In 2007, Apple introduced the iPhone as a one-size-fits-all device.
“You can’t get your hand around it”, “no one’s going to buy that.” said
Steve Jobs, when asked about big screen phones like the 5″ Galaxy Note.
This was 2010, after a controversial launch of the 3.5″ iPhone 4. Two
years later, a 4″ iPhone 5 happened, and Tim Cook said “It also provides
a larger screen without sacrificing one-handed use.”. People had
already wanted a bigger iPhone by then. Even the generally awesome Apple
co-founder Steve Wozniak got frustrated and said “Part of me wishes
that Apple had not been so, kind of, arrogant and feeling we’re the only
one with the right clue. I wish they had made a small and a large
version of the iPhone; that would have been great for me.” That was the
old Apple.
The new Apple heeded to public demand and released the iPhone 6 and
the iPhone 6 Plus a while back. There are now two kinds of iPhones, not
one, and in this review, we are going to focus on the “phablet” from
Apple, the 5.5″ iPhone 6 Plus.
Note: The review will focus solely on the 6 Plus, in assumption
that you already know about the iPhone 6. In case you don’t, we have our
iPhone 6 review available for educational purposes.
Straight away, let’s address the elephant in the room. Does the iPhone 6 Plus bend?
Before we answer the question, you should know a thing or two about
materials, especially malleable and ductile materials like Aluminium.
Yes, the iPhone 6 Plus is made of anodized aluminium and, unfortunately,
it is really thin, at 7.1mm (0.2mm thicker than the iPhone 6). For the
world’s 2nd most malleable metal, thinness equals less density, which
naturally brings up the concern of bendability.
So.. yes, it could bend, but you have to make sure you don’t sit on
it. No really, if you sit on a piece of malleable metal the wrong way,
it bends, because the pressure you give exceeds the threshold. That’s
the same case with the iPhone 6 plus. It bends if and when you exceed
the threshold, and surely, exceeding it doesn’t happen without manual
force, mostly. Well, “mostly” because the 6 plus is tall (158.1mm),
really tall (vs 138.1mm on the iPhone 6), so there arises the
incompatibility with tight pants and short pockets. Sometimes, by
accident, short pockets can make you exert enough force to bend the 6
plus, but you only have to be slightly careful to not sit or bend your
legs in a reflex, with the phone in your pockets.
I have been using the 6 plus for 4 weeks now, and it has not bent,
not a bit. It survived hour long commutes in tight short pockets and
came away unscathed. From personal experience, I can say the iPhone 6
plus will never bend but that doesn’t mean it can’t. In fact, this
applies to several other phones out there, made of aluminium. Truth is,
they won’t bend, unless you are careless.
And now for the next concern, how big is the iPhone 6 plus?
This is the first time Apple has come out of its comfort zone, but it
looks like you might have to, too. The iPhone 6 Plus is big and it will
be uncomfortable if you aren’t used to phablet-sized devices. With a
5.5″ display, the device actually measures 6.22″ vertically, which makes
it too big for many. This is mainly because of the generous bezels
around the display. Also, by design, the curved edges are outward and
hence the phone becomes wider than usual, at 77.8mm.
Here’s a comparison of various phablet-sized devices with the iPhone 6 plus, to give you an idea.
Because of these dimensions, one handed usage is obviously the
biggest compromise Apple made with the 6 plus. You just can’t use it
freely. And it’s not even about the comfort in reaching UI controls
(more on that in the software section) or hardware buttons, it’s about
the danger of dropping the phone. The curved aluminium body is slippery,
especially if you have rough dry hands like me, and the device is heavy
enough (172g) to force you into making mistakes. I have big hands and
can use the 6 plus without much trouble but even then, it has slipped a
couple of times. I’ve been using a case ever since, and I suggest you do
the same, if you don’t want damage to your investment.
However, form factor has dictated Apple to make things slightly
easier in hardware. The lock switch has been moved from the top to the
right side of the phone. It now sits exactly at the place where a right
handed thumb or a left handed index finger reaches, making it easier to
lock the phone. Unlocking is much easier thanks to Touch ID, which makes
it effortless if you already had registered your thumb with it. Just a
press on the lock button lights the screen up, if you keep the finger
placed, the phone unlocks to the home screen in an instant. Using this
on the iPhone 5s might have felt normal, but on the 6 plus, it makes the
form factor slightly more comfortable. We have seen and used a lot of
phablets and the 6 Plus feels no different, but if you aren’t used to
big screens already, you will find the 6 plus daunting. People with
small hands though, do yourself a favour and please read our iPhone 6
review.
Display
Ever since the iPhone 4, Apple has had great displays on its phones,
the 6 Plus is no exception. The 5.5″ display comes with a standard 16:9
1920×1080 pixels resolution with a “Retina HD” pixel density of 401 ppi.
This is comfortably above the 326 ppi “Retina” benchmark set by Apple,
the ppi at which our eyes fail to resolve individual pixels. The
industry has pushed forward ever since, we have quad HD displays now,
but Apple knows that it is not just about resolution. The 6 Plus has
something called Dual Domain pixels that radically increase the viewing
angles. It’s also their thinnest yet, meaning the screen is most
definitely bonded to the display, closer than ever. This makes for
stunning viewing angles and great outdoor visibility, with the
oleophobic coating making sure our fingerprints don’t come in the way of
a superior experience.
The iPhone 6 is almost as good as the 6 plus but we did note some
differences. Despite Apple openly stating that the contrast ratio on
iPhone 6 is higher than the 6 Plus, we found the blacks to be deeper on
the latter. The backlight bleeds a little on the iPhone 6 whereas we
found no such issue on the 6 Plus. With black bezels, the 6 Plus’
display completely blends into the phone, with the curved edges making
it look way better than it already is. It’s great for watching videos,
playing games and indulge in any form of consumption, including
browsing.
Camera
The iPhone 6 and the 6 Plus have largely the same cameras, except for
the inclusion of optical image stabilization on the latter. Perhaps,
using up the little extra thickness on the 6 Plus, Apple has managed to
pack a hardware solution for video stabilization. The iPhone 6 does come
with software-based cinematic stabilization, so how much of a
difference does the iPhone 6 Plus’ OIS unit bring?
