Here's the best way to start an iPhone review: Goddamn do I love Android. I love its flexibility and efficiency. I love the way it bends to my will. And I've spent the past couple years loving that I can get a phone that isn't made for someone with doll hands. So when I first saw the iPhone 6 Plus, bursting with extra inches-and iOS 8, finally sporting modern mobile features-I thought to myself, this might be the phone that brings me back to Apple.
For years, we talked about iPhone killers, but after taking on all comers, it really does seem like Google snuck in a massive reversal: Apple 2014 needs an Android killer. Which in my mind means it needed to abandon the idea that there is One True Screen Size and One True Way To Get Things Done. So I've really been looking forward to this big phone, and the interactive notifications, cross-application sharing and widgets of iOS 8. Because while Android may have the slickest OS, nobody can touch the application ecosystem on iOS. It's the one thing I miss, and this new phone seemed like the device that would find a middle ground.
And guess what: The iPhone 6 Plus is the best, most exciting phone Apple has released in many years. I love this phone. The hardware is unparalleled, the app ecosystem is unparalleled, and the operating system has really matured. In fact, from a hardware perspective at least, this is the most compelling smartphone I've ever used. Mostly.
It's not just high quality, it's positively refreshing. In recent years iPhones have felt like clone phones-the tyranny of Apple's uniformity may be great for making apps, but it means that if you have big fingers or bad eyesight or just want your video a little more blown up on the train you had to leave the fold. The 6 Plus breaks away from that, which is fantastic. Its size is a statement, an admission that everything shouldn't be the same for everyone. It's going after market segments. It's fragmenting the iOS experience.
One of those segments? Dads. I've been looking forward to trying the 6 Plus because it seemed like the perfect dadphone, and I'm a father with two kids under the age of four. It has a fast camera, amazing battery life, and a big gorgeous screen-perfect for shooting videos of quick-moving, photo-resistant children and watching marathon sessions of Daniel Tiger on road trips. Plus, SquareTrade claims the new class of iPhones are the least breakable ever. Dadcore. A Brooklyn beardo in super tight jeans may not care about any of those things, but I do. Maybe you care about something completely different. That's what's great about Apple rolling out different-sized devices. People are different. Phones should be different. Think different.
It's a great sign for Apple that it doesn't revere Steve Jobs' public statements as immutable truths anymore.
You can see just how much of a breakaway this phone is when you take it out in public for a few days. I've been toting around iPhones since the day the original one came out-when I stood in line to buy two (one for myself and one for a friend overseas, which he then sold for a profit). I've carried lots of other handsets in the intervening years, too: Androids. Windows Phones. Even Palms.
But not since that first iPhone have I carried something that other people were as unabashedly curious about. Co-workers have asked me about it. People I'm interviewing for other stories have derailed conversations to quiz me about it. A guy on the bus asked me about it. A guy in line at the coffee shop asked me about it. A waiter asked me about it. My wife, who long ago became immune to gadget fascination, asked me about it. Everyone wants to see my phone; everyone wants to hold it.
It's hard to blame the people who want to touch my phone. I mean, it's so big. Now, I'm a big-ish phone guy. For a couple of years now, I've listened to iPhone people laugh at my big-ish, 5-inch Android phones. But once you go get used to holding a big unit in your hand, it's impossible to feel satisfied by something smaller. When I use a 5 or 5s now, the screen (and especially the keyboard) feels cramped. Even the iPhone 6 feels a little small to me now.
It's a Big World
There's a truism that people in the developing world embraced big phones because the smartphone is often their only computer. That single screen is the desktop, the laptop, the tablet and the smartphone all in one. Sometimes, it's even the television.
I'd argue that the only reason we haven't seen a similar movement stateside is because the iPhone is so firmly entrenched, and Apple has until now been unrelenting in its insistence that 4 inches was all anyone needed. Yet once you get used to a large screen, it's really hard to use a smaller one. And clearly there's a demand for large phones-the Galaxy Note has been a huge hit for Samsung.
With the 6 Plus, you get all the advantages of a big screen phone-reading, watching videos, playing games, and looking at images-and you also get the superb iPhone UI and application ecosystem.
Those big screen tasks are wonderful on this phone. Apps are roomy enough for your fat fingers to feel nimble again. Reading big chunks of text is a delight. You can see so many tweets! The display is brilliantly bright and detailed, at 401 pixels per inch (ppi). You feel like you can dive into its pictures and videos. Meanwhile you get more out of apps; the mere fact of being able to view more things on screen makes them more useful.
Apple has also built some software tools into the 6 Plus that give it a boost over other big phones I've used. Take Touch ID: It's a saving throw. Not only can you use it to log into the phone or make purchases in the Apple Store, but by extending its API to play nice with apps like 1Password and Dashlane, you can use the little scanner to log into all kinds of websites in just a few taps. That means you don't have to move your fingers all around the device to get to a password field; you can log in one-handed. You can also double tap that same Touch ID button-the home button-to bring the top section of an application down to the bottom of the screen. That makes entering a new URL or performing other tasks at the top of the screen one-handed possibilities.
And that's good because I cannot wrap my fingers all the way around this thing. It's just too wide.
It's Still Alive
There is another advantage of going big: battery life. I am hard on phones. I use them all day, every day. I start my morning on the bus, reading news, watching videos and listening to streaming music, all over LTE. Because I'm very active on Twitter, get a lot of email, and have something like three to four bajillion apps installed, my phone is constantly vibrating with notifications. I also take a lot of pictures and videos (hey, I have kids). This means I have to charge my nearly year-old Nexus 5 by 2 or 3 pm most days. Even brand-new phones, right out of the box, will rarely make it all the way through the day for me. Yet I've gone to bed every night, and put my 6 Plus to its charger with some battery life to spare. I've never had to charge it up mid-day. I've never had to worry it's going to fail on me.
No matter what Steve Jobs may have said, big phones are better. It's a great sign for Apple that it doesn't revere his public statements as immutable truths.
Focus on size alone, however, and you won't see the full picture. It has an amazing camera too. Other than the Lumia 1020, I've never managed to take such great photos and videos with a phone. Even when I've tried to shoot lousy footage by moving my phone around while shooting to try to lose focus, I've failed. That's because Apple's phase-detection autofocus (or: Focus Pixels) makes sure your shots refocus quickly, even when you or your subject is in motion. My low-light photos have exhibited almost zero graininess. There's this thing where you walk into a room, look at your children sleeping, and want to capture the moment. But you can't, because your phone doesn't perform well in low light and its flash will wake them up. For the first time, the 6 Plus let me capture those bedtime pictures of sweet slumbering children that I'd always wanted to take. Dadcore.
There is nothing bad to say about this camera. The camera hardware and software represents a new gold standard. Everything about this phone is, at first blush, a new gold standard. It even bends faster than other phones. Yeah, so, about that...
Like a lot of people, I have a bent iPhone 6 Plus. It's almost imperceptible, but it's there: a slight warp right at the buttons on the side. Put the phone screen down on a table, and it wobbles. I haven't purposefully bent it and I don't recall sitting on it (but I probably have). So why is this one bending? I have a theory: It might have something to do with it being both very thin and very big and made of aluminum. The Samsung Galaxy Note3 is big, but it's also 4 mm thicker than the iPhone 6 Plus and doesn't have an aluminum back that, when bent, stays bent. You don't hear about big Android phones bending because they are either too thick, or made out of plastic. That's my theory, anyway.
That's not the only physical defect. My screen is also scratched. There are three small but distinct scratches, and I've no idea how any of them got there. I haven't carried my keys in my pocket with it. I haven't done anything unusual with it. But there they are.
So after four days, I have a slightly bent, slightly scratched phone. Which means that, while this is the best hardware I've ever used-from the processor to the camera to the display-I'm worried about durability.
And look, for me this isn't such a big deal, because I didn't pay for the phone. It's a loaner, sent over by Apple. But if I had paid $1,000 for this phone off contract-or even $300 for the smallest version with a new two year contract-I would be pretty irritated. I certainly would be in line for a replacement.
This is a luxury phone. This is the status symbol phone, the one you high-roll into a Macau casino holding. Bending, or warping, or whatever you want to call it after a few days is unacceptable.
But this is what's so nuts: Even with the bends, I'm still extremely into the hardware. Even with the bends, I still love this phone. I can't say if the phone is going to keep bending, or if it's going to get really bad with normal use, because that hasn't happened to me. I love the hardware, but if you're thinking of buying this phone, you need to know that it's delicate like a tea cup.
There are some other minor quirks. The camera doesn't always open from the lock screen, which makes catching those kid pics frustrating. The apps crash too frequently-even Apple's own apps. But the biggest downside to me is that iOS 8 just isn't as productive or customizable an operating system as Android is. You may be able to bend this phone, but you can't bend it to your will.
I miss having my email right on my homescreen. Why should I have to launch an app or go to notifications to see all my latest messages? And then there's Google Now, which is basically the smartest software I've ever used. When I fly, it surfaces my plane tickets. When I want to go out and get lunch, it tells me what's around me, without having to ask. Sure, you can use Google Now on iOS, but it isn't just resident throughout, which is exactly the point of Google Now.
And so where do we land here? This is the best smartphone hardware I've ever used. It's gorgeous and luxurious and seems almost decadent. I adore the display. I'm even more smitten with the camera. The battery life is a triumph. The applications are so much better and more varied than what you'll find on Android or Windows Phone that those other two platforms seem almost untenable by comparison. (Which, of course, they aren't. Both have their own strengths.)
This device is hard to sum up. Everything about it is wonderful, and if the bending doesn't get any worse, and the scratches remain minor, I wouldn't hesitate to recommend it to anyone. It's a truly wonderful phone, the best from a purely hardware perspective I've ever used.
It's clear evidence that Apple is embracing the entire world and starting to offer a wider variety of devices for a wider world of individuals with varying needs and desires. And that's a great thing.
At the end of my time with it, however, I popped my SIM card back into my Nexus 5, with its busted-ass screen, because I just want to answer my email and get the hell back to my life again. iOS 8 is wonderfully improved, but it's still not for me. It takes too many taps, lacks too many options, and honestly the way it organizes your apps is just a mess. It turns out, the most important dadcore feature in a phone isn't a great camera or a big screen, it's the ability to put it away quickly and get on with your life.
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