Apple has announced the iPhone 6 and there are two, mostly, all-new, slim phones for you early adopters to adopt, bring up, and love and then cash in when the iPhone 7 arrives.

IF YOU DON’T HAVE TIME AND YOU WANT TO MAINLINE THE INFO STRAIGHT INTO YOUR BRAIN, I SUGGEST WATCHING THIS HELPFUL 02:33 MASHUP OF THE LIVE ANNOUNCEMENT OF THE IPHONE 6 AND IPHONE 6 PLUS.

DISPLAY & BODY
The iPhone 6 will have a 4.7-inch 326ppi display while the larger and more expensive iPhone 6 Plus will come with a 5.5-inch Full HD display. I said slimmer and they are: the iPhone 6 at 6.9mm and the iPhone 6 Plus at 7.1mm which is a nice change from Apple previously quite large (when compared with competitors) devices.

The body has undertaken a Joan Rivers-like overhaul (too soon?) with glass that curves around the edges of the phone, something you’ll recognise from the iPhone 4 days. The most dramatic change to the look and feel of the phone is the relocation of the power button from the top of the phone to the right side of the phone. OMG, can’t wait for the bitching to start.

POWER & BATTERY
Quoted specs of 10 hours on mobile networks and 11 hours on Wi-Fi are being bandied about. And what will be depleting that battery? Well aside from a larger screens, expect the all-new 64-Bit A8 processor with 50% faster graphics and a 25% faster CPU to do its fair share of damage to your daily download time.

The devices come in 16GB, 64GB, 128GB versions with 1GB RAM.

CAMERA
Apple seemed to have ignored the trend of the past few years to up the MB-age of the camera on the phone and instead have opted to stay with a rather measly 8MP iPhone 6 iSight camera on the back and a 1.2MP FaceTime camera on the front. This walks a different path to brands like Huawei who insist that a big front facing camera is essential for perfect selfies.

I kind of agree with this move as most of the pictures we take (whether with the front facing or rear facing camera) are created for online viewing and showing people how awesome our lives are and are seldom printed out. Do we really need images that weigh in at 8MB and image? Less data charges, quicker uploading, friendlier Facebooking.

While the 8MP rear camera may not be the biggest on the market, HDR will now be automatically applied to your images and there are a bunch of nifty little add-ons like face detection (blink and smile), panorama mode, auto pick, continuous autofocus and slow motion replay. So most of the things Samsung has been doing since 2012 then.

APPLE PAY & NFC
Apple has resisted and denied the existence of NFC like it was a Scientologist birthday boy and NFC was a cake of common sense and reason. But the iPhone 6 and iPhone 6 Plus change all that, not only by embracing NFC with open arms, but giving it its own mobile payment system called Apple Pay that merchants all over the world are tripping over themselves to start using.

While it’ll only be live in the US to start, Apple Pay will work alongside Passbook to allow you to purchase goods, in-app purchases or McDonalds drive-thru packets without ever divulging your credit card details to the merchant. Just a touch of your phone.

iOS8
Obviously both the iPhone 6 and the iPhone 6 Plus will run iOS 8, Apple’s new operating system, which looks like previous versions of iOS, clean and safe. One feature I’m very keen to see included is the ability to navigate within apps with a lot more ease. But will the increased size of the devices screen be something we’ll need to get used to?

AVAILABILITY & PRICING
Nobody knows right now when it’ll be in SA, but I anticipate definitely in time for Christmas.
Pricing? Expensive. Obviously depending on your storage capacity you opt for, prices will vary. I reckon anything from R9 000 for the 16GB iPhone 6 to R12 000 for the iPhone 6 Plus.