Apple's new smartphone, expected to be called either the iPhone 6S or iPhone 7, will have more than 5 per cent less battery power than its predecessor, according to reports from component makers in China.
And photographs revealed yesterday appear to confirm that it will be slightly larger and heavier than the model it replaces, in a reversal of the usual consumer electronics trend towards products that are ever slimmer and lighter.
MacRumors has published images of an iPhone 6S or 7 that has been assembled from leaked components. It looks indistinguishable from the current model, but measures 7.08mm thick, compared with the 6.9mm iPhone 6. The larger screened iPhone 6S Plus comes in at 7.3mm, compared with 7.1mm for its predecessor. Both new iPhones are also slightly taller and broader than the models they replace, but by less than a millimetre in each direction.
The slight increase in size results from "several factors including a change in the aluminum being used for the shell, thickening of weak spots in the case to help address concerns over bending, and new support for Force Touch functionality in the display", according to MacRumors.
The changes are small enough that few will notice them unless the old and new handsets are placed side by side, and cases and other accessories designed for one iPhone are likely to fit the other. Of more concern to potential customers is likely to be this week's claim that the new model will have a less powerful battery.
Tech news site cnBeta says the battery capacity of the standard-sized iPhone 6S or 7 will be reduced from 1810 milliampere hours to 1715 mAh, and the large-screened model will drop from 2910 to 2750 mAh. That amounts to a power drop of 5.3 per cent for the iPhone 6S or 7, and of 5.5 per cent for the larger iPhone 6S Plus or 7 Plus.
"These aren't huge decreases," says Forbes, "but it is of particular concern for the iPhone 6S as battery life is already one of the worst features of the iPhone 6."
iPhone users frequently complain about their handsets being unable to make it through the day without needing to be recharged.
Many had been hoping that the iPhone 6S or 7 would herald an improvement in battery life, particularly because Apple appears to have been focusing on the problem.
The company "has made a point of how new operating system iOS 9 will be more energy efficient than iOS 8, including a new Low Power mode and new updates adding around an hour to battery life," says the Daily Telegraph.
Software improvements may compensate for the new iPhones smaller batteries, but it seems clear that prospective customers should not expect a significant increase in battery life.
Nor should they expect the iPhone 6S or 7 to be any smaller or lighter than its predecessor. This week's report from cnBeta appears to confirm earlier leaked information suggesting that the new handset will be marginally thicker and broader, if only by a few millimetres, to accommodate the pressure sensitive touchscreen necessary for Force Touch (see below). It will also be a few grams heavier.
Yesterday, 9to5Mac.com reported that in the US, phone companies will sell the iPhone 6S or 7 on two-year contracts at the same price offered for iPhone 6 at its launch last year. No details about pricing for Sim-free purchases directly from Apple have yet been leaked.
Apple is expected to unveil the iPhone 6S or 7 at an event in California on 9 September. It never comments on new products in advance of their official launch.
Force Touch for iPhone 6S or 7: how it will work
1 September
For several months Apple has been expected to equip the iPhone 6S or 7 with Force Touch, a new input method already available on the Apple Watch and MacBook laptop. But now a new leak appears to reveal precisely how it will work on the smartphone.
Force Touch makes use of a modified touchscreen which can differentiate between a light tap and a longer, harder touch, and react differently to each. For example, on the Apple Watch, a light tap on an email opens it up to be read, while more sustained pressure takes the user directly to the reply screen.
On the iPhone 6S or 7, says 9to5Mac, Force Touch will let you skip long lists of menus.
"A user can look up a point of interest in the Maps application, and then Force Touch on the destination to immediately begin turn-by-turn directions, the website says. "Currently, if a user wants to start navigating to a destination, she must search for the point of interest, click the navigation logo on the map view, then click another button to actually start navigating. In this case, the Force Touch gesture will skip two steps."
In other contexts, Force Touch will bring up menus containing further options, for example a firm press on the phone icon on the home screen will let you "shortcut directly to the voicemail tab".
iPhone 6S or 7 camera: what to expect
1 September
Although Apple never comments on what it has in store for the next iPhone, analysts and consumers will be surprised and disappointed if the iPhone 6S or iPhone 7 doesn't come with a substantially upgraded camera when it's unveiled next month.
For some time Apple's eight-megapixel camera has looked, on paper, as if it should have been eclipsed by those fitted to rival smartphones - although there have been few complaints from iPhone users.
"Apple's focus on ease of use, coupled with image processing that's consistently spot-on, has enabled the iPhone to deliver image quality far in excess of what others have been able to achieve with similar hardware," writes Paul Monckton for Forbes.
Nevertheless, most commentators say that the iPhone 6S or 7 will have to deliver an improvement in photographic capabilities.
Soon after the launch of the last iPhone, John Gruber, a blogger who runs the website Daring Fireball and has often revealed accurate information about forthcoming Apple products, told consumers to prepare themselves for the "biggest camera jump" ever on the next iPhone model. He said he had heard that the new phone would have two lenses, which, in tandem, would bring iPhone 6S image quality up to that of a full-sized digital SLR camera.
That report has since been largely discredited, at least for the 2015 iPhone model, as analysts are not expecting Apple to introduce the kind of radical design changes that would be needed in order to equip its phones with dual lenses.
But more recent reports do still point to substantial improvement in the iPhone 6S or 7 camera.
"The camera on the next iPhone will have a bigger sensor that can take in more light, and a lens that's designed to work with that improved sensor," reports Business Insider. "This means we can expect the iPhone 6S to capture higher-quality photos than the iPhone 6."
It quotes an unnamed source who says that Apple has ordered 12-megapixel camera sensors, and a new lens assembly to work alongside them. Both components are said to have entered mass production.
Increasing the megapixel count will result in several advantages. "[It] would improve overall sharpness, but more importantly, enable cropping more deeply into images without a noticeable loss of quality and provide higher quality digital zoom for video," Forbes says. "It would also finally allow Apple to tick the 4K video box on the forthcoming spec sheet."
Many other smartphone makers have equipped their handsets with ultrahigh-definition 4K video, but Apple's previous phones have not been capable of recording video with the necessary resolution.
Business Insider's report suggests that Apple may be planning an even more substantial camera upgrade for whatever model it produces after the iPhone 6S or 7. It says the 2016 upgrade will include six lens elements rather than the five used in the iPhone 6 and planned for the phone that will replace it this autumn.
What's the significance of the extra lens element?
Each lens element is a curved piece of glass, or, in the case of smartphone camera assemblies, a tiny sliver of plastic, which refracts light in a highly controlled manner.
There is no direct link between the number of lens elements and the quality of the image they produce, but as a general rule more sophisticated smartphone camera set-ups require more lens elements.
"In order to increase a camera's aperture, which is essentially a passage that allows light to enter through the camera, you would need to add more elements to a camera's lens," explains TechInsider." The larger the aperture, the more light can travel through the lens to the camera's body, which in turn produces better photographs."
If Apple does produce a new iPhone next year with a six-element lens, it will be catching up with some of its rivals. The Samsung Galaxy S5 and OnePlus 2 both have cameras with six-element lens assemblies.
How else could Apple improve the iPhone 7 camera?
Here are four other ways in which Apple could beef up its smartphone's camera:
Stable images: Only the larger of Apple's two current iPhones, the 6 Plus, features optical image stabilisation – which helps to prevent blurry images, especially in low-light conditions. The most obvious improvement would therefore be to extend that feature to the junior version of the iPhone 6S or 7 as well, although space constraints within the smaller chassis may prove challenging. If reports that the new iPhone's battery will be smaller prove correct, it is possible that some of that space could be allocated to a stabilisation unit.
Faster camera launch: One simple way in which Apple might improve the camera is to speed up the launch process and make it more accessible whatever you're doing with your phone at the moment a photographic opportunity arises. The iPhone 6 is no laggard, but rivals from Samsung, LG and Sony have recently overtaken Apple's launch procedure. Shaving a second or two off the process may not make any headlines, but it would please millions of iPhone photographers.
Faster, brighter lens: The aperture of the lens on the iPhone 6 – which determines how much light the camera sensor receives – is a respectable f/2.2, but it has been superseded by rival smartphone makers offering cameras with f/1.8 apertures. "While these might seem like very small numerical differences, the extra light gathering capability is really rather large," says Forbes. "When all other parameters remain equal, an aperture of f/1.8 gathers 50 per cent more light than an aperture of f/2.2." Stepping up the brightness of the lens could help to counteract the effect of reducing the iPhone 7's pixel sensor size (see above).
Variable aperture: This would allow Apple to take a substantial step towards the "DSLR quality images" touted by many commentators. The size of the camera lens aperture – in simple terms, the hole through which light passes to reach the sensor – determines how much of the image is in focus. A wide aperture produces a narrow depth of field – which means, for example, that a pin-sharp subject in the foreground of a photo will stand out against an out-of-focus background. A narrow aperture keeps much more of the image in focus, which is useful in landscape photography. Equipping the iPhone 7 with a variable aperture would give smartphone photographers the kind of controls over depth of field that SLR cameras have offered for decades.
iPhone 6S or iPhone 7 'on sale on 18 September'
19 August
Two German mobile phone networks are preparing for the iPhone 6S or iPhone 7 to go on sale on 18 September, suggesting that Apple is planning to repeat the launch pattern of previous years for its 2015 iPhone upgrade. A second leak, from Japanese Home, suggests that Japan is also gearing up for an 18 September debut.
Last week leaked information suggested that Apple will schedule its launch event for the new phone for 8 or 9 September (see below), and the on-sale date has typically followed on the Friday of the week after the grand unveiling.
The handset is likely to go on sale in the UK on the same day as in Germany and Japan, according to Apple Insider.
"Germany has long been one of Apple's first-tier launch countries," the website reports. "If the rumored launch date is accurate, that would therefore point to when the 6s will ship in other first-tier regions — namely Australia, Canada, France, Hong Kong, Japan, Singapore, the UK and the US, with mainland China being a possibility."
iPhone 6S or 7: launch date 'set for 9 September'
Here's what we know about the iPhone 6S – or could it be the iPhone 7? – a month before its likely launch date
23 August
Apple is planning to reveal the new iPhone on Wednesday 9 September, according to reports that have been seized on by Apple enthusiasts.
"The company intends to hold a special event the week of Sept. 7, with Wednesday the 9th being the most likely date," reports John Paczkowski of Buzzfeed.
Tech news site MacRumors says Paczkowski "has provided reliable information on event dates in the past", but a Wednesday launch for the iPhone 7 would break with recent Apple tradition. For the past two years, the company has held its annual iPhone events on a Tuesday, with the new models going on sale on the Friday of the following week. For that reason, The Independent suggests that Tuesday 8 September is the likely launch date.
There is more agreement about when the new iPhone will actually go on sale, with 18 September the favoured date. Several large phone companies, including two in Germany and one in Japan, have let slip that they're preparing to support the iPhone 7 from that day - and the handset is likely to go on sale in the UK at the same time, according to Apple Insider.
"Germany has long been one of Apple's first-tier launch countries," the website reports. "If the rumored launch date is accurate, that would therefore point to when the 6s will ship in other first-tier regions — namely Australia, Canada, France, Hong Kong, Japan, Singapore, the UK and the US, with mainland China being a possibility."
However, it's not clear whether the companies' preparations are based on inside information, or an assumption based on Apple's previous launch schedules.
iPhone 6S or iPhone 7: what can we expect this autumn?
10 August
A great deal of doubt surrounds the extent of the changes planned for Apple's flagship phone – as well as the new model's name.
Most commentators say the company will keep to its usual product launch schedule, in which it follows an all-new product one year with minor upgrades the next.
After last year's iPhone 6, which brought in a new look, larger screens and significant new features, major changes this autumn would come as a surprise. Therefore, they say, the 2015 model will be called the iPhone 6S.
Apple itself never comments on new products until their official launch, but the company's new operating system, iOS 9, reveals many of the developments we can expect in the iPhone 6S or iPhone 7.
"Updates and features include Siri becoming more proactive in recognising your behaviour, longer battery life and improvements to existing apps including Maps and Notes," says the Daily Telegraph. "The new News app aims to provide an experience akin to reading a magazine, with big glossy visuals."
One expert scouring the code of iOS 9, which has already been released to app developers, has found evidence to suggest that the new iPhone will have a much-improved front-facing camera.
Hamsa Sood says the iPhone 7's "selfie-cam" will be capable of shooting slow-motion, 240 frame-per-second video, along with 1080p video at normal speed, and panoramic still images. Other leaked information is yet to back up this theory, but Sood has been a reliable source of advance information about previous Apple launches.
Most analysts are agreed that Apple will have to increase the resolution of the rear-facing camera to at least 12 megapixels in order to keep pace with rivals, and some have suggested that Apple is planning an even more significant camera upgrade.
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