iPhone 6 Plus vs. iPhone 6, 5s and 5c

 

Gizmag compares the features and specs of the four iPhones you can buy today

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For the next year, Apple will be selling four different iPhones. Maybe you're thinking about upgrading and wondering which one is best for you? Let Gizmag lend a hand, as we compare the features and specs of the four iPhones you can buy today.

Before we jump in, here's the list of iPhones that Apple is currently serving up:

For each category, you'll see two rows of images. The iPhones will be ordered exactly as they are in this list, so, if you lose track of which is which, you can just scroll back up here.

The iPhone 6 Plus, Apple's first phablet, towers over both its sibling and its predecessors. It's 15 percent taller than the iPhone 6, and 27 percent taller than the 5s and 5c.

If enormous phablets aren't your thing, then the iPhone 6 might provide the middle-ground you're looking for. It's 11 percent taller than last year's 5s and 5c.

The iPhone 6 is also the thinnest iPhone to date. It's just 3 percent thinner than the 6 Plus, but 9 percent thinner than the already svelte iPhone 5s.

Weight

The 5s is by far the lightest in this bunch, but the iPhones 6 and 6 Plus are still relatively light for their respective sizes.

Build

Most modern Apple devices have aluminum unibody designs, and three of these four fit that bill. The iPhones 6 and 6 Plus are especially striking, with their front panels sloping off into rounded edges.

The iPhone 5c was designed to be a slightly cheaper alternative to the iPhone 5s – marrying the guts of the iPhone 5 to a colorful plastic casing. The 5c doesn't have the same top-of-the-line feel of its aluminum cousins, but it is eye-catching and smooth to touch. If nothing else, it's the spunkiest iPhone to date.

Colors

Three of the four iPhones are offered in the same silver, gold and space gray options (though the tones are a little different on the new models).

The space gray versions have black fronts, while the silver and gold variants have white fronts.

The 5c lets you choose from five pastel-colored backsides. They all have black fronts.

Display (size)

Do you need to own both a phone and a tablet? Well, with the iPhone 6 Plus' huge 5.5-in screen, you might not. If you ever wished you could replace your iPhone and iPad with one Apple device, this is it.

The iPhone 6's 4.7-inch display, though, gives you a nice screen size without leaving such a sizable impression in your hand or pocket. It's easier to hold, but still gives you 38 percent more screen than the 5s and 5c do.

Display (resolution)

On paper, the resolutions of the two iPhone 6 models blend in with a crowd of recent Android flagships. But in experience, they do anything but.

Both have terrific contrast, as well as color range and accuracy. They may not have Quad HD resolution, but, based on our hands-on time with them, they don't need to.

And though the 6 Plus packs the pixels in denser than the 6 does, my eyes didn't notice much of a difference in crispness. The bottom line? They both look terrific.

The 5s and 5c have the same pixel density as the iPhone 6, but I wouldn't put their screens in the same class.

Display (contrast)

This is a big reason for the boost in screen quality with the 6 and 6 Plus, with the new models giving you much better contrast.

Note that these are what Apple lists as the "typical" contrasts for each display.

Fingerprint sensor

All but the 5c include Apple's excellent Touch ID fingerprint sensor, which is integrated into the home button.

Until recently, Touch ID only let you unlock your phone and authorize iTunes purchases. But with iOS 8, third-party apps can now use Touch ID. Password manager apps like 1Password, Dashlane and LastPass make for an especially great fit.

Starting in October, Apple Pay (sometimes branded as  Pay) will let you pay at participating retailers (including McDonald's, Subway, Toys "R" Us and, of course, the Apple Store) by simply holding your iPhone near an Apple Pay terminal. Apple says that the retailer never sees your credit card number, a unique ID is encrypted and stored on the phone's secure element and the numbers are never sent to Apple's servers.

When Apple Pay launches, only the two new iPhones will be (directly) compatible. That's because they're the only two with NFC chips inside – a necessary component for the tap-and-pay service.

The iPhones 5s and 5c (along with the retired iPhone 5) will be indirectly compatible with Apple Pay – but you'll need a paired Apple Watch to make that happen.

 Watch compatibility

Speaking of the Apple Watch, all four of the currently available iPhones will play nicely with the upcoming smartwatch.

Camera (megapixels)

Here's another example of numbers on paper not reflecting experience (that's often the case with megapixels). The two iPhone 6 models have terrific cameras, shooting quickly and offering good quality even in lower-lit conditions.

Camera (aperture)

One reason for that is that the iPhone 6 Plus, 6 and 5s have slightly wider apertures.

Dual LED flash

Branded "True Tone" by Apple, the 5s, 6 and 6 Plus have dual-LED flashes. They help to give flash shots a more even and colorful (less whitewashed and blasted) appearance.

Apart from size, this is one of the only differences between the 6 and 6 Plus. The Plus helps to cut down on the effects of shaky hands by throwing in some Optical Image Stabilization (OIS).

HD video recording

The two iPhone 6 models can record 1080p video at 60 frames per second (fps), though they're set to 30 fps by default.

Slow motion video

Three of the four iPhones also let you record slow-motion video. The two iPhone 6 models, however, record at a higher frame rate than the 5s does.

Battery

Battery capacity only tells you so much – especially when you're looking at different processors and pixel counts. But when we reviewed these four phones, the 6 and 6 Plus outlasted their older counterparts in our streaming test.

Cable

This marks the first time that Apple has completely done away with iPhones that use the old 30-pin connector for data transfers and charging. All four of these use Apple's newer, smaller and reversible Lightning cable.

With the retirement of the iPhone 4s, this is also the first time that all of the available iPhones support speedy LTE data.

Storage

These are the storage options that are available today. The 5s and 5c, though, were originally available in higher storage tiers that Apple has since retired.

Processor

You can't draw any conclusions about the performance of Apple's chips based on cores and clock speed. On paper, they all look rather mid-ranged (apart from their desktop-like 64-bit architecture).

But in terms of experience, the iPhone 6 and 6 Plus' A8 chip combines with iOS 8 to deliver one of the smoothest experiences I've seen on any mobile device.

Ditto for RAM, though this does reveal itself a bit when you return to backgrounded apps and browser tabs. They need to reload a bit more often than on some of their Android rivals.

Motion coprocessor

The 6 Plus, 6 and 5s each include a motion coprocessor (either M8 or M7), which lets third-party apps "passively" track your movement in the background.

When you're using this feature, battery life can take a noticeable hit, but it's minor compared to the drop in uptimes you'd see when tracking all-day steps on other phones.

One-handed mode

Apple threw in a one-handed feature called "Reachability" that makes it easier to use the newer iPhones with one hand. By lightly tapping their Touch ID sensors two times, the top of the screen slides down to the bottom. You can then tap anything that's out of reach, and double-tap the sensor again to slide things back up.

SIM card size

With the iPhone 4s now living in the Shady Pines Retirement Home for iPhones, Apple also did away with the last iPhone to use a micro-SIM. All four current models use the tiny nano-SIM standard.

Power button location

Apple moved the power/sleep button to the side (upper right) of the two iPhone 6 models. On every previous iPhone (including the 5s and 5c), the button had been on the right side of the top edge.

Software

None of the current models got left behind with Apple's latest software. All four run iOS 8, which brings goodies like third-party keyboards, Notification Center widgets, faster Siri and app extensions.

Release date

None of these iPhones are more than a year old, though the iPhone 5c is essentially the two-year-old iPhone 5 dressed in plastic, pastel-colored clothing.

Starting price (full retail)

The 6 Plus has the most expensive starting price we've seen from any iPhone. Considering how much bigger its screen is, that shouldn't be too surprising.

Starting price (on-contract)

If you're buying your iPhone subsidized with a two-year contract, then their starting prices line up in the same descending order. Just remember that the upfront price is small potatoes compared to what you'll fork over during the next two years.

For a closer look at each model, you can check out Gizmag's full reviews of the current crop of iPhones:

Do you have any buying tips based on your experience with these iPhones? Or maybe you've upgraded to one of the new models, and have some thoughts on how it compares to older ones? Why not drop us a line in the comments below.

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GoPro announces Hero 4 models with 4K/30fps recording and touchscreen display

 

The GoPro Hero 4 Black Edition will offer 4K recording at 30 FPS

 

GoPro has just announced three new models in its popular Hero actioncam line. The followup to the Hero 3, aptly named Hero 4, adds 4K recording at 30 frames per second. This should be a big improvement over the 4K/15fps seen on the previous model.

Recording in 4K is a nice feature to have, but as Hero 3 Black Edition owners will know, trading resolution for frame rate is frequently not worthwhile, as videos can look quite choppy when recorded at a maximum of only 15 frames per second. The Hero 4 Black Edition should solve that problem, allowing anything to be captured in Ultra-High Definition with smooth motion. Additionally, it can record 2.7K resolution video at 50 fps, and 1080p at 120 fps. That 120 fps recording mode will open up some really cool slow-motion options.

The Hero 4 Black also features improved sound quality that promises to double the dynamic range of last year's models.

The still photo options haven't seen much in the way of the changes from the Hero 3 Black. The Hero 4 Black still captures images up to 12MP, with a burst fire mode that shoots at 30 photos per second. However, improvements have been made to the night capture mode. These low-light improvements also apply to time-lapse photos.

In terms of Wi-Fi and Bluetooth connectivity, GoPro is promising 50 percent speed improvements over the previous models, which should allow for better connectivity to smartphones.

Another key functionality boost is HiLight Tag, which allows users to quickly mark a moment in a video on the fly. This will make it easier to go back and find the specific moment while editing. Manual control of recording has also been improved, allowing users to adjust color, sharpness, ISO limit, exposure and so on.

The slightly more affordable Silver model (seen above) offers many of the features of the Hero 4 Black, but it loses the 4K/30fps, 2.7K/50fps and 1080p/120fps capture modes. The Silver does, however, add a touchscreen display to allow users to see and frame shots more easily.

Additionally, GoPro is also releasing a budget model, which it's just calling the Hero. This one lacks any of the higher frame rate and resolution features, but it's still able to capture video in 1080p at 30fps, or 720p at 60fps.

All of the new models are set for release on October 5. The new Black comes with a retail price of US$499, and the Silver will set buyers back $399. As for the new budget model, it's launching with a modest $129 price tag.

 

Product page: GoPro

 

 

Apple iPhone 6 review

 

Like all its predecessors, the iPhone 6 still proudly touts its origins on its back panel: "Designed by Apple in California." It's more appropriate than ever, because this latest iPhone (and its phablet sibling, the iPhone 6 Plus) is much like California itself. On the whole, it's beautiful. It does many things well and it is arguably the best in the world in a number of categories. Some say it's too expensive, while others contend that's just the price of living on the bleeding edge of innovation and style. Ultimately, it's not perfect and you'll have to tolerate some inefficiencies and ugly areas that seem like they could easily be fixed up, but even with all its flaws, it's still pretty awesome.

By now you've at least seen photos of the iPhone 6 and have a feel for its basic look, but you've really got to get one in your hand to understand the gorgeous design of this device. I wasn't blown away by all the early leaks of the form factor and I'm still not crazy about those strange antenna lines on the back, but the completely smooth, rounded and near seamless design is something to behold in person.

The lack of any squared edges makes for an unexpectedly nice feel in the hand. It's so thin, flat and light that it almost feels frail, but don't worry, this smaller of the two new iPhone siblings doesn't seem to suffer from the same pliability issues as the iPhone 6 Plus. The anodized aluminum and other materials have a premium feel and the curved edge of the glass screen sloping down toward the chassis is indicative of a high degree of attention to detail. To me, it seems like clear evidence that the obsessive-compulsive ghost of Steve Jobs is still stalking the halls of Apple.

Beauty also on display

As with many other Apple devices, the display is easy on the eyes (including the retinas) as well. Obviously, the most noticeable difference between the iPhone 6 and earlier models is that the screen has grown to a 4.7-inch display with a 1334x750 resolution, delivering the same pixel density as the display on the iPhone 5S, but with 38 percent more screen real estate. Apple claims its latest Retina HD display delivers higher contrast, colors that don't go sideways at wider viewing angles and a better polarizing layer slipped in between the backlit IPS display and the glass.

While there are displays out there with higher pixel density - notably on the LG G3 and Samsung Galaxy S5, among others - the iPhone 6 achieves nearly perfect color accuracy, according to Ray Soneira at DisplayMate, who measures such things. My eyes certainly concur with his data; the colors on this display remain vivid and true across apps, photos, videos and iOS 8 animations and visual effects like parallax that can be hypnotic at times.

Both new iPhones also have the needed combination of high screen brightness and low screen reflectance that allow it to perform well in very bright situations like under direct sunlight. Indeed, I can't think of another LCD screen that's easier to read beneath the afternoon sun. DisplayMate data and my own eyes also confirm Apple's claims about staying true at wider viewing angles.

Had Apple put the same 1920 x 1080 resolution from the 6 Plus into the iPhone 6, it may have taken the all-time smartphone display gold. That's a long-winded way of explaining why the iPhone 6 display falls just shy of perfect, but most users will likely be blown away by the viewing experience, as I have been so far.

 

Still just working

Plenty of features on the iPhone 6 still "just work" better than most other smartphones we've seen so far. Touch ID works well over ninety percent of the time and as much as I love my Moto X that's been good to me for almost a year, this is a great feature that has only improved since its introduction on the iPhone 5S and could become a killer feature once Apple Pay rolls out starting next month.

That is, so long as Apple Pay can actually deliver on the company's promises that it will be fully secure. Since Apple uses a numeric hash of your fingerprint (basically a mathematical representation of your print rather than an image), there's reason to be confident in that promise, for now.

While we wait for Apple Pay to team up with Touch ID to allow us to pay for whatever we want with our thumbs on our iPhones, iOS 8 now allows third-party developers access to Touch ID, and apps like Amazon, eHarmony, 1Password and LastPass already support accessing your personal accounts with those companies via that magical little steel circle at the bottom of the phone.

For some time, the iPhone has had one of the best cameras on a general purpose smartphone (the Nokia Lumia 1020's 41-megapixel system being one notable outlier) and the rear shooter on the iPhone 6 has received some additional improvements, particularly to auto-focus and video capture. Here's a great afternoon landscape:

The camera does just OK with this low-light backstage shot:

But performs well using auto-focus for this challenging shot of a moving, lighted target in the dark:

The most interesting feature (that will probably be the least used) allows for the capture of time-lapse movies. Continuous auto-focus and image stabilization also work well for taking 1080p, 60 frames per second HD videos. The slow motion feature shoots 240 frames in each second to produce 720p slow-mo videos.

The iPhone 6 is the rare phone that includes upgrades to actual voice call quality. Thanks in part to improved data transfer speeds over both LTE and Wi-Fi, higher-quality audio is possible for calls using voice over LTE (VoLTE) or over Wi-Fi when you don't have a strong cell signal.

Our test phone is the unlocked model that came with a T-Mobile sim, but T-mobile has no 4G service near my home, so I popped in an already-activated Verizon sim and VoLTE came online within a few minutes. This is particularly interesting because Verizon is a CDMA based carrier and T-Mobile is on a GSM network and I was able to switch between the two seamlessly. Apparently the key is to make sure that the sim you use is already activated on your network of choice, particularly if you use Verizon, which is known to be testy with newer devices from time to time.

Under ideal circumstances, calls between two VoLTE calls should have the near real-world sound quality of a Skype or FaceTime call. My tests revealed what seemed like pretty marginal improvements in sound quality, but this could be due to a number of factors, and will improve over time as more carriers continue to roll out the service more widely.

I found the battery strength to be rather remarkable under moderate usage, easily getting 36 hours out of a single charge. During this period I listened to a lot of audio over Bluetooth, took plenty of pictures and videos and the normal amount of constant email and social media pinging. However, this is before I was able to get VoLTE to come online and plenty of others report more disappointing battery endurance, so please remember that battery performance varies widely depending on usage. I'm going to continue monitoring the battery and performing some more rigorous tests and will update this post accordingly with the results.

Usage / software

At its core, the iPhone 6 is a delight to use thanks to steady, smooth performance from the new 64-bit A8 chip, which is built much like the CPU you'd find on many a desktop. The A8 is paired with Apple's M8 motion coprocessor connected to a suite of sensors including a new barometer. This whole package of gold and silicon will play a role in working with Apple's new emphasis on health and fitness tracking, including pairing with the upcoming Apple Watch.

Remarkably, the A8 is only a dual-core, 1.4 GHz processor with just 1 GB of RAM to work with, yet iOS 8 runs smooth as melted butter. Animations, including the cool motion-based parallax effect on the wallpaper, all add to the experience without taking away from performance. At least for now, that could change as the device gets loaded up with more demanding apps and updates.

iOS 8 provides a cornucopia of long-awaited new features, many that have become standard to Android users, like the ability to swap out that Jurassic stock keyboard for Swype or Swiftkey. Apple Continuity and Handoffs will also allow you to pick up where you left off on your Mac or iPad, something that's become old hat for many Android/Chrome users already.

You can learn more in our full coverage of iOS 8, but the bottom line is that while it isn't a revolutionary step forward over iOS 7, it goes a long way towards modernizing a mobile OS that was starting to look stale. I'd still like to see more full-featured widgets, but on the other hand, Apple's Pay, Health and Home automation apps do seem to be on the leading edge, especially when Apple Watch comes into play next year.

Gripes

As I said at the outset, the iPhone 6 is no more perfect than the state where it was designed. In its crazed quest to create wafer-thin devices, Apple ran into barriers that it was apparently not able to surmount before the phone's release. First, there's the rear camera lens that protrudes from the back panel. This just feels awkward and tenuous and makes it impossible to lay the phone flat on its back. Fortunately, this can be solved with a case.

However, the issue of the significant bezel around the 4.7-inch display is harder to rectify. The iPhone 6 is already a much larger device than any that came before it, and it adds insult to injury to know that the part of the phone that makes it too big to comfortably palm doesn't even deliver pixels to your retinas. I'm happy to sacrifice some space to make room for the terrifically useful Touch ID, but I would have gladly given up a few more millimeters of thickness to make this phone fit as perfectly in my hand as its predecessors or my original Moto X.

As if admitting that the new iPhones are too big for the average human hand, the power button was relocated from the top to the side, and a strange new software feature called "reachability" brings the top half of the screen halfway down to the bottom whenever you quickly tap the Touch ID button twice.

Bottom line

Despite its few relatively minimal flaws, Apple has once again made a compelling case to upgrade to its latest and greatest. The iPhone 6 also presents the strongest argument yet for switching (or switching back) from Android. iOS and the iPhone hardware have been reconceived for the better, and there are a few exciting things just around the bend with Apple Pay and Apple Watch.

Early adopters and Apple devotees may as well place their orders for an iPhone 6 or iPhone 6 Plus now, whereas more conservative consumers couldn't be faulted for waiting and seeing how the Apple Pay and Watch rollouts go, and then perhaps placing an order early next year – or just holding on to see what the inevitable iPhone 6S and 6S Plus have to offer.

The iPhone 6 is available now, starting at US$650 full retail or $200 on-contract.

Product page: Apple

 

PrintAlive 3D bioprinter creates on-demand skin grafts for burn victims

 

The second-generation PrintAlive bioprinter that produces skin grafts for burn victims on demand

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While most are familiar with the potential for 3D printers to pump out plastic odds and ends for around the home, the technology also has far-reaching applications in the medical field. Research is already underway to develop 3D bioprinters able to create things as complex as human organs, and now engineering students in Canada have created a 3D printer that produces skin grafts for burn victims.

Called PrintAlive, the new machine was developed by University of Toronto engineering students Arianna McAllister and Lian Leng, who worked in collaboration with Professor Axel Guenther, Boyang Zhang and Dr. Marc Jeschke, the head of Sunnybrook Hospital's Ross Tilley Burn Centre.

While the traditional treatment for serious burns involves removing healthy skin from another part of the body so it can be grafted onto the affected area, the PrintAlive machine could put an end to such painful harvesting by printing large, continuous layers of tissue – including hair follicles, sweat glands and other human skin complexities – onto a hydrogel. Importantly, the device uses the patient's own cells, thereby eliminating the problem of the tissue being rejected by their immune system.

Because growing a culture of a patient's skin cells ready for grafting can typically take more than two weeks, the machine prints the patient's cells out in patterns of spots or stripes rather than a continuous sheet, to make them go further. The result is a cell-populated wound dressing that reproduces key features of human skin and can be precisely controlled in terms of thickness, structure and composition.

Having been under development since 2008, the team recently completed a second-generation, pre-commercial prototype that they say is smaller than an average microwave. This makes it portable enough to easily transport, which gives it the potential to one day revolutionize burn care in rural and developing areas around the world.

"Ninety per cent of burns occur in low and middle income countries, with greater mortality and morbidity due to poorly-equipped health care systems and inadequate access to burn care facilities," says Jeschke. "Regenerating skin using a patient’s own stem cells can significantly decrease the risk of death in developing countries."

So far, the 3D-printed skin grafts have been tested on mice, with the team planning to move onto pigs before clinical trials on humans in the next few years. They were recently named the Canadian winners in the 2014 James Dyson Awards, giving them US$3,500 to continue development and putting them in the running for the $60,000 main prize.

 

Sources: University of Toronto, James Dyson Award