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Supply chain rumors say brighter Apple Watch, pink iPhone 6S with Force Touch camera en route

iphone6sleak100

Two new reports out of Asia this morning purport to shed light on improvements coming to Apple’s next-generation Apple Watch and the iPhone 6S.

According to a report out of Korea (via Naver/Digital Daily), Apple has decided to source flexible OLED screens for the Apple Watch 2 from both Samsung and LG, prioritizing improved outdoor visibility rather than changing the screen size, shape, or resolution. Outdoor screen visibility is a particular issue for the more reflective, sapphire-faced Apple Watch and Edition, which noticeably reduce the underlying screen’s apparent brightness compared with the glass-faced Apple Watch Sport. The report also claims Apple is more concerned about thinning components than reducing weight, in order to make room for a larger battery.

A second and more questionable report out of Taiwan, allegedly posted to microblogging site Weibo by a Foxconn employee before being pulled and recirculated by PhoneArena, claims to offer a series of additional details regarding the upcoming iPhone 6S. As detailed below, a new pink color, higher-resolution cameras with Force Touch simultaneous video/photo modes, and a faster Touch ID fingerprint scanner are all said to be on tap…

  • Apple considered a rose gold iPhone 6S to parallel the similarly-colored Apple Watch Edition, but instead has settled on a pink aluminum with a white front.
  • Touch ID has been increased in speed by roughly 30% over the iPhone 6, making fingerprint scanning a less-than-1-second (yet accurate) process.
  • The front FaceTime camera will supposedly have a 5MP sensor.
  • The rear camera will supposedly have a 12MP sensor and again protrude from the back of the iPhone’s chassis. Apple apparently tested a 16MP sensor in early versions of the iPhone 6S, but moved to a 12MP version later in the production cycle.
  • In addition to supporting 4K video and 240FPS slow-motion recording, the iPhone 6S will use Force Touch to let you record bursts of still photos during video recording. [Note: An alternate translation of the report suggests that the Force Touch feature may be used to toggle between Photo and Video modes.]
  • iPhone 6S will have 2GB of RAM, but 16GB of storage will remain the minimum capacity.

The alleged details are posted for interest, but as the actual source of the iPhone 6S claims is unclear, it should be taken with a liberal handful of salt for the time being.

Reports earlier this year have previously mentioned the new pink color option in testing.

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Comments

  1. Alexandre Forget - 9 years ago

    16GB minimum capacity…come on Apple !!

    • jimr450 - 9 years ago

      The 16GB is for people who don’t have tons of apps and use lots of the cloud based services.
      I imagine most business users wouldn’t need more than 16GB. Get the 64GB, it’s only $100 more for 4X storage.

      • uniszuurmond - 9 years ago

        Well, if you live in a third world country, with a rubbish exchange rate, you have to pay 13 times $100 dollar, which becomes a lot of money. So if you are looking for more than 16GB, but simply cannot afford 64GB, you have to buy something else. And since most competing smartphones offer 32GB as standard nowadays, I say Apple should get their act together.

      • Greg Kaplan (@kaplag) - 9 years ago

        It boggles my mind why anyone would defend this.

        All the other storage tiers doubled except for 16gb. You see the 64gb model as a good deal (which is what Apple wants you to see) while I see the 16gb model as a total rip off. If $100 gets you 2x the storage from 64gb to 128gb then the 16gb iPhone should be an extra $100 cheaper than it is.

        It’s a shrewd sales tactic to up sell the 64gb model to people who think “oh wow I’m getting 4x the storage for only $100 more…”

        16gb may be fine for some people but it shouldn’t be fine that it’s sold at the same price the 32gb model would have been sold for.

      • mikemtol - 9 years ago

        @kaplag i’m not defending, but your logic is flawed in that the 16GB never changed its price where as the 64GB did (it used to be 200$ more)

      • Greg Kaplan (@kaplag) - 9 years ago

        @mikemtol, It doesn’t matter…

        Think of it as 3 price tiers of iPhones. When it went from [$199, 8gb / $299, 16gb / $299, 32gb] to [$199, 16gb / $299, 32gb / $299, 64gb] they didn’t change the pricing of the tiers they just double the storage of each tier.

        I guess you would think of it as, “16gb and 32gb dropped by $100” but that logic doesn’t work for the newly introduced 64gb capacity because it didn’t exist before but the $299 price tier that it occupied did.

        So, “the 16GB never changed its price” or in my logic that the $199 pricing tier never double in storage like the $299 and $399 tier did. No matter how you look at it it’s still a ripoff. That anyone thinks the middle tier is now a bargain has fallen susceptible to marketing psychology.

        I’m sure the reason they did this was because the middle price tier didn’t need up selling before. Base storage was never really enough for many people so sure, $100 extra is worth it. But if they made 32gb the base tier, many people wouldn’t feel the need to upgrade since 32gb is acceptable.

      • triankar - 9 years ago

        the iPhone is supposed to be a premium phone. Isn’t it? Given that the manufacturing cost to bump the phone from 16 to 32GB is minimal (given the retail price + margins), it’s pettiness for Apple to be sticking with 16GB.

      • +uniszuurmond I can confirm that your point would also apply to China, because when I purchased a couple of iPhones as gifts for friends there a few months ago, I had to pay much more money for them than I would have for the same models in the United States.

    • Rich Davis (@RichDavis9) - 9 years ago

      I think 32GB should replace 16GB, definitely.

  2. charilaosmulder - 9 years ago

    I was hoping for the rumor to come true about the 6S being 0.2mm thicker to make room for the Taptic engine and at the same time make it stronger (use same aluminum alloy as on Watch), while making the camera just a bit thinner to make it flush with the body. This would result in about 0.5mm decrease in camera depth, in which case I would certainly hope for 8MP, not 12.

    But then even IF the camera will still protrude, I’d hope for 8MP. Because of sticking to 8MP, the picture quality has improved dramatically since the 4S first had 8MP. Id prefer an even closer-to-DSLR dynamic range and lack of over-exposure, than 12MP anytime.

  3. Two things that really do not annoy me about the Apple Watch Sport (but I thought would): screen brightness and battery life. I routinely get two days of battery life, and I can see the screen no problem. Battery life will probably take a hit once the new OS comes out and real programs actually run on the watch.

    • triankar - 9 years ago

      ok, since you own one, how convenient do you find it carrying the stethoscope (sorry, magnetic charger) along (at least if you had to)? How bulky is it/does it feel?

      Being able to charge the damn thing anywhere (hello, microUSB / Lightning) would make most of the concerns regarding battery life go away. We all (have compromised enough to) carry a portable battery charger in our bags, yet I’m not sure it’s worth the hassle (practicality of the Watch VS minding about charging it)

      • kevicosuave - 9 years ago

        I feel the same as the OP. I have no problem carrying the other cable. I travel often and it’s just a routine to grab my cables, and take them with me. While it would be nice to maintain cable consistency, the reality is that I plug it in during the same times that I plug in my MacBook, iPhone, and iPad. So it’s still one more cable that I’d have to bring with me even if it was the same type of cable.

        The benefits of the Apple Watch cable though outweigh the disadvantages of the alternatives. If the Apple Watch had an open port on it, that would suck in terms of (salt) water damage as well as being annoying in terms of making the connection.

  4. i wanted rose gold dude!!!

  5. Atlas (@Metascover) - 9 years ago

    “making fingerprint scanning a less-than-1-second”

    it’s been less than one second from the beginning… my iPhone 5S unlocks in way less than a second for sure.

    • Terrence Newton - 9 years ago

      I agree, but if they can make it even faster, I’ll take it. Unless of course it makes me constantly accidentally unlock my phone when I just wanted to see the lock screen.

      • iluvappleblog - 9 years ago

        Currently I get annoyed because sometimes I just wanna wake the screen and see notifications and it usually unlocks the phone. I guess this would become even more of an issue.

      • kevicosuave - 9 years ago

        Yes, this is an issue for me now. I have to remember to use my finger nail more to see the lock screen.

    • jacosta45 - 9 years ago

      I had a 5S for a week when trialing T-Mobile’s service last summer and I can say the 6’s sensor is more accurate than the 5S. If you say your sensor unlocks your phone in < 1 second, then I wonder how many attempts you make to unlock your phone on a daily basis…

      • Atlas (@Metascover) - 9 years ago

        I’ve always only made a single attempt. I unlock it maybe 50 times a day and I can’t remember the last time I had to do a second try.

      • iluvappleblog - 9 years ago

        It is, I can confirm that, I have the 6 and the 5s, I have now disabled the sensor on the 5s because it’s so flippin inaccurate I have to try at least three times before being successful, I rarely try for a second time with the 6.

  6. daitenshe - 9 years ago

    Pink?! Really?

  7. irelandjnr - 9 years ago

    16 GB €699 phone in late 2015? FU Schiller.

  8. You’d need a better mandarin translator, seriously. For the video taking part, it says:

    “A new feature is added to iPhone 6s as ‘Aperture shot’. After setting the aperture you can take one picture and immediately start recording video. The video is bundled with picture as one item in the album. Tapping on the item and it’ll be displayed as a normal picture; tapping and hold on the screen and the video will begin to play.”

    I’ve no idea what the “aperture” he referred to is, so I literally translated that word as “Aperture shot”. I guess it might be something like “Exposure Lock”.

    BTW, the blogger is not Taiwanese, that’s for sure. We’d use different phrases such as “video” and “film”.

  9. Rich Davis (@RichDavis9) - 9 years ago

    I think the Apple Watch should have come with a camera for video conferencing. I think the 1st gen is really catered towards the early adopters that get either model and those that want to show off their Gold Edition since they are rich celebrities that get exposure for wearing them.

    I am holding off until at least the 2nd gen model since it usually takes at least one or two revisions until they get things worked out and add features that people will use/want.

  10. Just what the world needs: a pink iPhone.

  11. I still think Apple may settle on a 32 GB minimum for the iPhone 6S/6S+. With good reason: people want to be able to listen to Apple Music in offline mode, and offline storage of music will require a fairly hefty amount of local storage.

  12. Dan (@danmdan) - 9 years ago

    Ex Asia semper aliquid novi.