You can also read Gordon Kelly's review of the iPhone 6 on Forbes.
Apple has taken its time to join the rest of the smartphone world in providing a large-screened mobile. With the announcement of the iPhone 6 Plus by Tim Cook and his team last week, Cupertino has finally entered the fray. Apple has arrived late to the game, and will have researched its competitors phablets carefully to find out what works and what doesn't.
Mixing that with iOS 8, Apple's latest mobile operating system, is probably one of the biggest smartphone challenges Jony Ive and Apple's design team have taken on. The size is a major distortion of the initial vision of the iPhone - traditionally a 5.5 inch screened smartphone requires a two-handed approach unlike Apple's previous focus on single-handed operation, and the iPhone 6 Plus doesn't feel completely comfortable in these larger shoes.
Design
Apple has moved away from the sharp-edged and angular design of the iPhone 4 and iPhone 5 family, back to a shape that is reminiscent of the iPhone 3G and 3GS. The difference here is the focus on the aluminium and glass in the construction. The iPhone 6 Plus feels far more professional because of this.
By curving the edges of the handset design, the iPhone 6 Plus feels more comfortable in the hand than if the design had stayed with the sharper edges. Curling your fingers around the edges and the lack of a sharp edge on the front glass is another comfortable bonus. With the rounded edges the iPhone 6 Plus feels a little bit less secure in my hand, and the smooth aluminium back doesn't help give me a good grip.
I'm sure whatever case is 'suggested' to me by Apple will help this adhesion problem, but it feels like practicality has been usurped for clean lines and minimalism.
By deciding to retain the larger top and bottom bezels, the iPhone 6 Plus does little to minimise the size of the smartphone. Where other manufacturers have worked to minimise the phablet's size outside of a large screen, Apple has decided to stay with a consistent design, and this has increased the bulk of the iPhone 6 Plus.
At 172g, the 6 Plus is only 4g lighter than the recently announced Galaxy Note 4, but with a 5.7 inch screen Samsung's phablet makes much better use of the volume and weight. At 158.1 x 77.8 x 7.1 mm the iPhone 6 Plus is also a shade larger than the Note 4 (which measures up at 153.5 x 78.6 x 8.5 mm). What I find interesting is the iPhone 6 Plus does not stand out against other phablets. Apple's latest design echoes designs used by Sony and Samsung, and is slightly larger than the competition. Apple has scaled up its older iPhone style, and the only change is the location of the power button.
The decision to stick with the Apple house style on the front of the handset has limited the potential design changes the larger screened iPhone could have made. I wish Apple had made some bolder choices after the decision was made to go with the larger screen.
Features
Three features on the iPhone 6 Plus are different to the iPhone 6. The screen is the obvious area, but Apple has also added optical stabilisation into the camera, and a larger battery (presumably because of the extra volume available, as well as requiring more power to drive the larger screen).
The iPhone 6 Plus is available in 16 GB, 64 GB, and 128 GB. I do feel that Apple should have bumped up the entry-level storage to 32 GB. With HD video, slow-motion capture, and panoramic images, that can be captured by the user, alongside any music and video in their iTunes collection, storage is going to be rapidly eaten up. Because of that I'd be hesitant to recommend the 16 GB model to anyone.
Apple has updated a number of chips since the iPhone 5S. The main system-on-chip assembly is now the A8, which promises a 25% increase in performance, 50% increase in graphics performance, all while producing less heat. One of the advantages of software and hardware from the same manufacturer means tight integration and better performance. It's one reason Apple's CPU's can run at a lower clock speed than Android for better battery life.
The motion co-processor has also been updated. Inventively called the M8, Apple has added a tiny barometer to sit alongside the accelerometers, geo-location sensors, and data recording facilities of the co-processor. This should provide software such as Apple Health with more personalised data from your activities to help analyse your lifestyle. Not much has been said by Apple on Health since its presentation at WWDC, but expect that to change over the next few months.
RAM is going to be an issue. With just 1 GB to go around, the iPhone 6 Plus is notably less than the 3 GB in the Galaxy Note 4 and a number of other high-end Android handsets. Now iOS is seen as a more efficient operating system, and iOS 8 will have been heavily worked on since the public beta release after WWDC.
Straight away issues such as opening multiple tabs in Safari show the limitations of the RAM, with page refreshes being triggered when you switch tabs. It remains to be seen just how restrictive this low level of RAM will affect the overall performance. Yes it matches the iPhone 6, but the iPhone 6 Plus has to handle far more data for the screen. Pushing the envelope in terms of gaming, web browsing, and heavy RAM usage apps is one thing we'll be looking at in our long-term review in the next few weeks here on Forbes.
Screen
Let's turn to the iPhone 6 Plus' main selling point. While Apple does have the iPad range, the 5.5 inch screen is the largest smartphone screen to come out of Cupertino. With a 1920 x 1080p screen, Apple is finally offering a 1080p display. It is certainly a large screen, matching handsets like the Galaxy S5 and the HTC One M8. Again, Apple is matching the competition, but is not overhauling them. In some cases Apple is still lagging behind, such as the LG G3. That handset packs the higher Quad HD screen at 2560 x 1440 resolution, into a similar sized 5.5 inch screen smartphone... but with a smaller physical chassis.
Apple's desire to retain one-handed operation has damaged the user interface. Apple's reachability solution, which scrolls the whole screen down so elements can be hit with a thumb, is certainly functional but it feels like a fudge. It's the sort of workaround that a developer puts in with a note to 'polish this before release'. I'm not sure if there's a better solution without reworking the UI in portrait mode, but Apple should have tried to find one.
This UI slip-up is all the more unusual because of the work that has obviously been done in landscape mode. Bringing in the vertical ticker tape from the iPad's UI is a smart move, and makes better use of the 1080p screen. I think this is where Apple has spent the time to make something that really works. By assuming a two-handed view in landscape, the design elements work well, and you can sweep and interact easily with the hand that is not holding the iPhone.
This is the issue with the iPhone 6 Plus. Apple has tried to be too smart, with a two-handed mode in landscape that does work, but shows up the weakness in the one-handed portrait implementation. It's another area that needs time to judge, and I hope that portrait becomes smoother and gets some muscle memory working. Right now it's just awkward.
Camera
Apple has sidestepped the megapixel race beloved by Android manufacturers and gone for quality. The sensor has remained at eight megapixels for the main camera, but Apple has improved low light performance, faster focusing, and delivered better effects such as slo-mo capture. The iPhone 6 Plus delivers wonderful images and video, although if you are shooting landscapes, there will be a small loss of detail compared to cameras with larger sensors such as the Nokia Lumia 1020 and 1520. With so many people using these snaps for social media sharing (which invariably get down sampled during transit) eight megapixels is a comfortable size.
The iPhone 6 and iPhone 6 Plus have identical camera units, apart from one feature. The extra size of the iPhone 6 Plus allows for optical image stabilisation. By 'floating' the lens through mechanical means, the lens can be held steadier and reduce shake from your hand. A stable lens allows more light to be collected, and sharper images to be captured.
The other benefit that will be readily apparent is the faster time it takes for the iPhone camera to focus. Using 'focus pixels' at the edges of the sensor allow better differentiation between subjects, tapping to focus is no longer a requirement for simple shots. Complicated scenes may require the user to tap on the subject, but for most use cases the iPhone 6 Plus will be a genuine point and shoot.
The focus pixels also carry through to video, allowing for continuous focusing to be implemented. The response time here is much faster than previous iPhones, and for the amateur shooter this will be welcome. Those looking for a more professional output will probably switch to manual.
How much of an extra benefit this delivers will need more testing.
Audio
Apple has beefed up the speakers on the iPhone 6 Plus, and the audio playback through the handset is a step up from the iPhone 5S. Just like the other elements of the handset, Apple has lifted the bar on its handsets, but other smartphones in the market have better solutions, both in terms of speaker placement, clarity, and loudness. Music lovers with the HTC One M8 will find the iPhone 6 Plus a step backwards.
Battery Life
This is where the iPhone 6 Plus has a clear advantage over the iPhone 6. Thanks to the increased volume in the casing, Apple has packed in a 2195 2915 mAh battery into the case. I've not been able to do any endurance or stress testing on the battery life of the iPhone 6 Plus, but the evidence so far suggests that with regular use this handset will comfortably last for two days, and with a bit of TLC could stretch to three days between charges. I'd still recommend a nightly charge to keep everything in tip-top condition - you never know when you'll need to really work the HD camera for example).
Battery life will be an issue the Forbes Tech Team will look at more closely when we publish our long-term review of both iPhone 6 handsets in October.
iOS 8
Forbes writers Amadou Diallo and Mark Rogowsky have been taking a closer look at iOS 8 since its release (with a look at the best new features, notable flaws, and a general overview) so there's not a huge need to go over the fine details again here.
As mentioned in the review, the integration of the iOS software and the hardware is one of Apple's great strengths, and that continues in the iPhone 6 Plus. The changes to iOS for the larger screen still feel like hacks, and I would like to see this area improved in the next update.
Value For Money
This is a tough one to call. Apple traditionally has a price premium over similar hardware, and that's the case here with the iPhone 6 Plus (especially on SIM free prices). From a specifications point of view, Apple has skimped on the parts. 1 GB of RAM feels particularly low, and while it may well be sufficient out of the box, I've no doubt that developers are going to push the limits of this hardware and come up against this memory restriction rather quickly. When the competition is sporting up to 3 GB of RAM, this feels like a move to increase the already generous margin on the handset. The same is true for the screen. While it matches the leading Android handsets, we've seen recent handset announcements move to quad HD.
There are usability arguments for all of these components to not match the specs of Android handsets. The tight integration Apple can offer between hardware and software does reduce the performance gap... but I can't help noticing that at each decision point, Apple has went with the cheaper option.
How much do you value iOS over a large screen? If all you want is the width and height, then the iPhone 6 Plus is not going to score very highly and you should look at the competition on offer from other manufacturers. Every smartphone is a compromise, and the iPhone 6 Plus demands a larger commitment to iOS and that app ecosystem because of these compromises.
The Bottom Line
Apple has delivered what the consumers appeared to be asking for - an iPhone with a large screen. The commercial pressure to do that must have been huge, because Tim Cook has sacrificed much of the DNA of the iPhone. The design of the iPhone 6 family feels generic, as if Apple has lost the physical swagger that made it Apple, the comfort and one-handedness has gone, and the portrait implementation feels like a hack.
Yet it's an iPhone through and through. The larger screen, especially with my older eyes, looks good. Apps are crisp, and the extra processing power is welcome (and hopefully offsets the low level of RAM). The smoothness and uniform nature of the applications is still present, and the landscape tweaks to the UI do make the individual apps easier to navigate through.
There is nothing stunning on offer here. Apple has not taken the opportunity to push the boat out. It's a bigger iPhone through iteration, rather than inspiration. That will be enough for many Apple fans, but I can't help feeling that Apple is caught in the same issue as the major Android manufacturers. The scope for innovation on the handset is narrowing, and there are no big wins left - the real action is on the wrist.
Apple's hardware has reached parity with the Android world. Cupertino's real strength lies in iOS 8, and that does make a difference. Existing iPhone users who have been lusting for the larger screen or two-day battery life, here's your model. For the majority of consumers, the iPhone 6 with the 4.7 inch screen delivers that 'larger' experience with fewer compromises, and is probably a better fit in your hand, in your pocket, and in your life.
The iPhone 6 Plus is a special team player. If that fits your needs, great. Go ahead and pick up the iPhone 6 Plus, you're not going to be disappointed. Just don't expect to be blown away by what is, essentially, an iterative update that's slightly bigger than Apple's historical handsets.
Now read Gordon Kelly's review of the iPhone 6 here on Forbes.
