iPhone 6 Starts at $199

Apple’s coverage for the upcoming and highly anticipated iPhone 6 has just concluded, and with that conclusion came prices that most people were not expecting – $199 for the 16GB version, $299 for the 64GB version and $399 for the 128GB version. These are contract prices for AT&T, Verizon and Sprint.

Apple announced two new iPhones – the iPhone 6, which has a display size of 4.7″, and the iPhone 6 Plus, which has a display size of 5.5″. This is in comparison to the 4″ display size that the current iPhones feature.

The new phones will feature Apple’s “new generation Retina Display,” Retina HD, while also featuring a new polarizer in the glass for better readability in the sunlight (an often complained about feature in Apple devices) as well as a thinner backlight.

Just like the iPhone 5s, the iPhone 6 and iPhone 6 Plus will come in gold, silver and space grey.

Pre-orders for the phone will go live on the Apple store beginning September 12th, and the phone starts shipping September 17th. Apple hopes to have the phone available for purchase in over 115 countries by the end of the year.

Phil Schiller, Apple’s Senior Vice President and host of the iPhone 6 Keynote coverage, confirmed that iOS 8 will be available for download beginning September 17th and that the new phones will have the software update pre-loaded onto them.

The display is made with “dual domain pixels” for a broader angle of view and better color accuracy and will amount to a resolution of 1334 x 750 for the iPhone 6 (will have 1 million pixels) and 1920 x 1080 for the iPhone 6 Plus (will have 2 million pixels).

At 6.99mm, the iPhone 6 isn’t the thinnest phone in the world, but it certainly is thinner than the 7.6mm thinness of the iPhone 5s. The iPhone 6 Plus only measures out to 7.1mm.

A “brand new feature for the iPhone 6 and iPhone 6 Plus” that Schiller wanted to highlight is Reachability, a feature that will allow you to double tap the TouchID button to bring the whole display down, which will allow you to “reach anything at the top.”

Battery life is another huge update that’s coming to the new iPhones, or more specifically, the iPhone 6 Plus. At standby, the iPhone 6 will last 10 days, which is exactly the same as the iPhone 5s, while the iPhone 6 Plus will last for 16 days. Normal use battery life amounts to 10 hours for the iPhone 6, which again, is the same as the iPhone 5s. The iPhone 6 Plus, however, will last for as long as 16 hours with normal use.

That’s a wrap-up of the phone’s basic details, so now, let’s get down to the internal specs.

The new phones will feature the Apple A8 chip, which is a 2nd gen 64-bit chip that will feature 2 billion transistors (compared to the 1 billion available in the A7) and a built-on 28 nanometer process.

The benchmarks that Schiller displayed explained that the CPU will now be 25% faster while graphics will be over 50% faster. He also explained that the overall goal of the new chip was to ensure that it is 50% more energy-efficient than the previous chip, which will allow the phone to “sustain performance over longer periods of time.”

There is a new motion co-processor called M8, which will be useful for such things as fitness applications and determining elevation.

Wireless LTE will be able to reach speeds as high as 150Mbps, compared to the max 100Mbps speeds that were reachable in previous iPhones. There will also be a new feature called VoLTE (Voice Over LTE) that will make calls sound clearer and will enable simultaneous voice and data (talking on the phone while browsing the web).

Wi-Fi. 802.11ac will make Wi-Fi “3x faster than previous gen” iPhones while Wi-Fi Calling will also be available, so long as your carrier supports it. If you happen to leave the Wi-Fi area, the call will automatically switch over to your carrier’s cellular network without missing a beat.

The camera specs on the new iPhones are exactly the same as the iPhone 5s – 8MP iSight Camera, ƒ/2.2 aperture, True Tone flash, etc. However, the new iPhones will feature a few upgrades, including more noise reduction, “1080p video at 30 FPS or 60 FPS” and slow-mo video that can reach up to 240 frames per second (for the iPhone 6 Plus).

The iPhone 6 will feature standard image stabilization while the iPhone 6 Plus will feature optical image stabilization, which will allow for shake-free videos.

The front-facing (FaceTime) camera will feature brand new sensors and a “larger aperature to let in 80% more light.” The camera will also feature Burst mode for burst selfies, meaning it will take several photos with a single button push.

Again, the iPhone 6 will start at $199 for 16GB of storage and will begin shipping September 17th.

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