The next iPhone is still months away from release, but already some interesting rumours have been circulating about its hardware and capabilities. In this article, we’ll round up what we’ve heard so far.
Hardware
The iPhone 6S is expected to include a Force Touch display, just like the Apple Watch. That would allow the phone’s screen to register the pressure of a touch, distinguishing between a normal tap and a heavier press, a “Force Touch.” This would act as a secondary input method on the iPhone, allowing access to advanced functions like adding new calendar events, faster video scrubbing or looking up word definitions.
Another big upgrade on the iPhone 6S will be the camera. For the first time since the iPhone 4S, Apple is expected to move from an 8 to a 12-megapixel RGBW sensor from Sony. That could be great for capturing a lot of detail in well-lit shots, where Android phones with higher megapixel count sensors have tended to do better. The white subpixel apparently makes it easier to capture lower-light detail too.
Some rumours have suggested we’ll see a new A10 chipset for the new phone, but that’s likely to come later, probably for the iPhone 7.
Software
The iPhone 6S will come with iOS 9, which should be detailed at Apple’s WorldWide Developer Conference in June. Expected features include Force Touch (as detailed above), alongside revisions to the keyboard. The landscape keyboard on the iPhone 6 Plus was quite awful, so it’s good to hear that Apple are said to be working on improvements. New designs prototyped by Apple’s UI team include making it larger and including additional editing controls while in portrait mode. Even the shift key is being looked at, with an eye to make it more obvious whether caps are on or off.
Design
The iPhone 6S is expected to look largely the same as the iPhone 6, but it could be .2 millimetres thinner thanks to a smaller LED backlight.
A rose gold option may also be made available for the first time; this colour was originally introduced with the Apple Watch and there’s little reason for Apple not to offer iPhone models in the same colour if consumers are willing to pay.
There are some rumours of a related iPhone 6C model (with a 4-inch screen), but after some initial reports, these have largely died down.
Dates
The iPhone 6S is expected to be announced and released in September, as normal. Some rumours have suggested that we’ll see an earlier launch in August, but that would be quite irregular for what has become a very predictable Apple release calendar.
Conclusion
I hope this rumour roundup has been useful! Thanks for checking out the article, and be sure to let us know what you think of it in the comments below.