It’s a known fact that Apple launches a new iPhone every year. The ‘S’ version of an iPhone has just a few tweaks to its predecessor while the phone gets a redesign every two years. So this year we can expect the iPhone 6S and/or the 6S Plus or whatever Apple decides to call them. The devices will almost definitely look the same as the iPhone 6 and 6 Plus but will get certain upgrades. If you’re planning to buy the new iPhones which will be launched by this October, then this is what you can expect from them:
Force Touch
The Force Touch technology was first introduced with the Apple Watch and was later incorporated into the new MacBook and Retina MacBook Pro. It’s basically an ability to detect a hard touch from a soft one which would enable certain gestures. By identifying the difference between a light tap and a long press, different pressures of touch result in different kinds of action. For instance, in a Macbook Pro, you can lightly tap the fast forward button in QuickTime to speed up the video by 1x, while a more forceful touch will speed up the fast forwarding. Here are a few instances of what you can do with Force Touch on a Macbook and the Apple Watch.
It’s apparent that the iPhone will get it.
Wireless Charging
Barring the iPhone 6 Plus, most iPhones in recent times have never delivered satisfactory battery life. Apple is expected to add Wireless Charging to the next iPhone. We’re led to believe it because of Apple’s introduction to this inductive charging method on the Apple Watch. Although we’re doubtful if the charger will come right inside the box since, unlike the Apple Watch, wireless charging will not be the only charging medium for the next iPhones. Along with Wireless charging, a way to mitigate charging a big battery on a smartphone is to bundle a fast charger and appropriate fast-charging mechanisms in the phone. Other manufacturers have already been doing it, like The Samsung Galaxy S6 supports Quick Charge technology and charges the phone up to 50% in just 30 minutes. Apparently, iPhones do support faster charging, just that they’re bundled with slower chargers. It is known that charging an iPhone using an iPad charger powers up an iPhone 6 Plus in just two hours, where the default charger would take 3 hours.
A more powerful charger right out of the box would be the icing on the cake.
Better Camera
iPhones are known for their awesome camera. Some people buy it just for its ability to take great pictures without playing with any settings. The “Shot on the iPhone 6” became a big marketing campaign to display how good their phone camera was. The only thing lacking in their camera is a higher megapixel count, which will help in obtaining more detailed pictures. Since the 8 megapixel resolution has remained the same for the past four years since the iPhone 4s, the next iPhone is due to get a megapixel bump for both the rear and even the front camera. A bump in the resolution will also enable 4K video recording, something that the 8 megapixel sensor today cannot capture. We cannot predict what else Apple will do to the camera of the next iPhone but given their track record, there’s no doubt it will be better than its predecessors.
USB-C
The USB-C connector was introduced in the all-new MacBook. This is not very likely to reach the iPhone but who knows? The biggest benefit of it coming to the iPhone is that people can then use universal chargers once Android phone manufacturers also adopt the same technology. Other companies like Google (Chromebook) and Nokia (N1 tablet) have already adopted the USB-C connector. A Google spokesperson has even declared that USB-C connectors are soon coming to Android phones and tablets. It’ll be a boon to people if for once Apple adopts this global standard connector. Plus it will retain all the benefits of the current Lightning port, like dual-sided input along with faster data throughput.
32GB Base Model
Apple’s iPhone used to come in 16GB, 32GB and 64GB models. And after the model has aged, Apple has even brought out an 8GB variant (for eg – iPhone 4, 4S and 5C). With the iPhone 6, Apple ditched the 32GB model and launched the phones with 16GB, 64GB and 128GB. A lot of users were irked with this move, as 32GB storage is generally considered bare minimum these days and should have ideally been the base model. So Apple may discontinue the 16GB model and stick to the 32GB, 64GB and 128GB ones.
Improved Touch ID
Touch ID was first introduced with the iPhone 5s. The device uses your thumbprint to unlock and the sensor is placed below the home button. The results were pretty accurate and very few errors were reported. A lot of reports suggest that the new sensor will be upgraded to negate even those small errors.
Besides these, we expect a faster chip — the A9 presumably. Also, Apple may finally boost the RAM. Even though 1GB seems enough to ensure a smooth performance on iOS, more RAM would not make older models slowdown with future iOS updates. What remains to be seen is will Apple bring all the features to both devices. Because at the launch of the two new models last year, Apple choose not to bring Optical Image Stabilization (OIS) to the iPhone 6 and kept that feature exclusive to the iPhone 6 Plus. We expect similar pattern this year as well and Apple will definitely give an additional feature just to the bigger phone. After all, the iPhone 6 Plus is costlier and its price cannot be justified by just a larger screen.
At the end of the day, the iPhone 6S and 6S Plus will need to add at least some of the above-said features, to lead the mobile innovation that others tend to follow. Just like they did with Siri in the iPhone 4s, or Touch ID with the iPhone 5s.
