Some might be wondering right now, how Apple managed to keep the battery life of the iPhone 6 and iPhone 6 Plus at correct average for everyday use. Well, the company certainly didn't come up with new battery technology, just a few tricks, one of which we'll be focusing on today.
What Apple has done to achieve good battery life in the iPhone 6, is nothing impressive, as we've seen similar implementations before. Nonetheless, it goes to show that the company still favors battery life over many things, and that is great to see.
Not too long ago, Chipworks tore down the iPhone 6 to see what is inside. What the website came across was quite surprising, as it shows one of the hardware tricks Apple is using to keep battery life from depleting too quickly during a 24-hour period.
The publication found not one, but two accelerometers within the iPhone 6. Now, some might be wondering what the need for two accelerometers in a smartphone are. Well, one, which is a six-axis accelerometer chip, is created by InvenSense, and is designed for gaming, apps and other important tasks. This particular chip is a battery drainer, so Apple could not rely on it alone.
This is where the second accelerometer chipset comes into play. Unlike the InvenSense chip, the second chipset is three-axis, and is created by Bosch. The plan here is to use the low powered accelerometer chipset for tasks that do not require a lot of performance, and use the InvenSense chip for the high-performance tasks.
We've seen such tactics before with laptops with powerful battery hungry GPUs. The high performance GPU is designed for gaming, image and video editing tasks, while a low-end GPU kicks in for the regular everyday workload.
The integration of two accelerometers is a prime example of Apple's sophisticated engineering. Both the iPhone 6 and iPhone 6 Plus could have worked just fine with the InvenSense accelerometer chipset, but since most apps do not require such power, it would have been redundant.
The addition of the Bosch chipset reduces power consumption, but still allows the handset to stay true to the required user experience.
