Apple's Beats brand in April unveiled the Powerbeats Pro, a redesigned wire-free version of its popular fitness-oriented Powerbeats earbuds.
'iPhone 6s' Display Panel With Mystery Chip Is Slightly Heavier and Thicker Than iPhone 6 Version
Following our look at a partially functioning "iPhone 6s" built from parts earlier this week, we're now getting some more details on the iPhone 6s display assembly itself. While the part has been seen in a few leaks over the past several weeks, a source has now provided us with some new information and high-quality photos of the part.
Display assemblies from iPhone 6 (left) and iPhone 6s (right)
Numerous rumors have pointed toward the iPhone 6s including support for Force Touch, which will allow the device to sense how hard the user is pressing on the screen and present different interface options or functionality based on the amount of pressure. We've yet to see confirmation that such functionality is present in these display assemblies that have been circulating, but there are some tantalizing differences from the corresponding iPhone 6 part.
Top portion of iPhone 6s display assembly with unknown chip
The first is a small rectangular chip visible on the rear of the display. It has been seen in all leaked parts seen so far, and its function remains unconfirmed, but our source suspects it is indeed related to Force Touch. The chip is visible due to a cutout in the metal shielding behind the display.
The cutout doesn't appear to be required for the function of the chip, and it simply seems to be a space-saving issue. With the chip making that area of the display thicker than the rest of the part, the cutout allows the shielding to cover the remainder of the display panel evenly without adding too much thickness. As noted previously, the metal shielding is now glued in place rather than screwed in as on the iPhone 6.
Closeup of chip on rear of iPhone 6s display
Our source also says the iPhone 6s display panel is slightly thicker than the iPhone 6 panel, a change that may be related to Force Touch support and contributing to the reported 0.2 mm increase in overall thickness for the device.
Finally, along with the increase in thickness there is also a slight increase in weight for the display assembly, with the iPhone 6s part weighing 51.2 grams. A corresponding iPhone 6 part that also includes the front-facing camera and bracket (unlike the iPhone 6s part) weighs 49.4 grams. A portion of that increase in weight from the display assembly may be offset in the rear shell, which was previously found to be 2 grams lighter than the iPhone 6 shell.
Bottom portion of iPhone 6s display assembly with home button
Apple is expected to officially unveil the iPhone 6s in less than two weeks at an event rumored for Wednesday, September 9, perhaps at the Bill Graham Civic Auditorium in San Francisco. If Apple holds true to recent patterns, pre-orders for the new iPhone would begin on Friday, September 11 with the launch coming a week later on Friday, September 18.
Numerous rumors have pointed toward the iPhone 6s including support for Force Touch, which will allow the device to sense how hard the user is pressing on the screen and present different interface options or functionality based on the amount of pressure. We've yet to see confirmation that such functionality is present in these display assemblies that have been circulating, but there are some tantalizing differences from the corresponding iPhone 6 part.
The first is a small rectangular chip visible on the rear of the display. It has been seen in all leaked parts seen so far, and its function remains unconfirmed, but our source suspects it is indeed related to Force Touch. The chip is visible due to a cutout in the metal shielding behind the display.
The cutout doesn't appear to be required for the function of the chip, and it simply seems to be a space-saving issue. With the chip making that area of the display thicker than the rest of the part, the cutout allows the shielding to cover the remainder of the display panel evenly without adding too much thickness. As noted previously, the metal shielding is now glued in place rather than screwed in as on the iPhone 6.
Our source also says the iPhone 6s display panel is slightly thicker than the iPhone 6 panel, a change that may be related to Force Touch support and contributing to the reported 0.2 mm increase in overall thickness for the device.
Finally, along with the increase in thickness there is also a slight increase in weight for the display assembly, with the iPhone 6s part weighing 51.2 grams. A corresponding iPhone 6 part that also includes the front-facing camera and bracket (unlike the iPhone 6s part) weighs 49.4 grams. A portion of that increase in weight from the display assembly may be offset in the rear shell, which was previously found to be 2 grams lighter than the iPhone 6 shell.
Apple is expected to officially unveil the iPhone 6s in less than two weeks at an event rumored for Wednesday, September 9, perhaps at the Bill Graham Civic Auditorium in San Francisco. If Apple holds true to recent patterns, pre-orders for the new iPhone would begin on Friday, September 11 with the launch coming a week later on Friday, September 18.
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52 months ago
Its announced in almost 10 days, who's interested in this nonsense?
How about report some actual Mac news and rumours - you know like the news I sent you that the Mac Pros have silently been updated to use the 2000Mb/s read/write flash drives found in the latest Macbook Air's and Pros.
Or the fact that the 2015 Macbook Air refresh has just been silently updated to use 4k sector sized drives like the 12" Retina Macbook. This wasn't the case when they were first released earlier in the year, and now any recent 13" or 11" Macbook Airs require at least Yosemite 10.10.5 to boot.
Not a sign of any of that though cos we're all so interested in finding out which way an iPhone connector cable might bend apparently.
(Oh sorry, apparently people do care about a rumour about Force Touch that everyone already knows the phone is getting anyway rather than any actual unknown news about Macs, my bad - I guess a site called MacRumors that posted news on actual Mac's probably wouldn't get many hits)
How about report some actual Mac news and rumours - you know like the news I sent you that the Mac Pros have silently been updated to use the 2000Mb/s read/write flash drives found in the latest Macbook Air's and Pros.
Or the fact that the 2015 Macbook Air refresh has just been silently updated to use 4k sector sized drives like the 12" Retina Macbook. This wasn't the case when they were first released earlier in the year, and now any recent 13" or 11" Macbook Airs require at least Yosemite 10.10.5 to boot.
Not a sign of any of that though cos we're all so interested in finding out which way an iPhone connector cable might bend apparently.
(Oh sorry, apparently people do care about a rumour about Force Touch that everyone already knows the phone is getting anyway rather than any actual unknown news about Macs, my bad - I guess a site called MacRumors that posted news on actual Mac's probably wouldn't get many hits)
52 months ago
Its announced in almost 10 days, who's interested in this nonsense?
Considering this is a RUMOUR site, I would suggest quite a few. o_O
52 months ago
Its announced in almost 10 days, who's interested in this nonsense?
How about report some actual Mac news and rumours - you know like the news I sent you that the Mac Pros have silently been updated to use the 2000Mb/s read/write flash drives found in the latest Macbook Air's and Pros.
Or the fact that the 2015 Macbook Air refresh has just been silently updated to use 4k sector sized drives like the 12" Retina Macbook. This wasn't the case when they were first released earlier in the year, and now any recent 13" or 11" Macbook Airs require at least Yosemite 10.10.5 to boot.
Not a sign of any of that though cos we're all so interested in finding out which way an iPhone connector cable might bend apparently.
(Oh sorry, apparently people do care about a rumour about Force Touch that everyone already knows the phone is getting anyway rather than any actual unknown news about Macs, my bad - I guess a site called MacRumors that posted news on actual Mac's probably wouldn't get many hits)
U mad, bro?
52 months ago
With force touch they should enable an alert when someone sits on their phone. Bendgate solved.
52 months ago
Its announced in almost 10 days, who's interested in this nonsense?
I guess its only those of us that take the time to read the article and then more time to comment that really care....
52 months ago
Its announced in almost 10 days, who's interested in this nonsense?
//blahblahblah
52 months ago
2 grams?!?!?! Oh, the humanity!!! That's ALMOST as much as a U.S. dime weighs!!! I'm never buying any Apple products EVER again. Never. Ever.
52 months ago
Why would increasing the phone's thickness affect the camera sensor?
You do need to be able to focus the lens on that sensor. The bigger the sensor for a particular lens, the farther it needs to be from the sensor to focus on it. That's why the Nokia 1020, with a big sensor, had a huge camera bump.
There are reasons why DSLR are so big. It's not just for kicks.
I'm sure you can Google more info about this if you're really interested.
52 months ago
A slightly thicker and heavier display would seem to give credibility to the recent rumor of a slightly reduced battery capacity. The leaked chipset showed a 10% larger surface area for the A9 despite it going to a 14nm process. This would suggest that many components are integrated into the A9 and therefore more power efficient. Combine that with the energy efficient software improvements in iOS 9 and you have battery life that is probably better than the last generation.
As for speed improvements, it would be difficult to make significant gains when dealing with a smaller battery, so I only expect some moderate gains at best. I think that's completely fine because the processor in the iPhone is certainly fast enough for phone tasks. I expect performance to increase the most when it comes to the graphics chips. I think the increase in A9 die size suggests an increase in the number of graphics cores. There may be an extra processor core like in the A8X but I'm not sure if they can do it on this energy budget. I think the single biggest thing that will contribute to increased performance on the next iPhone is 2GB of RAM.
Another thing that may help is faster flash memory, but I don't think there are any concrete rumors about that at the moment. NAND speed in phones usually lags behind significantly so some improvements there would be great. But that might also depend on the power budget.
As for speed improvements, it would be difficult to make significant gains when dealing with a smaller battery, so I only expect some moderate gains at best. I think that's completely fine because the processor in the iPhone is certainly fast enough for phone tasks. I expect performance to increase the most when it comes to the graphics chips. I think the increase in A9 die size suggests an increase in the number of graphics cores. There may be an extra processor core like in the A8X but I'm not sure if they can do it on this energy budget. I think the single biggest thing that will contribute to increased performance on the next iPhone is 2GB of RAM.
Another thing that may help is faster flash memory, but I don't think there are any concrete rumors about that at the moment. NAND speed in phones usually lags behind significantly so some improvements there would be great. But that might also depend on the power budget.
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