The iPhone 6 is a hit. Ahead of its release in September devoted fans once again queued around the clock and over Christmas Apple achieved record sales figures. But what about those yet to decide if the jump to the larger iPhone 6 is for them? I can help.
Having lived with the iPhone 6 since launch I've noticed both significant pros and cons. In fact there are enough on each side to be dealmakers or deal breakers, depending on your individual needs. So let's try and make up your mind:
Best
Screen Size
If you're a long time iPhone user wedded to your 3.5-inch or 4-inch display I have a simple message: don't worry! The 4.7-inch display on the iPhone 6 is arguably its best feature. It remains usable with one hand (even for those with smaller hands thanks to 'Reachability') and third party apps are updating fast to take advantage of the extra real estate so everything feels less cramped.
iPhone 6 beside the iPhone 6 Plus – image credit Gordon Kelly
Some concerns have been raised about the relatively low resolution (1334 x 750 pixels) compared to the 1080p and 2k displays on rivals, but don't fear. It still passes Apple's 'Retina Display' standard (326 pixels per inch – the point where Apple claims our eyes cannot pick out individual pixels) and you have to look incredibly close to see the difference.
Furthermore its vibrant colours, superb brightness and viewing angles more than compensate meaning it is still one of the best smartphone displays on the market.
Read more – Apple iPhone 6 Review: Bigger Is Better
Build Quality
Apple may have abandoned the more angular design of the iPhone 4/4S and iPhone 5/5S but that is an entirely good thing. Gone is the fragile glass back of the 4/4S and patchwork metal of the 5/5S to be replaced with a unibody aluminium chassis that is both harder wearing and – in my opinion – visually far more appealing.
In addition, while bendgate haunted the iPhone 6 Plus, the iPhone 6 is extremely rigid and the chamfered edges and machined power and volume buttons remain top quality. The original metal iPhone remains my favourite Apple design visually, but the iPhone 6 is right up there.
iPhone 6 and iPhone 6 Plus demonstrating 'Reachability' – image credit Gordon Kelly
Performance
Again purely reading specification sheets will give you the wrong impression. After all the dual core 1.4GHz Apple A8 chipset and its 1GB of RAM in the iPhone 6 sound completely overwhelmed by rivals with quad and octa-core chipsets with 3GB of RAM or more.
But again this is comparing apples with oranges (excuse the pun). iOS 8 has had its problems on older phones, but it runs incredibly quickly and smoothly on both the iPhone 6 and identically powered iPhone 6 Plus. In fact glitches in the release version of Android 5.0 Lollipop means the new iPhones remain the most responsive phones currently on the market and nothing will trouble them from the App Store for at least a few years.
Read more – iPhone 6 vs Galaxy S5 Review: Apple Gatecrashes Samsung
The iPhone 6 and iPhone 6 Plus both have superb build quality – image credit Gordon Kelly
Camera
You'll be picking up a theme here, but again the performance of the iPhone 6's camera is far greater than its megapixel rating would have you believe. In fact the eight megapixel lens on the iPhone 6 is in a completely different league to the 8MP lens on the iPhone 4S and even the iPhone 5 and iPhone 5S which also stuck with the same size sensor.
iPhone 6 (left) vs Galaxy S5 – Image credit Gordon Kelly
What the iPhone 6 excels at is consistency. The Galaxy Note 4 and Nexus 6 offer it serious competition and, at times, the extra detail in their larger 13MP sensors can be seen, but the iPhone 6 takes consistently superb photos no matter the conditions.
This is all the more remarkable as the iPhone 6 has 'digital image stabilisation' (DIS) rather than the preferable 'optical image stabilisation' (OIS) seen in the Note 4, Nexus 6 and iPhone 6 Plus. There have been many weak DIS implementations down the years, but Apple has done a brilliant job with the iPhone 6.
iPhone 6 in low light – image credit Gordon Kelly
It is also worth mentioning the iPhone 6's underrated video. Again DIS does a great job of keeping everything steady and – while it may lack 4k recording like the Note 4 and Nexus 6 – its slow motion video in particular is a class above anything else I have seen so far from competitors.
Read more – iPhone 6 Plus Long Term Review: Beautiful Freak Is The iPhone's Future
So what about the bad things…?
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