Apple may have taken its sweet time jumping into the big-screen smartphone game, but now that it finally has, you can't accuse the company of doing things halfway. The iPhone 6 Plus isn't just bigger than older iPhones – it absolutely dwarfs them. Join Gizmag, as we take a quick first look at the first Apple phablet.
The iPhone 6 Plus is basically Apple's answer to the Galaxy Note. The 6 Plus takes the design language from the iPhone 6, and balloons it up to gigantic phablet proportions. And while it's a little compromised for one-handed use, it's, on the other hand, big enough that it can potentially void a need for a tablet.
The 6 Plus might be as much of an iPad mini rival as it is a Galaxy Note rival.
I see the iPhone 6 Plus as straddling the line between iPhone and iPad mini. If you're invested in the Apple ecosystem, and spent the last few years grumbling about having to buy both a tiny iPhone and a huge iPad, then this could be the 2-in-1 replacement device you've been waiting for.
This 2014 iPhone design, with rounded edges, works great on the huge iPhone 6 Plus. If Apple had stuck with the angular design that we saw in the last four iPhone flagships, then it probably wouldn't feel very comfortable in hand. But when you combine the Plus' thin build (7.1 mm/0.28-in) with those curved edges ... well, it's about as comfortable to hold as a gigantic phone can be.
The 6 Plus is also fairly light for its size, but it feels a lot more substantial in hand than the iPhone 6 does. Again, when you're dealing with a 5.5-in display, there's really no way around that. But you do need to go into this knowing that the Plus' size and weight are going to be jolting for some owners of older (either 4-in or 3.5-in) iPhones.
iOS 8 looks terrific on that big screen. And Apple's concessions to the larger screen are all right on the money. You can get iPad-like (doubled-paneled) views in apps like Mail, and also view your home screen in landscape mode:
Apple's one-handed mode ("Reachability") is going to be an integral part of the iPhone 6 Plus: just lightly tap the Touch ID sensor twice, and watch as the top of the screen slides down to the bottom. Press what you need, then double-tap again to slide it back up. It's about as elegant a solution as you can get to the problem of using a huge phone with one hand (though probably no more elegant than Samsung's one-handed mode, which shrinks the entire screen).
The 1080p screen on the 6 Plus looks terrific. I've been using various 1080p Android phones throughout the last couple of years, and I'm not yet sure if the iPhone's looks any better. But it does have terrific contrast, color range and accuracy. It might not be the very best mobile display, but it certainly isn't a weakness.
We're going to have much more on the iPhone 6 Plus, including a full review (complete with camera observations and battery tests) later this week. While you're waiting for that, you can also hit up our early impressions of the smaller iPhone 6.
The iPhone 6 Plus is available now – though in extremely short supply. It starts at US$750 full retail, or $300 with a two-year contract.
Product page: Apple
For some unknown reason Apple used a 5.5" 1080p screen instead of a 2560x1440 screen used by LG and Samsung. Also, both the LG and Samsung devices have 3GB of RAM and cost $600 (unsubsidized) while the 6plus only has 1GB of RAM and costs a minimum of $750. Also of note is that the LG G3 manages to fit a full 5.5" screen into a package that's about the same size as Apple's 4.7" iPhone 6.
Additionally, the changes in iOS 8 just don't stack up to the current version of Android KitKat, not even mentioning the upcoming Android "L" that's already been previewed.
Designwise, the iPhone 6 seems to be a step backwards for Apple. The iPhone 4 and 5 were much more striking as products.
Overall, I don't think another, "why everything Apple does is just peachy keen and oh so wonderful" article actually helps. They had an opportunity to jump ahead with the iPhone6, and they squandered it. The "inventors" of the retina display are now shipping phones with the LOWEST resolution on the market. They could have jumped ahead to 4k displays, created iPhones that could displaycast to 4k TVs and be used as workstations, and added some truly useful technology. Instead, as 2015 approaches, they jumped up to match the specs of 2013 Android flagships, and added useless "health" data collecting features that could only hurt the consumer if his insurance company ever got hold of it.
Apple isn't leading anymore, but that's not news, they haven't been leading for quite a while.
What is 2560 to 1920 if the higher resolution gives you a 25% battery penalty?
Furthermore, the 6 comes with a 2800mAh, which is beast. Suspect it will bring back the '4 days with moderate use' that people enjoyed back in the day.
Regarding the RAM discussion, people have gotten into the habit of thinking that more RAM is king. But in reality the only reason RAM exists is to buffer information while the processor is dealing with it. So to me, a phone with 3Gb of RAM just screams "RAM is cheaper then a decent processor" Its like boasting back in the day that you have a bigger swap file on your HDD than someone else. Anyone in the know would say your computer didn't have enough RAM.
But I'll acknowledge that the price is not reasonable. If it was not for my mobile provider absorbing most of the cost I would not be on an apple. And when I'm in the market for an upgrade to the 6 in ~6 months (IOS 8 should be mature by then), I will only do so if my provider absorbs it yet again.
All while they're busy copying the Mac.
Once they've launched their copy, they then strutted and boasted and bragged at how they were now the real innovators, and that the Mac is mere yesterday's news.
The regular iPhone at 750 x 1334 and 326 ppi does seem like it lags a bit behind some other flagship phones.
I don't think 4k ever really belongs on a phone. In terms of gaming most high end PC's barely support 4K displays at a respectable frame rate and the next gen consoles (ps4/xbone) struggle just to run 1080p at 60Hz. I get that phones don't spend a lot of time rendering detailed games at the native resolution but it highlights how much harder it is to drive a display beyond where the resolution even matters.
A 4k display on a 5.5 inch screen would be 801 PPI. On a 4.7 inch screen it would be 937 PPI.