhere near mainstream. I hope the company is ready to continue this investment in chips, developer relations, and technologies. To get gamers and studios entirely on board will take a lot work. It will take years to see if this can be a true success. (Apple also needs to ensure it doesn't alienate game developers and publishers, like Epic Games, which means one of the biggest games in the world doesn't run natively on its flagship platform).

But sitting in that room, playing some Resident Evil on a MacBook Pro, Assassin's Creed on an iPad, Palworld on a Mac, and Control through x86 emulation tech makes me believe Apple is taking gaming seriously this time. It may never release a gaming laptop — instead, the idea is any Mac (with Apple Silicon, of course) can be a gaming machine. So can any iPad, any iPhone. It's a bold claim that will take continued successes to convince the often-skeptical PC gaming community. 

Quality of life improvements, as long as you're in the ecosystem

Apple's other gaming-focused projects are less shiny. Game Mode, which launched on the Mac last year, is coming to the iPhone and iPad this year with iOS 18 and iPadOS 18, minimizing background activity and reducing latency for audio and controllers. MacOS Sequoia will have a new version that reduces background processes even further. 

The Mac App Store will  require far less storage space to begin an installation update when macOS Sequoia launches later this year. Future updates will also let Mac owners install games to separate disks from the Mac App Store, which is helpful given the ballooning size of games.

And spatial audio is making its way to games in the new Mac and mobile operating systems, reducing latency and ensuring better audio while you're in game chat. Of course, that requires the second-generation AirPods Pro.

Stereotypically, the PC gaming community doesn't like lock-in. But the Apple community is known for loving when things work in an integrated fashion. 

The work has started, and it's impressive. Apple still has a long way to go. But hopefully, one day, there's a future where PC gamers, Mac gamers, and console gamers are all cross-playing with each other. Wouldn't it be beautiful?

Apple recently introduced Apple Intelligence, its interpretation of on-device AI, at WWDC 2024. Its artificial intelligence features are designed to primarily run on-device, but any task that requires more horsepower will be passed on to Apple’s Private Cloud Compute. However, Tesla boss Elon Musk has been riled by the option to integrate ChatGPT into Apple’s AI services — initially with Siri.

Musk said, “If Apple integrates OpenAI at the OS level, then Apple devices will be banned at my companies. That is an unacceptable security violation.” He then expanded his Twitter/X thread by asserting “Visitors will have to check their Apple devices at the door, where they will be stored in a Faraday cage.”

As always, Apple is late to hop on a hot tech trend. But it tends to go all-in when it moves, and its Apple Intelligence has several attractive key features, especially its emphasis on privacy. However, OpenAI's ChatGPT model has the advantage over Apple, especially since the game-changing ChatGPT-3.5 launched back in 2022. This 18-month difference has given OpenAI the advantage and even Apple admits that.

Craig Federighi admitted this much during the Apple Intelligence segment, “Still, there are other artificial intelligence tools available that can be useful for tasks that draw on broad world knowledge or offer specialized domain expertise. We want you to be able to use these external models without having to jump between different tools, so we’re integrating them right into your experiences — and we’re starting out with the best of these; the pioneer and market leader ChatGPT from OpenAI, powered by CharGPT-4o.”

So, if you use Siri’s AI and it feels that ChatGPT can generate better ideas, it will talk to OpenAI’s service. Nevertheless, this is an opt-in feature, meaning your iPhone will confirm with you first if you want to share your data, including text and photos. OpenAI and Apple say that users’ IP addresses are obscured when ChatGPT receives requests, and that the former won’t store these.

Despite assurances, Elon Musk still has his reservations. He claims that “Apple has no clue what’s actually going on once they hand your data over to OpenAI. They’re selling you down the river.” Earlier this year, Musk sued OpenAI for its alleged breach of its founding agreement. However, the company’s leadership suggested that this move was because of “Elon’s regrets about not being involved with the company today.”

Elon Musk’s concerns are technically moot, especially as Apple and OpenAI are, at least on paper, putting user privacy in the forefront. But we cannot turn a blind eye towards some of the issues that OpenAI and ChatGPT have stumbled into. For example, Samsung inadvertently leaked confidential data in 2023 after its workers used ChatGPT at work. We also cannot discount malware and weak username/password combinations that could compromise iPhones integrated with user ChatGPT accounts.

Musk’s main issue is the integration of ChatGPT itself with Siri. However, this Siri-ChatGPT connection is likely to run through an API and would not have access to your iPhone’s data, except the information that you explicitly send it. Still, Elon Musk (and several other users) have trust issues regarding artificial intelligence in general. For some, the opt-in feature is good enough to ensure that Apple will not send your data to ChatGPT. But for Elon Musk, he’d rather not have it at all.

Howard County, Maryland, investigators have recovered approximately 15,000 stolen construction tools thanks to an AirTag device tracker. Officials announced the recovery in a May 23 news conference. The tools are believed to have been stolen from retail stores, businesses, vehicles, residential properties, and construction sites.

Howard County Police Chief Gregory Der announced the preliminary outcome of the investigation. Der described it as “one of the largest theft cases not only in Howard County but in this region.” The stolen tools greatly impacted many victims, incredibly individual contractors “who have lost work because of their tools.”

The investigation began in late January when an AirTag tracking device in a stolen tool led officers to a storage unit in Elkridge, Maryland. The victim who led detectives to the first cache of stolen tools was from Virginia.

“This case sends a clear message: we will not tolerate criminal enterprises operating here in Howard County,” Der said. “I want to thank the detectives from our Special Investigations Division and all the officers who have helped on this enormous and unprecedented case. They have put in thousands of hours and have many more ahead of them. They will see it through to the end.”

Following the initial discovery, detectives carried out search warrants at 12 locations, 11 of which were in Howard County. They recovered around 15,000 stolen tools, a quarter of which were still new in their boxes. It’s believed the property was stolen from victims in Maryland, Virginia, and Pennsylvania.

The total value of the stolen tools is estimated at between $3 million and $5 million. The department has already identified more than 80 victims, but the investigative team thinks there could be hundreds more, if not thousands. The Howard County Police Department has set up an online form potential victims can use to recover their property.

Howard County Executive Calvin Ball said during the news conference that the investigation displays “the tenacity of our police department” in combating crime and protecting the county’s residents.

Officials urge anyone with information on the case to contact police at (410) 313-STOP (7867) or by email to HCPDCrimeTips@howardcountymd.gov.

According to Mac Rumors, during its first earnings call of 2024, Qualcomm has stated that Apple has extended its contract with Qualcomm's 5G modem patent till March 2027. Just a year ago, Apple extended this license to 2026 as it faced several ambitious challenges to create its in-house modem. Now after five months, Apple has seemingly decided to add another year to this license agreement likely because it faced several more challenges with its 5G modem design. 

The claim is backed up by Qualcomm's CEO Cristiano Amon, who said during an interview with CNBC, “We are very happy with the relationship with Apple right now, and we will continue to be supplying modems to them”. Apple has not yet commented on this recent extension. Apple has its own earnings calls later today which may confirm the statement.

In 2023, we twice reported that Apple's 5G modem project was postponed until late 2025 and then further delayed to 2026 with the possibility of further delays. The company originally had plans to introduce this chip in the iPhone SE during spring 2025, but it wasn't able to meet the required deadline. Because of this, Apple decided to exercise its unilateral option to extend Qualcomm's patent, adding two more years.

Apple's Quest for In-House Modem

Apple's modem project was kicked off by Tim Cook in 2018 to reduce its dependency on external suppliers. It would also save money as the company paid more than $7.2 billion to Qualcomm in 2022. Apple started hiring engineers for 'Project Sinope'. Not surprisingly, it faced several challenges such as slow performance and overheating. The chip was also too large, occupying half the internal space of its iPhones. In September 2023, the company decided to delay its plans to switch over by 2025 and have the contract with Qualcomm by 2026.

Apple has its primary focus on 6G chips but has not yet abandoned its first 5G modem ambitions, despite several setbacks. Reducing one's complete dependency on a single chipmaker is healthy long term goal, provided your product can compete. But this endeavour looks more like an arms race for cellular modem SoC, with Qualcomm being a dominant supplier and Apple facing several challenges and complexities enough to add at least a year in delays. 

Even with the best infrastructure and design team, making an in-house chip is extremely complicated. Apple isn't the first with such ambitious plans even within the smartphone industry. Samsung has been making its own in-house mobile SoC since 2010. It recently launched the Galaxy S24 series whose S24 and S24 Plus use Qualcomm Snapdragon 8 Gen 3 for models sold in the US and Canada, while the rest of the world has variants with Exynos 2400.

USB Type-C may be the solution to a lot of tech problems, but we can't say we expected it to solve issues coming from nature. A German company called Kamedi is selling the 'Heat-It' USB Type-C dongle that it claims can relive or heal itchy bites or stings from mosquitoes, horseflies and wasp.  

This little device can fit in your phone's Type-C port and has a metal surface on the other side that generates heat. When you plug it into your phone (there are Android and iOS apps), you can customize the duration of the heat treatment (or use a child-friendly or sensitive skin mode to turn the temperature down a bit). The 'cure' works by applying heat of a out 51 degrees Celsius (123.8 degrees Fahrenheit) over the bite.

Kamedi points to a research study published in the Swedish journal Acta Dermato-Venereologica to back up its claims. The study, which specifically uses the Heat-It, claims to be "the first published controlled real-world study of the use of concentrated heat to alleviate itch induced by insect bites or stings," and states that the findings "demonstrate a significant reduction in itch and pain using local heat application after insect bites or stings, based on data derived from a large data set with more than 12,000 registered treatments from more than 1,700 individuals."

Why Not a Cup of Tea?

This is a high-tech solution to a problem that people have attempted for a long time. One could simply use a cup with a hot beverage in it to do the same job, or a hot spoon run under boiling water. But if you're outdoors hiking, you may not have access to those. But the dongle also helps apply heat to a more specific area where you get the bite.

And since the app has customization for heat and duration, you can make customizations that you couldn't to a hot spoon. 

Prevention is better than a cure, so your best bet is probably a good bug spray. And while this may be a high-tech solution to a low-tech problem, at least the USB-C standard means you could try this on either iPhone (thanks to the European Union) or Android.

We haven't given these things a try, but proponents of the USB-C standard who also get lots of bug bites can find this gizmo on Amazon US and UK. 

The Chinese government has clarified media reports that iPhone sales would be banned from use in government administration services. At a press conference this Wednesday, a spokesperson for China's Foreign Ministry, Mao Ning, explained that as it stands, "China did not issue any law, regulation or policy document that bans the purchase and use of cellphones of foreign brands, such as iPhone." 

But then, the original question wasn't around a hard ban on Apple products; the original report (courtesy of Wall Street Journal) referred to a soft ban on any Apple technology used at the government level. As that publication wrote, "China ordered officials at central government agencies not to use Apple's iPhones and other foreign-branded devices for work or bring them into the office." The report added that the orders were made by "superiors."

A decision like this doesn't quite have the same potency as an outright sale and usage ban (in line with the U.S. and Portugal's ban of Huawei 5G equipment from existing and future infrastructure), but they work the same way.

Yet the devil is usually in the details (especially regarding policy decisions and official communications). Specifically, Mao Ning added that while no laws had been passed banning iPhone sales, the country's concerns with security and information security (both real-world and cyber) are paramount to the government's decision. The spokesperson then added, "However, recently, we did notice media reports about security issues related to iPhone." She added, "The Chinese government attaches great importance to cyber and information security and treats Chinese and foreign companies as equals. We hope all cellphone companies operating in China will strictly abide by China's laws and regulations."

Countries can weaponize policy decisions in the global market - look at the constant back and forth between the U.S. and China. That said, it is a common occurrence that smartphones are barred from accessing specific locations or central government installations worldwide - but these rarely refer to a particular brand and are centered around smartphones' capabilities rather than doubts about a specific software or hardware implementation.

At this point, it remains to be seen what exactly comes out of this news. Countries and institutions can impact technological adoption in multiple ways without crossing any existing red tape. China being Apple's most significant market, a cultural or "authority-determined" shift away from iPhones should be a waving red flag: where would they all go? And more importantly, where would that 25% of Apple's revenue sheet come from? Just the thought that a ban had entered into effect wiped $200 billion from Apple's market valuation. China's economy also happens to be much better ranked than the US in the import/export balance sheet: while the US fell closer to a trillion deficit, China managed to unlock a new surplus record.

However, the U.S. (and Apple) would have trouble offloading their tech if (or maybe when) the Chinese market rejects some of its most significant efforts - whether through law or culture. It also pays to remember that the spokesperson's remarks around potential cybersecurity concerns open the window to a more hardline approach to Apple products within the government. 

A woman from southeastern China has been arrested for stealing an Apple iPhone 14 Plus. This might have been one of many iDevice thefts on any given day, but the thief's modus operandi has made this case go viral on Chinese social media. Surprisingly, the iPhone thief managed to purloin the device and make her getaway after chewing through the demo device's anti-theft cable with her teeth.

Hong Kong's South China Morning Post (SCMP) reports that a woman from Fujian province, surnamed Qiu, entered the phone store and began her visit as any normal person might. She wandered around the store, looking at various items, pausing with most interest by the smartphone section.

It is claimed the woman innocently scrolled through the iPhone display when anyone passed by, but later, security camera footage revealed that when the coast was clear, she would set about gnawing at the anti-theft cable. Not long after Qiu left the shop, the staff noticed the unattached cable and missing smartphone. The store workers called the police, and Qiu was apprehended 30 minutes later.

Interestingly, the newspaper report also shared the thief's side of the sorry story. Qiu apparently explained to police that she went to the store intending to purchase a new device, after losing her phone. However, the iPhone 14 Plus sticker price of 7,000 yuan (US$960) apparently left her exasperated, so she decided to steal the store's demo sample.

Electronic devices and components can be really expensive. However, most people will make do with cheaper options or save a little longer to get what they want. Also, chewing through an anti-theft cable might not be without its costs. Most such cables we have seen are reinforced with metal wire filaments, which would surely damage human teeth to chew - resulting in sizable dentistry bills.

Apple’s Self Service Repair has finally launched outside the United States, more than a year after it was first announced. Those with broken Macs and iPhones in Belgium, France, Germany, Italy, Poland, Spain, Sweden, and the UK will be able to purchase parts and tools for the iPhone 12 and iPhone 13 lineups, as well as Mac laptops using Apple Silicon.

There are more than 200 spare parts available, along with repair manuals, but the announcement comes with a slight caveat, stating that the self-repair program is for ‘customers who are experienced with the complexities of repairing electronic devices’. Apple makes it clear the best thing to do with your faulty Mac or iPhone is to take it to a certified repair technician, and it believes 80% of its customers in Europe live within 30 miles of such an electronics wizard, taking into account Apple Stores and independents. It has doubled the number of European service locations in the last three years.

The parts have all been tested, and are the same ones, at the same price, used by Apple’s repair technicians. Should you not wish to develop a collection of Apple’s custom repair tools, which include torque drivers, repair trays, and presses for displays and batteries, you can also rent a toolkit for $49 (or your local currency), returning it after a week with free shipping. 

“We believe the best technology for our customers and for the planet is technology that lasts, which is why we design our products to be durable and rarely require maintenance or repair,” said Jeff Williams, Apple’s chief operating officer. “But when a repair is needed, we want customers to have many options for safe, reliable, and secure repair. That’s why we’re excited to launch Self Service Repair in Europe, giving our customers direct access to genuine Apple parts, tools, and manuals.”

The Self Service Repair Store can be found at selfservicerepair.eu, and allows prospective self-repairers to view repair manuals online as PDFs before they decide whether to take a screwdriver to the back of a $2,000 laptop.

Apple has seemingly cancelled its plans, which we reported in September, to source 3D NAND chips from Chinese manufacturer YMTC (Yangtze Memory Technologies Corp). The move, per an article on Nikkei Asia, comes following political pressure from the U.S. government.

The story, which cites ‘multiple sources’, claims Apple’s deal has fallen foul of U.S. export controls imposed on China, despite the lengthy certification process for the 128-layer storage chips having been completed. The chips, described as the most advanced yet produced by a Chinese foundry, still lag behind those from Samsung and Micron but are noticeably cheaper as they’re subsidized by the Chinese government.

While the plan was for the China-sourced flash to be used in iPhones for the Chinese market, one of Nikkei Asia’s sources said the Cupertino-based phone company was considering populating up to 40% of the flash storage in all iPhones with the YMTC 3D NAND. No YMTC products have yet appeared in Apple’s hardware.

The move that triggered the cancellation was the October 7 placing of YMTC on the Unverified List, a non-punitive measure that means that the US Bureau of Industry and Security “or federal officials acting on BIS's behalf cannot verify the bona fides (i.e., legitimacy and reliability relating to the end use and end user of items subject to the EAR [Export Administration Regulations]) of such persons because an end-use check, such as a pre-license check (PLC) or a post-shipment verification (PSV), cannot be completed satisfactorily for reasons outside of the U.S. Government's control,” according to Subtitle B, Chapter VII, Subchapter C, Part 744 of the appropriate Title 15 federal regulations. 

What this means is that, while Apple could still import completed chips from YMTC, it is banned from exporting any know-how for making them or sharing designs and technologies without a special license.

The Unverified List should not be confused with the Entity List, which contains people, companies and even states involved in "activities sanctioned by the State Department and activities contrary to U.S. national security and/or foreign policy interests," which contains Huawei as of May 2019, or the Specially Designated Nationals and Blocked Persons List, which targets US-designated terrorists, the officials and beneficiaries of certain authoritarian regimes, and international criminals. YMTC is none of those things.

Neither company involved has commented on the matter. However, a senior U.S. Commerce Department official told Nikkei Asia that companies added to the Unverified List are ‘likely’ to be added to the Entity List if they cannot provide the necessary verification information within a certain period of time, often 60 days.

A U.S. district judge dismissed a proposed class-action lawsuit against Apple that accused it of concealing Meltdown and Spectre security flaws and reducing performance of its devices by mitigating the vulnerabilities, which reduced value of their devices. The plaintiffs demanded a compensation to themselves as well as other owners of Apple devices affected by Apple's actions. 

Accusers stated that Apple misrepresented the privacy and security of iPhones and iPads as well as performance of its custom SoCs on which Apple argued that plaintiffs' alleged misrepresentations are too general to be actionable and they have failed to allege that any specific representation was false. 

"Plaintiffs have failed to allege an affirmative misrepresentation, an actionable omission, and actual reliance on misstatements by Apple," U.S. District Judge Edward Davila in San Jose, California, wrote in his ruling, reports Reuters. 

Meltdown and Spectre security vulnerabilities were discovered in mid-2017 and then made public in early 2018. While Meltdown affected chips from Intel, Spectre hit virtually all modern high-performance processors with speculative and out-of-order execution. Affected chips included those from AMD and Intel as well as custom system-on-chips based on various Arm architectures, including those from Apple, Qualcomm, MediaTek and Samsung. 

Mitigation of Meltdown and Spectre leads to degraded performance. Since Apple knew about vulnerabilities before they were made public and mitigated them before they were revealed, plaintiffs alleged that it deceived its customers by advertising security advantages of its iOS platform as well as performance advantages of its then latest system-on-chips compared to its previous generation SoCs. The accusers called Apple's actions fraudulent.  

"Plaintiffs allege that Apple was notified of the defects in June 2017 but did not publicly disclose them until January 4, 2018, after a New York Times article leaked the vulnerabilities," the complaint reads. "Apple addressed speculative execution and Meltdown, disclosing that its December 2, 2017, iOS 11.2 update included a software update to address the vulnerability. On January 8, 2018, Apple separately released iOS 11.2.2, a software update to address Spectre." 

The plaintiffs stated that if they had known about potential security vulnerabilities of Apple's hardware and software, they would not buy the company's products or would not pay the prices they did. Furthermore, after Apple made appropriate announcements, their devices declined in value. 

"Plaintiffs assert that these vulnerabilities are material because, 'had they known data stored on their systems would be compromised and made available to unauthorized third parties,' they would not have purchased their iDevices or paid the price they did," the lawsuit reads. "After Apple made the announcements, the iDevices allegedly declined in value." 

The court sided with Apple as all security and performance-related claims were correct at the time they were made.  

"Because plaintiffs are unable to identify any statement from Apple that is both sufficiently specific to be actionable and was false when made, plaintiffs have failed to state a claim for fraud under an affirmative misrepresentation theory," the ruling reads. 

Furthermore, since Apple's mitigations affected all its SoCs, performance comparisons between subsequent generations continued to be accurate even after mitigations were implemented as generation-to-generation performance advantages are not only conditioned by improved speculative or out-of-order execution advantages.

While the class-action lawsuit looks to be blown out of proportion, the ruling is an example of a case that exonerates companies from liability when they make certain claims about performance before other information comes to light that may change it.

Apple announced a slew of new devices during a streaming event today, updating them with new silicon and a slew of features.

The new A15 Bionic processor will power many of Apple's latest devices. It uses 5nm tech and has 15 billion transistors, with a 6-core CPU that includes two high-performance and four efficiency cores. There's also a 4-core GPU, bumped up to 5-cores on the iPhone 13 Pro and Pro Max. Apple VP Hope Giles said it was "up to 50% faster than the competition." The A15 also has a neural engine can perform 15.8 trillion operations per second.

The Bionic also powers a new camera system, including a new 12MP ultrawide camera and a shifting sensor from the previous generation Pro Max line. There's also a new cinematic mode for dramatic shifts in perspective.

Using the new chip, Apple introduced the iPhone 13 and iPhone 13 Mini, with a 20% smaller notch and flat, aluminum edges and larger batteries. Apple claims the display has a peak brightness of 1,200 nits.

The company promises better battery life, more than 1.5 hours longer for the iPhone 13 mini over the iPhone 12 mini, and 2.5 hours longer for the iPhone 13 over the iPhone 12. This comes in part from a more efficient CPU.

iPhone 13 Mini will start at $699, and the iPhone 13 will start at $799. The starting capacity is also being upgraded to 128GB, with addition 256GB and 512GB options. There is no more 64GB version — it's about time. 

There's also a Pro line up, comprised of the iPhone 13 Pro and iPhone 13 Pro Max. These phones will of course use the new A15 Bionic. Like the iPhone 13, both have a 20% smaller front-camera system. Apple says the internals were redesigned to fit the new processor, battery and camera system. The Pro models will get a 5-core GPU, more powerful than the non-Pro model, which Apple says is the faster graphics in a phone ever.

Apple is using a 120 Hz "ProMotion" OLED display on the iPhone, which will improve the experience of gaming and creative applications. Apple says the mix of the A15 Bionic, ProMotion and 5G makes the iPhone 13 Pro lineup the best choice for mobile gaming.

The new Pro cameras include 3x optical zoom on the telephoto lens, as well as an ultra-wide mode with a wider aperture and macro photography. It also has a 12mP main camera. Apple has a new feature called "Photographic Styles" to make changes with filters as you shoot while maintaining a person's skin tone. On the video side, the A15 Bionic also allows you to film in 4K at 30 frames per second in Apple's new ProRes mode.

Apple says the iPhone 13 Pro Max will last 2.5 hours longer than the 12 Pro Max, making it the longest battery life in an iPhone. The 13 Pro will last 1.5 hours longer than the 12 Pro.

The iPhone 13 Pro will start at $999, with the 13 Pro Max starting at $1,099. Storage will range from 128GB up to a new 1TB option on the Pro models.

The iPad Mini is back, starting at $499, with a full redesign that looks more like the iPad Pro with narrow borders. It's powered by the new A15 Bionic chip as well. It will come in purple, pink, a champagne-color "starlight" and Space gray.

The iPad Mini with have an 8.3-inch display with 500 nits of brightness. TouchID will be in the power button, just like the iPad Air. On the iPad Mini, which hasn't seen an upgrade in a bit, the new processor will give it a 40% CPU boost and 80% GPU boost over last generation. Of course, that happens when you haven't upgraded in a few years.

The iPad Mini is switching to USB Type-C, a huge move that was also on the iPad Air. Also in connectivity, the iPad Mini will support 5G. iPad Mini will also have an ultra-wide front camera with Center Stage, as well as a new speaker system and a 12MP camera. It will also be the first iPad mini to support Apple Pencil.

There's also a new base iPad, powered by Apple's two-years-old A13 Bionic chip. Apple is touting that the chip has a 20% faster CPU, GPU and neural engine over the A12. The company claims this makes the new iPad three times faster than the top-selling Chromebook and six times faster than the average Android tablet. It has a 10.2-inch display in a similar design to the existing iPad.

The A13 will work with new features like iPadOS 15's live text, and will also boast a new image signal processor for better autofocus in low light and a better 12MP front camera with a 122-degree field of view.

The new IPad will start at $329 for 64GB of storage. It will be available next week.

Apple also used the event to launch the Apple Watch Series 7, with just 1.7 millimeters bezels, which is 40 percent thinner than the Series 6.

Developing...

Want to charge your MacBook Pro, smartphone or Nintendo Switch faster than usual? Aukey’s 100W PD Omnia USB-C charger is fit for the task while being remarkably small and cheap. Right now, it's on sale for $41.24 with coupon code BCK3LMY5. That’s about $14 off its usual $54.99 asking price.

The Aukey 100W PD Omnia charger is compatible with USB-C devices that support USB power delivery (PD) and uses open USB PD technology to enable fast charging on devices like the MacBook Pro 16 and HP Spectre x360 15. Aukey claims the 100W Omnia can charge a MacBook Pro 16 to full battery in 1.8 hours or iPhone 11 to 50% battery in 30 minutes. The charger's 100W of power should far outclass the typical 15 - 30W fast chargers on the market. 

The 100W PD Omnia is also about half as large as Apple’s 96W USB-C charger, coming in at 2.1 x 2.1 x 1.2 inches (54 x 54 x 30mm). That means it's the perfect charging solution to throw in a bag without needing to play Tetris to make it fit. 

With coronavirus forcing “non-essential” workers to work from home, tools for building a home office are selling out almost as much as toilet paper. We recently covered the best webcams that are still available to buy and explained how to use a Raspberry Pi as a PC webcam, but there are other options out there. If you need to video conference now and you can’t wait for a delivery or don't have a Raspberry Pi with camera module, you can use your phone or DSLR as a webcam.

How to use a Phone as a Webcam

With built-in video meeting apps like Facetime, most modern smartphones already come with video conferencing in mind. This means that, at the very least, distressed work-from-homers can join video calls from straight from their phone. But what if you want to take calls at your desk, using your phone’s camera as a plug-in accessory?

For both iPhone and Android, there are apps to do just that.

On iPhone, the most popular webcam app is EpocCam, with an average 4.3 star rating across 15.5k user reviews. EpocCam is a free download with a paid upgrade option that allows either a Windows PC or a Mac to read an iPhone as a webcam, either over Wi-Fi or using a USB connection. You’ll have to install separate drivers to your target computer from EpocCam’s site, but after that, you’re good to go.

Out of the box, EpocCam lets you choose between streaming your front or back phone camera, and ets you take advantage of your phone’s flashlight and autofocus while using it as a webcam. It boasts full compatibility with video chat and streaming programs like Skype and OBS, where your phone’s input will just show up as “EpocCam” in your webcam options.

The free version of EpocCam does have a catch in that it only offers sub-HD 640 x 480 pixel resolutions, but the $8.00 EpocCam HD version does offer full 1080p support, as well as background replacement on devices with a TrueDepth camera, which includes most recent iPhones.

EpocCam is still available on Android, though user reviews aren’t as confident, averaging 3 stars for the free version and 2 stars for the paid version. Instead, most Android users seem to have shifted to IP Webcam, a free app that has an average of 4 stars across 90k reviews.

IP Webcam is a home security app that lets you stream your Android phone’s camera to any web browser over local Wi-Fi. However, it also includes drivers for emulating a webcam in video chat programs such as Skype, at the caveat of no audio support. Just download the app, press the “Start Server” button, and enter the IP address that shows up on your phone to begin streaming your phone’s video to your computer. From there, you’ll be able to download drivers for either Windows or Linux that will let you set a resolution and use your phone as a webcam in video chat.

IP Webcam also allows video recording, easy uploads to Dropbox, activation upon motion and sound detection, and bonus niceties like text overlays. There is a paid version available for $3.99, although the only additions are a customizable UI and Tasker integration (for automating your phone’s processes). For basic video conferencing, you shouldn’t need either. 

How to use a DSLR as a webcam

If you somehow have a DSLR on hand, but not a webcam, there’s a good chance you can actually use your DSLR to substitute one. 

1. Check to see if your camera is either Nikon or Canon branded. If not, you're out of luck.

2. Download the free SparkoCam software from the company’s main site, which also has a full list of supported webcams at the bottom of its home page. 

3. Plug your DSLR into your PC using the cable that came with it. This will usually be either a microUSB, miniUSB, or full USB cable, depending on the camera. If you’ve lost your original cable, you’ll most likely be able to use a third-party replacement, so long as it’s the right type.

4. Click on the device tab in Sparkocam, where it should auto-detect your camera. 

5. Open Skype or any other video chat app and select “SparkoCam” as your webcam. You’ll have to find your own microphone, but otherwise, you’ll be set.

SparkoCam also includes options to change your DSLR’s exposure, shutter speed, ISO, and white balance, as well as add overlay effects like glasses or hats. The free version does come with a watermark, so you will need to pay for a pro license to remove it. Licenses offering DSLR support start at $50.00.

The New York Times reported that FBI General Counsel Dana Boente sent a letter to Apple asking the company to unlock the two encrypted iPhones of Second Lt. Mohammed Saeed Alshamrani of the Saudi Royal Air Force, who authorities believe  shot three sailors at Naval Air Station Pensacola in December 2019. 

This confrontation could turn into a new test case in which either Apple will have to unlock the devices or the FBI will have to retreat once again, as it did in two previous cases. In the San Bernardino case, the agency was forced to admit that it had other ways to unlock the devices, and the judge sided with Apple in a New York case.

The FBI has confirmed the existence of the new letter to Apple. The agency had checked internally and with other intelligence agencies to see if there was a way to unlock the device without Apple’s help, but the response came back negative, according to someone familiar with the investigation.

Apple’s previous argument against the FBI’s criticism was that it can give the FBI “all the data in its possession” (meaning any messages and files that were backed up to iCloud, or related services metadata, as those don’t use end-to-end encryption), but only the owner of the device can decrypt the local phone’s data. As Alshamrani is now dead, that most likely means that nobody will be able to unlock the data. 

The FBI now claims it doesn’t want an encryption backdoor (at least for now), but instead simply wants Apple to open the devices for the agency, according to the NYT report. However, Apple has also said the only way to unlock a device’s data is to put all iOS devices at risk by creating a compromised version of its operating system. 

The company recently renewed its pitch to protect user privacy to the best of its ability. The company has been working on end-to-end encrypted cloud backups for a couple of years now, too, but so far it has kept that technology unused. It’s not clear if that’s so it doesn’t draw more criticism from the U.S. or other governments. 

Attorney General William P. Barr recently attacked Facebook’s efforts to switch Facebook and Instagram chat services to WhatsApp’s end-to-end encryption, so Apple may want to avoid similar attacks for now. So far, Facebook has ignored the government's threats, and is said to be moving ahead with its encryption plans.

Apple requested a series of exclusions from the latest US Section 301 tariff on Chinese imports. The exclusion requests appeared on the United States Trade Representative (USTR) website on October 31st. This isn't the first time Apple has requested a tariff exception on Chinese imports. President Donald Trump has denied tariff exemptions for Apple as recently as July of 2019.

The tariff went into effect officially on September 1st—immediately impacting the cost several Apple product components. In response, Apple filed over 10 exception requests.

Apple's requests include a variety of components for its Mac lineup, including the iMac itself, NAND storage for the Mac Pro and solid state storage for Macs. It also lists parts for the iPhone and speakers and headphones like its AirPods, Beats products and Homepod.

The exclusion requests are in the first stage of the exclusion process. By November 14th, the public comment response period closes and the requests are parsed for further review. It may be several weeks before the requests are completely processed. 

Introduction

The larger screens that came with the iPhone 6 and 6 Plus were the biggest hardware changes the iconic brand has yet seen and represented a major philosophical shift for Apple. Competitive pressure from Android OEMs and more cognizant consumers shattered Cupertino's stranglehold on what a smartphone should look like. Its customers wanted larger screens, and Apple gave them what they wanted.

This is an "s" update, however, so there's no radical redesign or reimagining of the iPhone. Instead, Apple focuses on boosting performance and refining last year's design for the iPhone 6s and 6s Plus. While their screens are the same size and resolution, most of the internals are new, starting with the A9 SoC. Apple's custom-designed, dual-core 64-bit CPU gets more cache and higher IPC (instructions per cycle). The A9 also gets a new PowerVR GPU, with its own architectural enhancements and two additional cores. Using a new FinFET manufacturing process allows Apple to ramp up clock frequencies, further increasing performance—up to 70 percent for the CPU and up to 90 percent for the GPU, according to Apple.

The M9 motion coprocessor is no longer a separate chip. It now resides on a special low-power island within the A9 SoC. This change unshackles Siri from the power outlet, an inconvenient restriction placed on the iPhone 6, whose M8 coprocessor took up additional space on the motherboard and drew too much power to be left on, listening for voice commands, when running on battery power. Now Apple's digital assistant is always listening, ready to respond as soon it hears you say, "Hey Siri." The M9 still collects data from the accelerometer, compass, gyroscope, and barometer too, feeding it to fitness tracking apps that log steps taken, distance traveled, and elevation traversed. Additionally, it now measures the speed of movement.

Riding atop the A9 SoC in a package-on-package (POP) configuration is perhaps the most important hardware improvement in terms of user experience: 2GB of RAM. Gone are the frequent app crashes and random interface stutters that plagued the iPhone 6 and 6 Plus. With twice as much RAM, the iPhone 6s and 6s Plus really do feel like completely new phones. Apps are not just more stable and smooth, either. Switching apps is also much faster, since they remain in memory and do not have to be constantly reloaded. The same is true for switching between several web pages in Safari. The iPhone feels like a flagship phone once again.

Memory capacity is only one area where the iPhone is falling behind, though. When it comes to camera performance, Samsung's Galaxy S6 devices surpass the iPhone 6 and 6 Plus. Apple hopes to rectify this situation by giving the 6s and 6s Plus new front and rear cameras that offer higher resolution and the ability to record 4K UHD videos. We'll discover if these changes push the iPhone back into the lead in performance and features once again later in the review.

The new iPhones should now be on par with the Wi-Fi performance of other flagships. Last year, the iPhone 6 added support for 802.11ac Wi-Fi, boosting theoretical bandwidth from 150Mb/s on the iPhone 5s to 433Mb/s using a single spatial stream and an 80MHz channel. For the 6s, Apple adds a second spatial stream, elevating bandwidth to a maximum of 867Mb/s.

Unfortunately, when it comes to the base storage option, the iPhone is still stuck in the past, offering a meager 16GB (~12GB usable). This is not enough for a modern smartphone, let alone a flagship phone. My mother-in-law, who has not installed any apps and does not do much more than text, managed to completely fill her 16GB iPhone 6 Plus with just pictures and a few short videos. With a larger camera sensor and the ability to shoot 4K video, the new iPhones will consume even more storage space. Apple does offer 64GB and 128GB storage options, but they do not come cheap.

Apple iPhone 6s Specifications

Apple iPhone 6s Plus Specifications

MORE: Best Smartphones
MORE: How We Test Smartphones
MORE: All Smartphone Content

The iPhone "s" models are not just about new silicon, however. It's become a tradition for Apple to introduce a new usability feature in lieu of a new design. The iPhone 4s introduced Siri, Apple's voice activated assistant; the 5s added Touch ID, a functional fingerprint scanner; and now the 6s squeezes in 3D Touch, a pressure sensitive display with haptic feedback. Adding a third control dimension to the now familiar two-dimensional multi-touch controls allows for two new interactions: Peek and Pop. Will these become as ingrained as pinch-to-zoom, or should they be relabeled Try and Forget? We'll explore 3D Touch more in a bit.

Cellular

The iPhone 6s and 6s Plus are packed with more cellular silicon than any phone we've ever seen. There are multiple power amplifiers, front-end modules, and antenna switches from Avago, Murata, Qorvo, RF Micro Devices, Skyworks, and TriQuint, with some of these components specific to certain iPhone model numbers, depending on regional frequency requirements.

All of these chips surround a Qualcomm MDM9635M baseband processor. Manufactured on a 20nm process, it supports Category 6 LTE speeds of up to 300 Mbps on the downlink (2x20 MHz carrier aggregation with 64-QAM) and up to 50 Mbps on the uplink (1x20 MHz with 16-QAM). It also supports all major radio modes, including GSM/EDGE, UMTS (WCDMA, TD-SCDMA), LTE (LTE-FDD, LTE-TDD) and CDMA2000. This new processor consumes less power than the 28nm MDM9625M in the iPhone 6, while delivering higher downlink speeds than the older Category 4 LTE (150 Mbps) part.

The RF transceiver is another Qualcomm part. The WTR3925 is the first single-chip solution from Qualcomm to support all of the 3GPP approved carrier aggregation band combinations, eliminating the need for a second receive-only transceiver like the iPhone 6 used. Qualcomm's QFE1100 envelope tracker, part of the company's RF360 suite, dynamically adjusts voltage to the power amplifiers, wasting less energy and reducing heat generation.

All of this is required for supporting up to 23 LTE bands, up from 20 in the iPhone 6 and 13 in the 5s, the most in any smartphone, assuring the iPhone 6s will work in nearly any country you might travel to. Here's the full list of supported frequencies.

Voice over LTE (VoLTE) and Wi-Fi calling, which allows you to make higher‑quality wideband calls over a Wi‑Fi connection, were both supported on the iPhone 6 and carry over to the 6s. This latter feature came with an unfortunate limitation on the 6, however: turning it on would break Apple's Continuity feature. The iPhone 6s eliminates this restriction, allowing both features to be enabled without interfering with each other.

Hardware Design

To the naked eye, the iPhone 6s and 6s Plus look the same as their counterparts from last year, but there are a few subtle differences. In response to the overblown Bendgate scandal, where some iPhones bent under extreme conditions, Apple has upgraded the aluminum alloy used for the frame from a 2000 series to a 7000 series alloy. Without knowing the temper of the alloys used it's impossible to say exactly how much stronger the new frame is, but it's a safe bet that the iPhone is less prone to bending now.

Both new iPhones are also imperceptibly larger in height, width, and thickness than last year's models. Weight also increases by 14 grams (11 percent) for the iPhone 6s and by 20 grams (12 percent) for the 6s Plus. While the weight gain for the 6s goes unnoticed, the extra weight on the 6s Plus can be felt and makes an already hefty phone even heavier. What's driving these changes is the new Taptic Engine that provides the impulses for 3D Touch. In order to deliver greater force impulses in quicker succession, the Taptic Engine uses larger and heavier electromagnets than the traditional vibration motor it replaces.

The most noticeable design change is the addition of a new color. In addition to the now familiar Silver, Gold, and Space Gray options, Apple now offers Rose Gold, which is just a fancy way of saying pink. Similar to the Gold finish, Rose Gold is a subtle shade that looks classy. The Space Gray finish comes with a black front, while the other three options have white fronts.

Note: Since the iPhone 6s and 6s Plus look the same externally, apart from size obviously, the description below applies equally to both.

The entire front of the iPhone 6s is covered by a single piece of glass made by "a special dual ion‑exchange process" that makes it more durable. The edges of the glass are curved and seamlessly flow into the rounded sides, which makes edge swipes, an important UI interaction in iOS, feel natural and smooth.

The bezels surrounding the 4.7-inch screen on the 6s or 5.5-inch screen on the 6s Plus are uncharacteristically large for a modern flagship phone. The 6s Plus, for example, has the worst screen-to-body ratio of its peers at 67.9 percent versus 76.6 percent for Samsung's Galaxy S6 edge+ at the other end of the scale. The circular home button, with integrated Touch ID fingerprint scanner, is responsible for the large lower bezel. Given the convenience of Touch ID as an authentication mechanism, which receives a new second-generation capacitive touch sensor that makes it faster and even more accurate, this design "sin" is forgivable. The large upper bezel exists primarily for symmetry, however.

Centered above the screen is a recessed earpiece and ambient light sensor, with the FaceTime HD camera sitting to its left. The LCD interface circuitry hides behind the portion of the upper bezel between the screen and earpiece.

The rounded sides and curved corners make the iPhone 6s very comfortable to hold. Combining smooth contours with aluminum and glass creates a slippery device, though, making a grippy case a good idea for less sure-handed individuals.

The power button is located near the top on the right side, with the the metal door for the Nano-SIM tray just below. Across from the power button are the volume controls. All of the buttons are metal and make a reassuring click when pressed. They also fit firmly in their sockets without any extra movement or rattle, exemplifying the iPhone's excellent build quality. The only complaint I have is that it's too easy to accidentally press the power button when changing the volume. Offsetting the buttons on either side just a little bit would help alleviate this minor complaint.

Above the separate volume buttons on the left side is a mute switch to silence the phone and place it into a vibrate-only mode. Having a physical switch is convenient, but because it protrudes slightly, it's too easy to accidentally activate when putting the phone into or taking it out of a pocket. This happened to me about once a day on average.

There's nothing to see on top since all of the ports are lined up on the bottom edge. Flanking the port for Apple's proprietary Lightning connector, which is reversible like USB Type-C, is the 3.5mm headphone jack, microphone, and mono speaker.

No iPhone would be complete without a reflective Apple logo on the back. Below the iPhone branding is a small "s" moniker, which is the only visible difference between an iPhone 6 and a 6s (well, except for the new Rose Gold color). Plastic antennae lines, a necessary evil for metallic phones, surround matching aluminum inserts on the upper and lower sections of the back.

The iSight camera, which protrudes a little less than one millimeter above the back surface, is protected by a sapphire lens and a metal ring. At least on the iPhone 6, this ring is made from a relatively soft metal and can get pretty chewed up over time if its owner is not careful. The circular True Tone Flash sits to the right of the camera, along with a second microphone for noise cancellation.

The smaller iPhone 6s hits a sweet spot for screen space and one-handed usability; any larger and it becomes difficult to reach the top of the screen. Both edges are within easy reach for edge-swipe gestures and it slips into nearly any pocket. It's a good choice for people with smaller hands or who prefer portability over screen area.

The iPhone 6s Plus, however, is a beast. Because of the larger bezels, it's big, even for a 5.5-inch device. Features like Reachability, swipe gestures, and, of course, Siri make one-handed navigation possible, but most of the time you should remain seated with both hands firmly gripping the phone. The most frustrating thing I've encountered when trying to use the 6s Plus with one hand is that my thumb cannot reach the opposite screen edge without shifting my grip, which causes the screen to flip to landscape view, thwarting my intended swipe gesture. While bigger phones like the 6s Plus present usability challenges, the utility of their larger screens can more than make up for these minor annoyances.

Display And Audio

Modern smartphones are really just miniature computers that also do telephony. Rapid advances in computational power are driving phones to adopt larger screens, just they have for every other computing form factor. Either because of denial or stubbornness, it took Apple a bit longer to accept this trend, finally giving its users access to more screen space with the iPhone 6.

After such a radical change, it's no surprise that Apple made no significant screen changes for this generation. The iPhone 6s still uses a 4.7-inch IPS panel with an odd, greater than 720p, 1334x750 resolution, giving it a sufficient 326 PPI pixel density. The larger 6s Plus comes with a 5.5-inch 1080p IPS panel with a 401 PPI density. While most flagship phablets are shipping with QHD (2560x1440) screens these days, the iPhone 6s Plus' 1080p panel is still very sharp. QHD is only really necessary for AMOLED panels (due to having fewer red and blue subpixels than RGB stripe LCD panels), virtual reality applications (because the screen is closer to your eyes), and for people who augmented their genetic code with eagle DNA.

Last year, Apple adopted two technologies for its larger Retina HD Displays that carry over to this generation: photo-aligned crystals and dual-domain pixels. Using light and a photoresist layer to achieve better crystal alignment improves the display's overall performance, including a lower black level and better contrast ratio. Dual-domain pixels, like the name implies, split each pixel into two domains or subpixels that have a slightly different crystal orientation. This technique improves viewing angles: While shifting your view, the pixels oriented away from you become dimmer, but the complementary subpixel oriented towards you gets brighter, partially compensating for that color's brightness reduction.

For our display measurements, we're using SpectraCal's CalMAN software and SpectraCal C6 colorimeter. All of the charts below with a gray background were generated in CalMAN v5 Ultimate. If you would like to learn more about our display testing procedure, or gain a better understanding of how these measurements affect visual quality, please read our article about how we test mobile displays.

The iPhone 6s achieves a max brightness just shy of 550 nits, in between the 6s Plus and iPhone 6. In fact, the last three generations of iPhones all fall between 500 and 600 nits, bright enough to handle nearly every situation except direct sunlight. The only phones we've seen break the 600 nit barrier use Samsung's SAMOLED panels, but only in the Auto overdrive mode. The only other phone we've tested that gets close to 600 nits is the OnePlus 2.

The use of photo-aligned crystals help give the iPhone's displays very good black levels, although not as good as the IPS screens in both the OnePlus 2 and LG G4 (we asked LG if the G4's display also uses photo-aligned crystals, but received no response). Of course none of the IPS screens can match the perfect blacks produced by the AMOLED panels in Samsung's Galaxy S6 devices.

Most flagship phones have an average gamma near the ideal value of 2.2, and the new iPhones are no different. Gamma also varies little with luminance, ensuring good dynamic range and improved color accuracy regardless of display brightness.

All iPhones dating back to the 5s hover right around 7300 K (our 6 Plus being a slight deviation), a slightly cooler color temperature that gives a pure white screen a noticeable, but faint, blue tint. It's obvious that Apple is deliberately targeting this color temperature, but why? Is it the result of market research showing a clear preference for this setting, or maybe it's the value used on Jony Ive's desktop monitor? Whatever the reason, if you've used an iPhone in the past couple of years, the new iPhones' screens will look familiar.

Like most IPS phone displays, the new iPhones show an increasing disparity between red and blue approaching 100 percent luminance. This is what gives the screens their cooler temperature profiles and slight blue cast. It also helps boost the iPhones' max brightness: Because of the blue LEDs used in the backlight, the screen will naturally emit more blue light than red. The only way to achieve a proper RGB balance is to partially close the blue subpixels, limiting max brightness.

The new iPhones do reasonably well with grayscale accuracy, although not as well as Motorola's Moto X Pure Edition or Samsung's Galaxy S6 devices when using the Basic display mode. For luminance values less than about 40 percent, ΔE2000 error remains below three, which is considered good. Grayscale error reaches a maximum of around 5 near 100 percent luminance, the cutoff where error is noticeable but generally acceptable.

Apple continues to target the sRGB color space with its displays, avoiding the overly saturated, inaccurate colors that result from using wide-gamut displays with no software based color management.

Both new iPhones perform the same in the color saturation sweep, with no major problems. Shades of blue are a bit too saturated, though, just missing the target boxes. We can also see how the cooler color temperature pulls the nearby secondary colors, magenta and cyan, towards blue.

While neither iPhone performs system-wide color compression, we did notice that Apple's native Photos app does apply color compression, which is a little surprising. So if you desire better color accuracy when reviewing photos on an iOS device (well, as accurate as you can get on an sRGB screen), you'll need to use a third-party app.

When it comes to color accuracy, both the iPhone 6s and 6s Plus show decent improvements over the previous generation. For the tested colors, ΔE2000 error hovers around three or below, with shades of green being the most accurate, ensuring most of the error will go unnoticed. Just like we saw with grayscale error, however, both Motorola and Samsung (in Basic mode at least) are doing a better job than Apple with display calibration.

Full Size Images: [Color Palette: iPhone 6s], [Color Palette: iPhone 6s Plus]

The color palette above shows the target color on the bottom versus the displayed color on the top and is a nice way of visualizing the color error discussed above [note: the color accuracy of your screen will affect the actual colors you see]. A faint blue tint is visible on the gray shades, but most colors are very close to the target values.

Our display testing found no obvious issues with the iPhone 6s and 6s Plus. The displays are very similar to the previous models, but with slightly improved color accuracy. While Apple cannot claim to have the best smartphone screens, it still sets a performance standard many OEMs have yet to reach.

Audio Performance

Apple continues its longstanding relationship with Cirrus Logic for Audio ICs. Because Apple applies its own numbering system to the chips, we cannot determine their exact specifications. However, the single 338S00105 audio codec likely handles AD/DA conversion, while the two 338S1285 audio ICs probably operate as separate amplifiers for the external speaker and headphones/earpiece.

Also keeping with iPhone tradition, there's only a single, downward-firing speaker for music and audio. While not as good as having it on the front, we find this speaker location preferable to rear-mounted speakers, since there's less likelihood of your hand blocking the speaker when holding the phone or the sound getting muffled when it's sitting on a table.

Listening to a variety of music, ranging from Metallica to Daft Punk, through the external speakers of the iPhone 5s, 6, and 6s shows a clear progression in quality from old to new. Music from the 5s sounds muddy and flat, with subtle background sounds getting lost in the noise. The iPhone 6's sound quality is vastly improved, but still sounds a bit tinny. The 6 also seems to emphasize the strongest sound (usually vocals for music), while suppressing background tones.

The quality improvement from the 6 to the 6s is smaller than the jump from the 5s to the 6, but it's still quite noticeable. Sound from the iPhone 6s is fuller, shedding some of the tinniness of the prior model. Music is also clearer, allowing you to better isolate individual instruments and sounds in the background. Bass output is similar, but drums sound a bit tighter on the 6s.

The new iPhone also delivers more balanced sound output, eliminating the iPhone 6's tendency to exaggerate vocals or the loudest instrument. Depending on personal preferences and what's playing, this change can be either good or bad. The max volume is sufficiently loud to be heard across the room and is essentially the same as the iPhone 6, but louder than the 5s.

Headphone output sounds excellent, with no discernible difference in audio quality between the iPhone 6 and 6s. The iPhone continues to be our reference device for headphone sound quality, although several devices, such as the LG G4 and Sony's Xperia line, now match the iPhone's listening experience.

Camera Features

iPhones have had very good, if not the best, rear cameras for a number of years. Over the past year, however, we've seen phones such as Samsung's Galaxy S6 usurp the iPhone’s camera performance crown. Take image detail, for example. Phone cameras now routinely exceed 20 MP, but the iPhone has been stuck at 8 MP since the 4s came out four years ago.

Note: For an explanation of camera hardware and terminology, please see our Camera Phone Technology 101 article.

While pixel count is not the only factor that determines image quality (as noted in our 101 article linked above), Apple's iSight camera is due for an update. After acquiring LinX, an Israel-based company that develops multi-aperture cameras, and PrimeSense, which worked on Microsoft's original Kinect, expectations were high. Unfortunately, we'll have to wait for the iPhone 7 to see this radical new camera in action; the iPhone 6s and 6s Plus stick with a conventional smartphone camera design.

The new iPhones get a new camera sensor at least. Recent iSight cameras were made by Sony, and it appears this new sensor is too. Resolution increases to 12 MP, but the sensor size remains unchanged. Packing more pixels into the same size sensor means pixel size decreases to 1.22µm from 1.5µm. Generally speaking, smaller pixels capture less light, reducing low-light performance and dynamic range, which is a cause for some concern.

While Apple was one of the first companies to embrace backside-illuminated sensors, it has taken the company a bit longer to adopt deep trench isolation technology. Samsung's ISOCELL sensors have been using this technique, which reduces electrical and optical crosstalk by surrounding each pixel with a barrier material, for a couple of generations now. This improves color fidelity by keeping charge from leaking into a red pixel from a blue pixel, for example.

The new sensor still includes Focus Pixels, which is just Apple's way of saying phase detect autofocus (PDAF). The iPhone still has the best implementation of PDAF, delivering smooth, continuous autofocus that locks onto objects very quickly.

Another expected feature for a flagship phone camera is optical image stabilization (OIS). This technology helps reduce motion blur caused by shaky hands. It's especially helpful in low-light situations since it allows the camera to use a longer exposure and still capture a sharp image. Like last time, however, this feature is exclusive to the Plus version of the iPhone. It's unfortunate that Apple withholds this feature from the smaller iPhone 6s, especially considering the move to smaller pixels. We'll see in the next section if this omission handicaps the iPhone 6s' low-light performance.

It appears the iPhone 6s uses the same optics as the iPhone 6 and 5s, an array of five lenses. This is possible since it keeps the same sensor size and focal length. Another thing that has not changed is the f/2.2 aperture, which would require a thicker camera module. Most flagship phones are trying to improve low-light performance by switching to larger f/2.0 to f/1.8 apertures, putting the iPhone 6s at a disadvantage. The LG G4's f/1.8 aperture lens, for instance, is 69 percent larger. Other flagships from the current generation have apertures larger than the iPhone 6s too, including the Moto X Pure Edition at 53 percent, the Galaxy S6/S6 edge+/Note5 at 44 percent, the OnePlus 2 at 41 percent, and the HTC One M9 at 30 percent. By reducing pixel size and stubbornly refusing to update the camera's optics, Apple risks compromising the iPhone's performance.

The iPhone's front-facing FaceTime HD camera also gets an update for this generation. The new sensor in the iPhone 6s squeezes 5 MP into the same 1/5" size sensor as the previous 1.2 MP shooter. This means pixel size decreases to 1.12µm from 1.9µm, which could have some negative side effects.

To cope with the higher resolution images from the new sensors, the iPhone 6s includes a new Apple-designed image signal processor (ISP). The hardware itself is a mystery, but Apple claims it provides better temporal and spatial noise reduction, which could help compensate for the new camera's smaller pixels. The ISP also implements Apple's third-generation local tone mapping algorithm that helps preserve contrast in high dynamic range (HDR) images.

Camera Software

Apple's Camera app has a simplistic interface that provides very little control over the camera's settings, relying almost exclusively on automatic software controls. Fortunately, the iPhone's autofocus, autoexposure, and auto white balance are the best we've seen in a smartphone, making the capture of images and video an easy point-and-shoot affair.

The camera interface provides easy access to the flash, HDR, and self-timer controls on one side. There's also the obligatory button to switch between the front and rear cameras. Unlike most other controls that allow you to just tap them to change settings, Apple's camera controls only reveal the underlying options when tapped, forcing you to tap again on the desired option. This hunt-and-peck method is less efficient than simply tapping the same button once or twice.

In the middle of these other controls is a new toggle for the Live Photos feature available only on the iPhone 6s and 6s Plus. When active, it records 1.5 seconds of audio and video before and after the time when the shutter button is pressed, turning a snapshot in time into a three second period you can bring back to life by pressing on the photo. Beyond viewing them in the photo gallery, they can also be used to create a dynamic wallpaper on the Lock screen. These short moments are also shareable within Apple's universe, but outsiders will only see the still image.

Live Photos works by continuously recording video into a small, rolling memory buffer that continuously discards unused video beyond the previous 1.5 seconds. This feature works with both the front and rear cameras, resulting in a still image in JPEG format and a small MOV video file. The still images are recorded at each camera's full resolution, while the video (1440x1080 rear and 1280x960 front) is cropped to a 4:3 aspect ratio to match the photo. The H.264 High profile video is recorded at 13-15 fps and is accompanied by a single 16-bit 44.1kHz PCM audio channel.

The appeal of Live Photos is debatable; some people will love it and leave it turned on all the time, while others will try it a few times before turning it off and forgetting about it. Its biggest limitation is the low frame rate that makes it unsuitable for capturing scenes with fast motion—even scenes with moderate motion look choppy. There are times, however, where Live Photos successfully adds emotional impact to a still image—trees blowing in a light breeze or an animated facial expression, for example. Just keep in mind that Live Photos take up an additional 3-4MB of storage space each, and because the camera is constantly recording video whenever the Camera app is open, it drains the battery a little faster.

The other half of the camera interface includes a dedicated shutter button and a button that provides access to a small selection of image filters. The filters are not particularly useful, but there's a live preview of the effects in both the thumbnail selection view and the viewfinder. There's also a small thumbnail of the last picture taken that opens the photo gallery when tapped or a full-screen preview when gently pressed, utilizing the new 3D Touch Peek feature. Curiously, when "Peeking" there's an image scrubber for quickly scanning through photos in the portrait interface, but not in landscape.

Pressing a little harder will Pop the image open into a photo viewer with a black theme that differs from the regular Photos app. This darker interface includes an image scrubber along the bottom for selecting a photo as well as options to favorite, share, or delete the image, just like the Photos app. The image editor found in the Photos app is also accessible from within the darker interface, providing controls to crop and rotate, adjust brightness and color properties, and apply photo filters. Tapping "All Photos" in the upper-left corner launches the Photos app.

Above the shutter button is a text-based slider for selecting the camera mode; this control is incredibly awkward. For starters, it does not rotate with the screen, leaving the text vertical in landscape mode. The biggest issue, though, is the control's finicky nature: roughly 50 percent of the time it moves in the wrong direction, either jumping randomly when you first touch it or moving opposite to the direction you swipe. It's absolutely infuriating. Numerous times I've missed an opportunity to capture something my son is doing on video just because I cannot select the video option. In addition to the standard Photo and Video modes, there's also options for taking square format photos, panoramic photos, and time-lapse videos—assuming you have the patience to keep swiping until you land on the right option.

Outside of the standard tap-to-focus option and a manual exposure slider, there's no additional camera controls in the iPhone's stock camera app, not even an option to set image resolution. Fortunately, Apple added an API in iOS 8 that exposes the more advanced controls, allowing third-party app developers to fill the void. Using one of these other camera apps, you can manually control ISO, shutter speed, white balance, and exposure.

The interface for the FaceTime HD camera is exactly the same as the rear iSight camera. Features are mostly the same too, including support for automatic HDR and Live Photos. The only features not supported by the front-facing camera are panoramic images and slow motion video.

Besides the new sensor, the front-facing camera on the iPhone 6s and 6s Plus adds the Retina Flash feature that uses the display's backlight to illuminate selfies. This is a rather clever reuse of existing hardware that other phones have employed too, notably LG's G3 and G4. Apple's Retina Flash actually uses a custom chip to control the backlight, temporarily boosting brightness by a factor of three. Similar to the True Tone flash on the back, there's a preflash that the camera uses to evaluate the current lighting condition and then the main flash that's adjusted based on the ambient lighting to produce more realistic colors.

Video

Shooting video with the iPhone 6s or 6s Plus is very similar in both features and quality to the iPhone 6 with two notable exceptions. First, the iPhone can now (finally) shoot 4K video thanks to the higher resolution 12 MP iSight camera. UHD 4K video requires ~8.3 MP, in addition to extra pixels around the frame's borders to provide oversampling for electronic image stabilization (EIS), which is why the iPhone 6 and earlier were limited to 1080p. Second, the iPhone 6s Plus can now use OIS, in addition to EIS, while recording video. Combining these two different image stabilization techniques should further dampen vibrations both big and small, resulting in smoother, steadier video.

Rear Camera Video Modes

Front Camera Video Modes

All video recorded with the new iPhones uses the H.264 high profile. The bit rate for 1080p30 video is a fairly standard 17 Mb/s, the same rate as Samsung's Galaxy S6 family of devices and LG's G4. There's also a 1080p60 option, which is something not available on all flagship phones yet, that produces very fluid video and is great for capturing scenes with a lot of motion. The new 4K video option records at 50 Mb/s, about the same as the Galaxy S6's 48 Mb/s but more than the G4's relatively low 30 Mb/s. Unlike the 5-minute time restriction enforced by most other phones, there's no time restriction when recording 4K video with the iPhone, and you can capture 8 MP still images while recording 4K video too.

When it comes to slow motion video, the iPhone still produces the best results by far. While others struggle just to create choppy, low-quality 720p120 video with no audio track, the iPhone produces smooth 720p240 video along with audio. The 6s even adds a new 1080p120 slow motion option. Because these modes use higher compression to keep file size reasonable, there is more image noise than what’s present in the regular video modes.

Video quality for the other video modes is also very good. Image noise is comparable to other flagship phones such as the Galaxy S6. The 4K video, however, does exhibit noticeably more noise than the HD modes because of the higher compression and the limits of H.264, an issue that plagues all other phones that shoot 4K video too. We'll have to wait for H.265 support before we can realize the full quality benefit from 4K video.

The iPhone 6s still lacks support for HDR video recording, a limitation that’s especially noticeable when recording outdoors. The good news is the iPhone’s camera does a good job prioritizing exposure so that the subject of the video is usually properly lit, even though the sky may be overexposed or shadows underexposed. It also adjusts exposure quickly when it encounters a change in lighting conditions. The same is true of the iPhone’s auto white balance routine. Color accuracy is very good in most circumstances.

What the iPhone really excels at is using PDAF for continuous autofocus. As the camera or subject moves, focus is continuously adjusted, always keeping the video looking sharp. This also frees you from having to tap the screen to refocus during recording. You can see an example video of PDAF in action from our iPhone 6 review.

As mentioned above, the iPhone 6s Plus now uses OIS along with EIS in all recording modes to help create smoother videos. While the addition of OIS does help dampen some vibration from hand shake, it creates some undesirable side effects of its own. The first is OIS wobble, where the camera tilts whenever there’s a change in direction. The iPhone’s cinematic video stabilization (EIS) does reduce this disorienting effect, making it less noticeable than on other phones such as the Galaxy S6 and LG G4. The second, related issue is OIS jitter, which occurs whenever the sensor reaches its excursion limit. This is most noticeable when walking; each step causes a small vertical vibration in the video. Personally, I prefer the iPhone 6s' EIS only solution that produces more natural looking video.

Even though the iPhone 6s and 6s Plus do not achieve video nirvana—there's a reason why companies still make dedicated video cameras—they are the most well-rounded smartphones for recording video, with no glaring weak points.

Camera Performance And Photo Quality

It's time to see if the iPhone's new 12 MP iSight camera is an upgrade over the previous generation, or if the smaller pixels are a step backwards. All of the images shown below were taken using the stock camera app's Auto mode unless noted. Also, you can view the full-sized image for each photo by clicking the text links below the images that are within a slideshow album. The LG G4 and Galaxy S6 both use a native 16:9 aspect ratio, although most of the G4's pictures were taken with a 4:3 aspect ratio, which is what all of the iPhones use. This does not impact the quality of the G4's pictures, since it just crops the edges of the frame. Also, our Galaxy S6 uses the Sony Exmor RS IMX240 image sensor, which we've shown to produce better images than the alternate Samsung S5K2P2 ISOCELL sensor.

Outdoors

Daylight

Full-Size Images: [iPhone 6s: daylight island], [iPhone 6: daylight island], [iPhone 6s Plus: daylight island], [iPhone 6 Plus: daylight island], [iPhone 5s: daylight island], [LG G4: daylight island], [Galaxy S6: daylight island], [iPhone 6s: daylight fountain], [iPhone 6: daylight fountain], [iPhone 6s Plus: daylight fountain], [iPhone 6 Plus: daylight fountain], [iPhone 5s: daylight fountain], [LG G4: daylight fountain], [Galaxy S6: daylight fountain]

In our first set of images, taken on a partially overcast day, we see some minor differences between the test images. The 5s uses the fastest shutter speed, resulting in the darkest image overall, with the iPhone 6 and 6s devices using progressively longer exposures, increasing brightness a bit. The 6s phones also have a slightly lower minimum ISO of 25 versus 32 for the previous model. The LG G4 and Samsung Galaxy S6 use the longest exposures, resulting in the brightest images.

Both models of the iPhone 6 and 6s set the white balance correctly, capturing the most natural colors. The 5s, G4, and Galaxy S6 are pretty close, but skew just a little too warm.

The 6s and 6s Plus appear to have more detail than the earlier iPhones, but this is mostly because they do a better job adjusting focus, and because they seem to be using more aggressive edge sharpening, which produces additional aliasing along some edges. The Galaxy S6 image is noticeably sharper and more detailed than any of the iPhone images.

Speaking of sharpness, the right side of the G4's image is noticeably lacking it. We've noticed this in a couple of other images too, where the right side is blurrier than the left. Since this does not happen consistently, it appears to be a side effect of noise reduction processing. There's also some noise reduction artifacts around edges, especially noticeable around the ropes. The iPhone's noise reduction looks better here, producing a smooth-looking sky with no edge artifacts. Compared to the iPhone 6, the 6s produces more noticeable noise grain in the water, the darkest part of the scene. The S6 shows the least amount of noise overall.

When there's an abundance of sunlight, like in the second set of images with the fountain, differences in image quality are far more subtle, with all phones producing nice pictures. For the most part, our observations from the first set of images also apply here, with the only notable exception being the slightly cooler white balance of the S6 and G4.

Full-Size Images: [iPhone 6s: daylight flowers], [iPhone 6: daylight flowers], [iPhone 6s Plus: daylight flowers], [iPhone 6 Plus: daylight flowers], [iPhone 5s: daylight flowers], [LG G4: daylight flowers], [Galaxy S6: daylight flowers], [iPhone 6s: daylight cactus], [iPhone 6: daylight cactus], [iPhone 6s Plus: daylight cactus], [iPhone 6 Plus: daylight cactus], [iPhone 5s: daylight cactus], [LG G4: daylight cactus], [Galaxy S6: daylight cactus]

Once again, on an overcast day, the iPhone 5s sets the shortest exposure and captures the darkest image of the yellow flowers. While there's no brightness difference between the iPhone 6 and 6s images, both 6s cameras use a longer exposure again. This seems to be a necessary change to compensate for the lower ISO and the new sensor’s smaller pixels.

Other than the luminance difference, and the fact that the 5s image is a little out of focus, the images from all of the iPhones look very similar. Colors look good and are nicely saturated, however, they all suffer from aggressive noise reduction that blurs edges and adds an unnatural waviness to the out-of-focus background. Overall, the differences between the iPhone 6 and 6s images are subtle. The iPhone 6s' extra pixels improve detail, but it's a little disappointing that we do not see a bigger jump in quality.

In this situation, the Galaxy S6 once again produces the best image. It's bright, with excellent color and detail. Image noise is minimal, and the camera's larger aperture creates a nice bokeh effect. The only issue we see with the S6's image is some color haloing around edges, likely caused by a post-processing sharpening filter. In contrast, the iPhone's sharpening filter appears to only work on the luminance channel, rather than RGB, creating a more subtle light/dark outline.

Depending on personal taste, the LG G4's image could also be judged superior to the iPhone 6s'. Its colors look nice but are not as saturated as the iPhone's. The G4's noise reduction algorithm, which works progressively better with less available light, does a better job than the iPhone's. What really sets the G4's image apart from the others, though, is its limited depth of field, a product of having the largest aperture of any current smartphone. Only the yellow flowers in the foreground are in focus, with the rest of the image mostly blurry. While the G4's limited depth of field works to its advantage in the closeup of the flowers, the bokeh effect is not always desirable; it cannot keep the entire cactus in focus, for example.

In the cactus pictures, the iPhone 6s cameras exhibit better dynamic range as compared to the earlier iPhone models. The greater difference between highlights and shadows gives the images better overall contrast. Colors in all of the iPhone images look a bit too saturated, although we find this preferable to the dull and lifeless G4 image. Even though the Galaxy S6 captures more detail than the iPhones, the iPhone images look sharper from a distance because of their more aggressive sharpening filter.

Afternoon

Full-Size Images: [iPhone 6s: afternoon giraffes], [iPhone 6: afternoon giraffes], [iPhone 6s Plus: afternoon giraffes], [iPhone 6 Plus: afternoon giraffes], [iPhone 5s: afternoon giraffes], [LG G4: afternoon giraffes], [Galaxy S6: afternoon giraffes], [iPhone 6s: afternoon square], [iPhone 6: afternoon square], [iPhone 6s Plus: afternoon square], [iPhone 6 Plus: afternoon square], [iPhone 5s: afternoon square], [LG G4: afternoon square], [Galaxy S6: afternoon square]

While hunting big game in Africa, we stumbled upon these giraffes. It was late in the afternoon, on an overcast day, and with no large predators in sight, we decided to take advantage of this challenging lighting condition to test smartphone cameras. The LG G4 produces the worst looking image of the group by far, partly because the image is too dark and partly because the G4's camera consistently focuses on the plants in front, leaving everything behind, including the giraffes, blurry. The Galaxy S6 produces a nicely detailed image once again that's a bit darker than the iPhone images but with richer colors. Image noise is minimal and similar to the iPhone 6s, including some light halos around objects from the noise reduction processing.

Looking at just the iPhone images, there's very little variation from one generation to the next. The iPhone 5s image is a little brighter and warmer, but otherwise there's no significant differences.

In the second group of images showing a town square close to sunset, the Galaxy S6 stands out as the clear winner. Its image shows the highest level of detail with the least amount of noise. Even in challenging lighting, all of the iPhone images are near identical. In this case, any detail advantage from the iPhone 6s' higher resolution camera is nullified by more aggressive noise reduction.

Evening

Full-Size Images: [iPhone 6s: night trees], [iPhone 6: night trees], [iPhone 6s Plus: night trees], [iPhone 6 Plus: night trees], [iPhone 5s: night trees], [LG G4: night trees], [Galaxy S6: night trees], [iPhone 6s: night parking lot], [iPhone 6: night parking lot], [iPhone 6s Plus: night parking lot], [iPhone 6 Plus: night parking lot], [iPhone 5s: night parking lot], [LG G4: night parking lot], [Galaxy S6: night parking lot]

The sun had just dipped below the horizon in the first set of images showing some palm trees and a waterfall, giving the cameras very little light to work with. In this situation, the LG G4 engages a special low-light mode with a longer exposure (notice how the waterfall looks more smeared), making the scene very bright—albeit unnaturally so—with everything clearly visible. All of the cameras with OIS make good use of it, holding their shutters open longer (33 percent for the G4 and S6 and 73 percent for the iPhone Plus models), allowing them to let in more light or, in the case of the iPhones, to decrease ISO and noise. While the iPhone images look dark, they do a good job of capturing how the scene actually looked. The Galaxy S6 takes the middle road, boosting brightness enough to easily see the scene but avoids the G4's unnatural appearance by not going too far.

Noise can severely degrade image quality in low-light situations. The Galaxy S6 manages to keep noise levels acceptably low, while still preserving a lot of detail; you can still see individual bricks on the ground and texture on the trees. Capturing more light with a longer exposure helps reduce noise in the G4's image. It also uses post-processing routines to smooth noise grain at the expense of fine detail. All of the cameras without OIS—iPhone 5s, iPhone 6, iPhone 6s—exhibit significantly more visible noise, which is most obvious in the image taken by the iPhone 6s, where more aggressive edge sharpening actually enhances the noise grain. Both of the iPhone Plus models perform better than the non-Plus models, with the 6s Plus showing a slight edge over the 6 Plus.

The second set of pictures of the parking lot were taken after dark. The cameras all choose their longest exposure setting again but raise ISO to compensate for the lower-light condition. Using its special low-light mode, the G4 takes the brightest image, overexposing the streetlights and bright lights on the building in the process. The Galaxy S6 image is not as bright as the G4, but it maintains a higher level of contrast with less haloing around light sources. Again, the iPhones produce darker images that more accurately reflect the actual luminance in the scene, with only minor differences between them. Whether you prefer the brighter images from the S6 and G4 or the more natural images from the iPhone is a matter of personal taste.

HDR

Full-Size Images: [iPhone 6s: stream - no HDR], [iPhone 6s: stream - HDR], [iPhone 6: stream - no HDR], [iPhone 6: stream - HDR], [iPhone 6s Plus: stream - no HDR], [iPhone 6s Plus: stream - HDR], [iPhone 6 Plus: stream - no HDR], [iPhone 6 Plus: stream - HDR], [iPhone 5s: stream - no HDR], [iPhone 5s: stream - HDR], [LG G4: stream - no HDR], [LG G4: stream - HDR], [Galaxy S6: stream - no HDR], [Galaxy S6: stream - HDR]

In the first set of HDR images, the Galaxy S6 does an excellent job brightening the shadows and reducing the glare on the roof in the background. The G4 also handles the shadows well, but basically ignores the brighter areas; the details of the netting are completely lost in the bright sky. Unfortunately, we see no improvement in HDR quality for the iPhone 6s, which continues to have the most conservative and underwhelming HDR mode of any flagship phone. All the iPhones do a nice job correcting the overexposed sky and reducing the glare on the roof, but instead of brightening the shadows they actually make the darker areas even darker. All of the HDR images show some purple fringing, a byproduct of the HDR processing, along edges bordering the sky; however, the Galaxy S6 also shows some additional purple spots amongst the leaves.

Before our trek across the African plains, we stopped by this watering hole filled with flamingos and snapped some more pictures. In this case, the G4 comes out on top by correcting both light and dark areas equally well without washing away too much color saturation. The Galaxy S6 also brightens up the shadows but leaves the sky and some of the flamingos standing in the hot sun overexposed. Its colors look good and noise is low, but there’s some loss of detail and color artifacts on the fence as well as some purple fringing around the flamingos, something the G4’s HDR algorithm avoids. The iPhones play it conservative again, reducing some of the glare but not lightening the shadows. There’s also some purple fringing, but it’s not as bad as in the G6 image.

With its new ISP and local tone mapping algorithm, we were certainly expecting more from the iPhone 6s' HDR mode. Instead its HDR images are no different than the iPhone 6's. The new ISP is fast, though, snapping HDR images with only about a one second delay.

Indoors

The staged indoor shots below were lit by overhead LED lights, a CFL lamp from the front, and an incandescent overhead light in the background.

Bright Light

Full-Size Images: [iPhone 6s: indoor mall], [iPhone 6: indoor mall], [iPhone 6s Plus: indoor mall], [iPhone 6 Plus: indoor mall], [iPhone 5s: indoor mall], [LG G4: indoor mall], [Galaxy S6: indoor mall], [iPhone 6s: indoor bright], [iPhone 6: indoor bright], [iPhone 6s Plus: indoor bright], [iPhone 6 Plus: indoor bright], [iPhone 5s: indoor bright], [LG G4: indoor bright], [Galaxy S6: indoor bright]

Shooting pictures indoors without natural light makes setting white balance more challenging. Inside this shopping mall, all of the iPhones opt for a cooler tone, while the S6 and G4 are a little warmer. Overall the S6 produces the best looking image, with pleasing colors, minimal noise, good detail, and proper exposure.

Moving indoors does not elicit any new behavior from the iPhones; their images all still look about the same. Zooming in, both Plus models show a little less noise than the non-Plus versions, and both 6s models smooth noise grain a little better while maintaining better sharpness.

There's less light to work with in the second set of images, leading to more noise and more difficulty with white balance. The iPhone images have a reddish tint, the G4 image is a yellowish-green, and the S6 has a green tint. The iPhone 6 Plus and 6s Plus make better use of OIS to increase exposure and reduce ISO. In this scene, both the iPhone 6s and 6s Plus capture sharper images with less noise than the iPhone 6 and 6 Plus. The 6s Plus image has a bit less noise than the other iPhone images, putting it about on par with the Galaxy S6.

Low Light and Flash

Full-Size Images:[iPhone 6s: indoor dark], [iPhone 6: indoor dark], [iPhone 6s Plus: indoor dark], [iPhone 6 Plus: indoor dark], [iPhone 5s: indoor dark], [LG G4: indoor dark], [Galaxy S6: indoor dark], [iPhone 6s: indoor flash], [iPhone 6: indoor flash], [iPhone 6 Plus: indoor flash], [iPhone 5s: indoor flash], [LG G4: indoor flash], [Galaxy S6: indoor flash]

Our lowest-light scene is lit only by an incandescent light in the background. The G4 struggles with white balance again, creating an image with an ugly yellow tint. However, the G4's noise reduction algorithm, which works better as light levels drop, does an excellent job wiping away noise while preserving image detail, including the numbers on the book and the thin lines on the figures’ clothing.

The iPhone 5s is the worst of the iPhones, its red-tinted image shows the most noise of any device in this roundup. The new 6s Plus pulls ahead of the other iPhones and is about on par with the Galaxy S6.

Front-Facing Camera

Full-Size Images: [iPhone 6s: front camera indoors], [iPhone 6s: front camera outdoors]

The iPhone's new front-facing FaceTime HD camera produces nice looking images. It usually does a good job setting white balance and exposure, although our outdoor example above should be a little brighter. Its extra pixels and less heavy-handed noise reduction processing give the iPhone 6s an edge in detail and sharpness over the iPhone 6, but noise grain is a bit more visible in the background with the new camera. The iPhone also does not seem to apply any automatic "beautification" processing to smooth skin wrinkles and blemishes like the Galaxy S6.

Additional Sample Images

Full-Size Images: [iPhone 6s Plus: sample bakery], [iPhone 6s Plus: sample windmill], [iPhone 6s Plus: sample clock tower], [iPhone 6s Plus: sample flower bed], [iPhone 6s Plus: sample trees], [iPhone 6s Plus: sample tower], [iPhone 6s Plus: sample cafe], [iPhone 6s Plus: sample flowers], [iPhone 6s Plus: sample fall tree], [iPhone 6s Plus: sample desert 1], [iPhone 6s Plus: sample desert 2], [iPhone 6s Plus: sample desert 3]

After taking and comparing a lot of different photos, we cannot help but feel disappointed by the iPhone 6s' new iSight camera. In most situations, there's no perceivable difference in image quality between it and the iPhone 6 version. It's only in very low-light conditions where we see a small improvement in sharpness with less visible noise. Withholding OIS from the iPhone 6s hurts image quality, as its images consistently show more noise than those from the 6s Plus.

The Galaxy S6 still has the best camera, beating the iPhone 6s in every condition we tested. The 6s Plus manages to pull even with the S6 in some very low-light conditions, but still gets outperformed in most situations. We would place the iPhone 6s and 6s Plus above the LG G4, however, because of the G4's white balance issues and inconsistent noise reduction processing.

Apple A9 CPU And System Performance

The biggest change for Apple’s A9 SoC is the move from TSMC’s HKMG 20nm node to the new FinFET process technology. Using a 3D structure—where the silicon channel gets extended into a vertical wall or fin and then wrapped by the gate—decouples the transistor from the bulk of the silicon substrate. This allows the operating current to be controlled via three channel surfaces instead of one like in a 2D planar structure and also significantly reduces leakage current. The improved electrical characteristics allow 3D transistors to operate at a lower voltage, reducing dynamic power and heat, which the chip designer can take advantage of to improve battery life and/or performance by ramping up the clock frequency.

With all of its advantages, it’s no surprise to see the A9 jump to FinFET. What is surprising, however, is Apple using two different suppliers (a practice called dual sourcing). This is commonly used by OEMs for many smartphone components, including displays, RAM, and NAND, but generally not for SoCs because of the additional engineering cost to tape-out with two different foundries, each with its own libraries and quirks. We can only speculate as to why Apple spent extra money going this route, but since this is the first generation of FinFET, perhaps Apple wanted to play it safe in case one or both suppliers encountered yield issues or otherwise could not meet Apple’s demand.

Ultimately, dual sourcing means there’s two different variations of the A9—one made using Samsung’s 14nm LPE (Low Power Early) FinFET process and one using TSMC’s 16nm FinFET process. While the actual chip architecture and clock frequencies are the same for both, there are some minor differences. First, the Samsung die is a bit smaller, as seen above, thanks to the tighter gate pitch. More importantly, the two different processes will naturally have different voltage-frequency curves, meaning an A9 built with one process will consume less power at the same frequency as an A9 built on the competing process. This leads to an obvious question: Which A9 variant is better?

While we cannot answer this question definitively due to our limited sample size, our testing shows that performance is identical between both versions with only a small difference in battery life. In tests that run the CPU or GPU at 100 percent for extended periods of time (an extreme scenario not seen in real-world use), our test unit with a Samsung made A9 shows 3 to 11 percent better battery life. In a video playback test, where the CPU and GPU are mostly idle, our TSMC A9 sample shows a 2 to 3 percent battery life advantage, the same difference quoted by Apple. Based on these results, along with similar results obtained by other testers, we feel the differences between the two A9 versions are a non-issue.

Regardless of foundry, the A9 still employs a dual-core 64-bit CPU compatible with the ARMv8-A architecture. In many respects, Apple’s custom designed Twister CPU core shares many similarities to the Typhoon core in the A8 SoC. Based on AnandTech’s analysis, Twister has the same IPC (instructions per cycle) as Typhoon—capable of decoding, issuing, and executing up to six instructions per cycle—and retains a comparatively large out-of-order instruction reorder buffer. The execution stage sees a few minor tweaks, though, including a one cycle reduction in floating-point latency (a 20 percent improvement for multiplies and 25 percent for additions) and the ability to perform three FP32 floating-point multiply instructions in parallel instead of two.

Apple A9 (Samsung) Die: Modified by Tom’s Hardware [Image Source: Chipworks]

In addition to improving floating-point performance, Apple also increases the L2 cache size from 1MB to 3MB and changes the 4MB L3 cache from being inclusive (L3 retains a copy of the L2 cache) to victim (L3 holds data evicted from L2). Cache latency also improves thanks in part to a significant increase in clock frequency.

One of AnandTech’s more interesting findings is a significant reduction in the branch mispredict penalty, anywhere from 33 to 50 percent. It’s not clear how this is achieved, but it’s likely a combination of the larger cache, lower cache latency, and more aggressive prefetching. Because real-world code is generally branch heavy, this change could have a noticeable impact on user experience.

Along with the architectural tweaks, Apple takes full advantage of its move to FinFET, boosting CPU frequency from 1.4GHz to 1.85GHz, a 32.1 percent increase. Historically, Apple has been conservative with clock frequency in an effort to conserve power, relying on its wide architecture for performance. Now with FinFET, Apple gets to erase most of the clock frequency advantage held by its narrower-architecture competitors and really ramp up performance.

Like most current-generation flagship phones, the iPhone 6s and 6s Plus use the new LPDDR4 RAM, which uses 35 to 40 percent less power (according to Samsung) and delivers greater bandwidth through higher operating frequencies.

The STREAM benchmark in Geekbench 3 gives us some insight into the evolution of memory performance over the last few generations. Both the A7 and A8 have the same size L2/L3 cache and use LPDDR3-933 (14.9GBps) RAM, so it’s no surprise to see only a small increase in STREAM performance (roughly 8 percent), likely due to memory controller optimizations or lower RAM latencies. The STREAM Copy metric—which is the most indicative of memory bus performance, because it simply copies the contents of one large array to another—shows that the LPDDR4-1600 (25.6GBps) RAM helps give the A9 a significant boost in throughput. The STREAM Scale, Add, and Triad tests all see some additional benefit from the reduced floating-point add/multiply latency. Throughput in the Scale test lags behind the values obtained in the Add and Triad tests in part, because floating-point add instructions have one cycle less latency than the multiply instruction used exclusively in the Scale test.

It’s interesting to see the iPhone 6s and 6s Plus deliver more throughput here than the Galaxy S6, another phone that uses LPDDR4 memory. We cannot extrapolate these results to general memory performance, however, because the STREAM tests only use sequential data structures. Based on the results we’ve collected in other tests, we know that the memory controllers used in Apple’s A7 and A8 both perform well with serial access patterns and poorly when dealing with more random memory access. In contrast, the Exynos 7420 used in Samsung’s Galaxy S6 is more of a generalist and is not optimized for any specific type of memory access. What the STREAM data tells us then is that the A9’s memory controller continues Apple’s tradition of optimizing for serial memory access, perhaps to boost performance when reading or writing images (think burst performance), video, and GPU textures, or just writing to the frame buffer.

To better understand how the STREAM benchmark included in Geekbench works, or to learn more about our testing methodology, please read our article about how we test mobile device system performance.

Apple’s A8 SoC delivers the best single-core integer and floating-point performance of any current flagship phone. Well, except for the A9 in the iPhone 6s. The fact that the A8’s Typhoon CPU core, used in last year’s iPhone 6 and running at only 1.4GHz with LPDDR3 RAM, is still faster than anything Samsung, Qualcomm, MediaTek, etc. produce is impressive.

Even more impressive are the 55 percent and 60 percent gains in integer and floating-point performance, respectively, by the latest A9 SoC. The 32.1 percent increase in CPU frequency explains most of the A9’s performance boost, but there’s clearly more going on here. As expected, floating-point performance sees a larger increase, relative to the A8, than integer performance because of the architectural improvements to the floating-point units, although the difference is small. It appears that both integer and floating-point performance benefit significantly from the larger, lower-latency L2 cache, and, to a lesser extent, the LPDDR4 memory, since not all of the Geekbench data sets fit within cache.

Despite having only two CPU cores, versus six to eight cores for the non-Apple phones in these charts, the A9 still posts the best multi-core floating-point performance. It does fall behind the Exynos 7420 used in the Galaxy S6 devices and the Snapdragon 810 v2.1 in the OnePlus 2 in integer performance, however. Still, the A9’s multi-core integer performance is good enough to outpace the Snapdragon 808 (which has two fewer Cortex-A57 cores than the 810) used in the LG G4 and Moto X Pure Edition. It also beats the older revision Snapdragon 810 SoC used in HTC’s One M9, which falls back to the lower-performing Cortex-A53 cores due to thermal constraints.

The difference between the iPhone 5s and 6s serves as a good example of just how quickly mobile systems are advancing. In just two generations, Apple has nearly doubled performance in the Basemark OS II System test, which performs a number of subtests to gauge CPU and memory performance. In the OpenGL ES 2.0 based Graphics test, the iPhone 6s is 324 percent faster than the 5s! Imagine the possibilities if desktop systems could advance at a similar rate.

Going back just one generation, the iPhone 6s is still 43 percent faster than the iPhone 6 in the System test, 18 percent faster in the Web test, and 81 percent faster in the Graphics test (the 6s Plus is only 69 percent faster than the 6 Plus, since the GPU was clocked higher on the 6 Plus).

Ignoring the broken Memory test, the new iPhones deliver noticeably better performance here. The iPhone 6s is 43 percent faster than the Galaxy S6 in the System test, currently the fastest Android phone when it comes to CPU/memory performance, and it’s 33 percent faster than Qualcomm’s Adreno 430 in HTC’s One M9.

When discussing system performance, you cannot forget the importance of internal storage. Back when the Galaxy S6 was released, we praised Samsung for being the first to implement a UFS 2.0 based storage solution, improving NAND performance over the traditional eMMC interface. Now it appears that Samsung’s moment of glory has passed. According to AnandTech’s sleuthing, Apple includes a custom NVMe-based PCI-E storage controller in the new iPhones, which boosts sequential reads and writes significantly. We’re not talking laptop/desktop class SSD performance here, this solution still has to work within the power and size limits of a smartphone, but this is yet another move that closes the gap between phones and laptops just a little more.

Unfortunately, we do not have any iOS benchmarks that gauge performance in real-world usage scenarios like we do on the Android platform. One thing that’s easy to measure, and is something we do quite often, is open apps. NAND performance is the obvious bottleneck in this scenario, but CPU and RAM performance come into play too. In the charts above, we show the time to launch several common apps as well as how long it takes to boot the OS. Since the iPhones are all running the same OS and apps, we can draw some conclusions about hardware performance. Once we move beyond Apple hardware, however, this becomes impossible, since we’re dealing with completely different software. These comparisons are still useful, though, in terms of the difference in performance a user perceives.

The cumulative time to load all apps on the iPhone 6s and 6s Plus is 16 percent faster than the previous generation. Not a big increase, but noticeable, particularly when opening Maps. Given the large increase in NAND, CPU, and memory performance, it’s disappointing not to see larger gains here.

Casting a wider net, we see that Samsung’s Galaxy S6 devices, along with LG’s G4, offer a better experience when launching apps, although the iPhone 6s gets you into the camera the fastest. The iPhones are generally quick to boot too, but for some reason the 6s Plus consistently takes longer to boot than the 6s.

The iPhones do well as always in the browser-based tests, with the iPhone 6s 42 to 90 percent faster than last year’s iPhone 6. Safari’s optimized JavaScript engine clearly outpaces Chrome in these tests.

Based on the data above, Apple’s tweaked Twister CPU in the A9 is clearly the fastest available now. That’s not really surprising considering that Apple’s competitors still cannot match the A8 SoC’s performance in some tests. The A9 benefits most from the move to FinFET, enabling a higher CPU frequency, a larger L2 cache, and lower cache latencies. Combining these benefits with higher bandwidth LPDDR4 RAM and Apple’s custom NVMe-based PCI-E storage controller makes the iPhone 6s the smartphone performance king—a title it should hold for the foreseeable future (at least in CPU performance), since it’s unlikely that any SoCs based on ARM’s Cortex-A72 CPU, which is optimized more for power efficiency than performance, will surpass the A9 in the coming year. Even Qualcomm’s custom 64-bit Kryo CPU cannot touch the A9’s integer and floating-point performance based on the results from our Snapdragon 820 Performance Preview.

GPU And Gaming Performance

Apple’s A9 SoC includes an Imagination Technologies PowerVR GT7600 GPU, which has six cores arranged in three pairs around shared cache and logic. While not a significant departure from the Series6XT Rogue architecture used in last year’s iPhone 6, Series7XT does include a number of small tweaks that improve performance and reduce power consumption.

One of the changes is native support for FP16 (16-bit floating-point) operations in the Special Function Units (SFU), which were FP32 only in Series6 GPUs. Native FP16 support gives developers the option to save power when the extra precision of FP32 is not required. Additionally, SFU and ALU operations can now be co-issued, increasing instruction throughput in some situations.

Speaking of increasing throughput, improvements to the Vertex Data Master should help alleviate geometry setup bottlenecks, and the Compute Data Master, which performs front-end duties for setting up GPU compute wavefronts, sees up to a 300 percent gain. The Coarse Grain Scheduler also manages USC (Unified Shading Cluster) resources better, keeping pipelines full and reducing stalls caused by inter-tile dependencies.

iPhone GPU Comparison

While the ALU resources on a per-core basis are the same for Series6XT and Series7XT, the GT7600’s two additional USCs mean that the total FP32 and FP16 FLOPS both increase by 50 percent. Combining these gains with the aforementioned improvements to the front-end blocks should yield some significant performance gains. Indeed, Apple is claiming up to a 90 percent advantage over the iPhone 6, which seems to also imply an increase in max GPU clock frequency, a consequence of the more power-efficient FinFET process.

Keeping this bigger GPU fed is likely the motivation for the move from LPDDR3-933 RAM in the iPhone 6 to the newer LPDDR4-1600 RAM in the 6s, resulting in ~41 percent more bandwidth according to the Geekbench memory test.

Below we explore how the PowerVR GT7600 GPU in the new iPhones performs by running several synthetic and real-world game engine tests. To learn more about how these benchmarks work, what versions we use, or our testing methodology, please read our article about how we test mobile device GPU performance.

The new iPhones see a significant overall graphics boost in 3DMark Ice Storm Unlimited compared to the previous generation; the iPhone 6s is 83 percent faster than the iPhone 6, and the 6s Plus is 71 percent faster than the 6 Plus, which has the same GPU as the 6 but uses a higher max clock frequency. In this test at least, we see scaling beyond what the 50 percent increase in ALUs can account for, and pretty close to Apple’s 90 percent claim.

The iPhone 6s also outpaces Samsung’s Galaxy S6 and its Mali-T760MP8 GPU by 80 percent. Imagination’s GT7600 even takes the top spot on the chart away from Qualcomm’s Adreno 430 GPU used in both the HTC One M9 and OnePlus 2. The margin of victory is smaller, though, just 30 percent faster than the M9 and 22 percent faster than the OnePlus 2, whose GPU runs at 630MHz versus the M9’s 600MHz.

Breaking down the graphics results shows the architectural changes in Series7XT are fairly well balanced between the front-end and back-end, with similar performance gains between the iPhone 6s and iPhone 6 in each graphics test. We do see slightly better gains across the board in the first graphics test, which focuses on vertex operations (front-end) and minimal pixel processing, suggesting that the Vertex Data Master was the bigger bottleneck in Series6XT. The second graphics test, which focuses heavily on pixel operations by including particles and several post-processing effects, plays to the Adreno 430’s strength in ALU performance; the OnePlus 2 is not far behind the iPhone 6s here.

Apple’s SoCs have struggled in the Physics test since the A7. Focusing on CPU performance, the Physics test uses “non-sequential data structures with memory dependencies," according to Futuremark, the test’s developer. In the previous section, we discussed how Apple’s memory controller in the A7 onwards is optimized for sequential access patterns. This ends up being a disadvantage here, one which Qualcomm’s Snapdragon 808 and 810 SoCs also share.

GFXBench Manhattan uses an OpenGL ES 3.0 based game engine that uses several lighting and pixel-shader effects. Looking at the offscreen results, we see the new iPhones getting around twice the performance of the previous generation, once again scaling beyond what’s achievable by simply adding two additional GPU cores. The iPhone 6s Plus outpaces the Galaxy S6 edge+ by 55 perrcent, similar to what we saw in 3DMark Ice Storm Unlimited. Curiously, the larger S6 edge+ performs better than the standard S6 in the game engine tests, but the same in the GFXBench synthetic tests.

Despite Adreno’s ALU advantage, the 430 falls behind the Mali-T760MP8 in the Galaxy S6 family of phones, leading to a larger 67 percent margin of victory for the 6s Plus over the higher-clocked 430 in the OnePlus 2. Relative to the scaled-back Adreno 418 GPU in the LG G4 and Moto X Pure Edition, the iPhone 6s Plus is about 2.7x faster.

All of the iPhones as well as HTC’s M9 move to the top of the chart when rendering onscreen because of their lower resolution displays. The iPhone 6 and 6s, with their 1334x750 native resolutions, naturally see the largest performance increase. While the iPhone 6 Plus and 6s Plus render the UI at a higher 2208x1242 resolution and then downscale to 1080p, GFXBench renders the onscreen tests directly at 1080p, which is why the onscreen and offscreen results are the same.

We also ran GFXBench Metal, which uses the same tests as GFXBench 3.0 but rewritten to leverage Apple’s Metal graphics API that was first introduced in iOS 8. Similar to project Vulkan, the Metal API is meant to give game developers more direct access to the hardware, improving performance by cutting out software overhead. In Manhattan, however, we see very little to no benefit from the move to Metal.

In the OpenGL ES 2.0 based T-Rex game simulation, the iPhone 6s performs 82 percent better than last year’s model, once again very close to Apple’s 90 percent claim. The 6s Plus improves upon the 6 Plus’ score by 73 percent.

The HTC One M9 heats up quickly and throttles heavily in this test, which is why it performs no better than last year’s iPhone 6. The newer revision of the Snapdragon 810 SoC in the OnePlus 2 throttles less, boosting performance and closing the gap with the 6s Plus to 55 percent.

The move to higher bandwidth LPDDR4 memory helps give the iPhone 6s a 54 percent boost in alpha blending over the iPhone 6. The Galaxy S6, Galaxy S6 edge+, OnePlus 2, and HTC One M9 also use LPDDR4 RAM, but fail to match the new iPhones’ throughput, mirroring what we saw in the Geekbench memory bandwidth test.

The two additional USCs in the GT7600 give the iPhone 6s an even more impressive increase in ALU and texturing performance, with the iPhone 6s at least doubling performance in both the ALU and Fill tests. Unlike last year, where the iPhone 6 Plus’ GPU was clocked roughly 10 percent higher than the smaller-screened version, it’s clear from these tests that the iPhone 6s Plus and 6s share the same max GPU frequency.

Up to this point we have not seen any appreciable performance gains from using the Metal API. In the Driver Overhead test, which measures the graphics driver’s CPU overhead by issuing a large number of draw calls—the exact scenario targeted by the new lower-level APIs—we finally see Metal’s true potential. The latest iPhones see a 3x improvement in draw call performance, allowing for many more objects to be rendered onscreen at a time. Metal is even more helpful for older, lower-performing devices: the iPhone 6, 6 Plus, and 5s all see a 4x improvement.

With the iPhone 6s and 6s Plus, we see GPU performance nearly double in a single generation—an impressive feat. The front-end optimizations in Series7XT, especially the improved throughput in the Vertex Data Master, produce a more balanced GPU with no glaring weak spots. What’s really driving this performance increase, however, is the move away from the 20nm planar process used for the A8 SoC to 14/16nm FinFET. The additional die space affords Apple the room to include the GT7600 GPU, which has two more cores than the GPU in the A8, and the improved electrical characteristics allow Apple to ramp up clock frequency. Pairing a potent GPU with LPDDR4 memory and sensible screen pixel densities makes the iPhone 6s and 6s Plus two of the best gaming smartphones you can buy.

Battery Life And Thermal Throttling

Battery life may be the most important performance metric for a mobile device. After all, it does not matter how quickly a phone or tablet can load webpages or how many frames per second the GPU can crank through once the battery runs down and the device shuts off. To learn more about how we test this critical facet of mobile computing, please read our battery testing methodology article.

Unfortunately, we do not have any tests that run realistic workloads for assessing battery life on Apple’s platform. Instead, we’ll have to bracket the value with two worst-case conditions supplemented with some subjective experience.

The Basemark OS II battery test runs CPU-intensive workloads and accounts for both battery life and performance. Sure, it’s completely unrealistic, but it’s a good gauge for CPU efficiency, pushing the phones hard enough to trigger thermal throttling.

With both iPhone 6s models sacrificing some battery capacity (about 5 percent) to make room for the new Taptic Engine, there was some concern about a regression in battery life. Fortunately, the efficiency gains from using FinFET and lower-power LPDDR4 memory offset what’s lost from the smaller batteries. Looking at the battery runtime chart, it’s pretty clear that Apple has a specific battery life target it designs to. The iPhone 6s runs for the same amount of time as the iPhone 6 and 5s; the two Plus-sized versions are equal too.

iPhone 6s Taptic Engine located below the battery [CREDIT: iFixit]

While an increase in battery life would have been more impressive—not to mention more useful than maintaining a thin profile—the iPhone 6s still scores about the same as the Galaxy S6 here and a little better than the One M9. Subjectively, the iPhone 6s seems to have a slight edge over the Galaxy S6 in actual daily use. The S6’s larger 5.1-inch screen (versus the iPhone’s 4.7-inch screen) accounts for most of the difference. Both the 6s and GS6 can get you through a full day in most cases, but more demanding users will need to top off at some point during the day, especially with the GS6.

The larger iPhone 6s Plus scores 13 percent higher than the OnePlus 2 and Galaxy S6 edge+, and a more noticeable 43 percent higher than the LG G4. Like the iPhone 6 Plus before it, the 6s Plus gets excellent battery life. Even when on the go from 8am till midnight while attending a show like CES—constantly checking my email and calendar, taking pictures and notes, recording audio and video, chatting via Skype, looking up info on the web—the 6 Plus never required extra juice. So far, I’m seeing the same battery life from the 6s Plus.

Low Power Mode is a software feature introduced in iOS 9 that saves power by dialing back performance and features, allowing you to stretch battery life a bit further. Specifically, it reduces or turns off background data transfers (email, automatic store downloads, background app refresh), some visual effects, and Hey Siri. These are all transient events, however, making it difficult to assess their impact on battery life. The one aspect of Low Power Mode that Basemark OS II can measure is the impact of reducing the max CPU frequency.

By underclocking the CPU, Low Power Mode extends runtime in this test significantly. While we cannot determine the actual core frequency used in this mode, the frequency reduction seems to be proportional to CPU performance. In order to maintain an acceptable level of performance, the slower A7 SoC in the iPhone 5s sees a smaller frequency reduction than the much faster A9 in the iPhone 6s. The runtime extensions seem impressive here (71 percent for the 6s and 92 percent for the 6s Plus), but the actual increase in battery life will be far less since no real workload runs the CPU at 100 percent for several hours straight.

Clearly, the move to a smaller FinFET node is not enough to offset the increased energy demands of the PowerVR GT7600 GPU’s two extra cores and higher clock frequency, since both new iPhones show a regression in battery life during intense gaming. Looking at performance per watt, however, tells a different story: the iPhone 6s gets 13 percent less battery life but 23 percent better performance than the iPhone 6, while the 6s Plus gets 23 percent less battery life but 37 percent better performance than the 6 Plus. That’s a nice increase in efficiency, especially after factoring in the new iPhones’ 5 percent smaller batteries.

The other phones in this test all last longer than the iPhone 6s or 6s Plus, but that’s only because they exhibit moderate to heavy thermal throttling. The Galaxy S6, for example, throttles back to about 50 percent peak performance to keep from overheating.

While not shown here, we also ran this test with Apple’s Low Power Mode enabled. The new battery-saving feature underclocks the CPU but leaves the GPU frequency alone, since we saw no difference in performance or battery life in GFXBench. So basically, you cannot play games and extend your battery life too.

Performance stability while gaming is excellent for both devices. Performance does fluctuate quite a bit, but it never drops below 95 percent for the iPhone 6s or 92 percent for the 6s Plus, even after an hour running T-Rex. The phones do get noticeably warmer, though, with temperatures up about 9 °F over the previous generation. The maximum skin temperature for the 6s Plus reaches 120 °F, which is considered the upper limit for comfort.

It’s unfortunate we do not see an improvement in battery life, but given the A9’s performance gains, avoiding a large regression is not so bad. The iPhone 6s still does not include wireless or quick charging either, which makes charging a somewhat inconvenient affair.

Conclusion

The iPhone 6s and 6s Plus are not completely new phones, but they feel like it. Before we explain why, let's discuss the less significant changes starting with the design. Apart from a new Rose Gold color, the iPhone 6s looks the same as the iPhone 6. The stronger aluminum chassis are technically larger but not enough to notice, unlike the 6s Plus' extra weight, which gives it an extra hefty feel.

The displays are also unchanged, keeping the same size, resolution, and features. Performance parameters, including brightness, gamma, and contrast ratio are also similar to the previous generation, however, our test samples did show improved color accuracy.

Even the new 12MP iSight camera with deep trench isolation technology cannot hold back a sea of sameness. After taking pictures in a variety of conditions, it's difficult for us to see any appreciable difference in quality between the iPhone 6s and iPhone 6. Unfortunately, the iPhone 6s' heavy-handed noise reduction smooths away the very details its extra pixels are trying to capture. Using a more aggressive sharpening filter does slightly increase the perceived sharpness for parts of the image in focus. However, this extra sharpening can hurt the iPhone 6s in lower-light conditions where it tends to emphasize the noise grain. The 6s Plus avoids this problem by leveraging OIS to increase exposure time and reduce noise, a feature the smaller 6s still lacks. While the iSight camera in the iPhone 6s and 6s Plus is one of the best you can get in a smartphone, Samsung's Galaxy S6 remains the leader in photo quality.

Battery life is another metric where the new iPhone 6s models only achieve parity with their previous generation counterparts. The roughly 5 percent reduction in battery size and increase in processor frequencies are equally balanced by the move to a more efficient FinFET process and lower-power LPDDR4 memory. This, plus a smaller screen, is enough to give the iPhone 6s a small advantage over the Galaxy S6 in daily use. Getting through a whole day with either the 6s or S6 without recharging can be a bit of a stretch, though, depending on your usage patterns. The iPhone 6s Plus compares more favorably to its peers and lasts a full day even with extensive use.

One of iOS 9's new software features is Low Power Mode, which underclocks the CPU and turns off some background tasks to extend battery life. Android users have had similar low-power modes, either built into Android or added by an OEM, for some time now. With Apple's usual focus on battery life, it's a bit surprising it has taken the company this long to implement a similar feature. When running the CPU intensive Basemark OS II, we saw an impressive increase in battery life. There's no way to quantify the real-world gains since everyone uses their phone differently, but it's safe to say that this feature does work as advertised.

The similarities documented above seem to suggest an iPhone equivalence principle, where the experience of someone using an iPhone 6 while standing on Earth will be the same as someone else's experience using the new iPhone 6s in an accelerating non-inertial frame of reference. The math, however, does not support this: 1GB of RAM is not equal to 2GB. This single change is enough to make the iPhone 6s feel like a completely new phone. The frequent and frustrating app and webpage reloads that made an otherwise fast phone feel slow are gone. Multitasking on the iPhone 6s is fast and fluid, as is the whole UI; it is easier to move data between apps and much easier to get work done. Sometimes I even leave my laptop at home and just work on the 6s Plus.

Most tasks on the new iPhones feel faster because of Apple's Twister CPU, which has the fastest single-threaded performance of any mobile chip, and custom NVMe-based PCI-E storage solution. Pairing the two additional USCs in the PowerVR GT7600 GPU with higher bandwidth LPDDR4 memory nearly doubles graphics performance too. Excellent frame rates, a large catalog of games, Apple's Metal API, and almost no thermal throttling make the iPhone 6s a good choice for mobile gaming.

Unlike iOS 7's completely new user interface and iOS 8's application extensions, which allow apps to work together and share data, iOS 9's enhancements are more subtle. The most immediate difference is the improved stability (no more SpringBoard crashes!) and generally less buginess compared to iOS 8. Apple's default apps gain some new abilities too, including public transit directions in Maps, better attachment handling in Mail, and Notes grows beyond a simple text editor. There's also a new news aggregator app appropriately called News, and the iCloud Drive app makes iCloud behave a bit more like a true cloud storage service. iOS 9 also resolves the keyboard's caps lock mystery by switching the keys between lowercase and uppercase rather than relying on the nonsensical coloring of the caps lock key alone. Even better, pressing and holding anywhere on the keyboard turns it into a trackpad that allows for more accurate cursor placement and text selection (this works on both the iPhone 6s and 6s Plus). There are a number of other improvements that you can read about in this full iOS 9 review.

This brings us to 3D Touch, a new usability feature exclusive to the iPhone 6s and 6s Plus that adds another dimension, both figuratively and literally, to the standard multi-touch controls. Capacitive sensors integrated into the display's backlight measure the microscopic deflection of the cover glass when pressure is applied to the display. This data is combined with information from the touch sensor and accelerometer to adjust the sensitivity and to cancel out the influence of gravity. Haptic feedback is provided by Apple's Taptic Engine, which can reach peak output in only one cycle, providing a greater range of feedback events.

3D Touch enables several new actions. The one I consistently use and find the most useful is pressing on the left side of the screen to open the app switcher. This works well on the iPhone 6s, but it's a bit of a stretch for a right-handed user on the 6s Plus. It would be nice to have the option of choosing either the left or right side of the screen for this feature. After getting used to this method, double-clicking the Home button feels clunky and archaic.

In addition to pinch-to-zoom, we can now add Peek and Pop to our lexicon of touch-based gestures. Pressing lightly on the screen allows you to "Peek" at the underlying content, like pressing on a URL to see a preview of a webpage or pressing on an address to preview a map without leaving the current app. Pressing a bit harder will "Pop" it open full screen.

At the home screen, pressing lightly on an app icon opens a Quick Actions menu, similar to a right-click context menu, that provides access to common tasks. This feature is a bit hit or miss. First, not every app supports this feature. Second, it's not a big time saver. For example, the Quick Actions for the Camera app allow you to jump immediately into video recording mode, which is kind of useful, but the "Take Photo" option just opens the camera, requiring one extra step than just tapping the Camera icon like normal.

Ultimately, 3D Touch seems like a feature that smartphones should have always had rather than something revolutionary, like the computer mouse. It does contribute to a better overall user experience, though, and that's really what the iPhone 6s and 6s Plus are about. Yes, the A9 SoC is extremely fast, the camera and display are very good, and the rest of the hardware is not bad either, but what sets these new iPhones apart from other phones—and even prior iPhones—is that they are not frustrating to use. I do not find myself shaking my head at poorly implemented features or rolling my eyes when the phone overheats and throttles or cursing under my breath at spontaneous reboots. The iPhone 6s and 6s Plus pass two of my most critical tests: they run smooth and do not slow me down.

Apple iPhone 6s Plus

Apple iPhone 6s

MORE: Best Smartphones
MORE: Smartphones in the News
MORE: All Smartphone Content

Matt Humrick is a Staff Editor at Tom's Hardware, covering Smartphones and Tablets. Follow him on Twitter.

Follow us on Facebook, Google+, RSS, Twitter and YouTube.

Now that the veil of secrecy surrounding the iPhone 6s and 6s Plus has lifted, some interesting details have emerged. One of the more tantalizing discoveries was made by Chipworks, when it revealed that Apple is dual-sourcing its A9 SoC (System on a Chip) from Samsung and TSMC.

Sourcing components from multiple vendors is a common practice among OEMs, especially for memory chips such as RAM and NAND. Apple routinely dual-sources the IPS screens for its iPhones, and Samsung frequently uses entirely different SoCs, camera sensors, and baseband processors, which differ in performance and features, in its smartphones depending on which region they're sold.

What's unusual in this case, however, is that Samsung is using its 14nm LPE (Low Power Early) FinFET process, which it also uses for the Exynos 7420 SoC, while TSMC is using its own 16nm FinFET process, resulting in two different versions of the A9 SoC with different die sizes.

It's generally undesirable to manufacture a processor using two different technologies because it adds to the engineering cost. So why would Apple choose this dual-sourcing strategy for its A9 SoC? In one word: supply. Apple derives up to 70 percent of its total revenue from iPhone sales, so any component shortages for its flagship product would seriously compromise its financial performance. Because sub-20nm FinFET is a new technology for both Samsung and TSMC, it's likely neither has the capacity or yields to satisfy Apple's demand. Having a second supplier also provides a safety net in case one of the chip makers encounters a production problem and cannot meet its quota.

With two different versions of the A9 floating around and no way to tell beforehand which one comes packed inside a new iPhone, it's understandable that some people may be concerned that one chip holds a performance or battery life advantage over the other. Because both versions share the same architecture and run at the same clock frequencies, there should be no difference in peak performance. Where they could differ, however, is the voltage required to meet those frequencies. A processor using a higher voltage consumes more power, thereby reducing battery life, and produces more heat, which could degrade performance if the processor needs to throttle back clock speed to keep from overheating.

Before we explore the performance and battery life of the different A9 versions, it's important to remember that even processors using the same process technology, or even cut from the same wafer, require different voltages to meet the same clock frequency target due to natural manufacturing variability. A few extra atoms here or a thinner deposition layer there can be the difference between an efficient, lower-voltage processor and a more power-hungry, higher-voltage one.

Rather than scrapping processors that do not meet power/performance targets, manufacturers sort them into different frequency bins and price them accordingly. For example, there are three different versions of Qualcomm's Snapdragon 801 with integrated LTE baseband with maximum frequency ratings between 2.26 GHz and 2.45 GHz. Because every A9 CPU core is required to run at the same max clock frequency, Apple's tolerance range for core voltage will necessarily be tighter.

Performance And Battery Life

This topic has already sparked discussion on several Internet forums, with users posting results from various benchmarks (primarily the Geekbench battery test) showing a definitive battery life advantage for the TSMC version, prompting Apple to issue the following statement:

With the Apple-designed A9 chip in your iPhone 6s or iPhone 6s Plus, you are getting the most advanced smartphone chip in the world. Every chip we ship meets Apple's highest standards for providing incredible performance and deliver [sic] great battery life, regardless of iPhone 6s capacity, color, or model.Certain manufactured lab tests which run the processors with a continuous heavy workload until the battery depletes are not representative of real-world usage, since they spend an unrealistic amount of time at the highest CPU performance state. It's a misleading way to measure real-world battery life. Our testing and customer data show the actual battery life of the iPhone 6s and iPhone 6s Plus, even taking into account variable component differences, vary within just 2-3% of each other.

While Apple's assertion that the benchmarks being used to compare the two A9 versions do not represent real-world usage is accurate, that's not really the problem here. The benchmarks themselves are perfectly valid tools for probing power efficiency. The real issue is how the tests were conducted. Were the screens calibrated to the same brightness level for each iPhone 6s? Did each phone have the same apps installed and use the same operating system settings? What background processes were running on each phone? We've seen firsthand how changing just a few settings can affect benchmark scores by up to 15 percent, and that's before any apps such as Facebook, Instagram, or Twitter are installed that can wreak havoc with CPU benchmarks.

For this reason, Tom's Hardware has developed a rigorous testing methodology for obtaining accurate, repeatable performance results. Using these procedures, we tested two iPhone 6s Plus phones, one with a Samsung-made A9 (which identifies internally as model N66AP) and one with the TSMC A9 (model N66mAP).

As expected, there's no discernible peak performance difference between the two different A9 models. All of the CPU, GPU, and system performance scores show less than a 2 percent difference, which lies within the margin of error for these tests. The only small outlier is the Basemark OS II Memory test, but this has more to do with RAM performance and how the operating system caches disk I/O then SoC speed.

The Basemark OS II battery score accounts for both battery life and performance under CPU-intensive workloads. It's a good stress test for determining CPU efficiency and seeing if the SoC can maintain peak performance levels without thermal throttling. In this case, we see Samsung's 14nm FinFET process has a slim but noticeable advantage, lasting 10.8 percent longer (16 minutes) than the iPhone 6s Plus with the TSMC made A9.

The GFXBench battery life test is the GPU equivalent of Basemark OS II, providing a worst-case battery life based primarily on GPU, memory, and display power consumption that is similar to what you might see while playing an intense 3D game. In this scenario, both the performance and the skin temperature on the back of each iPhone are nearly identical, indicating that both A9 SoCs generate a similar amount of heat and exhibit minimal thermal throttling. The Samsung-made A9 manages to last 3.5 percent longer when pushing the GPU hard, which equates to a meager five minutes and is barely outside the margin of error in this test.

Conclusion

Based on the results of our testing, it's clear that both versions of Apple's A9 SoC deliver the same level of performance, but Samsung's 14nm FinFET process appears to offer slightly better power efficiency, extending battery life between 3.5-10.8 percent. This is a little more than the 2-3 percent quoted by Apple, but not much, and it equates to only about 5-15 minutes of runtime under the most extreme conditions.

Real-world use cases other than intense gaming do not run the CPU and GPU at 100 percent for extended periods. Instead, the CPU and GPU run at much lower voltages and frequencies the majority of the time and only ramp up to their maximum clock speeds for short bursts of activity. Because an SoC's power versus frequency relationship is nonlinear (meaning each additional 100 MHz of frequency requires larger and larger increases in core voltage), Samsung's advantage during normal use will be less than what we measured in our tests and is likely to be very close to Apple's 2-3 percent figure.

Although we believe our results are accurate, they are derived from a sample size of one. We do not know Apple's allowable core voltage range for the A9 or where our particular samples fall within this tolerance band. Our tests also fail to capture the small variability in power consumption for other components like the RAM and display. Therefore, other iPhones may show more or less variance in runtime than our samples.

Even after taking this into account, the extra few minutes of battery life you may get from a phone using the Samsung-made A9 will hardly be noticeable.

If you want a new iPhone 6s, buy it, use it, and don't worry about who made the processor.

MORE: Best SmartphonesMORE: All Smartphone Content

As expected, Apple introduced its next generation of iPhones, the iPhone 6s and the iPhone 6s Plus, at its San Francisco event. With the exception of a new color, rose gold, the two new handsets looks identical to the iPhone 6 and iPhone 6 Plus, but there are a slew of new features in Apple's latest flagship phones.

Hardware Upgrades

Unlike the previous iPhone 6 models, these phones have the new A9 processor, which Apple claimed has a 70 percent faster CPU, as well as a 90 percent GPU performance increase compared to the A8 processor. It also includes the M9 coprocessor, which helps with maintaining certain apps in low power and handles other functions such as fitness tracking.

In terms of connectivity, it features LTE advanced technology, which is purportedly twice as fast as the current version, thanks to 23 LTE bands. Wi-Fi capabilities are also increased, with speeds up to 866 Mbps.

Peek And Pop

On the software side, there's 3D Touch, which the company called its next generation of multi-touch functionality, which introduces two new gestures: Peek and Pop.

For example, you can lightly press and hold on an app on the Home Screen, and instead of opening the app, a list of options appears below it, allowing users to quickly access certain portions of the app from the Home Screen instead of wading through various tabs on the app itself.

For emails and links, 3D Touch works by peeking at the content. If someone sends you a link via text message, you can press and hold on the link to see its contents while staying in the text app. In emails, you can preview the contents of a message without having to open it in another page.

As for Pop, all you have to do is press harder on the app, link or message, allowing you to access the contents inside.

This new touch mechanic also works in games. A demo showing Warhammer 40,000: Freeblade puts you in control of a large mech robot. With 3D Touch, you can use the game's targeting reticule to zoom in to fire on specific enemies with your arsenal.

Live Photo And 4K

Another batch of upgrades are on the phone's front and rear cameras. The rear camera now has 12 megapixels to get more detail with each photo. However, Apple believes it solved the problem of getting more megapixels at the expense of image quality with a method called deep-trench isolation, which separates the various photo diodes to get a better and more accurate color in each photo.

In terms of video, the iPhone 6S and 6S Plus will finally let its users record 4K video, with the ability to edit videos right on the phone, as before. Considering the size of each 4K video and the amount of storage space available after installing all other apps, music and other data, it might be a bit difficult to have space for a long 4K video on the phone.

On the front, the camera is now upgraded to 5MP, but to improve the quality of images from the front camera, Apple modified the screen. Similar to the True Tone flash used on the rear camera to improve white balance and color, the screen now has a feature called Retina Flash, which essentially makes the screen emit up to three times its current brightness to simulate a camera flash on the front of the iPhone.

Finally, there's Live Photo. It works like taking a regular photo, but a new icon -- a layer of three rings -- is active on the camera app. The result is a moving photo, triggered by pressing and holding the image. The camera takes an initial snapshot and records the next few seconds of both movement and sound. As part of Apple's compatibility across its product line, Live Photo is viewable on the MacBook, iPad and Apple Watch.

Release Date And Pricing

For Apple fans, you won't have to wait long to get the new iPhones. Preorders start on Saturday, September 12, with the full release coming out on September 25. In addition, the prices for each model will be the same as the iPhone 6 and iPhone 6 Plus were.

There's also a new payment program that starts in U.S. Apple Stores called the iPhone Upgrade Program, meant for those who want the latest iPhone every year. It includes the AppleCare+ two-year warranty, and allows you to choose your carrier, as the phone comes unlocked. 

The company also plans to release new accessories to go along with the phones, such as new leather and silicone covers and a charging dock. Prices for those are still unknown. As for the latest version of the operating system, iOS 9, that will come a week before the new iPhones, on September 16.

Update, 9/9/2015, 3:40 p.m. PDT: We clarified the pricing chart for the iPhone 6s and iPhone 6s Plus to indicate that the prices were only available as part of a two-year contract.

Follow Rexly Peñaflorida II @Heirdeux. Follow us @tomshardware, on Facebook and on Google+.

Why The iPhone 6 Is A Big Deal

iPhone Enters A New Era

Steve Jobs, the charismatic visionary and iron-fisted ruler who forged a personal technology juggernaut, passed away three years ago. With Apple’s product pipeline primed for several years, his influence persisted.

In the Jobs era, Apple didn’t create new product categories, it defined them. Apple didn’t invent the portable music player, tablet computer or smartphone, but the iPod, iPad and iPhone elevated the user experience and gave us everything we didn’t know we needed. Overnight, these previously geeky gadgets, tolerable only to the technorati, became indispensable for millions of people. In the Jobs era, Apple was a trendsetter.

The iPhone 6 breaks this tradition. Rather than setting the standard for which all other smartphones are judged, it chases trends pioneered by its rivals. With the iPhone 6, the post-Jobs era is finally here.

The proof is provided by the new iPhone’s defining feature: screen size. At a press conference held on July 16, 2010 to address the iPhone 4 antennagate issue, a reporter asked about increasing the size of the iPhone’s 3.5-inch screen, to which Jobs replied “no one's going to buy that" because “you can't get your hand around it." Even while its competitors and some of its customers embraced larger screens, Jobs didn’t abandon his belief, for right or wrong, that a phone should be easy to use with one hand. Would Jobs approve of the new 4.7-inch iPhone 6? Maybe, but the 5.5-inch 6 Plus would most certainly have resulted in a tirade from Steve and the immediate dismissal of employees. In the post-Jobs era, Apple responds to market pressure. But I wonder, is this a bad thing?

“Bigger Than Bigger”

This is the biggest iPhone launch in history. The larger screens in the iPhone 6 and iPhone 6 Plus helped Apple sell a record 10 million devices over the opening weekend, surpassing the 9 million mark set by the iPhone 5s and 5c, whose opening weekend sales additionally included the Chinese market. But while the iPhone 6 launch may be the biggest in terms of physical size and units sold, its technological growth is a bit more modest.

The new Retina HD Displays are the obvious new features, with the monolithic iPhone 6 Plus using a 5.5-inch 1920x1080 panel at 401 PPI. The 4.7-inch iPhone 6 qualifies as an HD screen, but is closer to 720p with a resolution of 1334x750. This odd resolution gives the iPhone 6 1.38x as many pixels as the iPhone 5s and maintains the same pixel density of 326 PPI. It’s a bit disappointing that the iPhone 6 doesn’t share the same 1080p resolution as the 6 Plus. Sure, sub 5-inch 1080p screens are rare, but not unheard of—the HTC One M7 had a 4.7-inch 1080p screen in 2013. Rather than position the iPhone 6 as a leader in its category, Apple chooses to further fragment its platform.

While the two phones don’t share the same resolution, there are several refinements their screens have in common, including photo-aligned crystals. The basic construction of an LCD panel includes a liquid crystal layer sandwiched between two conducting glass substrates coated with an organic material—usually polyimide—that helps preferentially align the crystals. One common method for achieving this is rubbing the organic layers in a certain direction, which aligns the polymeric chains that the crystals interact with. But this method tends to contaminate the material with dust particles and static charge. A better alternative is to use light, particularly UV light, to modify the organic layer, either physically or chemically, thus avoiding the contamination caused by direct contact. This technique dates back to the '90s and over the years many different methods have been developed. Based on Apple’s description, it appears UV light, used in conjunction with a photoresist layer, is used to attain a more accurate alignment of the liquid crystals. Better-aligned crystals yield several benefits, like a lower black level and thus, a higher contrast ratio.

The new Retina HD Displays also have improved viewing angles through the use of dual-domain pixels. With this type of display, each pixel is split into two domains or sub-pixels, which have a slightly different crystal orientation. As you shift your view, the pixels oriented away from you become dimmer, while the complementary sub-pixel oriented towards you gets brighter, partially compensating for that color's brightness reduction. With single-domain pixels, there’s no compensation as you move away from the pixel’s orientation, resulting in a more pronounced drop-off in color.

Both iPhone 6 models also have an improved polarizer, which, according to Apple, gives you “a clearer view when you’re wearing sunglasses.” To test this claim I donned a pair of polarized sunglasses and took an iPhone 6 and a 5s outside. I’m not sure what kind of magical coating gets applied to sunglasses in Cupertino, but I found the iPhone 5s screen’s visibility to be superior, albeit with more color shimmer. With brightness adjusted to the same level on both screens, the 5s appeared slightly dimmer but clearly legible with my sunglasses on. The iPhone 6 screen, on the other hand, was so dark that the phone was basically unusable. If the new polarizer offers any advantages, improving visibility while wearing sunglasses isn’t one of them.

New Silicon And Faster Wireless

In addition to the bigger screens, the iPhone 6 sees several more incremental improvements over the previous-generation iPhone 5s. There’s a new, faster A8 SoC and updates to the cameras—topics we’ll discuss more in depth later. The motion coprocessor gets a revision bump to M8 and a new barometer sensor to monitor, its air pressure data signaling changes in elevation.

Wireless connectivity also gets a speed boost. The iPhone finally supports 802.11ac Wi-Fi, increasing maximum bandwidth from 150Mb/s on the iPhone 5s to 433Mb/s with an 80MHz channel. There’s also a new option for making voice calls over Wi-Fi using your own phone number. This feature is especially useful for people who don’t get a good cellular signal inside their home. It also opens up the possibility to send text messages and receive voicemail using an airline’s Wi-Fi service and avoid roaming fees while traveling. Wi-Fi calling is currently only supported by T-Mobile in the U.S.

The iPhone 6 makes the jump to LTE Category 4, which allows aggregating two 10MHz carriers and brings max bandwidth up to 150Mb/s. Along with better performance comes support for Voice over LTE (VoLTE), a standard that allows for simultaneous voice and data over LTE. For carriers not using VoLTE, the LTE networks can only carry data, which means all voice traffic uses a 3G connection. Networks based on GSM, like AT&T and T-Mobile, provide simultaneous voice and data connections, but only over 3G. The CDMA standard, used by Sprint and Verizon, in contrast does not support simultaneous voice and data at all, so it’s not possible to browse the Web while on a phone call. Without VoLTE, the only way to do simultaneous voice and data over LTE would be to use two separate radios, an undesirable proposition. The U.S. carriers AT&T, T-Mobile and Verizon currently have limited VoLTE support, but are working on expanding the service.

Apple Pay

Near Field Communication (NFC) is another wireless technology that’s been showing up in select smartphones for years. Since the NFC antenna is much smaller than the carrier wavelength, it can only establish a “near-field” within a few centimeters of the device. The most promising use for NFC is contactless payments, where its inability to transmit radio waves over longer distances is beneficial for security.

The iPhone 6 and 6 Plus are the first Apple devices to include NFC, which Apple puts to use in its secure payment solution called Apple Pay. Rendering wallets and credit cards obsolete, in-store payments are made by simply holding the iPhone 6 near the payment reader and using Touch ID to authorize the transaction. Apple Pay can also be used within apps by tapping the “Apple Pay” button.

Adding credit and debit cards for use with Apple Pay is simple, just open Passbook and take a picture of the cards. Instead of storing images of them, or even the credit card numbers, a unique, encrypted Device Account Number is created and stored within the Secure Element chip. When a purchase is made, this Device Account Number and a dynamic transaction security code are used to process the payment rather than the actual card numbers. With this system, neither Apple nor the merchant ever see your credit card numbers or even your name. Privacy seems to be a core requirement for Apple Pay, since the transaction details aren’t stored outside of Passbook. Apple claims there’s no way for it to know what you purchased, where you purchased it, or how much it cost. Hopefully, Apple Pay ushers in a new era where payments are made through electric fields rather than the exchange of physical objects.

Hardware And Availability

Storage And Memory

When it comes to the on-board NAND, Apple giveth and then taketh away. Lacking microSD support, getting sufficient internal storage is crucial, and now bit junkies can binge with the new 128GB option available for both iPhone 6 models. For the less data-hungry, 16 and 64GB options are still available, but oddly missing is a 32GB model. App sizes are growing, and high-resolution photos and videos are adding to the storage pressure. The minimum for today’s flagship devices should be 32GB. I understand the desire to lower the entry point, but that’s what the iPhone 5c and 5s are for now. Apple should have kept the 16GB option alive for these lower-priced models and started the iPhone 6 at 32GB. The good news is that the 64GB iPhone 6 costs the same as the 32GB iPhone 5s did when it launched.

Every piece of hardware in the iPhone 6 sees an incremental improvement except for RAM. I know it’s unrealistic to expect revolutionary changes in design, or radical shifts in technology with each new smartphone model, but is a little extra RAM too much to ask? The iPhone hasn’t seen an increase in memory capacity in two years. That’s right, the iPhone 6 is still stuck at 1GB. I was disappointed last year when the iPhone 5s didn’t receive more RAM, considering the increase in memory pressure from using 64-bit binaries. This year I’m actually angry.

In addition to the 64-bit binaries and larger, more complex apps we have today, the iPhone 6, and especially the 6 Plus, have much higher screen resolutions. This means less RAM available for apps, since a larger chunk of memory is reserved for VRAM. It’s no secret that iOS handles memory management well, but when you have 15 different apps running and 20+ tabs open in Safari, it doesn’t matter how memory efficient iOS is, all of those bits just aren’t going to fit in less than 1GB of RAM. Apple saves a few dollars per phone, degrades the iPhone user experience, and ensures more time wasted switching between apps, reloading webpages and relaunching apps after they run out of memory and crash. If you’re looking for a reason to wait for the iPhone 6s, this would be it.

iPhone 6 And iPhone 6 Plus Tech Specs

The iPhone 6 compares favorably to other smartphones in its class. The upgrades to the CPU and GPU inside the A8 SoC should ensure competitive, if not best-in-class, performance. The iPhone’s camera, while lacking in pixel count, always manages to produce good results, and it catches up to the competition with the inclusion of 802.11ac Wi-Fi, NFC and LTE Category 4. Battery life over the iPhone 5s should also improve with the larger power source.

The screen resolution for the iPhone 6 is adequate, but fails to really stand out from the crowd. RAM capacity is the other notable deficiency. Did I mention that already?

The iPhone 6 and 6 Plus are nearly identical with size being the obvious differentiator. The iPhone 6 Plus is about 15% taller and wider than the iPhone 6, in addition to being 0.2mm thicker; the extra volume makes the 6 Plus 33% heavier. With the bigger size comes a bigger screen, supporting a full 1080p resolution and a higher pixel density than the iPhone 6. Sitting behind the 6 Plus’ larger screen is an equally large battery, packing enough power to outlast the smaller iPhone 6. The final difference between the two new iPhones, and the only one not related to size, is the inclusion of optical image stabilization (OIS) for the rear camera on the 6 Plus.

Based on the similar internal hardware, the two iPhones should have equivalent CPU, memory, camera and wireless performance. The only significant performance difference between the two models should be on-screen GPU rendering, since the iPhone 6 has fewer pixels to draw.

The A8 SoC in the iPhone 6 Plus should give it the edge over its large-screened competitors in CPU performance. It will be interesting to see how the PowerVR GX6450 in the A8 compares to the Adreno 420 used in Snapdragon 805 when rendering at higher resolutions.

While the 6 Plus doesn’t support removable storage, it does at least offer 128GB of internal NAND, the most of any smartphone.

Curiously, the 6 Plus is both taller and wider than the other 5.5-inch devices. It’s even taller than the 5.7-inch Galaxy Note 4. The circular Touch ID sensor is partially to blame, since it requires a fair amount of space below the screen. Being thinner than the competition can’t make up for its large frontal area, making the 6 Plus one of the heavier phab…..large phones.

Availability And Options

The iPhone 6 and 6 Plus support up to 20 LTE bands, seven more than the iPhone 5s, and is available for numerous carriers around the world. Apple provides this helpful chart detailing iPhone’s LTE capabilities.

Qualcomm's MDM9625M Gobi modem and WTR1625L RF transceiver provide access to this plethora of frequency bands. The iPhone 6 also includes Qualcomm's envelope tracker IC, which improves battery life, but not the other two components of Qualcomm’s RF360 front-end package: the antenna matching tuner and CMOS power amplifier and antenna switch. Instead, it uses an antenna switch from RF Micro Devices.

Both of the new iPhones offer 16, 64 and 128GB storage options, and come in the same three colors as the iPhone 5s: gold, silver and space gray.

After discussing the iPhone’s new features and incremental improvements, lets dive a little deeper into its design, function and performance.

iPhone 6 Look And Feel

The iPhone's industrial design is its most discernible feature, a combination of style, materials and build quality unmatched by other smartphones, making it one of the most lustworthy gadgets to stuff in a pocket. For the past four years the iPhone’s all-aluminum body had flat sides with sharp, angular edges. The new iPhone 6 and 6 Plus keep the all-aluminum chassis, but now the edges are rounded, giving the phones a smooth, sleek aesthetic.

The rounded profile improves the in-hand feel. Instead of the harsh feeling of sharp edges, the iPhone 6 seems to match the contour of the hand, eliminating uncomfortable pressure points. Combining the rounded edges with smooth aluminum creates a rather slippery device though, requiring a more astute grip.

The biggest design change isn’t the curved edges, but the larger screens they wrap around. Last year, Apple launched two different iPhones for the first time: the iPhone 5s and 5c. This year’s launch of the iPhone 6 marks the first time the iPhone comes in different sizes.

Since the shipment of our 6 Plus was delayed for two weeks, I spent some time at an Apple Store to get some early impressions. During the brief time I was there, about a dozen people approached the display table. Just like a page from the story of Goldilocks and the Three Bears, every one of them wanted to see the 6 Plus first, but after a quick glance, or picking it up and holding it briefly, all but one person said it was too big and slid over to the next station with an iPhone 6. While this experience is anecdotal, I suspect it extrapolates fairly well to the population at large. The novelty of seeing such a large iPhone draws people to the 6 Plus, but then they gravitate to the more practical iPhone 6.

With its 4.7-inch screen, the iPhone 6 seems to strike the perfect balance between screen size and portability. It’s lightweight, fits nicely in an average-sized hand and with just a little stretch, the entire screen is accessible with your fingers. It also slips easily into most pockets.

The 5.5-inch iPhone 6 Plus, on the other hand (or two), is a different beast. It’s impossible for anything but a Yeti to reach the upper portion of the screen, and the majority of pants pockets are an exclusion zone for the 6 Plus. I wouldn’t call it heavy, but the larger size gives it a noticeable heft. Fortunately, its mass is spread evenly, making it feel nicely balanced in-hand.

Since the appearance of both iPhones are identical, except for size, the descriptions below apply to both models.

The entire front of the iPhone 6 is covered in glass, a radius running around its perimeter blending perfectly with the curved edges of the aluminum body, creating a seamless transition that makes swipe gestures feel fluid. Surrounding the LCD is a black bezel. It's thin on the sides, but a larger 16mm on the top and bottom. The round Home button, with integrated Touch ID sensor and color-matched stainless steel detection ring, sits below the screen, its appearance unchanged from the iPhone 5s. The Home button does seem to have a slightly more reassuring click in the iPhone 6 version. Above the screen is a thin slot for the phone’s earpiece. The front-facing camera moves back to the left side of the earpiece, no longer centered like it was in the iPhone 5 and 5s. The ambient light and proximity sensors reside above the earpiece.

Around back we see several tweaks to the iPhone 5/5s design. Gone are the colored plastic RF windows, replaced by semi-thick plastic antennae lines with aluminum inserts. The more controversial change is the protruding rear camera, which is a direct consequence of reducing the iPhone’s thickness. Still located in the upper-left corner, the camera’s sapphire lens is now encircled by a metal ring that sits less than one millimeter above the back plane of the phone. I don’t feel this is a big issue, but I do find myself setting the phone down more gently.

The True Tone Flash, to the right of the camera, is now slightly larger and circular. Sitting between the camera and flash is one of two microphones, this one used for noise cancellation. Of course, the back of an iPhone wouldn’t be complete without a shiny Apple logo.

The mute switch and volume buttons continue to occupy the top-left edge. They have a sturdy feel and a positive click. The power/lock button finds a new location on the top-right edge, putting it within easy reach on the taller iPhone 6. The new location feels very natural, but I find myself inadvertently pressing the volume buttons occasionally when turning the phone on or off. Below the power/lock button is the Nano-SIM tray.

There’s nothing but smooth aluminum along the top edge, while the 3.5mm headphone jack, microphone, Lightning connector and speaker all occupy the bottom edge.

Accessories

The iPhone 6 comes with the standard Apple accessories, including a 5W USB power adapter and Apple EarPods with inline remote and microphone.

Bendgate

Even as smartphones continue to grow in length and width to accommodate larger screens, they've continued to shrink in thickness. The iPhone 6's thin, attractive body is no exception, with Apple shaving off 0.7mm (0.5mm for the iPhone 6 Plus) compared to the iPhone 5s. Reducing thickness partially offsets the weight penalty of an overall larger phone, improving in-hand feel, and giving the marketing department something to brag about.

But can a phone be too thin? Amid reports of the iPhone 6 Plus' bending in pockets and Unbox Therapy’s video showing one being bent by hand, it's tempting to think Apple went too far, compromising durability for vanity. While the Internet is rife with panic and ridicule, it's important to remember that any phone, particularly larger phones, can bend or break if forced to assume the curvature of one's posterior, and no sane person is going to spend hundreds of dollars on a new phone just to see if they're strong enough to bend it with their hands. The new iPhone, or any smartphone, regardless of thickness, doesn't need to be indestructible, just strong enough.

As exciting as seeing a product tested to destruction is, we have neither the budget nor the equipment to start bending phones. I know, bummer. Instead, we'll defer to the test conducted by Consumer Reports, which pitted the thin aluminum bodies of both new iPhones against several competing devices. A three-point flexural test was performed to determine the force required to permanently bend and then break each device. In this limited test, both the LG G3 and Samsung Galaxy Note 3 prove more durable than either of the new iPhones. However, both iPhones outperformed the HTC One (M8). Interestingly, the iPhone 6 Plus was slightly more durable than its smaller sibling. This could be an aberration due to the limited sample size (only one of each phone was tested), or perhaps the sides of the aluminum frame on the iPhone 6 are thinner in cross section.

One of the criticisms leveled against the Consumer Reports test is its failure to replicate the loading condition shown in the Unbox Therapy video, which is essentially a four-point bending condition. However, plotting the bending moment versus distance from the top edge of the phone shows that the three-point flexural test produces a greater bending moment at the critical section of the volume controls for the same applied load. In other words, the three-point flexural test used by Consumer Reports requires less force to permanently bend an iPhone 6 then the force required to bend it by hand as shown in the video.

While the iPhone 6 Plus is undeserved of its overly thin, fragile reputation, all of the physical testing has identified a weak point in its design by the left-side volume controls. The bending induced by these tests creates a tensile force above the volume buttons and a compressive force below. Since axial stress is equal to force divided by cross-sectional area, it follows that stress is higher in this location due to the cutouts to accommodate the controls.

Inside the phone, behind the volume buttons, is a fairly thick bar, attached by a screw on each end, that looks like it could reinforce this area. However, the only way to transfer force from the frame to the bar is through friction between the mating faces underneath the screw. With such a small screw being threaded into a relatively soft aluminum, it’s unlikely that enough preload can be created to keep the joint from sliding with a bending load applied to the frame, nullifying any load transfer into the bar and isolating the weak point in the frame.

A better solution would be to machine a long slot into the aluminum frame for the bar to fit into. Then, when the frame bends, the bar would contact the upper and lower portions of the slot. The bar would then carry a significant portion of the bending load, relieving the weak point around the volume controls.

Another way to fix the problem is to use a material other than aluminum. Titanium is both stiffer and stronger than aluminum. However, it’s heavier, more expensive and more difficult to machine. Steel is also stiffer and stronger, but considerably heavier. The only reasonable material that’s stiffer, stronger and lighter than aluminum is carbon fiber composites. It would be more expensive to use than aluminum, but not by much. If Apple is going to continue reducing weight and thickness, it needs to embrace composites. I predict we’ll see a carbon fiber iPhone 7.

Apple’s A8 SoC: A More Powerful Cyclone

With the launch of its iPhone 5s, Apple introduced the A7 SoC sporting the first ever 64-bit ARMv8 CPU core: Cyclone. Apple’s adoption of a 64-bit, desktop-like architecture caught the entire industry by surprise. Only now, a year later, are we beginning to see some ARM Cortex-A53 and Cortex-A57 based devices come to market. These, however, are stock ARM designs.

ARM architecture licensee Qualcomm has yet to announce its custom ARMv8 based CPU, which probably won’t arrive until the latter half of 2015. To bridge the gap in its roadmap, Qualcomm will release the Snapdragon 810 SoC with Cortex-A53 x4 plus Cortex-A57 x4 cores in early 2015. This is in stark contrast to the current generation’s timeline, where Qualcomm’s custom Krait cores, loosely based on Cortex-A15, appeared inside the 28nm Snapdragon S4 SoC roughly half a year before the first Cortex A15-based SoC, Samsung's Exynos 5 Dual, started shipping in October of 2012.

Nvidia seems to have managed to push its own Denver core, capable of executing the ARMv8 instruction set, to market earlier than expected (compared to its own roadmap). But Denver is still arriving more than a year later than Apple’s 64-bit A7. Denver, however, looks to be even wider (seven-way superscalar pipeline versus the six-way A7/A8) with an efficient in-order design and software-based instruction translation and out-of-order execution. It will certainly be interesting to see how well it performs relative to the native ARMv8 cores. Nvidia isn’t the first company to try this approach. Transmeta’s Crusoe family of processors did something similar, emulating the x86 instruction set. While a fairly power efficient design, it could never achieve the same level of performance as native x86 CPUs.

A7 Recap

The dual-core Cyclone CPU in the A7 has more in common with Intel’s desktop CPUs than its ARM-based brethren. It’s capable of decoding, issuing, executing and retiring up to six instructions per cycle, twice the IPC of the -A15 and Krait—sometimes even greater due to restrictions on executing certain integer and floating-point instructions in parallel. Each core has four integer ALUs, three floating-point/NEON ALUs and two load/store units.

To go along with its wide, out-of-order pipeline, the A7 has a large out-of-order window size, or reorder buffer, holding up to 192 micro-ops versus 128 for the A15 and only 40 for Krait. Also on board is a generous cache structure, with 64KB/64KB L1, 1MB L2 and 4MB L3.

The A8 SoC: A New Process And More Transistors

The A7 SoC was built on Samsung’s 28nm HKMG process with a die area of 102 mm². Apple stated that the A7 contains “over 1 billion” transistors. The A8’s transistor count grows to 2 billion, significantly more than the Snapdragon 805’s estimated ~700 million transistors and more than the 1.6 billion transistors in Intel’s quad-core Haswell with GT2 graphics. Despite an increase in the number of transistors, Apple managed to reduce the die size by 13 percent to 89mm² by switching to TSMC’s latest 20nm process (based on analysis performed by Chipworks).

The second-generation HKMG 20nm node “can provide 30 percent higher speed, 1.9 times the density or 25 percent less power than [TSMC’s] 28nm technology,” according to TSMC. A chip designer can’t get all three improvements at the same time of course, with the speed and power improvements being mutually exclusive. The A8’s modest increase in CPU clock frequency shows Apple chose the power-saving path.

A8 CPU

In the post Inside the iPhone 6 and iPhone 6 Plus, Chipworks estimates that the die size of the A7 Cyclone CPU is 17.1mm², while the die size of the A8 CPU is 12.2mm²—a 29% area reduction. Based solely on the process change from 28 to 20 nm, the maximum theoretical reduction in die area should be ~51%. This number doesn’t account for differences in process between Samsung and TSMC, or that SRAM transistors scale differently than logic transistors, but provides an upper limit on die shrinkage. Even after using more realistic numbers, it looks like some additional logic has been added to the A8 CPU.

Apple bumps the CPU clock rate from 1.3 to 1.4GHz for the A8, an increase of roughly 8%. With the company's promise of a 25% performance increase over Cyclone, there are clearly some tweaks and extra transistors hiding within A8. The most obvious change is that the CPU and GPU have swapped sides. Focusing on the CPU, we see it’s still dual-core, but the L1 and L2 caches moved farther apart and the logic circuits appear mirrored left-to-right. A simple visual analysis doesn’t reveal anything about performance or where Apple put the extra transistors, but it does show us that the A8 CPU is not a mere shrink of A7.

Based on the die comparison and what various software benchmarks report, the A8’s cache hierarchy appears unchanged. There’s still 64KB/64KB of L1 instruction/data for each core, 1MB of L2 cache and a shared 4MB L3 cache. It now appears that the L2 cache is split with 512KB per core.

Thanks to the team at iFixit, we know that the A8 uses LPDDR3-1600 DRAM in a package-on-package (PoP) configuration, which is unchanged from the A7. While theoretical max memory bandwidth remains unchanged, the A8’s memory performance is consistently faster in Geekbench 3.

STREAM's Copy metric simply copies the contents of one large array to another and is the most indicative of memory bus performance. In this test, the A8 sees a greater than 15% improvement in memory throughput, indicative of further memory controller optimizations for handling sequential data. The other three tests perform some type of arithmetic: STREAM Scale reads floating-point numbers from an array and multiplies each by a constant; STREAM Add reads floating-point numbers from two arrays, adds them together and then writes them to a third array; and STREAM Triad reads floating-point numbers from two arrays, multiplies one number by a constant, adds this to the other number and writes the result to a third array [a(i) = b(i) + q*c(i)]. The performance results on these three tests show the floating-point pipeline mirroring the ~8% increase in clock frequency with maybe a little bonus from the optimized memory controller. Based on these results it appears the floating-point pipeline is unchanged from A7.

Looking at all the individual single-core integer and floating-point tests from Geekbench 3 shows a similar pattern. All tests suggest that A8 is at least moderately faster than the A7, with most tests showing gains just beyond the ~8% increase in clock rate. Cryptography routines show the smallest gains, while tests that stream sequential data show slightly better results. There are a few outliers, but overall it looks like the A8 retains the same basic architecture as the A7: a six-wide design with four integer ALUs, three FP/NEON ALUs and two load/store units.

Apple’s Cyclone architecture was a huge advancement for mobile CPUs, both in terms of performance and features. Its emphasis on IPC, out-of-order execution and large caches drew more similarities to desktop processors rather than existing mobile CPUs. The higher IPC allowed Apple to extract the performance it desired while keeping frequency, and thus, power consumption under control.

The A8 CPU refines Cyclone’s radical architecture overhaul. It sees performance gains from an optimized memory controller, with further gains likely coming from improved hardware prefetch, reduced instruction latency and lower cache/memory latency. It remains the fastest mobile CPU, a title it may keep for another year depending on how Nvidia’s Denver and ARM’s -A57 cores perform.

Apple’s A8 SoC: GPU And The Uncore

A8 GPU

Over the past few years we’ve gotten used to Apple announcing that its new chips get twice as much graphics performance compared to the previous generation. This year, Apple broke that trend and announced only a 50-percent improvement over the PowerVR G6430 inside its A7 SoC. This improvement is inline with what Imagination promised at CES this year when it announced the new PowerVR Series6XT GPUs. The direct successor to the PowerVR G6430 is the PowerVR GX6450, which has the same number of clusters (four), while the clock speed is unknown at this time.

Because Apple increased the pixel count of its iPhone 6 Plus by almost three times compared to the iPhone 5s, many were expecting the beefier PowerVR GX6650, Imagination’s top-of-the-line mobile GPU. It would have yielded the expected 2x increase in performance over the previous generation, and it would’ve also made the transition to a 1080p phone easier (at least in terms of gaming performance at native resolution).

Apple must have determined that the performance of a PowerVR GX6450 GPU would be more than enough for the iPhone 6 Plus, considering the weaker PowerVR G6430 powered its 2048x1536 iPad Air last year. Apple is likely using the GX6650 in its A8X SoC and using it as a selling point for the iPad Air 2.

Although Apple promised a 50% performance improvement, most benchmarks fall short of that value. This year, Apple seems to be focusing even more than usual on battery efficiency, so it’s possible the company kept the clock speeds lower than necessary to reach Imagination’s promised speed-up. Apple is also pushing developers to use the Metal API, so it may be betting on Metal adoption to reach that performance increase.

Imagination’s Series6XT is an iteration of Series6, but it does come with a few new features, such as improved support for OpenGL ES 3.0 (OpenGL ES 3.1 support seems to be lacking right now), support for next-generation ASTC texture compression with fine-grained quality options and improved power management.

Khronos is pushing for ASTC as a universal texture compression format that it hopes all GPU makers will adopt. Although the Khronos Group hasn’t made ASTC support mandatory yet, it seems new GPUs from different companies are starting to support it, and it could be widely supported by all GPU makers in a few years anyway.

The new “PowerGearing G6XT” feature allows individual clusters to power down or spin up when needed, thus improving power consumption for idle or light usage, where all clusters may not be utilized.

Overall, the PowerVR GX6450 seems to be sufficient for the iPhone 6, and even the iPhone 6 Plus, considering the previous GPU could handle even higher resolutions quite easily. If developers take advantage of Apple’s Metal API (possibly to the detriment of cross-platform portability) they might be able to squeeze a little more performance out of it for gaming, and show the iPhone 6 users more impressive graphics than what they’ve seen before on their older iPhone 5s devices.

More Uncore

The CPU, GPU and L3 cache only account for roughly half of the overall die area, the remainder occupied by memory interfaces, I/O, DSPs and various fixed-function hardware. It’s in this area of the SoC that Apple uses some of those extra transistors. One of the new features for the iPhone 6 and 6 Plus is High Efficiency Video Coding (HEVC) for FaceTime video calls over cellular. Since this feature is exclusive to iPhone 6, it implies that the A8 includes a fixed-function H.265 encoder/decoder, which may cut bandwidth requirements in half.

Last year, alongside the A7, Apple introduced its M7 motion coprocessor. The M7 is a Cortex M3-based microcontroller from NXP Semiconductors, labeled LPC18A1, that has been customized by Apple to collect and process data from the accelerometer, gyroscope and compass in a battery-friendly way, feeding its data to fitness apps.

The new iPhones receive an improved M8 coprocessor that tracks barometer data from a new sensor. It may also be based on Cortex M3 (rather than Cortex M4) going by its very similar name: LPC18B1. NXP has also named its Cortex M4-based microcontrollers to the LPC4300 family, so it’s even more likely Apple stuck with the older microcontroller.

Camera: Hardware And Software

Hardware

Apple upgraded the rear iSight camera sensor on the iPhone 4s to 8MP three years ago. Since then, we’ve seen smartphone camera pixel counts steadily increase to over 20MP, however, pixel count held steady on the iPhone 5 and 5s.

While pixel density didn’t change on the 5s, it did receive a new sensor with larger pixels (1.5µm versus the 1.4µm in the iPhone 5) to improve low-light performance. The aperture was also changed from f/2.4 to f/2.2, allowing more light to hit the sensor. The other significant change was the addition of the dual-LED True Tone flash, which blends the light from two different color LEDs to achieve better color balance.

The rear camera on the iPhone 6 uses the same optics as the 5s, and while the sensor is new, its specifications are also the same as the 5s. This new sensor contains Focus Pixels, which is just Apple’s fancy name for a technology known as phase detection autofocus (PDAF). PDAF is common in DSLR cameras and is also used in the Samsung Galaxy S5.

Previous iPhones used contrast detection autofocus, where the image signal processor (ISP) compares the change in contrast of nearby pixels at various focal distances. Focus is achieved when contrast is maximized. While less costly to implement, this method doesn’t work well in low-light conditions and is comparatively slower than other methods.

PDAF, however, is a more reliable autofocus process and achieves focus much more quickly than the contrast detection method. It works in a manner similar to an optical rangefinder. Incoming light is refracted by microlenses and the resulting images are superimposed on the AF sensor. The distance between light intensity peaks is measured, and then the ISP uses this data to determine if the image is in focus. Unlike the contrast detection method, which doesn’t know exactly how much to adjust the lens to improve focus, the PDAF method calculates the necessary adjustment, which is the secret to its speed.

The other new rear camera feature is exclusive to the iPhone 6 Plus: optical image stabilization (OIS). With OIS, the gyroscope and M8 motion coprocessor feed motion data to the ISP within the A8 SoC, which controls a voice coil in the camera that physically moves the lens assembly. This helps compensate for small vibrations caused by shaky hands to reduce motion blur for low-light images. It’s also more effective than the electronic image stabilization used on previous iPhones and still used on the iPhone 6.

The front-facing FaceTime HD camera also gets a new sensor, although it maintains the same 1.2MP resolution and 1.9μm pixels as the camera in the iPhone 5s. Aperture size is now f/2.2, improving low-light performance. There’s also better face detection and a new burst mode capable of taking 10 photos per second.

The A8’s ISP gets some enhancements, enabling new features and boosting video capture speeds. The iSight camera now captures HD video at 1080p/60 FPS, and slow-motion 720p video at either 120 or 240 FPS. The higher frame rate for HD video helps action scenes look smoother. Video on the go is further improved by cinematic video stabilization, which uses software to reduce small, jittery movement and helps keep the video looking steady.

Software

The Camera app remains largely unchanged in iOS 8, still functioning as a point-and-shoot camera. However, tapping the screen now shows an exposure control next to the focus box. Sliding the control lightens or darkens the photo or video by up to four f-stops in each direction. There’s also a shot timer that can be set for either a three- or 10-second delay, and a new mode for shooting time-lapse videos. Unfortunately, the time-lapse feature doesn’t provide any control over the playback speed or duration of capture. Depending on how much action is in a scene, the default playback speed isn’t always appropriate.

The only other addition to the interface is a toggle in the lower-right corner for setting the recording speed when shooting slow motion video. Unfortunately, there isn’t a similar toggle when shooting HD video. Instead, the option to record 60 FPS video resides in the “Photos & Camera” section in the Settings app.

The Photos app gains some new image editing options for adjusting brightness and color. You can either use a simple slider and let the Photos app handle the details, or you can expand the menu to access manual controls.

With iOS 8 it’s now possible to take and share photos directly from the Lock screen. Tapping the share button and entering your passcode or using Touch ID accesses the sharing options. It's a simple change, but a big improvement in usability.

Camera: Photo Quality

Still Image Quality

In order to evaluate image quality, I took a variety of pictures under different lighting conditions. All pictures were taken with the native camera app using default or automatic settings.

Pictures from the iPhone 6 Plus (iOS 8.0.2) are compared with those from the iPhone 5s (iOS 7) and the Samsung Galaxy Note 4. Even though the camera hardware in the iPhone 6 and iPhone 5s is very similar, there appears to be some software differences between iOS 7 and iOS 8 that affects white balance and purple chromatic aberrations in certain lighting conditions, negatively affecting the iPhone 6’s picture quality. The use of local tone mapping can also cause aberrations in certain situations.

The pictures from the Galaxy Note 4 have a 16:9 aspect ratio, whereas the iPhone captures images in 4:3. Since our picture album feature also requires a 4:3 aspect ratio, the Note 4 pictures are cropped. Also, the comparison pictures were resized to fit within the bounds of our picture album, which affects image quality by reducing detail. A link to the original full-size images is provided at the bottom of each comparison section.

Full Size Images: iPhone 6 Plus, iPhone 5s, Galaxy Note 4

This picture of a flower was taken indoors, without natural light, in the lobby of a hotel. As expected, the images from both the iPhone 5s and 6 Plus are nearly identical. The color balance looks correct, but they look a little dark.

Also note that the 6 Plus was able to hold its shutter open twice as long and use a lower ISO setting thanks to the stabilization provided by OIS. The ability to use a lower ISO setting has the potential to reduce noise in the image.

The color balance on the Note 4 skews too far into the red. While this makes the flower petals’ color look more saturated, the green in the leaves and styles is a bit off.

Full Size Images: iPhone 6 Plus, iPhone 5s, Galaxy Note 4

In this outdoor scene with some shadows, the 6 Plus holds its shutter open longer and creates an overall brighter image. Unfortunately, the OIS doesn’t fully compensate for my shaky hand and the image comes out a bit blurry (it’s more pronounced in the background). It also looks like the 6 Plus applied some tonal mapping to reduce reflections on the rear fender as discussed in the linked article above.

The image produced by the Note 4 is impressive, with nearly perfect exposure and white balance. Zooming in, we can see the advantage of having a sensor with twice as many pixels, as there’s far less aliasing along edges and objects in the background retain much more detail.

Full Size Images: iPhone 6 Plus, iPhone 5s, Galaxy Note 4

This outdoor scene was taken in Central Park under more challenging lighting conditions. The foreground is in heavy shadow, while the pond and sky are brightly lit. This shot would definitely benefit from using the high dynamic range (HDR) feature, but while HDR was set to automatic for each device, the iPhone cameras didn’t use it. The Note 4 does appear to use HDR even though the image metadata says it didn’t.

The image taken by the 6 Plus is a little brighter than the one from the iPhone 5s, but otherwise they’re essentially the same. The image from the Note 4 is markedly different, though. The dark shadows are nearly eliminated, brightening up the entire scene. The blue sky gets a little washed out but otherwise the image is pleasing to the eye. You could argue that the iPhone images more accurately capture the scene, but ultimately I prefer the image from the Note 4.

Zooming into the full-size images, the Note 4’s higher resolution really shines. The leaves and branches in the foreground trees are better-defined, and the you can discern the faces of people standing on the bridge. The Note 4 even captures the individual elements of the fence just behind the bridge, versus a smeared shadow from the iPhones.

Full Size Images: iPhone 6 Plus, iPhone 5s, Galaxy Note 4

In this night shot, the 6 Plus shows less noise in the dark sky than both the iPhone 5s and Note 4. However, the Note 4 shows less noise on foreground objects like the front of the building. Looking at the reflection on the wet street, we see a weird noise pattern from both iPhones that’s not present in the Note 4 image. This could be caused by the noise reduction algorithm used in post-processing by the iPhone.

Once again, both iPhones do well with color accuracy. The Note 4 puts a little too much emphasis on yellow, giving the gray building a slightly yellow cast and oversaturating the street lights.

Full Size Images: iPhone 6 Plus, iPhone 5s, Galaxy Note 4

The next three photos examine low light performance in a controlled setting. This first image is a baseline using some cool fluorescent lights and overhead incandescent bulbs. The Note 4, while a little dark, produces the superior image. Both iPhone images lack contrast and have a yellow tint. Objects in the Note 4 image are also much crisper. The iPhone’s lack of resolution and over-aggressive noise reduction makes objects in its images far more indistinct.

Full Size Images: iPhone 6 Plus, iPhone 5s, Galaxy Note 4

In this challenging low-light shot, the 6 Plus has far less noise than the iPhone 5s. It does this by keeping ISO at only 250 compared to the 5s’ ISO of 1000. With a lower sensitivity, the 6 Plus holds its shutter open longer to capture more light and relies on OIS to stave off camera shake-induced blur. The 6 Plus relies heavily on this strategy, so much so that it only supports up to ISO 500. The iPhone 6, without OIS, supports up to ISO 2000. In general, raising ISO increases noise, so the 6 Plus, shooting at a lower ISO, handles low-light settings better than the iPhone 6.

The Note 4 didn’t record any metadata for this image, but we can easily see it’s darker overall than the image from the 6 Plus and also has more background noise.

Full Size Images: iPhone 6 Plus, iPhone 5s, Galaxy Note 4

Now we’re using the same ambient lighting as in the low-light pictures, but we turn on the camera’s flash. Again, the 6 Plus produces a better image than the iPhone 5s, being brighter and with less noise. It’s far from perfect, however, as the color is a bit too warm and the picture lacks contrast. At a distance of only a couple feet, the light from the flash is too concentrated on the middle of the image, making the center too bright and leaving the edges dark. This situation improves as you move further from the subject and allow the light cone to spread out more.

The Note 4 does very well with its flash turned on. While the image is darker than the one from the 6 Plus, the light from its flash is more evenly distributed. The color balance and contrast are also excellent. With more light, the Note 4 captures additional detail, but with a bit more noise than the 6 Plus.

Camera Performance

Shot-to-shot performance on the iPhone 6 and 6 Plus, like that on the iPhone 5s, is nearly instantaneous. Even with HDR turned on it only takes around a half a second to process each image. Performance and the overall user experience is further improved by PDAF. While the iPhone 5s takes between 1-2 seconds to refocus every time the camera moves, and has trouble maintaining a focus lock in low-light conditions, the iPhone 6 manages to focus in near real-time and no longer struggles with focus lock. The speed is truly impressive and it makes taking pictures with the iPhone more enjoyable.

In terms of image quality, there are more similarities than differences between the iPhone 6, 6 Plus and 5s. For most conditions, all three produce comparable pictures. The biggest difference occurs in low-light conditions, where the 6 Plus can use OIS to keep the shutter open longer, reducing ISO and, thus, noise.

It wasn’t that long ago that the iPhone set the standard for image quality in phone cameras. However, Apple has failed to keep pace with the rapid advancements made by other companies. And while the iPhone camera is still quite good, it’s no longer the best. Image quality suffers primarily from a lack of resolution for both the front and rear cameras, resulting in pictures that can’t match the sharpness and detail shown by competitors like the Note 4 above. Apple also needs to fix the post-processing aberrations that have crept into iOS 8 affecting white balance and tone mapping, among other things.

Camera: Video Quality

Video Quality

The iPhone 6 and 6 Plus receive a few new features and video performance upgrades. While 4K video recording is still absent, there is a new option for recording 1080p video at 60 FPS. Slow motion video gets a faster shooting mode too, with an option for 720p at 240 FPS in addition to the 720p at 120 FPS mode available on the 5s. Both the 1080p at 30 FPS and 720p at 120 FPS modes record at the same bitrate as the 5s.

The Focus Pixels in the new camera sensor provide continuous autofocus during video recording. Not only does this make recording video easier (no more tapping on the screen to refocus), it also drastically improves video quality. Objects in the video always remain in focus, no matter how much they move relative to the camera, eliminating blurry videos.

Both the iPhone 6 and 6 Plus rely on electronic image stabilization (EIS) while shooting video (the 6 Plus does not use OIS in video mode), however, it receives a significant upgrade. Apple’s new cinematic video stabilization does a better job keeping the video stable and smoothing out vibration and hand shake.

In the two videos above, the rear cameras for the iPhone 5s and iPhone 6 are held as closely together as possible while shooting HD video outdoors. The iPhone 6’s cinematic video stabilization greatly reduces the amount of motion caused by walking along the sidewalk. We can also see the continuous autofocus at work on the iPhone 6 when zooming in on the flowers.

These two videos highlight the iPhone 6’s continuous autofocus feature and the dramatic effect it has on video quality. The iPhone 5s sets its focus at the beginning of the movie and never changes it as the camera moves closer to the dark side, producing a rather blurry video. With the iPhone 6, however, Darth Maul’s face remains in focus for the length of the video, regardless of his position relative to the camera.

In these boring videos of cars driving past the camera, we see the advantage of shooting video at 60 FPS versus 30. Just as an LCD screen with a higher refresh rate exhibits less ghosting and motion artifacts during high action scenes, the 60 FPS video looks smoother and shows less ghosting behind the cars.

Above is a comparison of the two slow motion modes. At 240 FPS, the definition of each wheel can easily be seen, while at 120 FPS they’re still spinning a bit too fast to be perfectly clear.

Here’s another example of a 240 FPS slow motion video. It doesn’t show anything new, but I think it looks pretty neat.

Apple’s Focus Pixels, along with a faster ISP in the A8 SoC, combine to produce some nice enhancements to video quality. While not everyone will utilize the new slow motion, 1080p/60 FPS or time-lapse video modes, the continuous autofocus and cinematic video stabilization features greatly improve every video you shoot with the iPhone 6 or 6 Plus.

iOS 8's Application Extensions

Last year, with iOS 7, Apple overhauled the appearance of its mobile operating system for the first time since its inception. It was a striking, drastic departure from the skeuomorphic design language used in previous versions and easily recognizable at a glance. The changes in iOS 8, launching alongside the iPhone 6 and 6 Plus, while not immediately noticeable, are just as significant. Sitting below the now familiar facade, which receives only minor tweaks, is a wealth of opportunity for developers. Rather than building the walls surrounding the OS core higher, Apple has been busy building doors and allowing third-party apps supervised access into the forbidden zone.

Application Extensions: Powering iOS 8’s Biggest New Features

In iOS, all apps run inside a sandbox, which, among other things, means third-party apps can’t communicate with other apps or access their data. While good for security, this barrier hinders productivity. For example, moving files between two apps requires a third app or service to act as an intermediary, like emailing yourself a file and using the "Open In..." option or uploading the file to Dropbox. Apple’s new doorways, or application extensions, circumvent this cumbersome process by allowing apps to provide additional functionality within other apps and to access files outside of its own sandbox directly.

Many of iOS 8’s new features are enabled by these application extensions. The action extension allows an app to manipulate data within another app, somewhat analogous to a Web browser plug-in. During the WWDC keynote presentation, Apple demonstrated this extension by using Bing Translate inside Safari to translate the text of a webpage.

The photo editing extension is a more specialized version of the action extension, allowing a third-party app to edit a photo or video inside the Photos app. Another specialized extension, which enables one of iOS 8’s most anticipated features, is custom keyboard. This provides the ability to replace Apple’s default keyboard with a third-party keyboard, system-wide. Now iOS users, envious of Android’s keyboard selection, get to Swype away impediments to text entry with a keyboard of their choice.

Widgets, another staple Android feature, finally make their debut in iOS thanks to the today extension. Unlike Android, which places its widgets on the home screen, iOS 8 widgets live within the Today view in the Notification Center shade. Widgets can be added, removed and reordered by tapping the Edit button at the bottom of the screen in Today view. Any installed apps that offer widget functionality automatically appear in this list and must be manually enabled. Apple’s decision to place widgets in the Notification Center keeps the home screen uncluttered, but does require an extra step to view them, an inconvenience slightly offset by having access to them from the lock screen.

After opening the Notification Center, there may be a slight delay for a widget to update its information. This is due to the strict memory policy Apple places on widgets to keep them from draining the battery or impacting performance. Even though extensions, including widgets, are packaged inside a containing app, they are separate binaries that run independently of the containing app. Thus, iOS can start and stop widgets and manage their memory space separately from the app providing the widget.

The share extension makes it easier to share pictures, links and files with online services from within apps. Previously, iOS allowed posting to Facebook and Twitter from any app, but uploading a file to a service like Dropbox required each developer to include Dropbox API support within their app. This method placed a burden on programmers to try and include support for the myriad services on the Web—clearly impractical—and led to frustrated users whose preferred service wasn’t supported by all of their apps. With share extensions, however, a service provider like Google can create an extension for the Google Drive app that instantly gives all apps the ability to upload to Google Drive through the Share menu.

The Storage Provider extension, which simplifies sharing documents between apps, has the potential to be the most useful. A first for iOS, users can now edit the same document with multiple apps, without multiple step file transfers and creating copies of the document in each app. Similar to the share extension, an app with a Storage Provider extension appears in the Document Picker interface when creating or opening a file. For example, installing Microsoft’s OneDrive app adds OneDrive to the Document Picker interface and allow access to files from within any installed app instantly.

It should be noted that, within iOS 8, an app still can’t directly access the storage container of a different app. For this to happen, the app that initially creates the files must mark its container public so that the Document Picker can discover its files. Any apps with public containers then show up in Document Picker if the app trying to access the files supports the requisite file type.

The Document Picker actually runs “out-of-process” so that it can see all public containers. It also serves as the security guard for the doorway between apps. When accessing a file within another app’s public container, it’s the other app’s Document Picker (not the host or calling app) that performs the actions on the file, like moving it to the host app for editing. When this happens, the Document Picker returns a “security scoped” URL informing the kernel and host app that it’s allowed to open and edit the file.

The Storage Provider extension also handles the file state while sharing the file between apps, including file bookmarking, so when you leave a document in one app, you can open it in another app and continue where you left off.

iOS 8’s UI Moves To The Big Screen

iOS 8’s UI Moves to the Big Screen: Design Elements for the iPhone 6 and 6 Plus

While application extensions are a big deal for iOS users and developers, there’s plenty of other tweaks and features to discover in iOS 8, like interactive notifications, predictive keyboard suggestions, Family Sharing, iCloud Drive, Continuity and Handoff, just to name a few. Since this isn’t meant to be a review of iOS 8, we’re going to focus on features specific to the iPhone 6 and 6 Plus.

The new iPhones’ larger screens give iOS 8 room to spread out. The iPhone 6 has about 38% more screen area than the 5s, while the 6 Plus has 37% more than the iPhone 6 and almost 89% more than the little 5s. All of this extra space makes room for six rows of icons on the Home screen (up from five for the 4-inch iPhone 5s) and either larger or more content within apps.

In the size comparison images above showing Tom’s Hardware, we see how Safari maintains the same amount of content on-screen, but scales it up based on screen size. Other apps (like the App Store), and even other websites in Safari (depending on how they’re coded), display more content by keeping content size the same.

Display Zoom is a new feature in iOS 8 that leverages the new iPhone’s bigger screens by increasing the size of everything on the display. This is a nice feature for those who struggle reading the small, thin font introduced in iOS 7. Display Zoom works by rendering the screen at 1136x640 pixels (the native resolution of the 4-inch screen in the iPhone 5 family) and then upscaling it to the native iPhone 6 resolution of 1334x750. This enlarges all screen content by a factor of ~1.17x. The downside is that less content fits, in this case the same amount shown on an iPhone 5. Display Zoom on the 6 Plus works the same way, but displays the same amount of content as the iPhone 6, just larger.

Larger screens make it more difficult to interact with a touch-based UI. People with smaller hands will find it difficult to reach the very top portion of the screen one-handed with the iPhone 6, and everyone will encounter this problem with the 6 Plus. To help alleviate this usability issue, iOS 8 includes a Reachability feature specifically for the new iPhones. Gently tapping on the Home button twice (but not pressing until it clicks—think capacitive button) slides the screen down halfway, bringing content on the top half of the screen within reach. This works everywhere, including the Home screen, Notification Center and all apps; it even works in games. Since this is an OS-level feature, apps do not need to be updated for this to work.

The keyboard in iOS 8 provides some extra keys for the iPhone 6 Plus when rotated in landscape mode, as shown in the picture below. Some of these extra keys are present on the iPhone 6, but with less room on-screen, the cut, copy, paste, bold, exclamation point and question mark keys are missing.

Apps that haven’t been updated for iOS 8 still use the iOS 7-style keyboard, which isn’t scaled properly for the larger screens. This results in an overly large keyboard using up more than half of the vertical screen space.

The iPhone 6 Plus, thanks to its extra size, gets additional UI enhancements in landscape mode. For starters, the Home screen can now be rotated along with the multitasking interface, just like on the iPad. This eliminates the awkward screen rotation issues when closing a landscape app to get to the portrait Home screen to launch another landscape-oriented app. With the iPhone 6 Plus, everything stays in landscape view.

Another UI enhancement for the 6 Plus is a dual-pane view in landscape mode, just like on the iPad. Most of Apple’s apps already take advantage of the extra screen width to fit additional content. For example, the left pane in Contacts shows the contact list, while the right pane shows details about the selected contact. This efficient use of screen space makes the 6 Plus a more productive device.

iOS 8 Concerns And Issues

With the new screen resolutions and scaling process, I was concerned that older apps might not transition well. When Apple moved from a 3.5-inch screen to a 4-inch screen on the iPhone 5, apps ran into various layout artifacts. Also, scaling up an iPhone app to run on the iPad results in a “fuzzy” appearance due to issues with scaling bitmap graphics. Fortunately, both the iPhone 6 and 6 Plus are generally free of these issues. Going through a dozen or so apps that have yet to be updated for iOS 8, I only noticed a couple with minor layout issues and all of the graphics looked crisp. Even apps that haven’t been updated for the 4-inch iPhone 5 look good. It appears that these apps are rendered at their original resolution and thus don’t use the whole screen, thereby avoiding any scaling issues.

Part of the reason for the smooth transition to the 4.7-inch and 5.5-inch screens is that they maintain the same 16:9 aspect ratio as the 4-inch screen. The previous jump from the 3.5-inch (640x960) to 4-inch (640x1136) screen involved a change in aspect ratio from 3:2 to 16:9, which is more challenging to scale.

Considering the new iPhones still only have 1GB of RAM, memory pressure is another concern. My informal test started by closing all apps and rebooting the 6 Plus. I then opened Safari and started loading websites. After opening each site, I cycled through them a few times to see if any would reload. I found I could open six to seven sites before encountering a forced reload. Next, I opened Mail and switched back and forth between apps and cycling through websites with essentially the same results. I then added Twitter to the mix and noticed random page reloads and occasionally Twitter would need to reload.

For comparison I performed the same test on the iPhone 5s, where I found I could load 13 websites before encountering a page reload. In addition to Safari, I opened Weather, Photos and App Store. At this point I did start encountering more frequent page reloads, but no app reloads. Opening the same apps on the 6 Plus produced frequent page reloads and sluggish performance from the Safari UI. App Store would consistently need to reload and switching back to Safari caused most pages to need a refresh. To be fair, the 6 Plus had more background tasks running since I was using it as my primary phone. However, it’s clear that driving the larger screens on the iPhone 6 and 6 Plus places additional strain on already thin memory resources, negatively affecting the user experience.

I encountered several other annoying glitches while using both new iPhones. As of iOS 8.0.2, the 6 Plus exhibited issues with screen rotation, getting stuck in one orientation. Opening and closing different apps usually jarred it loose, but sometimes it required a reboot to fix. There were also times when I couldn’t access the camera or Control Center from the lock screen. The controls simply wouldn’t respond, although I could still swipe to the side and input my unlock pin. I did experience some app and Springboard crashes as well.

The update to iOS 8.1 seems to have solved most of these issues. There’s still the occasional app crash, but that probably has more to do with memory pressure. I still haven’t been able to get Handoff to work and there’s also a serious bug affecting the syncing and performance of iCloud Drive.

Assuming Apple can get these remaining issues resolved quickly, iOS 8 will be a nice upgrade. The new application extensions help overcome many of iOS’ shortcomings and create more efficient workflows. Features like Continuity, Handoff, iCloud Drive and AirDrop to Mac improve operability between all of Apple’s various devices, essentially turning each of them into a single device with multiple screens. While all of iOS 8’s improvements are not revolutionary, the inclusion of widgets, interactive notifications, and 3rd-party keyboards does help close the feature gap with Android.

How We Tested Apple’s iPhone 6 And iPhone 6 Plus

Benchmark Suite

Our current iOS test line-up comprises five key sections: CPU, Web, GPU, Display and Battery.

Test Methodology

All handsets are benchmarked on a fully updated copy of the device's stock software. The table below lists other common device settings that we standardize to before testing.

Furthermore, for browser-based testing on Android, we're employing a static version of the Chromium-based Opera in order to keep the browser version even across all devices. Due to platform restrictions, Safari is the best choice for iOS-based devices, while Internet Explorer is the only game in town on Windows RT.

Comparison System Specs

For this benchmarking session we’ll be comparing the A8 SoC in both the iPhone 6 and 6 Plus to the previous-generation A7 in the iPhone 5s and several other smartphones running the popular Snapdragon SoC. The Samsung Galaxy Note 3 represents the older Snapdragon 800 SoC. HTC’s One (M8) uses the faster 801 SoC and with a comparable screen size, is a direct competitor to the iPhone 6. The brand new Galaxy Note 4, which competes with the iPhone 6 Plus, uses the latest Snapdragon 805 SoC. We’ll wait for the next iPad Air to see how the A8 fares against Nvidia’s Tegra K1, since its thermal envelope is too high for a smartphone.

The table below contains all the pertinent technical specifications for today’s comparison units:

Apple’s A8 SoC should continue the iPhone’s dominance over the CPU and Web benchmarks, but what will be the performance advantage over the A7? Will Imagination Technologies’ latest PowerVR GX6450 be able to compete with Qualcomm’ Adreno 420 GPU and Snapdragon 805’s massive memory bandwidth?

Test Results: CPU Core Benchmarks

Basemark OS II Full (Anti-Detection)

Basemark OS II is an all-in-one tool designed for measuring overall performance of mobile devices. It scores each device in four main categories: System, Memory, Graphics and Web.

The System score reflects CPU and memory performance, specifically testing integer and floating-point math, along with single- and multi-core CPU image processing using a 2048x2048-pixel, 32-bit image.

Measuring the transfer rate of the internal NAND storage (Memory) is done by reading and writing files with a fixed size, files varying from 65KB to 16MB, and files in a fragmented memory scenario.

Calculating the Graphics score involves mixing 2D/3D graphics inside the same scene, applying several pixel shader effects, and displaying 100 particles with a single draw call to test GPU vertex operations. The benchmark is rendered at 1920x1080 off-screen 100 times before being displayed on-screen.

Finally, the Web score stresses the CPU by performing 3D transformations and object resizing with CSS, and also includes an HTML5 Canvas particle physics test.

Apple's Cyclone architecture performs well in CPU-centric benchmarks. A year after its initial launch, it's still faster than the latest Krait and ARM CPUs. Even Nvidia’s Tegra K1 couldn’t beat the A7 in these tests, the lone exception being Geekbench 3 Pro Multi-Core. Now with the A8 SoC, Apple looks to extend its lead even further.

The improved Cyclone cores in the A8 outperform the A7 in the iPhone 5s by 34% in the System test, which is significantly more than the ~8% bump in clock rate can explain. This is likely the summation of several smaller tweaks, like the improvement in sequential memory access, rather than a significant pipeline change.

The iPhone 6 sees only a modest improvement over the 5s in the Web test, which includes a particle physics simulation similar to 3DMark Ice Storm Unlimited, a test that Cyclone has never handled well. Still, the 6 Plus manages to score 40% higher than the Note 4.

The iPhone 6 Plus performs on par with the 5s and HTC One (M8) in the Memory metric, with the iPhone 6 showing a slight advantage. The iFixit teardown of the iPhone 6 shows it using SanDisk NAND, which, based on this measurement, seems to offer slightly better performance than the SK Hynix NAND found in the 6 Plus. The Note 4 offers the best storage performance of the group.

Looking more closely, however, shows the iPhone 6 averaging around 3x faster in read operations, while the Note 4 is about 2.5x faster in the variable length and fragmented write tests. Boosting the Note 4’s overall Memory score is its fixed size write throughput, which is 6x faster than the iPhone 6.

The PowerVR GX6450 in the A8 gives mixed results in the Graphics test. It's 73% faster than the 5s, topping Apple's claim of 50%-better GPU performance, but is still slower than the Adreno 330 and 43% slower than the newer Adreno 420. We've seen the PowerVR G6430 in the A7 perform better than the Adreno 330 in some benchmarks, so Imagination's latest GPU still has a chance to take the overall win.

Curiously, the 6 Plus outperforms the iPhone 6 in the Graphics test by 7%. This test is run off-screen so both phones should fare similarly. Is this just an anomaly or will we see the trend continue in our other graphics benchmarks?

Geekbench 3 Pro (Anti-Detection)

Primate Labs' Geekbench offers a wide selection of cross-platform compatibility, with apps available for Windows, OS X, Linux, iOS and Android. This simple system benchmark produces two sets of scores: single- and multi-threaded. For each, it runs a series of tests in three categories: Integer, Floating Point, and Memory. The individual results are used to calculate category scores, which, in turn, generate overall Geekbench scores.

Once again we see the improved Cyclone CPU extend its lead over Krait in single-core performance. The iPhone 6 is 54% faster than the Note 4 in the Integer test and 66% faster in Floating Point math.

Compared to the A7 in the iPhone 5s, A8 sees about a 15% average improvement for the Integer performance tests and 18% for the Floating Point tests. As noted earlier, cryptography sees the smallest improvement, while the Lua and Dijkstra tests improve by 30%. The BZip2 and JPEG compression tests, which should rely on sequential memory access, show around a 15% improvement, nearly the same result as the STREAM Copy memory test.

In the multi-core test, we see the Galaxy Note 4 leverage its quad-core Krait 450 CPU to outperform the iPhone 6. Even with half as many cores and almost half the clock rate, Apple's improved Cyclone CPU is within 10% of Krait 450.

The multi-core performance gains for the iPhone 6 relative to the 5s are similar to those in the single-core tests.

Test Results: HTML5 And JavaScript Benchmarks

The tests on this page are JavaScript- and HTML5-heavy selections from our Web Browser Grand Prix series. Such benchmarks are extremely meaningful to mobile devices because so much of the in-app content is served via the platform's native Web browser. These tests not only offer a view of each device's Web browsing performance, but since these tasks are traditionally so CPU-dependent, browser benchmarks (especially JavaScript-heavy tests) are a great way to measure SoC performance among devices using the same platform and browser.

JSBench

Unlike most JavaScript performance benchmarks, JSBench could almost be considered real-world, since it utilizes actual snippets of JavaScript from Amazon, Google, Facebook, Twitter and Yahoo.

Nitro, the JavaScript engine in Apple’s Safari browser, uses a multi-tier strategy for interpreting/compiling JavaScript code. The first tier includes a very fast interpreter that skips the code compilation and optimization stage for code that executes only once or a few times, saving the CPU time and memory required for compiling. Each successive tier is optimized for code with longer execution times.

A lot of real-world JavaScript, which JSBench emulates, involves loading large amounts of dynamic code that runs for only short periods of time. Nitro’s first tier interpreter takes this kind of code from text to execution very quickly and is the reason why the iPhone does so well in this test.

Peacekeeper 2.0

Peacekeeper is a synthetic JavaScript performance benchmark from Futuremark.

For longer-running JavaScript code, Safari’s higher tiers compile the code using various optimization strategies. Many of these optimizations are already performed by traditional ahead-of-time compilers. Rather than trying to duplicate this effort, Safari in iOS 8 adds a fourth-tier LLVM-based just-in-time (JIT) compiler called FTL (Safari in iOS 7 uses a three-tier architecture). The FTL JIT applies many of the same optimizations to JavaScript code as LLVM does for C++ or Objective-C. Many of these optimizations benefit small blocks of code that run for longer periods of time, like image filters, compression codecs or physics simulation.

Peacekeeper just so happens to test many of these same tasks. Looking at the iPhone 5s, the benefits from the new FTL JIT are highlighted by a 34% jump in performance with iOS 8. Comparing the iPhone 6 to the 5s with iOS 8 shows a 13% improvement thanks to the A8 SoC.

WebXPRT 2013

Principled Technologies' WebXPRT 2013 is an HTML5-based benchmark that simulates common productivity tasks that are traditionally handled by locally installed applications, including photo editing, financial charting, and offline note-taking.

The iPhone 5s sees minimal improvement when running the new version of Safari in iOS 8 in WebXPRT 2013. The 6 Plus sees about a 15% improvement over the 5s, similar to the gain in Peacekeeper.

For some reason the iPhone 6 scores show a lot more variability (scores ranged from 425 to 554) than all of the other phones in this chart. After running the test several times, I threw out the lowest score and averaged the rest to arrive at the value shown in the chart. I’m not sure what’s causing this, but it’s not thermal throttling. It still feels cold after completing the benchmark and I didn’t notice this behavior with any of the other benchmarks we ran.

Test Results: GPU Core Benchmarks

3DMark (Anti-Detection)

Futuremark has become a name synonymous with benchmarking, and the company's latest iteration of 3DMark offers three main graphical benchmarks: Ice Storm, Cloud Gate and Fire Strike. Currently, the DirectX 9-level Ice Storm tests are cross-platform for Windows, Windows RT, Android and iOS.

Ice Storm simulates the demands of OpenGL ES 2.0 games using shaders, particles and physics via the company's in-house engine. Although it was just released in May of 2013, the on-screen portions of Ice Storm have already been outpaced by modern mobile chipsets, with Nvidia's Tegra 4 and Qualcomm's Snapdragon 800 both easily maxing-out the Extreme version (1080p with high-quality textures). However, Ice Storm Unlimited, which renders the scene off-screen at 720p, is still a good gauge of GPU-to-GPU performance.

The upgraded PowerVR GX6450 in the A8 SoC gives the iPhone 6 Plus a 24% boost over the iPhone 5s in the Graphics test. Imagination's latest GPU performs 19% better than the Adreno 420 in the Galaxy Note 4. Since this benchmark is heavily influenced by shader performance, it implies the GX6450 has the more robust shading architecture. We’ll see if this holds true for the remaining benchmarks.

The 6 Plus shows a 5% advantage over the iPhone 6 in the Graphics test, similar to the 7% gap in Basemark OS II Graphics.

The new iPhone's Physics score is less impressive. While it nets a 19% improvement over the 5s, the A8 still trails significantly behind Snapdragon.

Since Cyclone does so well in other CPU benchmarks, it's curious that it underperforms in this physics test. After the A7 SoC appeared last year, Futuremark, the developer of 3DMark, performed a thorough investigation of this issue and discovered that Cyclone's performance suffered when "dealing with non-sequential data structures with memory dependencies." Basically, the A7's memory controller is optimized for sequential rather than random access. Also, working with data sets where a variable depends on one or more other variables within the same set makes executing instructions out-of-order more difficult, nullifying its IPC advantage.

Basemark X 1.1

Based on the Unity 4.0 game engine, Rightware’s Basemark X is a cross­-platform graphics benchmark for Android, iOS and Windows Phone 8. This test utilizes Unity’s modern features via the OpenGL ES 2.0 render path to simulate how a modern game might look and run. Basemark X is an aggressive metric that still hasn’t been maxed out by the latest mobile SoCs.

Before discussing the Basemark X results, please note that the on+screen results for the iPhone 6 and 6 Plus are not accurate, since the current version of this benchmark doesn’t support their native resolutions. Instead, both new iPhones render at the native resolution of the 5s (640x1136). As explained to us by Rightware, keeping the v1.1.1 scores comparable to v1.1 means using Xcode 5 for the iOS version, which doesn’t support the new iPhone 6 resolutions. However, the Overall scores are not affected by this issue, since they are based on the off-screen rendering tests.

The iPhone 6 sees a 17% performance increase over the 5s and places ahead of the Snapdragon based phones in the Basemark X Overall score. Looking at the off-screen results shows both of the new iPhones and the 5s scoring higher in Hangar. The scores for Dunes are grouped more tightly, with the Adreno 420 in the Galaxy Note 4 showing a slight advantage.

There are two interesting anomalies in these results. First, the Galaxy Note 4 scores lower than both the Note 3 and HTC One (M8) in the Hangar test. In our first look at the Adreno 420 running in a Qualcomm development tablet, it consistently outperformed the Adreno 330 in off-screen tests. We’ll look more closely at the Note 4 in a future review.

Once again the 6 Plus is a bit faster than the iPhone 6, but only by 3% in off-screen rendering. They perform essentially the same in the on-screen test.

Things look a bit different when running the benchmark at the high quality settings. In the off+screen test, the iPhone 6 scores 15% higher in Dunes and 26% higher in Hangar than the 5s. The Adreno 420 in the Note 4 performs much better, topping the latest PowerVR GPU in Dunes, but falling short in Hangar. It does outperform the Adreno 330 devices in this test.

The 6 Plus is 6% faster in both Dunes and Hangar off-screen and 3-5% faster in the on-screen tests. A definite pattern is emerging.

GFXBench 3.0 Corporate

Kishonti GFXBench 3.0 is a cross-platform GPU benchmark supporting both the OpenGL ES 2.0 and OpenGL ES 3.0 APIs. It comprises both “high-level” game-like scenarios, along with more “low-level” tests designed to measure specific subsystems.

Among the high-level tests are Manhattan and T-Rex. Manhattan is a modern, complex OpenGL ES 3.0-based test, while the OpenGL ES 2.0-level T-Rex is a holdover from GFXBench v2.7.

The low-level tests include Fill, which measures fill rate by rendering four layers of compressed textures; Alpha Blending, a test that renders layers of semi-transparent quads using high-resolution, uncompressed textures; ALU, for measuring shader compute performance; and Driver Overhead, which measures the CPU overhead of the graphics driver and API by making a lot of draw calls and state changes.

See GFXBench 3.0: A Fresh Look At Mobile Benchmarking for a complete test-by-test breakdown of this benchmark.

The iPhone 6 is 40% faster than the 5s in the demanding Manhattan test, its largest delta yet. The PowerVR GX6450 and Adreno 420 are equals in this benchmark.

The 6 Plus maintains a 5.5% lead over the iPhone 6. This definitely doesn’t look like a mere coincidence.

This is our first look at on-screen rendering performance and finally we see the effects of the larger iPhone 6 and 6 Plus displays. The iPhone 6 is about on par with the smaller 5s, its more powerful GPU compensating for the increase in pixels. The 6 Plus however, sees a regression in performance relative to the 5s, its PowerVR GX6450 insufficient to compensate for the HD resolution. The Note 4 suffers a similar fate as Qualcomm's Adreno 420 struggles with the QHD display.

Another impressive gain for the iPhone 6, beating the 5s by 65%, but trailing the 6 Plus by a now-familiar 5% margin.

The Note 4 doesn’t do well, experiencing a great deal of thermal throttling.

It looks like the PowerVR GX6450 is well-optimized for the OpenGL ES 2.0-based T-Rex workload. Despite dealing with more pixels, both the iPhone 6 and 6 Plus manage to outperform the 5s.

In the Alpha Blending test, which deals with reading high-resolution, uncompressed textures from RAM, Snapdragon 805’s 25.6GB/s of memory bandwidth—compared to Snapdragon 801 (14.9GB/s), Snapdragon 800 (12.8GB/s) and iPhone 5s/6 (12.8GB/s)—gives it the advantage. All of the devices appear to be constrained by memory bandwidth.

Snapdragon shows a clear affinity for the shader-intensive ALU test, turning the tables on the iPhone. The iPhone 6 shows a 14% gain relative to the 5s, and the 6 Plus is 10% faster still.

The finishing order in the Fill rate test, which also depends on memory bandwidth, is similar to Alpha Blending. The PowerVR G6430 in the 5s is hampered by weak fill rate performance. While this metric improves by 34% in the iPhone 6, it still trails all of the Snapdragon-powered devices. Again, we see the 6 Plus performing 10% better than the iPhone 6.

The new PowerVR GX6450 in the iPhone 6 is a definite upgrade over the previous-generation PowerVR G6430. Performance improvements range from 15-65% with an average around 30%. With nearly 3.8x as many pixels to process for the 6 Plus (the 6 Plus renders at 2208x1242 and then scales down to 1920x1080), the increase in performance doesn’t match the increase in pixels. This results in some performance regression compared to the iPhone 5s.

In all of the graphics tests, we consistently see the 6 Plus with a 5-10% performance advantage over the iPhone 6. If this occurred in one or two benchmarks, it could easily be written off as an anomaly. But there appears to be a legitimate difference here. The A8 SoCs in both the iPhone 6 and 6 Plus share the same part number, so there’s no hardware differences between them. There are at least two different memory suppliers, but our iPhone 6 actually has a bit more bandwidth than our 6 Plus, so no advantage there. It seems possible, then, that the GPU in the 6 Plus runs at a higher frequency. The 6 Plus is responsible for far more pixels than the iPhone 6, so it can definitely benefit from a frequency boost, and with a larger battery and more aluminum surface area, it can handle the extra power and thermal requirements. Since the performance gain is relatively small, the increase could only be about 50MHz or 11%, assuming a base clock of 450MHz. This would certainly explain the performance delta, but is an extra 50MHz worth the cost in battery life when there are 2.7x more pixels to render?

Turning our attention to Power VR’s nearest competitor, the GX6450 shares a similar relationship with the Adreno 420 as the G6430 did with the Adreno 330, each gaining an advantage in certain benchmarks. Snapdragon 805’s extra memory bandwidth gives the Adreno 420 a big advantage when pulling textures from memory, however the GX6450 seems to have a slight edge in shader performance.

Test Results: Display Measurements

Brightness

Brightness (also known as white level) measurements are taken by recording the luminance output of each device displaying a full white pattern, with the device's brightness slider set to both minimum and maximum values.

Max brightness for the iPhone 6 Plus is slightly higher than the 5s at 500 nits. The iPhone 6 is even brighter, making it easier to see in direct sunlight.

In order to make device comparison possible, the rest of our display measurements, along with our battery testing, are performed with the screen set to a standardized white level of 200 nits.

Black Level

Our black level measurement is the luminance output of a full black pattern after the luminance output of full white has been standardized to 200 nits. It's important to note that AMOLED displays will always measure a black level of zero, since their pixels simply turn off to render black.

The new Retina HD screen improves upon the already good black level of the iPhone 5s. The smaller screen in the iPhone 6 shows slightly better results than the 6 Plus.

The SAMOLED screens in the Note 3 and Note 4 are able to achieve a true black since the organic LEDs are switched off and not emitting any light.

Contrast Ratio

Contrast ratio is the difference between a full white pattern and a full black pattern. Due to their zero reading on the black level tests, AMOLED displays are said to have an infinite contrast ratio.

Due to SAMOLED's ability to represent a zero black level, the two Galaxy Notes have a mathematically infinite contrast ratio. Unable to divide by zero, the iPhone 6 settles for a more tangible, but still impressive value better than the HTC One (M8) and significantly higher than the iPhone 5s. Once again we see the screen in the 6 Plus fall just shy of the mark set by its smaller sibling.

Gamma

Gamma compensates for the linear brightness levels displayed by a screen, versus the nonlinear way our eyes perceive light. A gamma curve of 2.2 is what we optimally want to see, as a screen with a gamma less than 2.2 appears brighter and with less shadow detail, while a gamma larger than 2.2 displays heavy shadows with fewer highlights.

Apple's factory screen calibration routine gets very close to the optimal gamma value, essentially equaling the performance of the iPhone 5s. The screen in the HTC One (M8) is the only one to deviate from the ideal by an appreciable amount.

Color Temperature

Color temperature is a measurement in Kelvin, which is used to describe how “warm” or “cool” a given display is. Ideally, as long as you're not viewing your device in direct sunlight, this should be in the 6500 range. Higher color temperatures result in a cool, bluish hue, while lower temperatures deliver a warm or reddish tone.

All of the tested devices are above the ideal 6500K value. The Galaxy Note 4 hits closest to the target value, followed by the iPhone 6. The 6 Plus deviates a bit further from the mark.

Color Gamut

Our volume measurements are compared against both the sRGB and AdobeRGB color gamuts. A reading of 100 percent on sRGB and 72 percent on AdobeRGB is the optimal reading for viewing the vast majority of digital consumer content. A lower reading is typically accompanied by an overly red or yellow image, and a higher reading is usually too blue/green.

The SAMOLED screen in the Note 4 displays the widest color gamut, exceeding 100% of the sRGB color space. The iPhone 6 covers nearly the whole sRGB gamut, yielding a slight improvement over the 5s.

Test Results: Battery And Throttling

Basemark OS II Full (Anti-Detection)

The Basemark OS II battery test scores are derived by repeatedly running the devices until enough data has been collected to determine the drain rate of the device.

The iPhone 6 sees a modest 8% improvement over the 5s and falls just shy of the 5-inch HTC One (M8), which has a much larger battery. The 6 Plus posts an impressive score, besting the bigger battery in the Galaxy Note 4 by 29%.

Looking at the Battery Life vs. Score graphs, we see no hint of thermal throttling from the iPhone 6. The 6 Plus however, shows a slight 5% dip in performance. This drop persists across multiple runs, occurring at slightly different times but never changing in magnitude. With a much larger aluminum chassis to soak up and dissipate heat, the 6 Plus should exhibit less opportunity for thermal throttling than the iPhone 6, not more. This counter-intuitive behavior, together with its small, but consistent, performance advantage over the iPhone 6, seems to suggest a higher GPU clock in the 6 Plus.

GFXBench 3.0 Corporate

GFXBench's battery test measures battery life and performance stability by logging frame and battery discharge rate as the on-screen T-Rex test runs for 30 consecutive iterations. The results are given in two scores: estimated battery life in minutes, and the number of frames rendered on the slowest test run (to gauge if a device is throttling).

The iPhone 6 lasts a half-hour longer than the 5s when stressing the GPU, which is good news for iPhone gamers. The 6 Plus provides a full three hours of gaming bliss, but the “fun” continues for an extra half hour on the Note 4.

Comparing the battery performance numbers, where the T-Rex on-screen test loops 30 times, to the single run T-Rex values confirms no thermal throttling for the iPhone 6. The 6 Plus shows a 4% drop, similar to the the Basemark OS II battery test.

On the other hand, the frame rates on the Note 4 plummet from 26 to 12 FPS, indicating excessive thermal throttling. That extra half hour of battery life suddenly doesn’t seem so great.

Size Matters

For many years, the iPhone represented the cutting edge in both smartphone design and technology. However, the pace of technological growth has inevitably slowed, making it increasingly difficult for Apple to push the envelope. This, along with a fiercely competitive market, is allowing Apple’s rivals to catch, and in some ways even surpass, the iPhone.

Where Apple continues to excel is design, materials and build quality. The rounded profile of the aluminum iPhone 6 and 6 Plus, with its cover glass that blends into the sides, looks modern and fresh. More importantly, it feels better in the hand. It feels solid without being excessively heavy, ergonomics are excellent and fit and finish are nearly perfect.

Residing inside this sleek new chassis is the A8 SoC. Moving to TSMC’s HKMG 20nm process allows Apple to increase both the CPU clock frequency and overall power efficiency. While the CPU retains the basic Cyclone architecture from the A7, optimizations to the memory controller, and possibly some other internal tweaks, combined with the frequency boost, give the A8 roughly a 10-20% advantage over the A7 in CPU-centric tasks.

The GPU in the A8 also sees an upgrade to the PowerVR GX6450, which is 15-65% faster than the PowerVR G6430 inside the A7 SoC in our benchmarks. The average gain is around 30%, a little less than the 50% Apple claims. Unfortunately, the GPU upgrade isn’t enough to compensate for the larger screens, resulting in a regression in on-screen performance in some cases, especially for the 6 Plus, compared to the iPhone 5s.

Sitting atop the A8 SoC, in a package-on-package (PoP) configuration, is 1GB of disappointment. While every other flagship phone ships with 2-3GB of RAM (and probably 4GB by mid-2015), Apple hasn’t upgraded RAM capacity in two years, even though memory pressure is steadily increasing. This cost-cutting measure increases virtual memory swap and slows down Web browsing and multitasking.

While the iPhone falls further behind its competitors in RAM capacity, it at least closes the gap in wireless performance and features. The iPhone 6 and 6 Plus add support for 802.11ac Wi-Fi and LTE Category 4, supporting up to 150Mb/s of bandwidth. There’s also support for VoLTE, which promises simultaneous voice and data over LTE.

All of these incremental improvements, including camera updates, longer battery life and Apple Pay, add up to make the new iPhones the best ever. But none of that really matters. If you've already decided to live within the Apple ecosystem, the new Retina HD Displays are the only reason to consider getting an iPhone 6 or 6 Plus.

After using both for several weeks, my old 5s now feels like a child’s toy. Yes, size does matter. The larger text is easier to read and reduces eyestrain. The larger keyboard makes typing faster and easier. And with more content on-screen, there’s less time spent scrolling and zooming.

The 4.7-inch iPhone 6 finds the right balance between size and mobility. It still comfortably fits in one hand and with a little bit of a stretch, I can still reach the whole screen. This phone was a joy to use.

I was really looking forward to trying out the 6 Plus, but the first few days only brought disappointment. Handling this beast just felt awkward and not being able to do everything one-handed was frustrating. After about five days, my opinion began to shift. By adjusting my grip, I found I can perform basic tasks like checking email with only one hand. Using two hands and the new landscape view creates new possibilities, like writing an article or working on a spreadsheet, things I wouldn’t even think about doing on the 5s or iPhone 6. The 5.5-inch iPhone 6 Plus is a boon for power users who can adapt to the larger size.

The iPhone isn’t the trendsetter it used to be. Neither the iPhone 6 or 6 Plus offers any new technology or feature we don’t already see in other devices, but oddly enough, this should make everyone happy.

Apple iPhone 6

     >> See the Reader Ratings and Advice for the Apple iPhone 6

Apple iPhone 6 Plus

     >> See the Reader Ratings and Advice for the Apple iPhone 6 Plus

Surely by now you've heard of Apple's iPhone 6 Plus Bendgate woes, as the company is getting pounded for building a phone that appears to bend under normal circumstances. The German computer site Computer Bild posted a video that seems to have raised Apple's ire so much that the company reportedly decided to stop sending the publication test samples and will no longer invite its editors to press events.

In the video, a presenter from Computer Bild bent an iPhone 6 Plus on-set with his bare hands. Arguably, intentionally bending a phone goes a bit far, but given the circumstances, we're all curious, and somebody has to figure out the truth – is this really a design flaw, or is it simply something that's been blown out of proportion? Mind you, Computer Bild claims that it bought the iPhone 6 Plus that it bent – the device was not a press sample.

Responding to the ban, Computer Bild wrote an open letter addressed to Tim Cook in which it explained that the iPhone 6 bend test was for informative purposes. Poking a little further, Computer Bild even asked Tim Cook whether this is really the best way to deal with critical independent press.

On the other side of the story, Consumer Reports tested how well the iPhone 6, iPhone 6 Plus and competing phones stand up to various forces and found that the smaller iPhone 6 is actually more susceptible to bending than the bigger iPhone 6 Plus. It even did better than some of the competing phones.

Unbox Therapy posted a similar video, although we haven't heard any similar response from Apple to them. If it's only Computer Bild that Apple has contacted in this way, we suspect that the company is trying to send out a warning shot -- unless the rep was merely a rogue actor that stepped out of line.

So, what are your thoughts? Do you think this is a problem that's been blown way out of proportion, or do you believe that it's genuinely something that Apple needs to address in a way that's different from "you're reviewing it wrong?"

Follow Niels Broekhuijsen @NBroekhuijsen. Follow us @tomshardware, on Facebook and on Google+.

Intrigued by reports stating how bendable the iPhone 6 and 6 Plus can be, a team at Consumer Reports decided to test the phones for themselves. The result? These two devices aren't quite as delicate as the earlier "#bendgate," reports stated.

In a report posted on Friday, the team used a "three-point flexural test," which consists of two blocks to hold up the phone on each end and a high-precision Instron compression test machine to apply pressure against the middle of the phone.

"We started light, applying 10 pounds of force for 30 seconds, then releasing the force," Consumer Reports said. "Then we increased the force in 10-pound increments, noted when the phones first started to deform (that's what our engineers call it) and stopped the test for each phone when we saw the screen come loose from the case."

According to the test results, the iPhone 6 Plus began to deform at 90 pounds of pressure and break apart at 110 pounds of pressure. The smaller iPhone 6 wasn't quite as tough, deforming at 70 pounds and coming apart at 100 pounds of force. Keep in mind that around 55 pounds of force can break three stacked pencils.

Consumer Reports also tested other phones for comparison. The HTC One began to deform at 70 pounds and break away from the casing at 90 pounds. The Samsung Galaxy Note 3 was the toughest of the bunch, deforming and breaking at 150 pounds. The iPhone 5 was even stronger than the new iPhones, with 130 pounds of pressure deforming the gadget and 150 pounds of pressure causing the case to break away.

The test also revealed that the LG G3 began to deform at 130 pounds and break away from the casing at 130 pounds. This phone, along with the Galaxy Note 3, were able to completely recover at each 10 pound increment until the case fractured on the G3 (130 pounds) and the screen splintered on the Note 3 (150 pounds).

"Based on our comparative tests here at Consumer Reports, while not the strongest phones on the market, fears of a serious structural design flaw in the iPhone 6 and 6 Plus seem overblown," the Consumer Reports team said.

Reports of the iPhone 6 and 6 Plus bending inside of people's pockets began to surface last week, as did a viral video (below) showing Lewis of Unbox Therapy bending the phone with his bare hands. Apple fired back at the reports, stating that a bending iPhone is extremely rare, and that during the first six days of sale, only nine customers contacted Apple about having a bent iPhone 6 Plus.

The company also said that it performs "rigorous" tests throughout the developmental process. This includes user studies, 3-point bending, pressure point cycling, sit and torsion.

"iPhone 6 and iPhone 6 Plus meet or exceed all of our high quality standards to endure every day, real life use," a statement from Apple said.

Follow Kevin Parrish @exfileme. Follow us @tomshardware, on Facebook and on Google+.

The iPhone 6 may not be out yet, but it seems at least one person that has one (either someone working at Apple or someone who snagged one early) has tried out the Basemark X benchmark, and the improvements look smaller than what Apple promised on stage a few days ago.

Basemark X is a cross-platform benchmark that works on Android, iOS and WP8. It’s the only vendor-independent benchmark that utilizes the Unity 4.2 engine, which is used by thousands of mobile games, to test the graphics performance of mobile devices.

The iPhone 6 results are taken from the Basemark X's site, which come from an unknown submitter that has tested the device. The iPhone 6 hasn't been tested yet by Tom's Hardware so we can't confirm the veracity of these results. (The other benchmark numbers below, though, are from our own testing.)

Assuming these numbers are true, we can see the iPhone 6 got a score of 21,204 when tested with the Medium graphics settings, and a 15,621 score when tested on the High settings. On the Medium settings we see that the iPhone 6 is significantly behind Android devices (which we've tested ourselves), and only about 3 percent faster than iPhone 5S.

At the High settings, the roles change, and not only is the iPhone 6 faster than all the others, but it's about 16 percent faster than the old iPhone 5S. Despite this win, this is a much smaller GPU performance increase than the 50 percent improvement Apple claimed on Tuesday.

Apple usually announces a 2x improvement in GPU performance with each new iPhone, but that doesn't appear to be the case this time around. This led us to believe that Apple may be using the same old CPU and GPU that it’s using in the iPhone 5S, but with slight performance boost from moving to the 20nm process, instead of moving to a new GPU such as Imagination’s GX6650.

If Apple kept the same GPU as last year, then it would make sense for the increase in performance to be so modest. But that leaves the question of why would Apple claim a 50 percent improvement at the iPhone 6 announcement if the benchmarks are showing only a 3-16 percent improvement?

One theory could be that Apple was referring to the performance of games taking advantage of the Metal API, and not the performance of pure OpenGL ES graphics, which is what benchmarks like Basemark X currently use. That means the 50 percent extra performance would mainly come from software improvements, not hardware.

If the theory is true, then Apple perhaps should’ve mentioned that the performance increase comes from using the Metal API instead of making everyone believe that it’s the GPU itself that is 50 percent faster. The difference is important, because not all game developers will be taking advantage of the Metal API, especially if they want their games to remain cross-platform.

Khronos has recently announced that it’s overhauling the OpenGL API, and the new API will also have close-to-metal access, much like Apple’s Metal or AMD’s Mantle. This means in a not-too-distant future, all developers will be able to take advantage of a similar API that will also be cross-platform and will work not only on mobile devices, but on PC’s, too.

Follow us @tomshardware, on Facebook and on Google+.

Apple delivered everything we expected during its product launch event today in Cupertino, proving that not only is Apple CEO Tim Cook's administration more porous — perhaps on purpose — but that it is also growing more ambitious. There were two new iPhones (iPhone 6 and iPhone 6 Plus), and the much-anticipated Apple Watch, and a fairly comprehensive mobile wallet scheme, called Apple Pay.

While the Apple Watch had the typical Apple wow factor, both in design simplicity and elegance (at least as smartwatches go), and Apple Pay delivered on a simplified and secure contactless payment system, the iPhone 6 did offer a few solid updates, even if some of the important details under the hood are still unknown. For Apple fans the iPhone 6 may be a benediction, or further support for continued fawning. For those waffling or migrating, it might actually justify a move back. But there are too many unanswered questions to jump to conclusions.

In the iPhone 5s Apple revved all of its engines, but still housed them in an itty bitty living space. This time around, with the iPhone 6, the company tuned up a bit more under the hood, some of it in less obvious ways, but much of it to support a complete re-do of its overall chassis.

The biggest and least surprising change is that Apple is changing the iPhone size. Before, you could get any size you wanted, as long as it was four inches. Now, you can get them in 4.7 (iPhone 6) and 5.5 inches (iPhone 6 Plus). The phone edges are rounded, and the overall device is smoother and slimmer than the iPhone 5s (6.9mm and 7.1mm for the iPhone 6 and 6 Plus, respectively, vs the 7.6mm thickness of the 5s), and surprising light for its size at 4.55 ounces, or 129 grams for the iPhone 6, and 6.07 ounces/172 grams for the iPhone 6 Plus (vs 3.9 ounces for the 5s). [A quick video walk through of the iPhone 6 and 6 Plus is embedded at the bottom of this page.]

The screen resolution is now 1334 x 750 for the iPhone 6, at a pixel density of 326 ppi, and 1920 x 1080 at 401 ppi. Apple calls this Retina HD, for whatever that terms is still worth in pixel battles. The iPhone 5s has a 16:9 aspect ratio and a resolution of 1136 x 640. The big questions here, then, revolve around how Apple has scaled all of this, and whether that will leave any noticeable artifacts in apps, especially apps that haven't been updated for the latest sizes, and games in particular.

When Apple moved to retina displays originally, it used a 2x scalar. Apple is using a scalar again here, and it looks like the  4.7-inch iPhone 6 has a 1.17x multiplier (over the 5s resolution). This could impact bitmap graphics, at least initially, and will require some GPU heavy lifting. The 5.5-inch iPhone 6 Plus has almost three times as many pixels compared with the 5s, which means even more work for the GPU. In our brief hands on with the devices, we couldn't see any artifacts, but we also didn't expect to see any on preloaded devices, especially on mostly static app experiences (like CNN and BBC and MLB) and we were forbidden to download any older apps.

Apple didn't talk about any changes to the screen panel design, and Apple didn't talk GPU details, other than to say the GPU was 50% faster than the one in the 5s. That GPU is part of another announcement we expected, the A8 SoC. When Apple came out with its 5s, the company shocked everyone with the A7, the very first (and still only) SoC based on the 64-bit ARMv8 ISA, with the Cyclone CPU core, running at 1.3 GHz. 

The A8 uses a 20nm process, as we expected it might, and Apple claims it is 25% faster than the iPhone 5s CPU. We're not sure if there was a clock bump, or any other underlying changes. Apple was tight lipped about details after the event. 

We were wondering if the A8 would use the newest PowerVR GX6650 to match Nvidia's Kepler and and Qualcomm's Adreno 420, or even ARM's Mali-T6xx. The PowerVR Series 6 is already what's in the Apple A7. Usually Apple doubles GPU performance each year, and since this is only 50% higher it may just be the same as the one in the 5s, with more cores, or higher frequency.

The iPhone 6 is 50% more energy efficient, Apple said, and claimed that its ARMv8 doesn't throttle performance the way other SoCs will, providing for more sustained performance over time. This will continue to be a battleground in the next evolution of 64-bit SoCs.

The company also talked about its new graphics library, called Metal, for 3D apps and games, the idea being that developers can get closer to the metal without the performance penalties of higher level APIs like OpenGL. Disney, Unity, EA and Gameloft, among many others, are using Metal, and Apple brought out Super Evil Megacorp to show off Vain Glory, a battle arena mutiplayer game designed for smartphone touch experiences.

Apple's M7 co-processor — essentially a hub for managing sensor activity — also got an upgrade to M8. Among other improvements, M8 allows the iPhone 6 to estimate distance, and, using a new barometer built into the phone, also detect relative elevation using the air pressure.

One glaring disappointment: Apple did not mention whether it was moving up from the 1GB LPDDR3 in the iPhone 5s, which could mean that it didn't see the need to change this. Actually, this memory has been around for two generations of iPads and iPhones, and the move to a bigger screen size, as well as the coming onslaught of 64-bit binaries, seems to dictate a change here soon — we thought soon would be now. We'll see if Apple has more to say here.

Apple promised that battery life wouldn't recede, and should get better — 24 hours of talk time on 3G, web and other Internet use up to 12 hours on LTE, 14 hours of video playback. Again, we shall see.

Many of us were expecting Apple to step it up on the connectivity and communications side, and for the most part we weren't disappointed here. First, the new iPhones will support 802.11ac, and LTE Category 4. The latter will bring 150Mbps theoretical speeds (but not the expected 300Mbps speeds of LTE Category 6), and carrier aggregation. In short, every communication will be faster. Apple supports 20 LTE bands, which the company said covers over 200 LTE carriers. Using VoLTE (voice over LTE), voice calls can be moved from 3G to 4G for better quality. Apple also supports WiFi calling, with seamless hand off between the mobile network and WiFi — this will actually only be available with T-Mobile in the U.S. for now.

As always, Apple continued to step things up on the camera. This is still an 8MP iSight, with True Tone flash. But it has a new sensor, featuring what Apple calls Focus Pixels, which is the company's phase detection auto focus. Apple claimed the camera can focus twice as fast as previous generation iPhones. It also includes improvements in things like local tone mapping and advanced noise reduction. Apple also bumped up the resolution on panoramic photos, and the camera uses the gyro for seamless stitching to create the image.

Apple includes an image signal processor in the A8, and it includes a hardware block just for face detection, for example. It also includes advanced blink and smile detection for better burst mode photo selection. Even the front facing camera, which got its own improvements, can do burst mode selfies. God help us all.

The iPhone 6 includes digital image stabilization, but the iPhone 6 Plus gets optical image stabilization, and that can move front to back, up and down, and side to side. It works with the M8 co-processor and gyro to adjust and focus images. Oh if only OIS was in the smaller iPhone 6!

Much of this improvement also finds its way into video capabilities. For example, in the iPhone 5s you could capture slow motion video up to 120fps, but with the iPhone 6 you can get up to 240fps. Focus Pixels lets you auto focus continuously while you're taking video. I saw some of this in action in brief hands-on demos, and it was pretty remarkable — as always, Apple puts a great deal of thought into camera innovation, especially in the connection between the software and the hardware capabilities.

In another expect move, Apple has included an NFC radio antenna across the top of the phone to support contactless payments. The phone includes a Secure Elements chip, which stores all of your payment information in an encrypted form. You keep your credit cards, reward cards and so forth in Apple Passbook. Apple Pay combines the use of the TouchID, the Secure Element, Passbook and NFC. Secure Element creates a one-time payment number, using dynamic security codes – so essentially you've got one-time token for security. None of your private information gets stored on the phone, and Apple has no knowledge of the details of your transaction.

The phone is available for pre-order this Friday, Sept 12, and will ship on Sept 19. There are 16, 64 and 128GB configurations, and the iPhone 6 (in gold, silver and space grey) goes for $199, $299, and $399 respectively (with a two year contract). The iPhone 6 Plus (same colors) starts at $299, $399, and $499. They will ship to the U.S. and eight other countries, with a goal of 115 countries by the end of 2014. The iPhone 5s will now be $99 and an 8GB iPhone 5C will be free on contract.

We’re now less than three weeks away from Apple’s September 9 event where it’s almost guaranteed that Apple will debut the new iPhone 6, and more leaks about it are starting to appear. The latest seems to capture exactly how the new iPhone looks, although we're granted a view from the top side only.

As you can see from the image, it looks very iPad Air-like, which was to be expected. The iPad Air has been Apple’s most well-designed and engineered device yet. An “iPhone 6” would have also needed a new design, different from the iPhone 5 design, and it’s somewhat logical that Apple would make its mobile devices look similar so people recognize them more easily.

Almost every detail of the new iPhone appears to resemble the iPad Air. Even the microphone and speaker holes are look identical. The device is also rumored to be around 7 mm thin; the iPad Air is 7.5 mm.

There is even some speculation that the new iPhone 6 will in fact be called “iPhone Air”. Since the “iPhone 5S Gold” worked so well for Apple at last year’s launch, we can see how an “iPhone Air” would generate a lot more word of mouth and media buzz than the more predictable “iPhone 6” name. The name alone would also tell people exactly what they can expect from the new iPhone. A lot of people have seen or heard about an iPad Air by now, so they’ll immediately know what the iPhone Air’s main features are.

Rumors have also pointed to two new iPhones, one with a 4.7” screen and another with a 5.5” screen. These larger screens would obviously need to be “Retina”-level, so the resolution will have to increase. There have been a couple of resolutions rumored, one being 1472x828 and the other 2208x1242.

Both of these resolutions would give the phones over 300 PPI, although the first one would give the 5.5” iPhone only 307 PPI which would be less than what the current iPhone has. However, Apple uses even less than 300 PPI (264) on the iPad Air, so it’s doubtful they’d worry too much about it.

Apple tends to care quite a bit about the battery life of its devices and their slimness, and a slim devices requires smaller batteries, so the 1472x828 resolution seems much more likely. Fortunately, with less than three weeks to go, we don’t have to speculate much longer about the new iPhone’s specs and features. It will all be unveiled soon.

Follow us @tomshardware, on Facebook and on Google+.

According to a leaked schematic from the Chinese repair firm GeekBar, at least one of the two models of the iPhone 6 (the 4.7" or the 5.5") would be using only 1 GB of RAM. If this is true, it would be a disappointing decision from Apple that could affect new iPhone 6 buyers sooner than they think.

It's no secret that Apple has been inclined to use significantly less RAM (usually half as much) than the competition's flagship mobile devices. One excuse for this has been that iOS is much more optimized and is a leaner operating system than Android. While that may have been true in the past, things are rapidly changing for the two operating systems in terms of RAM usage.

With the release of Android KitKat last year, Android received significant RAM utilization and management improvements to the point where KitKat can now operate smoothly even on devices with only 512 MB of RAM. With the new Android L version, things should improve even more for RAM usage thanks to the switch to ART and compressed memory addresses for 64-bit Android apps.

On the other hand, 64-bit iOS apps on the iPhone 5S have increased their RAM usage from the longer memory addresses by 20 to 30 percent. The 64-bit apps are typically more memory-bloated on all operating systems, so this isn't a major surprise, but this is a problem that will only get worse for iOS users who have 1 GB of RAM. As iOS becomes a more mature operating system that can support multiple apps and extensions running at the same time, devices with 1 GB of RAM will soon find themselves bottlenecked by the low amount of memory.

Why the rumor may not be true

Despite the shown schematic, it still seems highly unlikely that Apple would keep the amount of RAM the same. Apple typically changes the RAM every two generations, and it hasn't changed it since the iPhone 5, so it follows that the iPhone 6 release would be time for an upgrade to 2GB of RAM.

We've already seen Android devices with 3 GB of RAM, and with 64-bit ARMv8 chips arriving on the market soon for Android devices, we will begin to see handsets with 4 GB of RAM as we go into the next year. Apple's iOS devices will once again remain behind in the amount of RAM they support, but 2 GB should easily last for another two generations before Apple moves to 4 GB. The move to 2 GB of RAM would definitely be a major improvement for iOS devices.

We're only a few weeks away from Apple's September 9 event, so we fortunately don't have to wait much longer for the confirmation of the new iPhone 6 specs, whatever they may be.

Follow us @tomshardware, on Facebook and on Google+.

With Mobile World Congress just around the corner, rumors about new and upcoming devices are as thick as San Francisco fog. However, one company that won't be in Barcelona next week is Apple. The Cupertino-based company prefers to steer clear of these big conferences and mass launch events, choosing instead to host their own exclusive events. That way, its news never gets lost in the flood of announcements (as if that could happen to the Apple of today).

What you may wonder, after hearing about all the new phones that are going to arrive through the spring and into the summer, is if the iPhone 6 is will match up to the MWC debutantes. Apple hasn't announced the device yet, and it's not expected to announce anything for a while. After all, the iPhone 5C and iPhone 5S were just announced and released in September. Though Apple has traditionally announced new phones at WWDC in June, it's thought the switch to September refresh will carry through to this year (though there is some talk of Apple bumping things up to August). So what can we expect come fall? Below is a round up of iPhone 6 rumors, which we'll update as time goes on.

iPhone Screen

Arguably one of the most important features of a smartphone, given it's what you'll spend all your time looking at. Apple pays special attention to its displays, adding its famed Retina Display with the introduction of the iPhone 4. Talk of the iPhone 6 display Recent rumors suggest Apple is going to use a sapphire display in the iPhone 6. The company’s new Arizona plant will produce sapphire glass, that much we know. Tim Cook confirmed it while speaking to ABC. Now, Apple already uses tiny amounts of sapphire glass for the home button and to keep the camera safe from scratches, and though it’s technically possible that this is all the company needs the new plant for, that seems highly unlikely. Word on the street says Apple will kick things up a notch and make the entire display out of this tough material. This week, Canonical’s CEO complained that Apple had bought up a three year supply of a display Canonical wanted for the Ubuntu Edge. Apple’s either has a huge need for sapphire glass or is stockpiling for a future product while keeping the product away from its competitors. 

The iPhone 5S the biggest iPhone to date with a screen that measures four inches in size. Despite this fact, it’s still quite small compared to other current generation smartphones. Though Samsung’s Galaxy Note was considered huge not too long ago, a 5-inch phone is a fairly common sight, and Apple could go after the phablet lovers with the iPhone 6. There’s talk that Apple might ship multiple different sizes of iPhone with the iPhone 6, including a 5.5-inch version. The most recent rumors say screens for the iPhone 6 will start production in May. According to Reuters, May will signal the start of production for the iPhone 6 displays and a 4.7-inch panel will be manufactured first, with a 5.5-inch model coming later. While we think Apple is unlikely to ship so many iPhones (it wasn’t until last year that the company introduced a second iPhone to stand alongside the flagship model), it’s not outside the realm of possibility that we’ll see a larger iPhone. Steve Jobs was the one who pooh-poohed larger screen sizes and Steve isn’t around anymore. Remember when Steve said we’d need to file our fingers down for a 7-inch tablet? Yeah, us too.

Backing up claims that Apple will ship two phones is KGI Securities analyst Ming-Chi Kuo, who has a proven track record with Apple rumors. He says the 4.7-inch model will feature a 4.7-inch Retina panel with 1334 x 750 pixels or 326 ppi. That’s not quite as dense as offerings from competing smartphone manufacturers (such as HTC or Oppo), but it’s exactly the same as the iPhone 4/4S/5/5S and 4th and 5th generation iPod touch. Kuo also talked about a second 5.5-inch 1,920 x 1,080-pixel 401 ppi iPhone with similar specs to the 4.7-inch model but a battery that measures 50 % - 70% bigger than the battery inside the iPhone 5S.

An unnamed source sent several photos to 9to5Mac showing that the 4.7-inch iPhone model will feature glass covers in black and white. These photos also reveal a new hole mounted to the left of the ear speaker, which could be a relocated front-facing camera or a proximity sensor. The ear speaker is also slightly larger than what’s seen in the current iPhone 5/5s/5c crop.

On July 8, a leaked video revealed that Apple plans to use a sapphire crystal display on the upcoming iPhone 6 models instead of Corning's Gorilla Glass. Marques Brownlee provided the leaked footage, showing that this front layer is as thin as a sheet of paper. He uses a knife and a set of keys to demonstrate the panel's resistance to scratches, and also places the panel under his shoe half way and tries to bend it with his hand with zero breakage. “It’s an insanely clear, supper-high quality material,” he states as he move the panel to and from the video camera, showing that there’s no distortion when the panel is placed over the camera’s lens. The version roughhoused in the video measures 4.7-inches and sports a black frame.

iPhone CPU, SoC Chipset, and RAM

The iPhone 5S was noteworthy for its 64-bit A7 chip manufactured on the 28 nm process. Given the iPhone 5S has only been on the market for six months, this chip is still a really fresh piece of technology. However, with Samsung rumored to have a 64-bit chip of its own on the way, Apple may want to up its game. No surprise then that the latest scuttlebutt points to an Apple A8 chip manufacture red on the 20 nm process powering the iPhone 6. Further talk of a 64-bit A8 points to Apple using Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing (TSMC) to manufacturer the A8. This would be a move away from rival smartphone maker Samsung, which Apple has used for production of its chips in the past. TSMC hasn’t confirmed the news, and neither has Apple (of course). KGI Securities analyst Ming-Chi Kuo says the device will have just 1 GB of RAM, the same as last year's iPhone 5S.

iPhone Form Factor

So, the iPhone might have a bigger display, but that’s not to say it will be too much bigger over all. The rumor mill is churning out whisperings of an edge-to-edge of minimal bezel display, which could theoretically increase the size of the display without making the phone too big in your hand. The real question is whether Apple is willing to ditch the physical home key or make it smaller. We’d say no, considering it just added fingerprint recognition with the iPhone 5S, but the home key could be reduced in size or moved to a different location on the iPhone 6. Again, that's unlikely but if Apple wants a bigger display without significantly increasing the size of the phone, this would be one way to do it. One analyst even claims to have gotten wind of such a prototype. For physical size, the latest rumors say we'll see 150 millimeters long and 85 millimeters wide. This is considerably bigger than the 123.8 mm x 58.6 mm iPhone 5S.

As far as casing is concerned, it's hard to predict what Apple will do. The iPhone 2G was metal, then the 3G brought plastic casing that continued through to the 3GS. The iPhone 4 gave us the glass backing, which was also present in the 4S. The iPhone 5 saw Apple bring back the metal with an aluminum casing, and the iPhone 5S has the same chassis. Discounting the iPhone 5C (Apple brought back the plastic we saw with the 3G but in a range of colors), Cupertino seems to introduce a new case with each full upgrade of iPhone. Word on the street is that the iPhone 6 will also feature a metal chassis, but that it will be lighter and thinner than the current iPhone 5S.

Recent images leaked to Chinese social media site Weibo point to design so slim that the camera actually protrudes from the back of the case (like the current generation iPod touch). Though there's no way to know if these images are authentic, they reportedly come from sources within Foxconn. KGI Securities analyst Ming-Chi Kuo, who has a proven track record with Apple rumors, said in a recent note to analysts that the iPhone 6 would feature side bezels reduced by between 10 and 20 percent and an overall thinner form factor than the current generation iPhone. Kuo also said the sleep button would move to the top of the iPhone 6.

Meanwhile, Unbox Therapy has published a video on YouTube with a hands-on video of what purports to be a case for the iPhone 6. While this is no where near as exciting as a leaked photo or video of the phone itself, the case does tell us quite a bit about the phone that it will protect. For instance, if this case is the real deal, we now know that the power button has been moved to the right side of the phone as opposed to the top right corner. There’s also tweaks to the design of the volume rocker. Perhaps most intriguing is the thickness of the case itself. Cases often add bulk, but iPhone 6 users will be glad to see that this case is actually thinner than the current generation iPhone. That means even with your phone shrouded in gummy plastic, your new iPhone is still going to be significantly slimmer than the last version. Check the video below for yourself.

French blog Nowhereelse has photos of what is supposedly a dummy mockup of the iPhone 6. This mock up unit apparently originated from China and features curved edges and an extremely slim profile. Unfortunately, it doesn’t offer anything particularly juicy in terms of buttons or aesthetics because it’s just a hunk of black plastic. We also don't get a look at the right side, so we can't see if the change of power button position that we've heard about before is present in this mock up. However, the photos do give us an idea of how the phone will look in someone’s hand. And it certainly looks like it would fit in the case Unbox Therapy showed us.

Camera

The iPhone 6 camera could be something very special. According to a patent filing published last week, the company is developing technology for “super-resolution based on optical image stabilization.” The technology works by taking the OIS process, which changes the optical path to the camera sensor according to your movement, and making use of multiple optical paths to capture several images at once. These photos are combined to form one image with a higher resolution than a single image. From the look of the patent filing, this would be an optional mode for the camera, similar to HDR, as opposed to a standard setting or the default camera mode. 

Functionality

With each new iPhone, we expect increased functionality. For iPhone 6, this may come in the form of sensors that can detect the weather. ESM-China analyst Sun Changxu cites sources close to the matter in reporting that this year’s iPhone could come equipped with sensors that can automatically read temperature, humidity and air pressure. There's also talk of NFC, at long last.

No doubt this will tie into iOS 8 and the rumors regarding the next major version of Apple’s mobile operating system. Though we just got iOS 7.1, rumors about iOS 8 and what it will bring are coming thick and fast. These include, a new notification center, a new iTunes Radio app, a smarter Siri, a bump in performance, and improved mapping functionality. This smarter Siri will likely take advantage of these new sensors when giving users the weather breakdown. 

What About the iPhone 5C?

Apple last year introduced us to a completely new breed of iPhone. A slightly lower-spec'd smartphone wrapped in plastic of varying colors, the device looked completely different to any iPhone we'd ever seen before. So is Apple going to introduce a second generation model this year? It's complicated.

Recent rumors, this time coming from Macotakara (via AppleInsider), say Apple has chosen 4.7 and 5.7-inch displays for the 2014 iPhones and that both of these devices will be a cross between the iPhone 5C and Apple’s colorful iPod nano. From the sounds of things, these two devices, despite their different screen sizes, will share the same aesthetic. Apple will apparently be keeping the fun colors we saw with the iPhone 5C along with the same rounded edges and buttons, but ditching the plastic in favor of the aluminum body of the iPod nano. What's not immediately clear is if these new phones will be upgraded iPhone 5Cs or if these will be the new flagship iPhone.

If this is to be the flagship, it makes a lot of sense. First of all, two sizes to cater to the phablet lovers who can’t function with a screen less than 5-inches (and similarly, a sub-5-inch option for those that can’t stand huge phones). Second, it brings Apple back from having two very different iPhones and closer to one device (albeit one that’s available in multiple configurations). It could also solve the problem that the iPhone 5C is somewhat cheap in feel. For a long time before it was revealed, the iPhone 5C was rumored to be a budget or entry level phone, which it is not. Adding the aluminum body will give this iPhone a premium feel, and the colors still allow for a certain amount of jaunty personalization. 

Of course, there's mention that these aren't supposed to replace the iPhone 5C but exist alongside it. Does that mean there's also going to be an iPhone 6? Or are these the iPhone 6? Suddenly we feel like there is far too many iPhones.

Follow Jane McEntegart @JaneMcEntegart. Follow us @tomshardware, on Facebook and on Google+.

Apple this morning confirmed rumors of the iPhone 5C 8 GB by launching the device in multiple countries across several continents. But just where can you get Apple's 8 GB iPhone 5C? Is it available in your country? The answer is probably not, because the iPhone 5C 8 GB is only available in a handful of places. Below is a list of the places where you can get the iPhone 5C with 8 GB of storage. Underneath that, you'll find a list of countries where Apple sells the iPhone, but isn't selling the 8 GB model of the iPhone 5C.

Places That Have the iPhone 5C 8 GB

Australia

United Kingdom

France

Germany

China

Places That Don't Have the iPhone 5C 8 GB

Africa, Middle East, and India

Armenia

Egypt

Jordan

Maurice

Saudi Arabia

Bahrain

Guinea-Bissau

Kenya

Mozambique

Senegal

Botswana

Guinee

Kuwait

Niger

South Africa

Cameroun

Madagascar

Tunisie

India

Mali

Cote d’lvoire

Israel

Marocco

Qatar

UAE

Asia Pacific

Korea

Thailand

Malaysia

Vietnam

Hong kong

New zealand

Philippines

Indonesia

Singapore

Japan

Taiwan

Europe

Belgium

Estonia

Italy

Hungary

Austria

Slovenia

Spain

Latvia

Malta

Polska

Switzerland

Bulgaria

Liechenstein

Moldova

Portugal

Czech Republic

Greece

Lithuania

Montenegro

Romania

Finland

Denmark

Croatia

Luxembourg

Netherlands

Russia

Sweden

Republic of Ireland

Macedonia

Norway

Slovakia

Turkey

Latin America and the Caribbean

Anguilla

Bolivia

Costa Rica

Guatemala

Nicaragua

St Vincent & The Grenadines

Venezuela

Antigua and Barbuda

Brazil

Dominica

Guyana

Panama

Suriname

Argentina

British Virgin Islands

Dominican Republic

Honduras

Paraguay

The Bahamas

Barbados

Cayman Islands

Ecuador

Jamaica

Peru

Trinidad & Tobago

Belize

Chile

El Salvador

Mexico

St. Kitts & Nevis

Turks & Caicos

Bermuda

Colombia

Grenada

Montserrat

St. Lucia

Uruguay

The United States, Canada, Puerto Rico

Canada

Puerto Rico

United States

Follow Jane McEntegart @JaneMcEntegart. Follow us @tomshardware, on Facebook and on Google+.

Yesterday word got out that Apple was considering an 8 GB version of its iPhone 5C smartphone and today the Cupertino-based company confirmed the rumors. However, if you're in the USA and are hoping to get your hands on one, you might be a bit disappointed. This phone isn't available in the United States right now.

The phone appeared on Apple's European, Chinese, and Australian websites this morning. Apple UK is selling the 8 GB iPhone unlocked for
£429, while Apple Australia is selling the phone for AU$679. This is £40 and AU$60 cheaper than the 16 GB model. The 8 GB iPhone 4S remains the cheapest, priced at $529 in Australia and £349 in the United Kingdom. Elsewhere in Europe, the iPhone 5C 8 GB is priced at €559 compared to €609 for the 16 GB model, or €406 for the 8 GB iPhone 4S. Neither the USA or Canada have the 8 GB iPhone 5C yet, and Apple hasn't said whether North America will be getting the device.

Other than storage, the specs for this model of iPhone 5C are the same as before. It's got the same 4-inch 640x1136 display, a 1.3 GHz dual core CPU, with 1 GB of LPDDR2 RAM, an 8-megapixel camera in the back, a 1.2-megapixel camera up front, and a 1510 mAh battery. The iPhone 5C was first announced last fall, and there's talk that Apple may update the device later this year.

Follow Jane McEntegart @JaneMcEntegart. Follow us @tomshardware, on Facebook and on Google+.

These days, most iPhone rumors focus on the next generation of iPhone, the iPhone 6, with a few about a next generation iPhone 5C thrown in for good measure. However, it seems Apple isn't done with the current generation iPhone 5C just yet. The latest rumors say we'll see a brand new, smaller capacity iPhone 5C this week.

European cell phone carrier O2 apparently let the cat out of the bag in an internal email obtained by stadt-bremerhaven.de. The email, which originated from O2 Germany, says the handset will be available in an 8 GB configuration starting tomorrow, March 18. Naturally, this smaller capacity iPhone 5C would be cheaper than the current entry-level 16 GB iPhone. German prices put the phone at €509, which is €60 less than the 16 GB.

Apple hasn’t offered an 8 GB iPhone since the iPhone 4S, and that phone is still available. While there’s no indication as to what this means for the iPhone 4S, it’s likely Apple is trying to phase out this 3-year-old phone. Though even the iPhone 4 is able to run iOS 7.1, the iPhone 5C is Apple’s ‘entry-level’ iPhone. It’s not cheap, but it’s more affordable than the iPhone 5S. It makes sense that the company would want to streamline its offerings.

Apple is also rumored to be releasing 'premium' iPhone 5C models later this year. The rumors regarding the iPhone 6 are a bit all over the place right now, but there's been talk of a new iPhone 5C with colorful aluminum shells similar to what we see on the current generation iPod nano. Check out all the rumors regarding the next generation of iPhone here.

Follow Jane McEntegart @JaneMcEntegart. Follow us @tomshardware, on Facebook and on Google+.

Don't know what to buy for a friend or family member this holiday season? If Google executive chairman Eric Schmidt had his way, everyone would purchase Android devices for those who already own iPhones and iPads. That's his suggestion in his latest blog, and he even goes so far as to give step by step instructions on how to purchase, activate and hand over a sparkly new Android phone.

"Many of my iPhone friends are converting to Android," Schmidt writes on Google Play. "The latest high-end phones from Samsung (Galaxy S4), Motorola (Verizon Droid Ultra) and the Nexus 5 (for AT&T, Sprint, T-Mobile) have better screens, are faster, and have a much more intuitive interface.  They are a great Christmas present to an iPhone user!"

Schmidt goes on to claim that like the people who moved from PCs to Mac and never looked back, potential customers will switch from iPhone to Google's OS and never switch back. Why? Because everything will be in the cloud and backed up. He even claims that 80 percent of the world, according to the latest surveys, agrees on Android.

The instructions of moving from iPhone to Android are rather easy to follow. Set up the Android device, update the iPhone or iPad, download and install Google's Music Manager on the PC or Mac, then take the SIM card out of the iOS device and shove it into the Android phone. During this process, iPhone owners should also turn off iMessage and back up all contacts to iCloud. As for images, copy those to the desktop's hard drive.

"It's probably easiest to backup your iPhone photos to the Mac, but not copy the old photos to the Android phone,"Schmidt writes. "New photos you take on the Android phone will automatically be backed up to your photos in the Gmail account (Auto-Upload is normally enabled) so no action is required.  If the old photos are important, send them to Gmail and download into the Android phone or upload them to Google+."

"Be sure to use Chrome, not Safari; its safer and better in so many ways. And it's free," he adds. "Be sure to use two-factor authentication for your Gmail and Google accounts.  Makes it very hard for someone to break into your Gmail."

When the first iPhone launched, it was only available on AT&T, and it was locked to that carrier. In fact, unless you lived in a country where consumer laws prevented Apple from locking its phone to one carrier, you didn't have a whole lot of choice when it came to carrier no matter where you lived. In the years since, folks have gained a little more freedom when it comes to the iPhone. The device is now available across multiple carriers and, as of today, you can now get the phone unlocked and SIM-free through Apple.

Apple is now selling a GSM version of the iPhone 5S that is SIM-free and not attached to any carrier. This version will cost you $650, $750, or $850 depending on the capacity you're after (16 GB, 32 GB, and 64 GB, respectively), and is currently shipping in 1-2 weeks. You could also opt for the iPhone 5C, which is a little bit cheaper and is also available unlocked and SIM-free. That'll set you back $549 for the 16 GB model or $649 for the 32 GB model.

The iPhone 5S was launched in September and packs Apple's 64-bit A7 SoC, a Retina display, TouchID authentication on the home button, and iOS 7. The iPhone 5C runs on Apple's A6 SoC and features a 4-inch retina display, an 8-megapixel iSight camera, a new Facetime HD camera with improved low-light functionality, dual-band WiFi a/b/g/n, Bluetooth 4.0, more LTE bands than any other phone, and is available in pink, yellow, green, blue and white.

Follow Jane McEntegart @JaneMcEntegart. Follow us @tomshardware, on Facebook and on Google+.

Samsung and LG already have phones with curved displays on the market; the latest rumors say Apple will follow suit next year. Bloomberg cites a source familiar with Apple's plans that says the company is working on new iPhone designs that include bigger screens with glass that curves down at the edges.

This new design will apparently be available in two sizes, a 4.7-inch version and a 5.5-inch version, though Bloomberg's source says the phones are still in development. The source also talked about sensors that can differentiate between varying levels of pressure on the screen.

Samsung unveiled its Galaxy Round smartphone with a curved display in early October. The device features a 5.7-inch 1080p Super AMOLED display that curves inwards from either side. Powered by a quad-core Qualcomm Snapdragon 800 SoC (MSM 8974) clocked at 2.3 GHz and 3 GB of RAM, Samsung said last month that the device is more of a prototype for testing the waters than anything. However, with a competing device from LG (the G Flex) and the possibility of a curved iPhone on the horizon, we imagine it won't be long before Samsung starts work on a more serious effort.

LG's G Flex isn't out yet, but the device is headed to Europe in early 2014. The G Flex features a 6-inch curved plastic OLED display and curves top-to-bottom as opposed to side-to-side. It's based on a 2.26 GHz Snapdragon 800 and Adreno 330 graphics.

Follow Jane McEntegart @JaneMcEntegart. Follow us @tomshardware, on Facebook and on Google+.

If you bought an iPhone 5S and are confused as to why the battery life is disappointing, then the latest word from Apple might interest you. The company has confirmed that a limited number of iPhone 5S models shipped with a manufacturing issue that resulted in shortened battery life.

"We recently discovered a manufacturing issue affecting a very limited number of iPhone 5S devices that could cause the battery to take longer to charge or result in reduced battery life," Teresa Brewer, an Apple spokeswoman, told the New York Times in a statement. "We are reaching out to customers with affected phones and will provide them with a replacement phone."

The iPhone 5S was announced last month at an Apple event in San Francisco and the updated iPhone is supposed to have better battery life than the last generation of iPhone. Apple didn't go into detail regarding the manufacturing issue, nor did it specify how many customers were affected by the problem.

Apple's iPhone 5S has a 1560 mAh battery, while the iPhone 5 has a 1440 mAh battery. The iPhone 5S also packs Apple's new 64-bit A7 SoC with M7 co-processor, an updated camera, Touch ID fingerprint authorization, 1 GB of DDR3 RAM, up to 64 GB of storage, WiFi 802.11 a/b/n, Bluetooth 4.0, and LTE.

Follow Jane McEntegart @JaneMcEntegart. Follow us @tomshardware, on Facebook and on Google+.