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Comment by code_duck | Hacker News Reader

That was also my logic circa a few years ago, but Apple's system of old models becoming the lower price unit has changed that. The 6 is 2 generations old, and with the new one coming out this fall, like usual, it's a lot cheaper than that.

I recently found a brand new 32gb iPhone 6 with no contract for $200. A Touch at the same place - walmart - is $195. The 6 is definitely superior hardware to a Touch and you don't even have to activate it.

You can also get a 5s or SE from them for about 150. When the new one comes out this fall, the 6 will be under 200.

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> The 6 is definitely superior hardware to a Touch

Superior how? The iPod Touch has the same SoC/CPU/GPU/RAM. The only real hardware difference is the iPhone 6 has a 4.7" screen, and while I personally enjoy my 5.5" screens, the popularity of the iPhone SE suggests that many people disagree that a larger screen is "superior hardware".

That said, I have no idea how the camera compares. Maybe it is worse, maybe it isn't. Wikipedia isn't very forthcoming here.

Well, Wikipedia does point out that the iPod Touch doesn't have the ambient light sensor that's used for automatic screen brightness. If true, this is actually kind of surprising (I would assume that component isn't very expensive), but I guess it does technically qualify as "inferior hardware", though this is a pretty small difference.

There are so many differences that I'm quite sure that if you were to look at a thorough checklist, you would agree that it's worth five dollars.

The Touch uses the display from the 5 and 5s. Pixel dentist density is the same but contrast is less. The active display sizes are 4 inches versus 4.7.

Advantages of iPhone 6 vs '15 Touch:

  - 40% more battery capacity
  - Touch ID and NFC  
  - Dual LED Flash
  - 25% faster CPU clock
  - 4G radio
  - 1400:1 display contrast ratio vs 800:1
  - 25% larger screen, and same density meaning higher screen resolution
  - Twice the storage (the price i quoted was for a 16gb touch and a 32gb 6)
  - larger lens aperture 
  - sapphire lens cover
  - optical image stabilization

Drawbacks:

  - 1/8" thicker
  - 33% heavier
  - some people prefer the smaller size
  - costs $6 more

From Wikipedia:

> All iPods lack Touch ID, 3D Touch, NFC, GPS, an earpiece speaker and a noise-cancelling microphone. Depending on the generation, the iPod Touch may have a smaller or inferior display and camera(s). Newer models (5th and 6th generation) lack the ambient light sensor that makes automatic brightness available.

Also it shares the A8/M8 with the iPhone 6, but it's clocked down (1.1GHz vs 1.4GHz for the phone); both cameras are 8MP, but the iPhone can shoot regular video in 1080p at 30 or 60 fps (vs only 30 fps for the iPod) and slow-motion video in 720p at 120 or 240 fps (vs only 120 fps for the iPod).

I forgot that iPod Touch didn't have Touch ID or 3D Touch. But does it really not have a GPS? That's interesting. I guess the assumption is you're not going to go out and about with Maps since you're tethered to a wifi network.

Or the GPS was part of the GSM baseband, and they didn't want to stuff something else on there to replace it.

Yes. All iOS devices with the exception of the original iPhone are like this: they have a cellular baseband iff they have GPS.

No non-cellular Apple devices have GPS that I'm aware of. My wifi-only iPad Air certainly doesn't, but my mother's cellular iPad mini 4 does

Except Google Maps at least lets you download an area for offline use. Not sure what Apple maps does.

I use this all the time on my Android phone because I don't have a data plan for it.

Besides lacking some other features (as mentioned in another comment), it is worth noting that even though it’s using the same SoC it is clocked lower at 1.1 GHz vs the iPhone 6’s 1.4 GHz. (Source: https://browser.geekbench.com/ios-benchmarks )

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