Living With an Apple iPhone 6 Plus

I've spent the past month living with an Apple iPhone 6 Plus, and not too surprisingly, I'm incredibly impressed.

The iPhone has always offered a user experience that was simple but powerful, and the 6 Plus with iOS 8.1 continues that tradition. And of course, the 6 Plus's 5.5-inch display pretty much levels the playing field with Android-based "phablets," removing one big incentive for choosing an Android or Windows Phone device over Apple. There still are a few areas where the top-of-the-line Android phones beat the iPhone 6 and 6 Plus on specifications, and Android phones are ahead of iOS on a couple of very nice features. But the overall experience of using the phone has been terrific.

Let's start with the physical hardware and the screen, which is the first thing people notice. The iPhone 6 Plus has a 5.5-inch 1,920-by-1,080 screen, compared with the 4.7-inch 1,334-by-750 display in the iPhone 6 and the 4-inch 1,133-by-640 ones in the iPhone 5 family. So not only is it bigger, it is higher resolution with higher dots per inch. The result is that Web pages, videos, and applications all look better (and like the iPhone 6, you get six rows of four icons per screen as opposed to five with the previous generation.) Applications not tuned for the new display show up in a zoomed view with bigger fonts and icons, and that's great for many people; other applications can use the larger display to put in more content.

It's not quite the 2,560-by-1,440 resolution that the LG G3 and the 5.7-inch Galaxy Note 4 and some other high-end Android phones have, but you have to be looking very hard to really see the difference. The IPS screen itself looks great; the colors are a tad less vibrant than on Samsung's OLED displays, but the colors look very good from a wider angle than previous iPhones, and the screen seems a bit brighter in most situations. Overall, it looks great.

At 6.22 x 3.06 x 0.28 inches (HWD), the iPhone 6 Plus is a bit taller than other phones with similarly sized displays but it's about the same width, just thinner. There's almost no bezel on the sides of the screen, but the top and bottom bezels are fairly big. The phone has rounded edges all over and a metal case that looks terrific. It certainly looks and feels like a premium device, and the thinness and rounded corners make it fit more easily into a pocket. (Some people say the rounded edges make it more slippery, and it did take me a bit to get used to that; if you're worried, you should get a case, which most people will do anyway.)

I have heard a lot of people say they find the iPhone 6 Plus to be too large, and I appreciate that the big devices aren't for everyone. I like devices with the larger screens because I spend most of my time on these devices reading mail, looking at websites, and similar activities. I just don't spend much time talking, and when I do for any length of time, I typically use an earpiece, so I don't really care what it looks like when I hold it to my ear. And I'm used to larger phones. I typically carry a Galaxy Note in addition to an iPhone, so I didn't find the size to be a negative at all. It fit fine in my pocket. (I don't put phones in my back pocket, so I didn't experience any issues with bending.) But if you have smaller pockets or simply want a smaller, one-handed device, this isn't the phone for you.

The smaller models, of course, are not only physically smaller, but they are lighter as well; at 6.07 ounces, the iPhone 6 Plus is a tad lighter than the Galaxy Note 4, but notably heavier than the 4.55-ounce iPhone 6. I highly recommend looking at the different sizes in your hand while looking at a Web page before you make the decision. For me, the 6 Plus is the right size.

The iPhone 6 Plus has a new processor, the Apple A8, which the company says offers 25 percent faster CPU performance and 50 percent faster graphics than the A7 used on the iPhone 5s. This is apparently produced on TSMC's 20nm process. The iPhone 6 Plus would need a faster processor, as it has more pixels on the display, and while I'm skeptical of most phone benchmarks, it certainly seemed fast enough.

Another big change is the camera. Like the previous iPhones, the 6 and 6 Plus both have 8-megapixel rear-facing cameras. The new big feature is what Apple calls "focus pixels," which did seem to make the phone focus faster than previous models. The iPhone 6 has optical image stabilization (which is not on the smaller iPhone 6), and that should matter in some situations, but I can't say I've really noticed that improvement. But one thing was quite noticeable: low-light photography was much improved; some evening scenes looked much better than they have with earlier models.

Of course, most of the time you use the camera will be through the camera app on iOS 8, and that has been improved as well. Probably the most noticeable feature is Timelapse videos; it's a cool idea, but I'm not sure I'll use it that much.

The Photos app is noticeably improved with new features giving you more control of light (exposure) color, as well as turning them into various black and white versions. There are third-party tools that have done this, but it's nice to have it built into the default program. In addition, Apple is now offering to link your photos with its iCloud service, so you can take all the photos created from any Apple device and make them all available on all your devices. There are many similar services, but Apple seems to have done a nice, simple job here. (Apple gives you 5GB of storage for free, but charges for more storage). Overall, the iPhone doesn't offer every feature, but I remain quite happy with the iPhone's cameras features. The fact that it has fewer megapixels may be a marketing disadvantage, but in the real world, the photos looked quite good.

The 6 Plus continues to have the "Touch ID" feature where the home button reads your fingerprint to unlock the phone or to use the iTunes Store, and this is now integrated with Apple Pay as well. This continues to work well for me, though there are some people for whom it doesn't work (probably due to something with their fingerprints). I find it very convenient.

I've also been pretty happy with battery life: the larger battery seems to make the phone last longer in most situations. For typical use with a fair amount of browsing and email but few phone calls, I find I can get away with charging it every other day, which is pretty good. Of course, if I'm streaming video or doing something else that's very graphics intensive, it goes through battery faster, as all larger screen devices do.

There are a number of other changes on the software side, as reflected in iOS 8.1, but in general, the upgrade is much smoother than the one from iOS 7 (and of course, most owners of earlier iPhones have already updated). For me, the biggest change is probably in the keyboard, which now by default includes predictive text, something I've been used to on Android and Windows Phone devices for a long time now. Apple's version seems to work well, but if you don't like it, you can replace it with third-party keyboards. This again answers one of the big advantages that Android has had in the past, and it's good to see Apple catch up here.

I also liked the new Notifications screen, which gives you control over what applications give you notifications there and even lets you respond to the notifications directly (including from the lock screen). I find myself using Notifications a lot more as a result, and my guess is this screen will get even more useful as more third-party applications support it. Again, this may just be catching up with things most Android implementations have had for a while, but they are still quite useful.

Another feature I like is that when you double tap on the home button, it now not only shows you recently opened apps, but also shows your favorite and most recent frequent contacts.

Other features include "family sharing," which lets you automatically have a shared PhotoStream, calendar, and reminders list, and allows you to find your devices from another one. It even allows up to six family members to share iTunes media purchases. It's a cool idea.

The bigger changes in iOS will take time to prove useful. It has a Health app and some integration with Apple's new HealthKit platform, but most fitness devices don't support it yet. As a result, you can use it to track things like steps, flights climbed, and running distances; and you can add in information on your activities, but it really isn't a big breakthrough yet. When more devices support it, it may be more important. The same is probably true for the home control areas, such as HomeKit, and promised future integration with the Apple Watch. Interesting ideas, but they don't really impact how you use the phone today. And, of course, there is also Apple Pay, which seems to work fine where it's accepted, but most of the merchants I use don't support it yet, so I doubt I'll be leaving my credit cards at home any time soon.

The one big feature I miss that most of the Android phablets have is multitasking, or at least the ability to view multiple applications at the same time.

Still, overall, my experience with the iPhone 6 Plus has been quite good. Again, in a head-to-head comparison of specifications, there are some measures in which some Android phones do better: screen resolution, camera megapixels, and of course, support for a wider range of devices. But Apple is more focused on the total experience, integrating hardware and software into one nearly seamless user experience that just seems a bit more fluid. If you like Apple's environment but were leaning towards Android just for the larger display, the 6 and 6 Plus are attractive reasons to return to the Apple fold. If you're considering which iPhone to use, the 6 is better if you're looking for something smaller, but still offers a big step up from the 5c and 5s. But if you're willing to carry a larger phone, my guess is you'll find the bigger display area quite handy for all sorts of tasks. To me, the 6 Plus with the 5.5-inch screen takes up more space but is absolutely worth it.

For more, see PCMag's review of the iPhone 6 Plus.