iPhone pre ordering brings down sundry websites

iPhone pre ordering is today. However earlier this morning the demand crashed Apple UK, O2 and EE sites as buyers swamped the websites.

At the 10:30 AM 02 is still down and EE is far too slow to use. You can purchase from Apple and Vodafone.

On the Apple UK site you can pre-order the iPhone 6 and 6 plus in 16GB, 64GB and 128GB models for £529, £619 and £699, respectively, with Apple selling the handset in silver, gold and “space grey” colour options. At the time of writing, the 64GB model’s shipping has slipped to “7 to 10 days” in silver, while the rest are all shipping next week, on 19 September.

The iPhone 6 Plus is, unsurprisingly, more expensive, priced at £619, £699 and £789 for the 16GB, 64GB and 128GB models, respectively. This has clearly been the most popular handset, as all 64GB and 128GB models are showing “3 to 4 weeks” delivery times.

Apple also kindly offer finance. For example as £699 iPhone 6+ with 64GB costs £33.53 over 24 months. That’s at a rather steep 15% APR.

With the EE and O2 websites currently unavailable, and Three yet to kick off its pre-orders – saying they will go live this afternoon – it’s unclear how much they are asking for the two new iPhones.

With its website still up and running, Vodafone’s pricing is not a mystery. It is offering the 16GB iPhone 6 for free from £48.50 per month, or on a cheaper £38.50 per month tariff if you cough up £99 for the handset. If you’re after the 64GB model, the cheapest contract comes in at £53.50 with a £29 upfront cost, or a £109 upfront cost if you want the 128GB model. As you would expect, the iPhone 6 Plus is even more expensive.

At present, Vodafone is still promising to ship out orders on 19 September, but this likely will change as demand ramps.

Both the iPhone 6 and iPhone 6 Plus handsets were announced on Tuesday at Apple’s launch event. Ful l report to come soon.

The two iPhones have 4.7in and 5.5in Retina HD sceeens, respectively, with 38 percent and 138 percent more pixels the iPhone 5S.

Beyond their screens, the Apple’s two new iPhones have similar specifications. You’ll find Apple’s new A8 chip under the bonnets of the smartphones, along with an NFC chip enabling buyers to make use of the Apple Pay service, which will come to the UK next year according to the Enquirer.

The iPhone 6 and iPhone 6 Plus also feature 8MP rear-facing cameras, with the larger model boasting optical image stablisation, support for 150Mbps LTE speeds and a built-in TouchID sensor.

The smaller iPhone 6 model measures 6.9mm thick and promises 14 hours of talk time, with the iPhone 6 Plus a slightly chunkier 7.1mm thick and offering 24 hours of talk time.