The iPhone 6 will offer buyers access to several interesting new features, VentureBeat has learned from a source close to the situation, including NFC support for mobile payments, wireless charging, faster LTE and – obviously – a bigger screen.
The publication says the iPhone 6 will have an NFC chip that will offer support for wireless payments, although it’s not clear what standard Apple will use or whether the company will work with the ISIS standard used by some of the major U.S. carriers. VentureBeat warns that the feature may not make it into the final iPhone 6 version though, and Apple had supposedly pulled NFC support from last year’s iPhones as well, not feeling confident enough in the state of the wireless payments business.
Recent patent discoveries suggest that Apple may have in place its own wireless payment product, which could be unveiled at a later date.
Additionally, the iPhone 6 will come with wireless charging support, VentureBeat says, although it’s not clear what wireless charging standard the iPhone will work with. Earlier this year, two of the main standards including A4WP and PMA have inked a partnership to support the other’s technology.
The new iPhone 6 apparently includes a “surface under the shell which connects to an inductive charging surface for energy transfer.”
The iPhone 6 will also support faster LTE radio – specifically Category 6 LTE radio – which is capable of theoretical data speeds of up to 300Mbps.
Finally, the iPhone 6 is going to offer a bigger display – which is in line with what plenty of reports and image leaks have suggested so far. The screen “will take up relatively more area on the front of the phone,” and will have a smaller “hardware border around the screen” than on previous iPhones.
“The new iPhone is nearing completion and is now being tested for things like durability, speed, and network performance,” VentureBeat said.
