Apple goes large with iPhone 6 and iPhone 6 Plus – UK prices

To quote the film Poltergeist, Theeeeey’re heeeeeeere! Not one, but two super-sized iPhones.

Welcome to what Apple gaffer, Tim Cook, called “the biggest advancement in the history of iPhone”. Well, biggest in size certainly.

The iPhone 6 and iPhone 6 Plus have just been unveiled on Apple’s ancestral home – the same venue where the original Macintosh and the iMac were both launched.

The 4.7-inch iPhone 6 is a mere 6.8mm thin. The star of the show however has to be the eagerly awaited iPhone 6 Plus, the phablet-sized Apple smartphone that Billy Fat-Hands and his crew have been waiting seven years for.

The iPhone 6 Plus is a svelte 7.1mm thin but packs in a vast 5.5-inch 1080p display which Apple has tailored its iOS software to fit so that the extra screen space is used to the fullest. In other words, you’ll get more text on screen, more icons and even a dual pane mode in landscape.

Both devices are powered by Apple’s new 64-bit A8 chip so should be more hare than tortoise, and Apple claims that you’ll benefit from CPU improvements of up to 25% compared to last year’s models.
802.11ac Wi-Fi means you will also get faster wireless internets compared to last year’s models, and that’s all without a hitch in battery life either. The iPhone 6 Plus has also been given a stamina boost and should handle up to 12 hours of non-stop web browsing or 80 hours of audio (compared to the iPhone 6 which can squeeze out 50 hours).

The pair of sixes are both loaded with an 8MP camera round back which is equipped with a new sensor and rapid focusing smarts. The snapper has also been blessed with new panorama software to muster up 43 megapixel scenic vistas and 240fps slow mo video clips. On top of that, the iPhone 6 Plus packs in optical image stabilisation (the ‘normal’ 6 doesn’t) for better low light performance.

As you’d expect, the iPhone 6 and 6 Plus come running iOS 8 out of the box.

The iPhone 6 and 6 Plus will ship in black, gold and silver, with both models offering a 128GB option for the first time – good news for tune, film and app hoarders.

Both phones are launching on September 19, and will be available on September 19 (with September 12 pre-order). iOS 8 will be supported from the iPhone 4S backwards, and the iOS 8 release date is September 17.

The iPhone 6 will start at $199 in the US, for 16GB, 64GB for $299, and $399 will bring the all-new 128GB iPhone. Both come in gold, silver and space grey.

UK prices – The iPhone 6 starts at £539 with the iPhone 6 Plus kicking off at £619.

So. Waddaya think?