“If you’ve avoided previous iPhones because of their diminutive stature, take another look. The iPhone 6 Plus feels smoother than any other phone, sports a top-notch camera, and has the best app selection.”
- Industry-leading design, build quality
- Reachability feature makes size manageable
- Fantastic camera
- iOS 8 remains a fluid, beautiful OS
- Large battery
- 16GB storage on base model is not enough
- Large size is too big for some hands
- Specs aren’t much better than iPhone 5S
- No water resistance
I’ve never loved phablets. I still don’t. Before they started selling well (because all of you started buying them), I labeled phablets as unholdable failures, and still feel obligated to warn you all: Unless you have Shaq’s hands, a phablet is not the best-sized phone for you.
Given the choice between a perfectly designed 4.7-inch iPhone 6 and a massive 5.5-inch
But few of you are going to heed my size warnings, and why would you? So many phablets are sold each day that Apple felt compelled to throw out its own beliefs on phone usability and release the over-endowed
Updated on 3-24-2015 by Malarie Gokey: Added in more impressions on Apple Pay, the camera, and battery life, after using the
Beautiful design (wish it were waterproof)
Year in and year out, the iPhone is always the best-looking, best-built phone available. Nothing has changed with the iPhone 6 or 6 Plus. Aside from the HTC One M8, nothing out there comes close to its design quality.
Notable design features:
- An insanely thin 7.1mm body (the thinness should help if you use a case)
- A brushed-aluminum frame (silver, black, or champagne “gold” available)
- Less plastic than last year around the top and bottom of the back (there’s just a thin strip for the antenna)
- Roomier volume buttons
- A more comfortable power button on the side instead of the top
You will notice that the camera now protrudes about a millimeter from the back. This is a byproduct of Apple going for broke on thinness, and it could lead to some broken camera lenses, but isn’t excessively noticeable and doesn’t hamper the feel.
The brushed metal, rounded edges, and large size of the 6 and 6 Plus combine to produce a somewhat slippery device. If you’ve used an HTC One M8 or iPad, you know what you’re getting into here.
Finally, Apple has not commented on water resistance, but many leading competitors to the
Still, when all is said and done, the pros outweigh the cons. This is a comfortable, beautiful iPhone that leads the market. Apple hasn’t lost a step.
Apple’s Reachability makes 6 Plus more manageable
Despite its size, one small feature makes the 6 Plus much easier to use: Reachability.
Normally, a big phone forces you to strrrretch your thumb between a Home button at the bottom of the screen, a notification tray way on the top of the screen, app back buttons in the upper left corner of the screen, and power/volume keys high up on the sides. The smaller a phone is, the easier it is for you to hit all these keys with one hand; the larger it gets, the more you have to adjust your grip or use two hands. This leads to discomfort and dropping.
Apple’s Reachability feature is the best way I’ve seen a phone maker deal with size.
Even with Reachability, it’s still somewhat cumbersome to have to double tap every time you want a screen to come down to meet your thumb, but at least the iPhone gives an option if you need to do some things with one hand. Kudos to Apple for thinking that through better than any Android phone maker so far (or Google).
After using the phone for a few months, I found that I very rarely use reachability, but it’s nice to know it’s there if I need it. If I want to use the 6 Plus one-handed, I can manage it, by nestling the phone against my palm. Still, more often than not, I go with the two-handed approach, which begins to feel natural after you’ve adjusted to the phablet life.
iOS 8 is a good, small step forward
For a more complete look at iOS 8, you should read our full review. Aside from Reachability and some improvements to iCloud — Family Sharing and iCloud Drive both rock — there’s little new in the
Tips is literally just a guide to new features in iOS 8. Despite being an app most people will use once, you can’t remove it. The same goes for the Apple Watch app.
Health is the most poorly designed app I’ve ever seen from Apple. In its current state, it is completely unusable by anyone outside of engineers and Apple’s elite. I’m not sure who approved this mess, but it’s shameful. I’ve been reviewing apps since 2006, and I’ve used better health and fitness apps on the original Motorola Razr phone than Apple’s Health app.
Without any form of tutorial you’ll have no idea what’s going on; even when Apple gets its act together and fixes the bug with the Health app’s Sources screen, nothing outside a massive redesign will make it user friendly. Right now it’s just folder after folder of complex medical terms, requests to manually add “data points,” and things you have no way to measure. The app needs to show you what you need to know and hide the clutter. So far, Health is a major disappointment.
Aside from Health, iOS 8 looks about identical to iOS 7, and that’s great. iOS remains the most consistent, easy-to-use operating system available. You can even do a few new things, like install your own custom keyboard — hello, SwiftKey.
Apple Pay may be derivative and niche, but you have to hand it to Apple, its mobile payment system is downright cool. I’ve used it a number of times at Whole Foods, Panera Bread, and a few pharmacies. Apple Pay really does work seamlessly, and assuming the company uses its big reputation to bring
Good specs, but storage comes at a cost
First, a rant. When is Apple going to upgrade the iPhone’s memory? The default $750
If you pay $100 more, you can get a 64GB iPhone, and $100 more will nab you 128GB. With apps and photos taking up much more space than even a year or two ago and no MicroSD support, we cannot recommend that you purchase a 16GB iPhone. Pay $100 more and buy a 64GB option.
The 6 Plus appears to be roughly on par with the iPhone 6 and a small step up in power from the iPhone 5S. The phone gets noticeably warm when you play games or do a lot of downloading.
We performed a 3DMark Ice Storm Unlimited test on the
The specs of the
Camera improvements
Apple certainly gave the camera a boost on the
I’ve even used it as my primary camera at press events. More than once, I’ve used it to shoot hands-on videos of other devices and app demos. It truly is a wonder. I haven’t had much use for Timelapse videos, except when I was at the NYC marathon, but it was pretty awesome to use it then.
Typically, the
The camera improvements are subtle, and the front camera is still a sad 1.2-megapixel webcam, but the
Call quality and battery life
Call quality and download times on the 6 Plus are up to par, and it’s impressive that Apple’s phone supports more LTE bands (more carriers) than any other
One of the biggest problems for iPhone users is battery life — It was at an all time low with the 5S, and most
Apple claims that the 2,915mAh battery in the 6 Plus will get up to 24 hours of talk time on 3G, but that’s not a terribly useful metric. I’m one of those obsessive people who charges their phone before it drops below 50 percent, so I rarely see my phone hit empty. However, after a full day at work, the battery is usually lingering around 70 percent, which is pretty incredible for an iPhone
On days when there’s a press event or two, that number drops to around 55 percent. Honestly, the only time I’ve ever worried about this phone dying dramatically in my hands was at the last two tradeshows. After using my phone almost nonstop to check calendar events, edit posts, text colleagues, email exhibitors, take photos, and a few videos between the hours of 7 a.m. to 10 p.m., the
Now, these numbers won’t be true for all of you. Some networks drain battery more than others, and some people stream boatloads of videos on their phones, or play graphics-intensive games. Battery life on the
Conclusion
Of Apple’s two new models, we recommend the iPhone 6 over the
If you like big phones or have avoided previous iPhones because of their diminutive stature, take a fresh look at Apple. Though we’re unhappy about the 16GB of storage space in the low-end model (please, pay more to get 64GB), the
Highs
- Industry-leading design, build quality
- Reachability feature makes size manageable
- Fantastic camera
- iOS 8 remains a fluid, beautiful OS
- Large battery
Lows
- 16GB storage on base model is not enough
- Large size is too big for some hands
- Specs aren’t much better than iPhone 5S
- No water resistance
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