In today's edition of "is this iPhone 6 leak real?" let's look at the key points from a video alleging to show the specifications of Apple's (AAPL 1.19%) next-generation iPhone 6 models.
The alleged specs
According to the video, here are some of the most important specifications for the iPhone 6:
- 4.7-inch and 5.5-inch models
- Display resolution of 1704x960.
- Measurements of 5.4 x 2.6 x 0.27 inches (compared to the 4.8 x 2.3 x 0.29-inch iPhone 5s).
- 121 grams (a bit thicker than the iPhone 5s, which weighs in at 112 grams).
- Touch ID.
- Apple A8 processor.
- 2-megapixel front camera, 10-megapixel rear camera (up from 1.2 megapixel and 8 megapixel in the iPhone 5s, respectively).
In addition to the specifications, the leak suggests that the base model will sport 32 gigabytes of flash (up from 16 gigabytes) at the traditional $199 carrier-subsidized price, with increments to 64 gigabytes and 128 gigabytes at the $299 and $399 subsidized prices, respectively.
There's not much new here (and that pricing info seems fishy)
The only fresh information here are alleged dimensions (and even those could have been estimated from images of the mockups that have leaked so far) and the camera sensor resolutions. It is not inconceivable that someone who has been following most of the prior leaks simply stitched together a "website" based on these leaked specifications using the current iPhone 5s tech specs page as a template.
Furthermore, the pricing info -- suggesting that Apple is going to equip the baseline model with 32 gigabytes of flash storage -- seems suspicious at best. Apple has likely driven nontrivial amounts of "easy" incremental gross-margin dollars through the upsell from 16-gigabyte models to 32 and 64 gigabyte models. Why would it suddenly abandon that strategy, particularly as the new phone will likely have more expensive components across the board (meaning Apple will want to try to capture every last gross-margin dollar that it can)?
Something else fishy -- no improvements to the camera performance?
Here's another thing that is bothersome about the video. Look at the following image:
Source: YouTube.
The video recording segment still only cites "1080p HD video recording" at "30fps." Given that this would not represent an improvement from the iPhone 5s, and that it would make the iPhone 6 relatively dated relative to something like the Galaxy S5 which supports recording of 3840x2160 video at 30 frames per second, this also seems unlikely.
Foolish takeaway
As the iPhone 6 nears launch, the signal-to-noise ratio with respect to these leaks will improve, but right now it's hard to believe much of the stuff that gets out. Based on the analysis above, I'm not buying this latest "leak."
