iPhone 6s Plus

Claimed photos of iPhone 6s rear housing picture small internal changes, ‘stronger body’ and more

A batch of photos of a purported 'iPhone 6s' rear housing in gold, obtained by Future Supplier and reposted today by French blog NowhereElse.fr, serve as our best indication yet that Apple's upcoming smartphone refresh will re-use the exterior design of the current-generation (shocker!).

More important than that, however, the photos suggest the upcoming handsets will introduce minuscule changes to the internal layout, with a source claiming a “stronger” Unibody construction and a change to the material's feel.

Apple believes new iPhones with Force Touch are going to be massively successful

According to a report Wednesday by The Wall Street Journal newspaper, Apple is putting high hopes into a forthcoming mid-cycle “S”-upgrade to the present-generation iPhone 6 and iPhone 6 Plus smartphones.

The company apparently believes that an 'iPhone 6s' and 'iPhone 6s Plus' which, among other things, sport new color options and Force Touch technology for sensing deep presses on the screen, should prove massively popular as it reportedly ordered its suppliers to build a record 90 million units this year.

iPhone 6s is 0.2mm thicker than iPhone 6, leaked industrial design diagram indicates

Apple's next-generation iPhone 6s should measure 7.1mm deep, a 0.2 millimeter increase versus the current-generation iPhone 6, which measures 6.9mm deep. If true, the 4.7-inch iPhone 6s will have the exact same thickness as the 5.5-inch iPhone 6 Plus, according to a purported schematic leaked Monday to Engadget Japan by a reliable source in the Chinese supply chain.

KGI Securities' analyst Ming-Chi Kuo previously said that an imperceptible increase in thickness was necessary to accommodate Apple's implementation of force sensing on the iPhone 6s and iPhone 6s Plus's screen.

Pegatron goes on a hiring spree ahead of next-generation iPhone production

With a little more than two months before its assumed September release, contract manufacturer Pegatron is reportedly in the process of hiring as many as 40,000 workers as it makes preparations to kick off assembly work on Apple's iPhone 6s and iPhone 6s refresh, according to a DigiTimes report this weekend.

Protek, a Pegatron subsidiary in eastern China, reportedly began recruiting workers at the end of June and will continue to do so until October, one month after the expected launch of the new iPhones.

Protek is planning to hire 40,000 workers in total, said the Taiwanese trade publication.

Leaked iPhone 6s logic board shows Qualcomm MDM9635M chip for up to 300Mbps LTE speed

Apple's next iPhone should double LTE download speeds from a theoretical maximum of 150Mbps on the present-generation iPhone 6 and iPhone 6 Plus up to 300Mbps on the next-generation 'iPhone 6s' and 'iPhone 6s Plus,' according to a purported logic board leaked by 9to5Mac.

A photo of the alleged 'iPhone 6s' logic board shows a chip identified as the MDM9635M module from Qualcomm, part of its 'Gobi' modem platform.

Bloomberg: Apple begins production on new iPhones with Force Touch

Apple has begun early production of new iPhone models with a feature called Force Touch, Bloomberg reports. Citing sources familiar with the matter, the outlet says that volume manufacturing is expected to ramp up as soon as next month.

Force Touch was first introduced in the Apple Watch last fall, and it enables a device to sense how hard users press down on its screen. The technology has since made its way into the MacBook, and has long been rumored for the next iPhone.

KGI: iPhone 6s to be marginally thicker due to Force Touch

Several supply chain reports have indicated that this year's 'iPhone 6s' and 'iPhone 6s Plus' releases will feature Apple's pressure-sensitive screen technology called Force Touch that debuted on the Apple Watch and now a revered analyst has given these reports an aura of credibility.

Ming-Chi Kuo of KGI Securities wrote in a note to clients, a copy of which was obtained by the Japanese blog MacOtakara, that Apple's implementation of Force Touch on the upcoming phones will make them slightly thicker than the present-generation iPhone 6 and iPhone 6 Plus.

Upcoming new iPhones rumored to upgrade to even sharper, higher-resolution Retina screens

Apple's upcoming iPhone refresh—tentatively dubbed by the press ‘iPhone 6s’ and ‘iPhone 6s Plus’—should feature sharper Retina displays thanks to a rumored screen resolution boost, according to the latest report coming out of Chinese blog Feng.

The publication is claiming knowledge that a 4.7-inch ‘iPhone 6s’ will feature a Full HD screen, literally matching the 1,920-by-1,080 Full HD pixel resolution screen of the current-generation 5.5-inch iPhone 6 Plus. As for an ‘iPhone 6s Plus,’ Apple's phablet-class device should match high-end Androids by going from a Full HD Retina screen all the way up to a 2K one.

Both iPhone 6s and iPhone 6s Plus rumored to support Force Touch after all

Pressure sensing will be supported across both display sizes of Apple's next-generation iPhones, G for Games reported Thursday citing supply chain sources who spoke with Taiwanese media.

The same outlet originally claimed that Apple’s pressure sensitive Force Touch technology would make an exclusive appearance on a larger-screened iPhone 6s Plus.

Though it was initially supposed to be an iPhone 6s Plus exclusive, both devices should make use of pressure sensing after all. A credible report earlier this week asserted that iOS 9, which will be previewed alongside OS X 10.11 at next month's WWDC, features built-in Force Touch support.

Apple turning to Chinese suppliers for iPhone 6s and iPhone 6s Plus batteries

Tuesday, a fresh new report claimed Apple's been seeking additional battery providers for upcoming new iPhones, presumed to be marketed as ‘iPhone 6s’ and ‘iPhone 6s Plus’.

Apple is now sourcing more batteries for iOS devices from Chinese suppliers which have caught up with their Taiwanese competitors in terms of sufficient battery core supply and production capacity.

Next iPhone could be even thinner and lighter thanks to smaller LED backlighting chips

In its never-ending quest of engineering ever thinner and lighter devices, Apple is said to use smaller LED backlighting chips that could, at least theoretically, make the next iPhone(s)—you guessed right— smaller and lighter.

Citing a TrendForce report, DigiTimes said Tuesday that next-generation ‘iPhone 6s’ and ‘iPhone 6s Plus’ will adopt smaller LED chips for the display's backlight unit. The new chips reportedly measure three mm wide, 0.85mm tall and 0.4mm deep versus the 3.0mm x 0.85mm x 0.6mm chips used in the present-generation iPhone 6 and iPhone 6 Plus devices.

Sony to supply 12MP camera for iPhone 6s with RGBW subpixels for better low-light photography

Japanese consumer electronics giant Sony is a longtime supplier of best-in-class mobile cameras for iPhones and iPads. That said, it's hardly a surprise that the company is now rumored to retain its role as a sole supplier of CMOS sensor for the next iPhone's back-facing iSight camera, according to fresh news reports published in the Japanese media.

While the current-generation iPhone 6 and iPhone 6 Plus feature Sony's eight-megapixel Exmor RS ISX014 sensor out the back with 1.5 Focus Pixel technology, the next iPhones are understood to incorporate a higher-resolution twelve-megapixel Sony module with RGBW subpixel technology that should improve the handsets' photography performance in low-light conditions.