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
Battery Life
One of the big draws of the larger form factor is battery life. Due to fundamental scaling issues, a bigger phone should be able to achieve greater battery life than a small one. This is because a smartphone's PCB generally remains constant in size, so it becomes an increasingly smaller proportion of the overall device size. This leaves increasingly large areas where batteries fill in the gap. In order to quantify just how big of a difference this makes when going from 4.7" to 5.5", we turn to our standardized battery life test suite. For those unfamiliar with our testing, the display is calibrated to 200 nits and all background tasks are disabled in order to ensure that only the foreground task is active in our tests.
As we previously discussed, the iPhone 6 Plus performs quite admirably in the WiFi web browsing test. As expected, there's a healthy bump over the iPhone 6, but it's not quite a massive leap as a larger battery size might suggest.
Once again, we see a similar pattern with the LTE web browsing test. Since both phones are based on the same platform, it makes sense that their results track quite closely together as we're only scaling display and battery size within the context of these tests.
However, the web browsing test is a mostly display-bound test, even if there is an SoC efficiency aspect that can make a significant difference. In order to better test SoC efficiency and get an idea of the dynamic range that a phone has in battery life, we turn to our compute-bound tests. Unfortunately, Basemark OS II stops the test too early due to low battery notifications in iOS, so we cannot use that test for a proper comparison to other phones.
As shown in these charts, the iPhone 6 Plus manages to sustain a significant boost in battery life when compared to the iPhone 6, and performance is almost identical as well. It seems that the iPhone 6 Plus begins to throttle towards the end of the test simply because it has more time to generate heat rather than any real difference in cooling, as skin temperatures were also around 43C on the iPhone 6 Plus in this test. It's also important to note that the iPhone 6 Plus is rendering at 2208x1242 internally in order to keep proper scaling with the 163 points per inch system that iOS has, which accounts for part of the performance delta.
Overall, battery life on the iPhone 6 Plus ranges between about 20% higher to 40% higher depending on the balance of display power and SoC/baseband power in any given situation. Heavily display-bound situations will be closer to the 20% higher figure while more SoC-bound tasks will tend toward 40% or even higher. Purely idle situations should see even greater improvements as any situation where the display is off will see linear scaling with battery size.
Charge Time
Charge time is one of the key metrics for getting a holistic picture of battery life, as it's impossible to really understand whether a phone will be able to stay mobile as needed without considering recharging. In some cases such as a trade show or travel, it doesn't matter if a phone lasts 20% longer than the competition if it loses all the time gained in time spent on a charger. In order to test this, power is tracked from when the phone is connected to the charger to when it reaches the lowest power draw state on the AC adapter.
Unfortunately, the included charger is the same 5W charger that we've seen for years now. As a result, the iPhone 6 Plus is constrained by the relatively low maximum power that it can put out. Those that wish for faster charging should look into getting an iPad A/C adapter as the iPhone 6 Plus will charge faster when connected to it.
Facebook
Twitter
RSS
191 Comments
View All Comments
KuyaMarkEduard - Thursday, October 2, 2014 - link
I cannot say any better word than this, but simply, AWESOME!TruthLoader - Thursday, October 2, 2014 - link
Did you really forget to mention one of Apple's new key features, introduced the first time with this new iPhone iteration, a capability prominently displayed by the newiPhone 6+ and best described by the words of Apple's CEO:
Dear iSheeps,
I am enlighted you guys already noticed our brandnew "iBend" feature. We have intentionally kept quiet to preserve the big surprise now unvieled on behalf of our beloved
iSheep. Let me share the following core principles, which were of particular importance throughout the design and development process:
1) Enhance our iSheep's ability to enjoy a panoramic perspective, to be able to make "Panoramas" without moving the iPhone or needing any third party software.
2) We wanted to compete with curved screen models form LG, Motorola and Samsung, mainly offered in their domestic markets.
3) This is our answer to the curved screen dsiplays offered by LG and Samsung, especially the new Samsung Galaxy Note Edge and the LG G Flex:
http://www.theverge.com/2014/9/3/6097297/samsung-g...
http://www.theverge.com/2013/10/27/5036288/lg-g-fl...
4) It is our firm belief and intention to surprise Samsung and LG by showing that we are capable of having an edged display in our phones without actually having one, all for
the purpose of trashing their new curved display phones and offering you a new, well hidden, feature.
5) Last but not the least, we want to sell more replacement screens (remember, screen replacement prices were already provided before our new iPhone launch event took place
(in anticipation of it:), of course thats's a feature, feel free to exchange displays now:)).
I am sure some of you iTards might be aware of some articles stating that although our new phones cost about 200$ to 250$ to manufacture (now the old ones cost even less),
http://recode.net/2014/09/23/teardown-shows-apples...
http://news.investors.com/technology-click/092314-...
http://www.techtimes.com/articles/16347/20140926/i...
we are selling them at a huge premium, which means we make a lot of money and I get to enjoy a lot of additional bonifications (ideed, my 15th luxury home has an indoor pool filled
with 100$ bills, hence I'm able to take a bath without suffocating).
More money leads to more attractive innovations like this special iBend (Registered Trademark, Patend Pending) feature you guys will be blessed with, as usual.
Soon we will launch a new iDevice with an additional "S" in its name, it will offer a whole pletoria of new features you will be able tomake use of, like the possibility to to bend it back and forth to form an S shape. ("iS", Patend Pending)
I sincerely believe you iSheeps are happy with our new iBend 6 Plus, however please let me take the oportunity to thank you all for being such a giant hoard of ignorant,
blind and mindless suckers whose whole purpose in life consists of buying our new iDevice/iCrap (Registered Trademark, Patend Pending) for a very high premium while wasting
their valueless time waiting in the iQueue just to brag about which poor soul enriched me first.
Always remember and never forget, the only thing premium about apple is price, everything else pales in comparision.
We Own you.
Yours Sincerely
Tim Crook.
TruthLoader - Thursday, October 2, 2014 - link
I'm terribly sorry I did forget to correct some typos, nonetheless, here we go (corrected version):Did you really forget to mention one of Apple's new key features, introduced the first time with this new iPhone iteration, a capability prominently displayed by the new
iPhone 6+ and best described by the words of Apple's CEO:
Dear iSheep,
I am delighted you guys already noticed our brand-new "iBend" feature. We have intentionally kept quiet to preserve the big surprise now unveiled on behalf of our beloved
iSheep. Let me share the following core principles, which were of particular importance throughout the design and development process:
1) Enhance our iSheep's ability to enjoy a panoramic perspective, to be able to make "Panoramas" without moving the iPhone or needing any third party software.
2) We wanted to compete with curved screen models form LG, Motorola and Samsung, mainly offered in their domestic markets.
3) This is our answer to the curved screen displays offered by LG and Samsung, especially the new Samsung Galaxy Note Edge and the LG G Flex:
http://www.theverge.com/2014/9/3/6097297/samsung-g...
http://www.theverge.com/2013/10/27/5036288/lg-g-fl...
4) It is our firm belief and intention to surprise Samsung and LG by showing that we are capable of having an edged display in our phones without actually having one, all for
the purpose of trashing their new curved display phones and offering you a new, well hidden, feature.
5) Last but not the least, we want to sell more replacement screens (remember, screen replacement prices were already provided before our new iPhone launch event took place
(in anticipation of it:), of course that's a feature, feel free to exchange displays now:)).
I am sure some of you iTards might be aware of some articles stating that although our new phones cost about 200$ to 250$ to manufacture (now the old ones cost even less),
http://recode.net/2014/09/23/teardown-shows-apples...
http://news.investors.com/technology-click/092314-...
http://www.techtimes.com/articles/16347/20140926/i...
we are selling them at a huge premium, which means we make a lot of money and I get to enjoy a lot of additional bonifications (indeed, my 15th luxury home has an indoor pool filled
with 100$ bills, hence I'm able to take a bath without suffocating).
More money leads to more attractive innovations like this special iBend (Registered Trademark, Patent Pending) feature you guys will be blessed with, as usual.
Soon we will launch a new iDevice with an additional "S" in its name, it will offer a whole plethora of new features you will be able to make use of, like the possibility to to bend it back and forth to form an S shape. ("iS", Patent Pending)
I sincerely believe you iSheep are happy with our new iBend 6 Plus, however please let me take the opportunity to thank you all for being such a giant hoard of ignorant,
blind and mindless suckers whose whole purpose in life consists of buying our new iDevice/iCrap (Registered Trademark, Patent Pending) for a very high premium while wasting
their valueless time waiting in the iQueue just to brag about which poor soul enriched me first.
Always remember and never forget, the only thing premium about apple is price, everything else pales in comparison.
We Own you.
Yours Sincerely
Tim Crook
KuyaMarkEduard - Friday, October 3, 2014 - link
BWHAHAHAHAH! AWESOME TruthLoader...bonerpopr - Thursday, October 2, 2014 - link
This guy just latches on to the top comment to spew his anti-apple bile.Please disregard
svan1971 - Friday, October 3, 2014 - link
wow you done, now im on my way to buy an iphone 6, oh wait there sold out EVERYWHERE ! Guess 10 million people didn't read your rant. Guess Ill get the Android disposable phone of the month...maybe not.smalM - Saturday, October 4, 2014 - link
That were a lot of words just to say "I hate Apple"...Berenz - Thursday, October 9, 2014 - link
Meh, I don't get why people are so in one camp or another. Both camps are making fantastic phones and a consumer won't go wrong by buying either a leading or even a mid-range device.As for Apple bashing, I think it got old years even decades ago. The fact is that iPhone would be largely the same device it is now (albeit with a smaller screen size still) without Android being developed. The same can't be said for the other way around. Fandroid pick a handful of great features taken by Apple from Android or 3rd parties while ignoring the fact that Android is copied almost verbatim from iPhone thousands of features including the entire concept. Just look at where Android was before iPhone launched. It looked like BlackBerry. There is a reason Goodle were able to copy quickly including Eric Schmitt (Google CEO) being on the Apple board and Andy Rubin (Head of Android at Goodle) having worked on Apple's earlier devices including the Newton (5" screen, stylus input, wireless, email, etc all 20+ years before current phablets.
As for spec, well, the stats speak for themselves. iPhones smoke the competition in almost every aspect by a big margin. However, my bargain Moto G (2nd gen) is still super smooth and feels almost as responsive as my iPhone 6.
The screen res argument is one of the most flawed ones I've seen yet. The thing that's important in a screen a high-enough res to not be able to see pixels (which is around 330ppi). Any higher and all you do is slow GPU and drain battery. Look at the frame rate of any higher res device on speed tests - they just crawl.
Yes, iPhones cost a load more but then Apple are the only manufacturer making a profit on their phones apart from Samsung who have just announced a 60% drop in profits warning. At some point, innovation will slow if companies can't make a profit. Currently it's a race for market share and brand position but Samsung has seen that they have very little customer loyalty and their customers will happily move to Sony, LG, OnePlus, Moto or a host of Chinese competitors. This is great for consumers in the short term but I'm not so sure long term.
I'm curious about the NSA "hotlink" comment. I've never heard any substantiated source claiming Apple have collaborated with the NSA at any point. This is not the same for other organisations.
CR2 - Wednesday, October 15, 2014 - link
There are great, really great Android products to choose from. In fact I may very well switch over and buy one on my next phone upgrade. It does not make Apple products somehow stuck as you say in 2011 technology. Apple is different than Android. Cadillac is different than Lincoln. There are a few, I admit important things that the Android products do that Apple doesn't, however the opposite is also true.The biggest difference might be the business philosophy of Apple versus Android manufacturers. You are correct that as a whole Apple is not always the first to introduce a feature. Of course in the case of fingerprint id, and a Total integrateds phone based payment system they were first.
The payment system highlights a fundamental difference in the 2 approaches to the market. Should the payment platform work it will over time have a big impact on how people pay for items and the security of that process. It is a much better collection and use of resources, with banks, credit card companies and the Android introduced NFC technology that combines for a perhaps better payment experience. (and you know that Apple has long known about NFC- but chose what might be a more powerful and profitable way to use it)
Don't discount profit as it the biggest difference in the phone debate. Like it or not Apple is making lots of money.
I find the venom that I often see on both sides laughable. And the envy that Apple generates because of the buzz for seemingly me to products is funny as well. On the flip side it really is a social question mark why Apple fans camp out, wait in line and spend countless time waiting when you can go online and get er done much easier! Perhaps it's a every 2 year party???
So enjoy the difference, it gives us choice, it makes both platforms drive each other to be better and both camps can enjoy the results. In other words don't hate, celebrate.
CR2
mpfjelsted - Thursday, October 16, 2014 - link
Why do seemingly intelligent people go and ruin their somewhat legitimate tirades by throwing in asinine hearsay?@AppleCrappleHater2, please tell me that you at least had a template that just needed some minor revision for this particular anti-Apple novella. I would hate to think you actually took time to write that in full just to post here. How disappointed you'll be to find out that it probably changed the minds of approximately zero people. Of course, that's the problem, isn't it? You don't have the self-control to make a legitimate point without throwing in the inflammatory (and in several cases above, erroneous) commentary that appears to be the trademark of every hyped-up lackey (both Android and Apple) here.
As someone who is generally supportive of the Android architecture, and the wide array of devices on the market that support it, I feel justified in my conclusion:
You're an embarrassment.