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iPhone 6 Plus Long Term Review: Beautiful Freak Is The iPhone's Future

This article is more than 9 years old.

The iPhone 6 Plus has already plotted an incredible journey. When the first leaks appeared back in June it was something of a laughing stock. Few believed it was real and less could understand why Apple would do such a thing. But since launch it has been a different story. The iPhone 6 Plus has full blown iPad-itus and even Apple appears to have underestimated its popularity.

So as the dust settles more than a month later which vision of the iPhone 6 Plus is right: is it an overblown freak or the ingenious future of the iPhone? Interestingly having now used the phablet for almost a month I've found the answer to be both.

Read more: iPhone 6 Plus launch review

Design: Luxurious Yet Totally Impractical

Things start ugly. On the surface the iPhone 6 Plus is a beautiful phone, but it is also one of the most impractical designs I've ever used.

My frustration over the last month stems from two things: form factor and finish.

With some justification critics have pointed to the iPhone 6 Plus’ overly large bezels compared to rivals, but this isn't really the problem. After all when a phone has a 5.5-inch screen it is not a one-handed device in any case.

Instead where my form factor issues lie are in Apple’s refusal to adapt the design of the iPhone 6 Plus for its increased size. Big phones are harder to grip than small ones so most phablets have either a curved rear, a textured finish or both. The new iPhones have neither.

This hits the iPhone 6 Plus particularly hard. The phablet is so wide (77.8mm/3.06in) your fingers can barely meet when wrapped around it and the flat back means you have no point of contact with the rear of the phone for extra grip - all force is on the sides. This becomes uncomfortable quickly and the super smooth finish means any reduction of pressure on the sides and the phablet can slip out your hands.

The end result: I've already dropped the iPhone 6 Plus four times (more in the next section) and I haven't dropped any phone in a long time. The iPhone 6 Plus will have to live in a case and while this destroys the aesthetics it also makes an already huge device (158.1 x 77.8 x 7.1mm and 172g) comically big.

It is a great shame because from a technical standpoint the iPhone 6 Plus has some of the best craftsmanship I've seen. The precision of the chamfered edges is remarkable and subtle touches like the finish to the ports and the gently curved sides of the display mean it outshines even the luxurious HTC One M8.

But in obsessing over the ergonomics, Apple has forgotten about the ergonomics of the human hand. Without a case, the iPhone 6 Plus will drive you mad.

Durability: Questionable Wear And Tear

Another concern raised during my time with the iPhone 6 Plus is its long term wear and tear. Prior to launch rumour had it that the new iPhones would be the toughest mobile devices ever made thanks to their aluminium unibody and sapphire glass.

Ultimately only the aluminium unibody appeared and standard Gorilla Glass 3 is in the display after vicious disputes with troubled sapphire maker GT Advanced killed hopes for a revolutionary screen. Then an unwelcome third problem arrived: the protruding camera.

The camera ring is already showing signs it will not age well. By definition it is the point of contact every time the iPhone 6 Plus is put down and it also rubs in pockets and bags.

Meanwhile the combination of impractical design and slippery finish does not combine well when you don't have a sapphire screen and a perfect smooth aluminium finish has a tendency to show the slightest scuff or mark. As you will see from the photos above the early signs are already there that you need to be extremely careful with the iPhone 6 Plus and again a case seems mandatory.

On the plus side, I'm happy to report there is no sign of bending.

Read more: iPhone 6: Owners Must Adapt To 5 Big Changes

Screen: A Treat For The Eyes

So while I have my reservations about the practicality of the iPhone 6 Plus design, does the impact of Apple’s big new display pay off? Without question.

Simply put: the iPhone 6 Plus has one of the best displays I’ve ever seen in a smartphone or phablet. Apple continues to eschew the more flashy AMOLED technology long used by Samsung in its premium Galaxy lines, but its IPS-based screen remains jaw droppingly bright with rich and vivid colours.

Furthermore side-by-side with the iPhone 6 it is clearly the superior screen and guarantees bragging rights.

Is it best mobile display I've seen? No, but it is in the top three. For me the True HD-IPS+ 2560 x 1440 pixel (2k) display in the 5.5-inch LG G3 tops the pack, closely followed by the 5.7-inch Super AMOLED 2k display in the Samsung Galaxy Note 4. Still this is illustrious company and no-one using this phablet in isolation is going to be anything but impressed every time they unlock it.

Features: Power And Potential

Apple famously underplays the raw hardware inside its iOS devices and that remained the case when the new iPhone 6es were launched. Now the iPhone 6 and iPhone 6 Plus have been on sale more than a month independent testing reveals a lot more.

Inside the two models is a 64-bit Apple A8 chipset with dual core 1.4GHz CPU and quad core PowerVR GX6450 GPU. They offer a die shrink (20nm) compared to the A7 chipset in the iPhone 5S and Apple claims the combination delivers 20% better CPU performance and 50% better graphics performance.

This isn't the stratospheric leap that new iPhone generations have made in the past (especially with RAM still at 1GB), but that is with good reason: the iPhone 5S remains an incredibly quick phone. As such the upgrades Apple has made with the iPhone 6 Plus are more about future proofing than immediate benefits. Yes navigation, load times and gaming are extremely fast and smooth, but there is nothing yet that can push the A8 chipset to its limits.

It is a similar case of potential when it comes to the iPhone 6 Plus’ other big additions: the upgraded M8 motion coprocessor should come into its own as supported HealthKit apps expand over the next 12 months and the relatively walled-off addition of NFC should spread itself beyond Apple Pay. I'll look at these more closely further down.

iPhone 6 Plus camera is excellent, though detail is occasionally lacking

Camera: The Best On Any iPhone

Much like its chipset, Apple also downplays the raw statistics of its cameras versus their real world performance and here the company is onto a winner: the iPhone 6 Plus camera is easily the best on any iPhone to date, including the iPhone 6.

Having taken photos in a myriad of conditions over the last month where it excels is low light and this comes down to the key differentiator between it and the iPhone 6: optical image stabilisation. OIS allows the lens to physically move so it cancels out camera shake and the iPhone 6 only has digital image stabilisation (DIS) which attempts to recreate this with software.

At launch the difference between the two was minimal and DIS does a much better job than expected, but the gap is growing with every firmware update.

The result is you can attain low light images you have no right to get on a smartphone such as the lighter flame taken in pitch black without a flash above. Yes at full resolution you can see a lack of detail, but the fact is the shot looks excellent at the sizes you are most readily going to view.

If I was to trip the iPhone 6 Plus camera up at any point, however, it is detail in general. An eight megapixel camera gets caught out when shots are viewed at full resolution - even in ideal conditions. This won't bother most, but now and again when you want to heavily crop a photo it is an issue and it is something that doesn’t happen to higher resolution rivals like the LG G3 and Samsung Galaxy Note 4 - still my two benchmarks for the smartphone/phablet sector.

Another limitation in fitting an eight megapixel camera is the sensor is too small to shoot 4k (3840 x 2160) ‘Ultra HD’ video. Again this won't be a problem for many, but with 4k TVs rapidly falling in price and owners expected to keep the iPhone 6 Plus at least a few years it could become more of an issue in future.

The good news is when you do show off 1080p video it will still look superb. The iPhone 6 Plus and iPhone 6 both shoot at 60 frames per second (fps) which is enough to catch high speed action, while a 240fps mode in 720p can make for some incredible slow motion footage.

The front facing 1.2 megapixel FaceTime camera on both phones still isn't up to much and won't please the selfie crowd, but it does deliver relatively good 720p video for video calls. Don't ask too much and it won't let you down.

Read more: iPhone 6 Vs iPhone 6 Plus Review

Audio - Clear And Loud, If Not Class Leading

An under appreciated element of smartphones is their external speaker and I've grown to like the side mounted external speaker on the iPhone 6 Plus far more than I expected.

Compared to the dual, front facing stereo speakers on the HTC One range and even the front facing single speaker on the superb Moto X it lags behind, but it is still clear and loud and more than good enough for speakerphone calls and podcasts. You won't want to listen to your favourite bands with it, but that remains true for every smartphone/phablet speaker. Front firing next time though please, Apple.

Audio is also clear and precise in phone calls. Apple has come on leaps and bounds since ‘Antennagate’ with the iPhone 4 and signal strength and call quality is excellent. It is also helped by support for more than 20 bands and LTE Advanced which is currently being rolled out by networks and delivers potential data downloads speeds of up to 300Mbps.

In short: if your phone call sounds terrible, you can blame your carrier rather than your iPhone 6 Plus.

Battery Life And Charging - Long But Not Fast

Despite the larger, higher resolution screen and OIS camera, arguably the biggest benefit in opting for the iPhone 6 Plus is the battery and it is beast.

At 2915 mAh it is over 1,000 mAh larger than the 1810 mAh battery in the iPhone 6 and almost double the size of the 1560 mAh battery in the iPhone 5S. Furthermore, despite the increased drain from the bigger screen, those numbers translate even better in real world usage and you’ll get more than double the battery life compared to the iPhone 6 and iPhone 5S.

The real star of the show here is standby time. Leave the iPhone 6 Plus unplugged overnight on 100% battery and you’ll wake up to 98-99% capacity. It sips battery and in standby mode Apple says it will last more than 10 days, which doesn’t seem unrealistic.

In real world usage this means you will get a full day no matter how intensively you use the iPhone 6 Plus and two full days is realistic. Charging becomes something you do now and again, rather than a religious activity. This is a game changer for the iPhone range given its non-removable batteries and is by far and away my favourite thing about the new phone.

There is a downside: the iPhone 6 Plus is a slow charger. This could be expected, but fast charging solutions are becoming prevalent, as seen on the upcoming Nexus 6 which claims six hours additional use from a 15 minute charge.

The irony is the iPhone 6 Plus can actually charge quickly, but it requires a higher voltage iPad charger which Apple doesn’t supply in the box. Considering the asking price, that is a poor shortcut to have taken.

Operating System - iOS 8 Finds Its Feet

For Apple the slogan ‘It just works’ has become a mantra and one that took a heavy beating with the troubled launch of iOS 8. The good news is finally with iOS 8.1 Apple seems to have gotten to the bottom of most things.

Furthermore, whereas iOS 7 was largely a coat of new paint, iOS 8 adds major tangible benefits to the new iPhone 6es - even if the biggest will be slow burns. These are Apple HealthKit and Apple Pay.

Concerns have been raised about both and it is far too early to judge them. That time will come nearer to the launch of the iPhone 6S Plus. What can be said though is their potential is vast. HealthKit has faced a couple of high profile shuns (most notably Fitbit), but its ability to centralise all health data can do for fitness what Game Center did in transforming gaming.

Apple Pay can be even greater. Technically it remains US only for now, but switching your region to the United States has seen it work in multiple countries as the video above shows.

It must be said using the slippery iPhone 6 Plus instead of a credit card isn't that convenient (the iPhone 6 does better here) and the wide roll-out of NFC chips in credit cards for touch payments in Europe reduces the benefits there. But having all your cards in one place is extremely useful and once Apple Pay can also take store loyalty cards (the bane of any wallet) then your physical cards could well be under long term threat (especially combined with the iPhone 6 Plus’ battery life).

Apps - Updates Needed But Phablets Rule

I’ll only touch upon this, but apps do need to be updated for the iPhone 6 Plus. Apple made a lot of noise about the new iPhones having ‘desktop class scalers’, but quite frankly apps which have not been optimised for the higher resolution display of the Plus look blurred and overblown.

The good news is updates are happening thick and fast. Google has already updated a number of core iOS 8 apps and the majority of the App Store’s most popular apps have followed suit, but don't be surprised if you get a shock now and again from some of your personal favourites.

This aside, the iPhone 6 Plus’ other big advantage over the iPhone 6 is apps. Apple’s decision to allow apps on the iPhone 6 Plus to function like an iPad with greater functionality in landscape mode opens the door for the platform’s mass of developers to come up with some great differentiators.

Adoption here will be crucial. If the biggest apps get aboard then the knock-on effect for iPhone 6 Plus sales will be significant. If developers stick to tablet apps on iPads and shun the added complexity of making different apps for the iPhone 6 Plus and other iPhones then the phablet could be left looking like a beautiful freak.

Read more: Best iOS 8 Replacement Keyboards

Value For Money - An Investment In The Future

All of which brings us to the scariest part of the iPhone 6 Plus: price. Quite simple the iPhone 6 Plus is expensive. It will cost you $100 more in each capacity (16GB, 64GB and 128GB) than an iPhone 6 on a two year contract and off contract a 128GB iPhone 6 Plus costs more than an entry level 128GB MacBook Air.

Consequently to see value for money you both need to buy into the belief that the physical inconveniences are outweighed by the technical benefits and that third party developers will get on board and create apps which genuinely outstrip their phone-restricted iPhone counterparts.

Either that or you really need a massive battery.

Bottom Line - Freaks Are The New Normal

There is no getting away from the outrageousness of the iPhone 6 Plus, but there is also no getting away from the fact that outrageous is fast becoming the new normal in the smartphone/phablet sector.

In terms of design Apple has shot itself in the foot. The iPhone 6 Plus looks great and it superbly well made, but its lack of hand-friendly ergonomics and ludicrously slippery finish are completely nonsensical. Even if you could use the iPhone 6 Plus one-handed it would be dangerous bordering on foolish to do so. A case or at least a textured skin (I prefer dbrand) is the way to go.

Aside from this there is no denying that the iPhone 6 Plus is the better of the new iPhones. Screen, camera and battery life are all big wins and its new iPad-esque approach to iOS 8 means it can develop major usage benefits compared to the iPhone 6.

If you are buying a new iPhone I would therefore urge you to look at whether it is remotely feasible to crowbar the iPhone 6 Plus into your life. Phablets are ungainly (and the iPhone 6 Plus is the most ungainly phablet on the market), but they are also the future of phones and if we all need to buy trousers with bigger pockets then so be it.

Disclosure: Thanks to Three UK for the loan of this review sample.

Read more: iPhone 6 Long-Term Review: Apple's Lack Of Vision Is The iPhone's Failure

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