The new iPhone could be one of the most pivotal devices in the Cupertino brand's history - with theiPhone 5S and iPhone 5C simple updates to previous models, there's a lot of pressure heaped on the iPhone 6.
As per usual, the internet is awash with rumor, speculation and downright lies over this next-generation handset, which is why we spend our time trawling through each nugget of info, debating its merits and curating it into this easy-to-read hub for all things iPhone 6.
According to a survey of 4109 US consumers the iPhone 6 is the most anticipated Apple smartphone ever, with interest easily outstripping that of the iPhone 5S and iPhone 5.
We've already been given a small sneak peak at what Apple may have in store for us on the iPhone 6 thanks to the announcement of iOS 8 at WWDC - from a bigger screen and camera to health monitoring and more storage.
Some of you might have been expecting the iPhone 6 to have debuted in 2013, but given the iPhone's history - from the 3G onwards, there's always been a half-step S model before the next numbered iPhone - we were never going to get the 6 until 2014. In fact, it will technically be the iPhone 8 when it finally launches... but hey, who's counting these days?
One thing is for sure, with the Samsung Galaxy S5, Sony Xperia Z2 and HTC One M8 now out in wild, Apple needs to be on its game with the new iPhone - and many believe a bigger screen is simply a must.
Cut to the chase
- What is it? A major revision of the iPhone including entire design
- When is it out? September 2014 seems most likely
- What will it cost? Prices are likely to start at around £550 / $944 / AU$1006
Latest update: A image has hit the web claiming to show the iPhone 6, iPad Air 2 and iPad Mini 3 all sporting Apple's TouchID fingerprint scanner.
iPhone 6 release date
The iPhone 6 release date will be in 2014 September 9Th, which would fit in nicely with the rollout of the newly announced iOS 8.
Apple has launched the last few iPhones at a special event in September, so the smart money has always been on September 2014 for the iPhone 6's arrival.
Not to mention the fact that according to ifun.de Apple is restricting holidays during September for employees at German Apple Stores, which strongly suggests a new hardware launch then.
iPhone 6 price
There's one thing we can be sure about when it comes to the iPhone 6 - it won't be cheap.
Apple's legacy is a long line of premium devices sporting premium price tags and you can expect that trend to continue with the iPhone 6.
One analyst even goes as far as predicting that Apple will hike up the price of the iPhone 6, possibly by as much as $100 (around £60, AU$110). With a larger screen, new glass covering the front and possibly even a new, more impressive, material used in construction, we can see the price being hiked.
We'd be surprised is the mooted 4.7-inch iPhone 6 would get such a massive price bump, as it needs to stay competitive, but the hike does make sense if Apple launches a larger, phablet sized iPhone.
We have now got wind of possible pricing for the 4.7 inch model and it's reportedly starting at around £500 for a 32GB handset, which is around the same as a 16GB iPhone 5S, so if anything it might be a little cheaper, but that still leaves the 5.5 inch model open to being more expensive.
Indeed the latest pricing rumors echo the £500/$858/AU$915 pricing for the 4.7 inch model, but add that the 5.5 inch handset is likely to start at around £563/$966/AU$1030 and those are based on Chinese prices, so won't account for local taxes. Interestingly the same sources claim that the 5.5 inch handset will be called the 'iPhone Air'.
A GOLD VERSION?
A trio of iPhone 6 dummy units in gold, black and grey leaked online in July, courtesy of a tweet sent out by Apple leaker Sonny Dickson.
The photo matches up with all previous iPhone 6 leaks, although the exact size is hard to determine without a regular iPhone 5s for scale.
iPhone 6 design
It's been suggested that there could be as many as three size variants of the new iPhone - think iPhone 5C sequel, an iPhone 6 and an iPhone 6 XL - the latter being a larger size to compete with the likes of the Galaxy Note 3, as phablets are becoming hugely popular in areas like Asia.
"If the iPhone 6 doesn't have a Liquidmetal body, then we'll probably never see one."
One thing you probably can expect is more premium metal to come your way with the iPhone 6, and Apple patents for liquidmetal 3D printing suggest there may be a new way to form the sultry chassis on the new iPhone.
Writing in early January 2014, MacRumors quotes a batch of liquidmetal patents reportedly filed by Apple employees.
This has been doing the rounds for a while though, and apparently it's a tricky material to work with.
Liquidmetal or not, that chassis could well be the thinnest yet (thanks to that LED backlight we mentioned earlier) - with word that Apple will slim down the svelte 7.6mm 5S body for the iPhone 6, and if leaked images of the phone's case are legit the handset may well be shockingly slender.
We may also be in for a subtly curved screen, as a rumor has popped up claiming that the iPhone 6's display will curve slightly at the edges so that it sits flush with the phones chassis, which itself will apparently also be curved, perhaps along the lines of the Samsung Galaxy S3 or even Apple's own iPhone 3GS.
That's looking ever more likely as we've also now seen some images that purportedly show an iPhone 6 dummy and the screen seems ever so slightly curved.
With talk of larger screens, we can expect the body of the iPhone 6 to grow and leaked schematic designs claim the 4.7-inch iPhone 6 will be 66mm wide and 7.0mm thick (the 5S is 58.6 x 7.6mm).
Further evidence for a super slim design comes from a video posted by Unbox Therapy, which shows a 6.1mm thick iPod touch Fifth Generation being put in a case supposedly designed for the iPhone 6 and fitting perfectly in terms of thickness if not length and width.
Not the most scientific of tests perhaps, but along with those renders it certainly looks feasible that we could be in for a roughly 6mm thick handset.
The larger 5.7-inch handset is said to be 77mm in width and a super svelte 6.7mm in depth - the Galaxy Note 3 is 79.2 x 8.3mm. The 5.5 inch model is rumored to be called the iPhone Air, so it makes sense that it would be exceedingly slim.
These super slim dimensions have been given a little more firepower as we've now had multiple sources claiming to have case designs and schematics for the new iPhone 6, showing off designs similar to the iPad Air and Mini 2.
For a start, we saw photos supposedly showing off the design of the iPhone 6 reveal a slender smartphone.
We've also seen what is purportedly an iPhone 6 dummy unit. The handset has been put side by side with the iPhone 5S in the pictures, showing a much larger and more rounded but similarly slim device, which is roughly along the lines of what we're expecting based on other rumors.
As mentioned, it takes some design cues from the likes of the iPad Air and Mini 2 - that's something we think would be a great idea, as those both have a great feel in the hand.
Aside from the change in size and shape the other visible difference is that the power button has been moved to the side of the handset.
This could of course be a fake, but moving the power button to the side would make sense given the larger size of the phone and a few more images have since appeared showing a similarly designed device.
Another set of dummy images has since been unearthed, this time by 9to5Mac, showing the new handset in gold, silver and grey and they more or less match the previous ones, with a rounded design and a power button on the side.
With evidence mounting it looks increasingly like this could be the shape of iPhones to come, though being a dummy unit the hardware won't be final.
Another leak shows the design getting apparently closer to the final shape - and this time the Apple logo has been removed to possibly allow it light up in a similar way to the Macbook. Head on over to nowhereelse.fr to see the full slew of pics.
While it's tricky to confirm the authenticity of these leaks they suddenly look a whole lot more convincing after Taiwanese actor Jimmy Lin posted a photo of himself holding an iPhone 5S and what he claims is an iPhone 6.
Why is this significant? Well Lin posted pictures of the iPhone 5C ahead of its launch last year, so it looks like he may have repeated the trick in 2014.
Mr Lin may also have the larger 5.5-inch iPhone 6 (or at least a mockup unit) in his posession, after he posted another photo online which a big looking iPhone sitting on a work bench.
The same design keeps popping up in the leaked photo, and surely this isn't coincidence as even more images along the same design lines pop up from Sonny Dickson - again claiming to show the iPhone 6.
Sonny Dickson has gone one further though after getting his hands on mockups of two sizes of iPhone 6 handsets - could these be the 4.7-inch and 5.5-inch variants we've heard so much about?
As well as coming in gold/white, chances are we'll also see a black/space grey version of the iPhone 6 too, and that's exactly what has appeared in leaks from two different sites.
Apparently the iPhone 6 has also been snapped alongside the iPad Air 2 and the iPad Mini 3, all three of which are showing off their TouchID sensors as well.
Moving on from images to videos, Mac Otakara posted one to YouTube. It shows mockups much like we've seen in countless images, but it also gives us a look at what might be the actual back of the iPhone 6.
A larger body housing a larger screen would mean there would be some additional space which a larger power pack could accommodate, and we've even spotted an image claiming to show the iPhone 6 battery on the production line.
In other areas, patents show that Apple has been thinking about magical morphing technology that can hide sensors and even cameras. Will it make it into the iPhone 6? Probably not.
NFC and Touch ID
What's this? NFC in an iPhone? About time too. Well, that's what iDownloadblog reckons, quoting Jefferies analyst Peter Misek. He's not the only analyst tossing his hat into the iPhone 6 NFC ring, with Ming-Chi Kuo also supporting the theory.
It's a theory that's looking ever more likely as it's now been revealed that Apple has partnered with China UnionPay to add its banking service to Passbook. That in itself needn't mean NFC, but apparently users will also be able to make payments on China UnionPay's QuickPass machines, which use NFC.
Many Android phones now boast NFC and Apple appears to have been happy to be left behind here, so we'd be a little surprised to see it suddenly rocking the contactless technology when it appears to be on the wane. Then again, the evidence for it is mounting.
Meanwhile Touch ID is unsurprisingly expected to make a return, but sources claim thatApple is making the sensor more durable this time around. We're not sure how durable something that you lightly press your finger against really needs to be, but increased durability is surely no bad thing.
iPhone 6 power
Not a huge surprise, this one: the next processor will be a quad-core A8 or an evolved A7. The big sell here is more power with better efficiency, which should help battery life.
Anyone hoping for some juicy Samsung technology hidden under the iPhone 6 body will be disappointed though, as reports suggest Apple is looking to push its Korean rival further out of the iPhone picture with its eighth-gen handset.
Apple is apparently cutting the amount of A8 processors it is having made by Samsung, although it hasn't severed ties completely just yet.
There's not been much word on how much RAM the iPhone 6 will come with, but KGI analyst Ming-Chi Kuo reckons it will have 1GB, just like the iPhone 5 and iPhone 5S before it.
On the storage front it's been reported that for the first time we might get a 128GB iPhone, but that only the 5.5 inch iPhone 6 will reach that capacity, while the 4.7 inch model will be capped at 64GB.
Camera and wireless charging
The best iPhone camera yet
Apple's bought camera sensors from Sony before, and this year there's signs that we're going to see a new, 13-megapixel sensor that takes up less room without compromising image quality.
With the arrival of iOS 8 at WWDC, Apple showed off a whole host of fancy new photo editing options and what better way to take full advantage of the new features than with an upgraded camera on the iPhone 6?
But that's not what everybody thinks.
The China Post, quoting a tip from the country's Nomura Security, claims that the next iPhone won't go for a 12 or 16-megapixel sensor, instead sticking to the existing 8-megapixel unit.
With more recent rumors suggesting that Apple has signed up to use a new material that will dramatically improve the quality of light trickling into the phone, a 10MP+ sensor could be possible - but we're more inclined to believe that, as another report recently suggested,Apple will stick with the current resolution.
Why go for more megapixels if the pictures won't be any better? The notion that Apple will stick with an 8MP sensor might not be so good for marketing, but news states the iPhone 6 will have an f/2.0 aperture and dramatically enhanced image processing, so your snaps will look so good that most won't even care that the numbers are down.
And you shouldn't - 5MP is enough to blow up a photo to A3 size, so when are you going to need more?
Sun Chang Xu, the chief analyst at ESM-China, has also claimed on Weibo that the iPhone 6 will have 1.75 um pixels, compared to the 1.5 um pixels on the iPhone 5S. Bigger pixels let more light in and deliver better quality shots, particularly in low light, but if Apple is increasing the pixel size then that further suggests that the company won't be upping the megapixel count.
On top of that, more impressive tech will also help make your snaps stand out. A patent confirms this, saying Apple's aim is to use "voice coil motor actuators" to move the lens around the optical axis.
An Apple patent, uncovered by Apple Insider in May 2013, shows a system where an iPhone can remotely control other illuminating devices - extra flashes. It would work in a similar manner to that seen in professional photography studios. Interesting stuff, though there are dozens of Apple patents floating around and there's no reason to think this particular one will make it into a finished product.
More convincingly, Sun Chang Xu reported on Weibo that the iPhone 6 will use Electronic Image Stabilisation (EIS). That's a software alternative to Optical Image Stabilisation (OIS). Both solutions aim to prevent images from coming out blurred, but while OIS uses moving parts to balance the camera, EIS uses software algorithms to compensate.
It doesn't work as well as OIS, but with less hardware it allows the phone to be slimmer, lighter and cheaper to produce, so it looks like Apple might be going for a slim design at all costs.
Meanwhile KGI analyst Ming-Chi Kuo reckons that the 5.5 inch iPhone 6 will get OIS, but the 4.7 inch model won't.
iPhone 6 wireless charging
Wireless charging still isn't mainstream. Could Apple help give it a push? CP Tech reportsthat Apple has filed a patent for efficient wireless charging, but then again Apple has filed patents for pretty much anything imaginable.
The tasty bit of this particular patent is that Apple's tech wouldn't just charge one device, but multiple ones. Here are more details on the iPhone 6 wireless charging patent.
Wireless charging is slowly starting to pick up steam and Apple could give it just the push it needs to really get there, but we're not convinced we'll see the tech in the iPhone 6, as it seems like something that Apple's more likely to wait on until the infrastructure is in place to make it genuinely useful.
Meanwhile, a further Apple patent seems to imply that future iPhones will be able to adjust volume as you move them away from your ear. Again, there's a big difference between a patent and a finished product and little reason to think it will make it into the iPhone 6, but it's certainly an interesting idea.
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