Now I have been using this phone on a regular basis for a couple of weeks now and i’m going to share my experience with all of you to hopefully determine whether the 6 plus is just an overpriced oversized iPhone 6 or something that is worth all your hard earned money. Now internally for the most part the little brother of this 6 plus the iphone 6 is pretty much identical so much of which im going to be talking about is certainly relatable to the features of the regular iPhone 6.

 

Summary 

Pros	Cons
Battery life	Lower Resolution for its large screen size.
Fast performance	limit Third party app not optimized for 6 plus diplay
Great rear facing camera	Maybe too big for some
Display looks amazing in any lighting conditions.	structural not as sound of a design as the last generation iPhone
	Only has 1GB of RAM
	no multi-window multi tasking features
	One hand operation is limited compared to other large phones

Form and Design: 

Now back in 2007 the world of consumer electronics changes and certainly cellphones charged. Apple created a device that made mobile communication and computing so easy and powerful that even your grandmother could use it. And fast forward 7 years later much of those essential design cues are being reflected in this new iphone.

Even though the 6 plus is a complete giant compared to previous generation iphones, and if you’re currently used to the iphone 5s or even the older 4s, the 6 plus looks like it comes from another planet. However these days we live in a world of blackberry passports and samsung note 4 that rival the size of small tablets. But you may be asking yourself is the 6 plus too big, well to answer that kind of question you have to look at what your used too. If you’re coming from most modern android phones than no, its not that big at all. but if you currently have a smaller phone and you want your phone to fit nicely into front or back pockets that the 6 plus may present a problem. In my case the this thing is bigger than what im used to but still manageable.

Design wise I think that it is as well thought out as last years’ iPhone the 5s. The exposed antennas certainly don’t really add any style or flare to the design at the back of the device. But worst of all since the rear facing camera protrudes out 4-5mm, i would be concerned about scratching the outer lens element, because when you lie the phone flat sacrifice the outer lens of the camera will always make direct contact.

Now ergonomically even with its large size the phone fit wonderfully in my hands, mainly because the device has nicely rounded edges both at the rear and front. double tapping on the home bottom enables the new one hand operation mode, which help you reach the top portion of the screen but the phones’ width at 77.8mm is still quite wide for most people’s thumbs to reach the full width of the screen, and currently one hand operation mode only resizes the height of the screen the width stays the same, which is unlike what you would find in some of the new samsung phones that can adjust both the height and width of screen for better one hand operations. Additionally the 6 plus can be used in landscape mode on the home screen and has dual panes on certain app to take advantage of that larger screen. However there is no true multi window multi tasking support, which would have been a killer feature that would really compete with what the larger android phones have to offer.

Durability:

Now solely based on my experience i would have to say that the overall Durability and build quality is quite good. And i personally never came across serious issues of the phone bending in my pocket or anything. Now even applying a moderate amount of force does not compromise the structural integrity of the 6 plus. Now admittedly this phone is only 7.1mm in thickness and its base structure is some very thin aluminate which can bend given a significant amount of force, a force that you would typically not likely come across in your day to day usage of the phone. Now if you ask me if the 6 plus is structurally less sound than the its little brother the iphone 6, i would say yes. And its certainly to as strong as the older iphone 5s, which probably one of the best built phones ever. lastly based on our scratch and drop test I like this current generation of iPhones is certainly not indestructible but if you take moderately good care of the 6 plus i should last you a long time.

Internals:

Now moving inside at the heart of the 6 plus is the new Appe A8 processor, which may still have only two duals, but currently its one of the fastest mobile chip on the market right now. Based on my the geekbench 3 scores it looks like its eating snapdrag 801 chips for breakfast. The only draw back currently is that if you use allot of heavy duty apps that use a lot of system resources, than you’re going start hitting the issue of only having 1 gb of ram. Which kind of dumb when other phones in its class offer up to 3gb of ram. Great call quality and external speakers, probably one of the best external speakers on a smartphone next to the HTC one.

Display:

The display is wonderful to look at, especially when you’re outside. It actually has a new polarizing layer on the screen that eliminates the glare you get from sunlight. Now at 5.5inches a 1920×1080 is not the best resolution possible right now, phones such as the LG G3 and samsung note 4 now have the 2560 1440 displays that look slightly sharper than the 6 plus, but its certainly not a deal breaker for me. Text, images, and video you look tremendous and the overall color accuracy and dynamics are quite good as well. Currently however Most third party app look fuzzy not optimized for 6 plus resolution.

Battery Life:

The battery performance Is one of the best feature on this iphone, and frankly for me its probably one of the major selling points of the 6 plus over the standard iphone 6. Now after the battery life stabilized after a couple of days of regular usage. I managed to get almost 2 days if not at least day and a half worth of juice. I Check my phone for messages and emails prettly much every 5-10mins,, such watch youtube video, listen to podcasts/music, so i definitely am not a light user but even if your an extreme user i would imagine that you wouldn’t struggle getting through a 12-16 hour day.

My regular usage consists mainly of:

%30 emails and messages

%25 youtube videos

%20 1-2 hours of podcasting/music

25% others

bluetooth off

Managed to get a average battery life of 1.5-2 days. Truly amazing performance, making the battery life one of the best features on the iPhone 6 plus.

Special Features:

The 6 plus’ touch ID system is easiest and one of the most robust fingerprint scanning system in the market. You can pretty much scan your finger or thumb in any angle and it recognizes our print immediately.

Now here in canada, i haven’t came across any stores or merchants that accept apple pay, so that this point i haven’t tried out that feature yet. but its certainly something i would like to use. i would love to imagine a time where i never have to worry about forgetting or losing my wallet because everything i need would be on my phone. but it would also make me significantly more vulnerable to hacker and people who want to steal my identity. So its definitely going to be interesting how all of this well workout in the future.

IOS 8:

Early versions had several issues, I had problems with connecting to 5ghz wifi networks, but they have now patch that issue. I like the new messages apps that now allows you send/receive audio/video messages. Im not the biggest fan of  the ios keyboard. no swipe features and space bar is not big enough. The new Safari browser allow you to view full desktop version of websites, doesn’t work as well as the chrome app. Notification centre now allow you to can delete one notification at a time, instead of clearing all notification like in IOS7. I like how you can respond to messages immediately in the notifications bar. And lastly the new Siri shazam integration for song identifications work like a charm.

Cameras:

Front facing face time camera remains the same as you’ve seen on iphone for the past couple of years. Its certainly due for an upgrade. How ever the image quality of the rear facing cam is slightly improved from the last generation. And even though the camera is 8mp it still looks just as look if not better than the ones you find in other smartphones. Colors a beautifully in well lit conditions and the low light performance is certainly acceptable for you your instagraming and facebook needs.

My two favourite features have to do with video. Firstly the OIS well give you some of the most smoothest video footage on any smartphone. You can see the difference here looking at the iPhone 6 electronic image stabilization vs iPhone 6 plus OIS side by side in the video. the OIS on the 6 plus is certainly less shaky and nicer to look at. Secondly the 240fps at 720p make just everything look epic. you could be brushing your teeth in the mirror if you shot just in 240fps you would look like liam neeson preparing to kill some wolves in alaska.

Sample images (Click The View Full Resolution)