The iPhone 6 Plus Mini-Review: Apple's First Phablet
by Joshua Ho on September 30, 2014 8:00 AM EST- Posted in
- Smartphones
- Apple
- Mobile
- iOS
- iPhone 6 Plus
Software
For the most part, the iOS 8 experience on the iPhone 6 Plus is functionally identical to what you get on the iPhone 6. However, some aspects of the iPad software are also present. For example, it’s possible to rotate the home screen in any direction desired, so it’s fully possible to navigate between home screens with the phone upside down. While not quite like the iPad, there are split views in certain applications and I’m sure that this view will become common as applications are optimized for the iPhone 6 Plus. For the most part, this really helps with taking advantage of the larger screen real estate. This difference also helps make the iPhone 6 Plus feel like the combination of a tablet and phone that it should be. While Reachability is a great feature to have in a pinch, it's really not a replacement for a proper phone if one is looking for easy one-handed use most of the time.
The one issue that I found was that the stock keyboard was ergonomically difficult to use when in landscape, as seen below. While it may be simpler for first time users, I suspect much less frustration would result if all of the extra functions were moved to the center of the keyboard and a split layout was used for the main keys, similar to the iPad.
However, outside of these dedicated applications the iPhone 6 Plus is really does provide a better experience. All of the advantages that come with a tablet such as improved video, photo, and web experiences along with easier content sharing are present in the larger 6 Plus as it sits right around the point where these benefits are clearly tangible. This becomes a major selling point of the device. While the software differences are definitely smaller than what we see on the Galaxy Note line, Apple has managed to do enough that most won't notice a significant difference one way or another.
Final Words
I started this review by listing the differences that the iPhone 6 Plus has when compared to the iPhone 6, and those are really the key points so it's worth going over again. I'm starting to sound like a broken record on this, but for the areas shared with the iPhone 6 it's critical to go back to the iPhone 6 review to understand things like the A8 SoC, performance, and display.
The first key point is the display size. This is fundamentally the most important difference between the iPhone 6 Plus and iPhone 6. While there are other differences, none of them matter when compared to size. I personally found the iPhone 6 to be right around the ideal balance between screen size and one-handed usability. If you're looking for that combination, then the iPhone 6 is really the better choice, even if it doesn't get everything that the iPhone 6 Plus has. However, those that don't care about using their phone with one hand on a regular basis may find the iPhone 6 Plus starts to be a much more appealing choice.
There are really a few key advantages of the iPhone 6 Plus over the iPhone 6 once the size issue is settled. The first is the camera. While rarely active, optical image stabilization has made it possible to achieve far better photos in almost any situation where longer shutter speeds can be used. Apple has really made it painless to take long exposures, as even a quarter of a second doesn't incur significant motion blur due to the multiple exposures combined for each photo. Even though this seems to be the only application of OIS, Apple has managed to make the overall camera experience better in a way that no other OEM has.
The next advantage is battery life. While the iPhone 6 has competitive battery life, the iPhone 6 Plus manages to extend Apple's lead while also maintaining the same thin and light profile that we see on the iPhone 6. The difference in battery life can be quite significant, especially in compute-bound cases where battery life scales mostly linearly with battery size.
The final advantage is resolution. While the iPhone 6 Plus does have a bigger display and all the advantages that come with the bigger screen, Apple has also provided an even higher pixel density than before with the iPhone 6 Plus. It's certainly not as incredibly high as what we see in phones like the LG G3, but the improved pixel density is clearly visible. There are performance trade-offs in GPU-based benchmarks, but otherwise Apple has managed to make this bump in resolution compromise-free. I definitely notice the improved resolution, but this is a mostly subjective area that requires personal experience to judge whether the higher resolution has value.
Overall, the iPhone 6 Plus is a great phone that builds on the foundation of the iPhone 6. Whether it's right for you will be based primarily on whether you want the larger display or not. Once again, it's pretty easy to see the strength of Apple's integrated hardware and software approach as it's only a matter of time before most applications take advantage of the iPhone 6 Plus' additional screen size. However, comparisons between the iPhone 6 and 6 Plus are mostly pointless as they fall into distinctly different categories with different target audiences. There's also relatively little value to testing the iPhone 6 Plus against the Note 3 as this would give the iPhone 6 Plus a massive lead due to differences in time of launch. The iPhone 6 Plus must be compared to the Galaxy Note 4, which looms large on the horizon as Samsung has consistently succeeded in holding on to their first-mover advantage in the phablet market. If you have to buy a phablet now though, the iPhone 6 Plus is the best one available.
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flutberf - Wednesday, October 1, 2014 - link
Android is incredibly secure. The only possible way it can get a "virus" (which on an android cannot happen anyway because of the permission system) is if someone disables 3rd party apk installs and downloads an app outside of the Play Store. Android being "open" has nothing to do with it.Also, maybe you get 10 times more calls for android phones than others because they have the vast majority of the market share?
Marthisdil - Thursday, October 2, 2014 - link
Right - because IOS has been able to be jailbroken via software since the beginning of time...IOS could have those similar bugs, especially once jailbroken...
I support hundreds of users and their devices, too. I get more calls on iphones than android phones.
yes, crapple sucks.
do i win now?
akdj - Wednesday, November 12, 2014 - link
'do i win now?'Or Do I win now?
Neither. iPhones outsell their flagship android counterparts many MANY times over. Most Android handsets are free, pay by the minute or 'tracphones'.
I love my Note 3. I've huge respect for what HTC, LC, Samsung...now, even Oppo. A name I thought only I was familiar with as an audio/video geek! ...HUGE Respect for each of their products, design choices in some cases are skeptical but the innovation that's 'pushed' BOTH Sammy and Apple to innovate, stay 'in front' of each other with the SoC races and THIS is a GOOD thing
A) you're either full of it, servicing Apple's 'hundreds of users and their devices too...and (sic) getting more support calls on iOS than Android' ...how would I know?
You're dealing with 'jail breakers' or those that brick their shit doing what they don't know how to, shouldn't be attempting and you're the only one that'll help them. Apple doesn't support jailbreaking their OS. Lotsa work goes into iOS, the App Store and payment to its developers. No reason they should. As well, jail breaking is essentially a thing of the past. iOS 8's capabilities far exceed Cydia's enticing possibilities earlier in iOS's life cycle. These days not much compelling other than side loading, screwing your device up or 'stealing' software.
None of which most buyers of an iPhone or iPad are interested in doing ...or should j say most?
Apple supports Apple. Not you. IF you're an IT manager and are operating a 'mixed' BYOD business, it's all about YOU. What you're using as your 'mainframe' (Linux? Windows? OS X?) & how you're allowing access to said workplace from outside or via VPN
I've owned every iPhone. A dozen Android phones and tabs and can honestly declare your post bullshit. Other than driving over, diving into water with, or blatantly destroying your device using software hacks/jailbreak methods beyond your scope of wisdom are all dumb, foolish things to do to a thousand dollar computer.
Why would you do it with your thousand dollar phone ...that IS a computer?
nerd1 - Wednesday, October 1, 2014 - link
Had iPhone 3gs and iPad 1. Now using android flawlessly (been through from 1.6 to 4.4)I just don't understand why people keep saying android is buggy. Apple devices were in fact more buggy to me (sudden app crashing, 'infinite apple logo' booting issues, freezing from now and then) and I had to jailbreak it to make it any useful, which brought even more bugs and issues.
Common sense - if android is too buggy to even make a call, nobody will buy android. Period.
moose0422 - Thursday, October 2, 2014 - link
I mean maybe it was just the phone I bought but Android is buggy. My Moto X wasn't the highest specced phone out there but the fact that it virtually ran the stock Android experience was what brought me to the platform. I unexpectedly became so frustrated with the OS that I had to go back to the iPhone. Between the lag, the crashing of apps, the unresponsive keyboard and random reboots I just couldn't take it anymore. Believe me I loved a lot about what Android offers. It has great features that iOS can't compete with but the overall experience just isn't the same.moose0422 - Thursday, October 2, 2014 - link
I had the 2013 Moto X and let me tell you it was an awful experience. It was the second android phone I've purchased, the first being the Samsung Captivate, and it randomly rebooted, apps crashed constantly, and the battery life was terrible. There were plenty of cool features on the phone such as Active Display, but the constant nagging of the bugs I encountered really made me hate the platform. I was an iPhone user pretty much since it was released and just recently went back to the iPhone 6 and couldn't be happier. The type of bugs I came upon just don't exist on iOS (even though it does suffer from some they are not nearly as annoying as those on Android 4.4.4). I'm hoping that Android L fixes a lot of those because the OS has a lot going for it in terms of being so open and customizable, but I was hardly impressed with my experience on KitKat and I feel that Google has lost me as a customer for foreseeable future.kmmatney - Thursday, October 2, 2014 - link
I used iPhone for 4 years, and now an Android phone for the last year. My Android phone (high end) has had a lot of bugs - serious things like not having it pause for 10-15 seconds between every word while trying to type an email (using default client). It wasn't until about a month ago that updates to Kitkat finally solved most of the issues. If I was at 2 years, I'd already have an iPhone 6+, but I'm too cheap to pay an early upgrade penalty, or buy one outright. I'm too cheap to even have a smartphone, but my work pays for the service, I just pay the subsidized phone cost. So after a year my phone finally works OK. My Nook HD+, on the other hand, well that's just buggy.OCedHrt - Thursday, October 2, 2014 - link
Because iOS doesn't show an error message when an app crashes ;)coldpower27 - Wednesday, October 1, 2014 - link
Yeah I had the S3 and switched to the iPhone 5, a much smoother overall phone. Android doesn't really come into it's own until you reach Samsung S4 and it's derivatives, and basically Note 2 and on. Android needs Quad Core for smooth operation on Samsung.If your using stock Android, the Nexus 4/5 has been a solid phone, though those are cheap phones and not really meant to compete with iPhone.
Narg - Wednesday, October 1, 2014 - link
I try so hard to convince people that if they need a cheap phone, stay away from Android. A good cheaper Nokia is a so much better experience. Android just doesn't work well on so many devices.