Although Steve Jobs famously said that there would never be a bigger iPhone, Apple released its two biggest iPhones yet and, even more, to phenomenal sales success.
The question of whether or not the iPhone 6 or the iPhone 6 Plus are too big was being asked by literally millions of people before they were both released but, after using the 4.7 inch iPhone 6 and the gigantic 5.25” iPhone 6 Plus, this writer and most of the people here on our blog have to agree that bigger is better.
If that question could have been answered simply by sales numbers, it already was. After a record-setting 10 million phones were sold by Apple during their first weekend, and over 39 million of them sold in the last quarter that ended on September 30th, it’s no doubt that consumers have taken to both new iPhone 6’s like ducks to water.
Both feature the usual upgrades of course, including Apple’s second-generation 64-bit chip set, the new M8 motion processor, a much better camera and, most importantly to Apple, the hardware necessary to support their new Apple Pay.
But back to the question of whether bigger is better. The iPhone 6 Plus is 6.22 inches high in total and 3.06 inches wide. For a smart phone, that’s gigantic, although there are one or two that are even bigger made by other manufacturers. That being said, Apple’s new iPhone still doesn’t actually feel bulky or overly large, surprisingly.
Helping matters is Reachability, which allows one-handed operation, although it does take a bit of getting used to and adds an extra step or two to a number of activities.
As far as the display, it’s absolutely amazing. With a 1300:1 contrast ratio, 401 pixels per inch and full 1080 P resolution, streaming movies and videos on the iPhone 6 Plus is a joy, writing emails is so much easier and using apps of all kinds is just so much better.
Even more, the software in the new iPhone 6 compensates very well for ambient light conditions, lowering or raising the displays brightness remarkably quickly depending on where you happen to be using it.
With the screen this large you know that viewing pictures is going to be amazing and, well, it definitely is. The new 8 megapixel camera adds to the fun, and throws in a number of excellent perks like geotags, True Tone flash, burst mode, image stabilization, on-the-fly exposure control and a few other nifty gadgets.
The iPhone 6 Plus also throws in something the iPhone 6 doesn’t have, which is optical stabilization. When it comes to shooting in low light situations where stability might be a problem, this really helps to give the user much sharper photos.
After spending a few weeks with the iPhone 6 Plus, I and my colleagues can definitely attest to the fact that the bigger screen is better and, remarkably, is much less of a problem getting used to than we all thought it would be. Even better, those of us who still wear “skinny jeans” were delightfully surprised that it also fits nicely into their pockets.