iPhone 6
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iPhone 6
Bigger than bigger.
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| Silver | Gold | Space Gray |
| iPhone 6 — Technical Specifications (Apple Support) | ||
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The iPhone 6 is a smartphone designed and marketed by Apple, and the eighth generation of the iPhone, announced on September 9, 2014, and released on September 19, 2014, alongside the larger iPhone 6 Plus. After two years of watching big-screen Android phones define the market's growth, Apple finally went large: 4.7 inches for the 6, 5.5 for the Plus, in a new rounded aluminum design just 6.9 mm thin.
The generation introduced NFC and Apple Pay — the tap-to-pay system that made the secure-element groundwork of Touch ID pay off — plus the A8 chip, an M8 coprocessor with a barometer, faster LTE and Wi-Fi, and a camera with Focus Pixels phase-detection autofocus.
The pent-up demand for a big iPhone made the 6 generation the best-selling iPhone ever — four million pre-orders in 24 hours, ten million units the first weekend, and over 220 million across its run — a record no single iPhone generation has beaten since. Its late-life footnotes were less flattering: "bendgate," and the battery-throttling controversy that its aging units helped ignite years later.
1 Design✎
The iPhone 6 abandoned the extruded flat-sided language of the iPhone 5 era for a fully rounded aluminum unibody with glass that curves at the edges to meet it — a shape recalling the original iPhone's softness. At 6.9 mm it was the thinnest iPhone yet (129 g), with two compromises that drew immediate notice: the camera lens protrudes from the otherwise flat back, and plastic antenna lines cross it. The sleep/wake button moved from the top to the right edge, conceding that thumbs could no longer reach the top of a taller phone.
The display grew to 4.7 inches at 1334 × 750, keeping the 326 ppi Retina density. A dual-domain pixel arrangement widened viewing angles, and ion-strengthened cover glass curved into the frame. Reachability — double-touching the home button to slide the screen's top half down — acknowledged the ergonomic cost of the new size.
2 Hardware✎
| Developer | Apple |
|---|---|
| Generation | 8th |
| Announced | September 9, 2014 |
| Released | September 19, 2014 |
| Discontinued | September 7, 2016 |
| Predecessor | iPhone 5s |
| Related | iPhone 6 Plus |
| Successor | iPhone 6s |
| Display | 4.7-inch Retina HD IPS LCD 1334 × 750 (326 ppi) dual-domain pixels |
| Chip | Apple A8 (dual-core Typhoon, 1.4 GHz) + M8 motion coprocessor |
| RAM | 1 GB |
| Storage | 16 GB · 64 GB · 128 GB |
| Rear camera | 8 MP, f/2.2, Focus Pixels 1080p at 60 fps · 240 fps slo-mo |
| Front camera | 1.2 MP, f/2.2 (burst selfies) |
| Battery | 1,810 mAh built-in |
| Connectivity | LTE Cat. 4 (150 Mbps) · VoLTE Wi-Fi 802.11ac · Bluetooth 4.0 NFC (Apple Pay) |
| Colors | Silver · Gold · Space Gray |
| Launch price | $199 (16 GB) · $299 (64 GB) · $399 (128 GB) with 2-year contract (U.S.) |
| OS | iOS 8.0 ~ 12.5.7 |
The A8 delivered a measured 25% CPU and 50% GPU improvement over the A7 while drawing half the power of its predecessor — efficiency Apple spent on the thinner body rather than raw speed. The M8 coprocessor added a barometer, letting fitness apps count flights climbed. Storage tiers doubled at the middle and top (16/64/128 GB), while the 16 GB floor — kept, Apple critics noted, to upsell — remained the lineup's most-criticized spec. Wi-Fi 802.11ac and Cat. 4 LTE with VoLTE and Wi-Fi calling rounded out the radios.
The 6 generation's 1 GB of RAM, unchanged since 2012, became its principal aging liability.
3 Apple Pay✎
The iPhone 6 generation introduced NFC to the line, exclusively in service of Apple Pay: add a card to Passbook, hold the phone to a terminal, confirm with Touch ID. Card numbers were replaced by device-specific tokens stored in the Secure Enclave — neither Apple nor the merchant saw the real number. Launching in the U.S. that October with major banks and card networks aboard, Apple Pay succeeded where a decade of NFC-wallet attempts had stalled, and contactless payment became one of the iPhone's defining conveniences.
4 Camera✎
The 8-megapixel iSight camera gained "Focus Pixels" — phase-detection autofocus that locked focus dramatically faster, especially in video, which could now refocus continuously. Video stepped up to 1080p at 60 fps and slow motion to 240 fps. The sensor and f/2.2 lens carried over from the 5s, making computational improvements do the work; reviewers still ranked it the best phone camera of its year. The 6 relies on digital stabilization, one of the few hardware separations from the optically stabilized iPhone 6 Plus.
5 Software✎
The 6 shipped with iOS 8, whose extensions, widgets, third-party keyboards, HealthKit, and Continuity handoffs marked the platform's biggest functional opening since the App Store. Its launch was bumpy: the iOS 8.0.1 update briefly disabled cellular service and Touch ID on iPhone 6 units before Apple pulled it hours later. The 6 received updates through iOS 12, with the final security patch (12.5.7) in January 2023.
6 Bendgate and other controversies✎
Within days of launch, videos of iPhone 6 Plus units bending under hand pressure went viral as "bendgate." Apple reported only nine bent-phone complaints in the first weeks and opened its torture-test lab to press; independent tests found the 6 Plus meaningfully more bend-prone than rivals, the 4.7-inch 6 less so but not immune. The internal aluminum was reinforced in the following year's 6s generation, which also switched to a stronger alloy.
A subtler long-tail defect — "touch disease," flexing that gradually cracked the touchscreen controller's solder joints, mainly on the 6 Plus — surfaced in 2016 and drew a paid repair program and litigation.
Finally, the 6 generation's aging batteries were at the center of the 2017 battery-throttling disclosure: iOS had been slowing peak performance on degraded batteries to prevent shutdowns. Apple's apology cut battery-replacement pricing to $29 for a year and added Battery Health controls — and the episode, sparked largely by slowed iPhone 6 and 6s units, permanently changed how the industry communicates about battery aging.
7 Release and reception✎
Four million pre-orders in the first 24 hours — double the iPhone 5 — and ten million launch-weekend sales made the 6 generation the fastest-selling iPhone to date, with the 4.7-inch model outselling the Plus severalfold. Reviews called the size overdue and the execution excellent: display, speed, camera, and battery all drew praise, with the protruding lens, antenna lines, and 16 GB base storage the standard complaints.
The iPhone 6 remained on sale after the 6s launch at a reduced price, was discontinued in flagship markets on September 7, 2016, and then — unusually — returned in a 32 GB configuration for select markets into 2017–2018, giving it one of the longest sales lives of any iPhone. Cumulative sales of the 6 generation exceeded 220 million units, the best-selling iPhone generation ever.
8 Legacy✎
The iPhone 6 ended the era in which "iPhone" meant "small phone," and its sales spike created the install-base bulge that defined Apple's next half-decade. Apple Pay outgrew the phone into watches, browsers, and transit gates worldwide. Its rounded design language held through the iPhone 11 era; its failures — bendgate, touch disease, throttled batteries — each produced structural fixes and disclosure norms that outlived it. The line it re-founded runs to the current iPhone 17 generation.