The Definitive iPhone 6s Roundup: A9, Force Touch, Dimensions & More

Finally: Design & Dimensions

Ah, the iPhone 6s. Apple's latest upcoming device has got everyone interested on what this year's smartphone upgrade will bring with it. Such anticipation and hype around its products is Apple's own doing, as the Cupertino giant has touted the mantra of innovation and change ever since its foundation, and continues to do so with every hardware or software release. Last year's generational upgrade for the iPhone didn't see any major innovations from Apple. Instead, the Cupertino company decided to cater towards market demands directly, and went forward in releasing the 4.7-inch iPhone 6, and for the first time in Apple's history, a phablet was released in the form of the 5.5-inch iPhone 6 Plus.

The iPhone 6 and the iPhone 6 Plus also saw a complete design overhaul over the iPhone 5s, a mandatory processor upgrade, some camera changes and optical image stabilization being added to the larger of the two devices. But in terms of features and functionality, there was really nothing new on Apple's behalf, aside from Apple Pay, which aided the company in adding another service to its roster.

So will the iPhone 6s and iPhone 6s Plus add on to where its predecessors failed to deliver? We've been hearing nearly countless rumors, speculations and more on the upcoming device, so let's take a look at what can be expected to change this year.

Force Touch

Force Touch made its big debut with the Apple Watch, allowing users to invoke different actions by pressing down hard on the display, and any talk about the iPhone 6s and iPhone 6s Plus is absolutely incomplete without a slight mention of Force Touch technology. As far as new features go, a Force Touch display on an iPhone is a big step towards adding to the device's overall functionality. Not only will it give users more control over the way they use their iPhones, it will also end up opening a variety of new horizons for developers who'll be free to design and create great new apps that'll utilize this feature.

In fact, the rumor regarding Force Touch technology making its way to the iPhone 6s is one of the oldest one out there. The earliest Force Touch mention for the iPhone 6s was seen way back in January. Back then, not only was Apple's upcoming device said to come with Force Touch, but 2 GB of DDR4 RAM as well. While we'll be getting into performance specifications later on, if there's one thing that should be almost confirmed for the upcoming devices, it's Force Touch.

According to some past rumors, Force Touch is something that won't make its way to both the iPhone 6s and iPhone 6s Plus. We saw some reports surface which claimed that Apple would only be introducing the new Force Touch panel in the iPhone 6s Plus, in a bid to differentiate the device, or simply to test it out on a limited scale. But later on, we learned that perhaps cost was the primary constraint on Apple's mind, with Force Touch panels priced nearly three times as much as regular display panels.

But before you get your hopes up too high, we've seen some reports that contradict Force Touch on the iPhone 6s duo as well, the most important of these can be seen above. Just a week back, we saw GeekBar post what they claimed were images of a fully assembled iPhone 6s display. When compared to the current iPhone 6 model, the assembly showcased little changes, which can mean three things really; either the images aren't real, they aren't fully assembled, or for the worst, there won't be any Force Touch this time at all.

Coming back towards the positive side however, Apple's supplier has also reportedly sped up Force Touch shipments for the iPhone 6s duo. At the start of August, Force Touch panels reportedly entered mass production and Apple's suppliers expect a good 230 million units of the iPhone 6s to ship this year. Apple's really confident this time around, and with good reason too; the iPhone 6 and iPhone 6 Plus were a huge success and Cupertino saw record revenues in its latest quarter.

The Apple A9

News regarding Apple's new A9 chip for the iPhone 6s has been rather sparse compared to other leaks pertaining to the device, but that doesn't mean we can rule it out completely. Apple's SoC has seen several bits and pieces of information pop up over the past few months. In fact, the A9 has been popping up since last year, and whenever the processor gets mentioned, we see Samsung's name alongside it as well.

In fact, Samsung's head of semiconductor business has already spoken up about the Korean electronic giant's plans for the A9, and that too after the iPhone 6's launch. The Apple A9 will be manufactured on Samsung's 14nm FinFET, and the upcoming SoC will have a 15% reduced die size, will be 35% more efficient and 20% more powerful when compared to the A8 that ships with the iPhone 6 and iPhone 6 Plus.

In fact, 14nm for the Apple A9 is almost a given since Samsung launched the Galaxy S6 duo of devices this year with the Exynos 7420, a chipset that greatly boosted the company's standing in the mobile hardware world and is also manufactured on the same process.

Apple's plan for the A9's production is not quite clear either at this point. While one thing's for sure, Samsung will be getting the lion's share of A9 related orders, with TSMC's role in this relationship also been spoken about quite a few times as well. In fact, while some quarters claim that it'll be Samsung who'll get the A9 crown this year, others claim that ruling out TSMC from the race would be quite premature. There have been reports about Samsung suffering from A9 yield issues, causing Apple to focus more towards TSMC and its faster production with the 16nm FinFET.

But once again, counting Samsung out completely wouldn't be very wise either. The Korean electronics giant will definitely have a role to play in this year's A9 saga, especially given Apple's inclinations of not putting all of its eggs in one basket. While TSMC has been reported to have already started A9 production in June, Samsung is said to do the same in its Giheung plant in South Korea. And as of now, both TSMC and Samsung have commenced mass production on the A9, if reports are to be believed, of course.

Apple should face minor issues with processor testing however, since they will be coming from different sources, but the major difference between 16nm and 14nm is only in their name. And the A9 is also expected to be launched alongside the M9 coprocessor and whatever the case maybe, the iPhone 6s duo should not lack when it comes to performance specifications.

And speaking of specifications...

The Camera

Even though the iPhone keeps itself low in the megapixel count department, Apple's smartphone generally ends up producing on par, if not better photographic results. The Cupertino firm likes to tinker around with other aspects of its smartphone camera, which includes aperture size among certain things. But it's been a while, 3 years in fact, since the iPhone saw a megapixel upgrade, and we feel this might be the magic year when we will finally witness a boost in the pixels count behind the iSight camera's lens. Word has been plenty, and it starts from a spectroscope on the iPhone 6s, which would allocate a separate sensor for every color band, allowing for much improved results.

But while a spectroscope might sound a bit far fetched, an increase in camera resolution is one feature that's been popping up with nearly the same frequency as Force Touch. The iPhone 6s duo will not only only ship with a 12-megapixel sensor, but Apple will also be tinkering with other details as always.

Pixel size on the iPhone 6s camera will be reduced, which should provide for improved quality in low light scenarios especially; but what impact will that have on overall noise levels? We'll have to wait for some camera samples, should Apple choose to implement the change.

Apart from decreasing pixel size on its upcoming flagship's camera sensor, Apple is also said to be introducing an entirely new pixel category to reduce noise and improve overall image quality. The Sony 12-megapixel RGBW camera sensor, rumored to make its way to the iPhone 6s, introduces the 'white' pixel in the mix as well, which should compensate for image noise introduced as a result of pixel size reduction. And for all those wishing the protruding camera would go away this year, you're in for some bad news - Apple's retaining the 'feature' on the iPhone 6s.

Apple's upcoming flagship has seen rumors which range from 4K video recording finally making it to the device, to a dual camera solution as well. Both of these sound highly improbable for the time being, but it's an interesting thought nevertheless.

Regarding the front facing FaceTime camera, it's rumored that the device will feature a 5-megapixel sensor.

Internals & RAM

The iPhone 6s duo has seen quite a bit of leaks related to its internals, and we've seen a more compact design for its flex cables surface, as you can see in the image above. The headphone jack combined with the LED flash are now linked with the power and volume buttons on the iPhone 6s, but we have yet to see anything pop up on the SiP modular tech, which combines even the RAM, processor and GPU in a single package.

Coming towards wireless capabilities, the iPhone 6s duo, according to the current information, can be expected to feature an upgraded modem and NFC chip that should out-do the ones found on the iPhone 6.

Not only is Cat. 6 rumored for Apple's upcoming flagship, which will give it download speeds of up to 300 MB/s, but an upgraded NFC chip is also said to be in the works. Qualcomm’s MDM9635M is rumored to be under consideration by Apple, which would not only deliver the blisteringly fast speeds as we mentioned above, but would also do wonders in the power consumption department.

Coming towards NFC, we've seen quite a lot of information surface from some very reliable sources on that subject as well. The iPhone 6's NXP 65V10 chip has been upgraded to 66VP2 on the iPhone 6s, and the device's logic board will reportedly have a smaller footprint, and will feature far lesser chips this time around, including components from Murata for Wi-Fi, Cirrus for audio and Toshiba for its flash memory, as can be seen in the image above.

Apple has not upgraded the RAM on its iPhone lineup for quite a while now, sticking firmly to the old faithful 1GB of memory. But as we move forward, we firmly believe that the Cupertino company should step up its game with the release of the iPhone 6s, upgrading the slacking 1GB of RAM to at least 2GB.

So talking about upgrades, Samsung has already signed off a deal with LG and Apple, in which the Korean manufacturer will hopefully provide the Cupertino giant with DDR4 chips for the upcoming iPhone. In fact, we've heard some interesting news which states that not only will the iPhone 6s be coming with 2GB of RAM, but it will also be sporting Apple SIM - Apple's way of reducing carrier dependency for its devices which was debuted with the iPad Air 2.

Design & Dimensions

Moving towards the end of this piece, we take a look at some anticipated design and dimensional changes on the iPhone 6s. Given that this is a 's' upgrade, we've combined design and dimensions in a single package, since there isn't much we expect to change this year. That doesn't mean that the iPhone 6s duo will be exactly similar in terms of external aesthetics to last year's devices as some changes are in the mill. Starting from dimensions, all those leaks and rumors about Force Touch seem to have contributed to the iPhone 6s duo's thickness as well.

Apple's 2015 flagship devices will be thicker than the iPhone 6 and iPhone 6 Plus, but otherwise the same when it comes to dimensions. The iPhone 6s has been spotted with dimensions of 138.34 x 67.91 x 7.1, which mark an increase of 0.2mm in thickness. The iPhone 6s Plus on the other hand should be expected to come with an increase of 0.78mm, which is markedly more than the iPhone 6s. This begs us to consider if the iPhone 6s Plus will be the only device out of the two to feature Force Touch technology, or will it be coming with a bigger battery to power that huge display? Since Force Touch was rumored in the early stages to come only with the iPhone 6s Plus, maybe Apple's going to keep a lot of its users waiting for the upgrade.

Coming towards the design, the iPhone 6s will largely resemble last year's iPhones in terms of aesthetic details. You'd be getting the same speaker grilles, same locations for the volume up/down buttons, the power button and the headphone jack. Material wise, we've heard some talk about this year's iPhone duo to be coming with some sturdier elements, in an attempt by Apple to avoid last year's Bendgate fiasco. An iPhone 6s Plus image leak showcases the sturdier materials, as well as a possible change in the speakers Apple will use on its phablet.

Other changes for the iPhone 6s duo include some upgrades to the device's buttons, which were spotted in yet another leak. For starters, the iPhone 6s will finally make a switch to a single volume button, rather than having two separate ones, which has been the case for quite a while now.

Before you let us know about your ire related to posting about such minute changes in the comments section below, know that we saved this one just for the ending. Since there aren't going to be any major changes, users should digest the minor changes for the time being. Other details such as the Touch ID's ring will stay the same, so apart from dimensional and material changes, nothing else should be expected on this year's iPhone.

Now that we're done with the upcoming iPhone's technical and design details, it's time to take a look at the expected price of the upcoming flagship devices. We've seen several tidbits about the iPhone 6s duo's price so far too, with the iPhone 6s Plus expected to come at a staggering retail of $1254 for the 128 GB variant. This bit of news, straight from Apple's supply chain sources in Hong Kong, come with its own interesting bit of spin. Starting from the iPhone 6s, the 32, 64 and 128GB variants will allegedly cost you $850, $950 and $1110 respectively. That's right; there might be no 16GB iPhone this year, with the base model coming in at 32GB instead.

As far as the iPhone 6s Plus goes, the same sources claim that the 32, 64 and 128GB variants will end up costing you $980, $1110 and $1254, as mentioned above. There's been no mention of carrier pricing options though, with the only information that we've seen on the subject so far is an alleged memo from Walmart, that was deemed to be fake later on.

Everything aside, we believe that Apple will debut the iPhone 6s and iPhone 6s Plus with the same pricing structure as its current iPhone 6 lineup. With the iPhone 6s starting at $650 for the base model, and iPhone 6s Plus starting at $750, adding increments of $100 as you bump up the storage one step higher each time.

And at last, the iPhone 6s duo can be expected to be launched at a similar date as last year, i.e. on September 9th.

The main selling point of this year's iPhones will be their feature upgrades, and Apple should be looking to further build on the 6th-generation of the iPhone this year. The iPhone 6 duo last year introduced a completely new design, and with the 6s, Apple should be free to focus on core performance and features.

Liked our compilation? Let us know what you think in the comments section below and stay tuned for more.

 

 

 

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