Posted on by Terry White

iPhone 6 Plus: 1st Impressions

iPhone6plus_in_my_hand

My iPhone 6 Plus (64GB Gold Unlocked GSM) arrived late yesterday afternoon and everyone has been asking me “how is it?” So I thought I’d give a quick 1st impressions post now. I’ll have a full review on Monday after I have had a chance to really use the iPhone 6 Plus over the weekend.

 

Size

gold_iphone6plust

Yep, it’s BIG! However, it’s not too big. To my surprise using it with one hand and reaching things with my thumb from top to bottom isn’t the problem. Apple includes a new “Reachability” feature that with a double tap on the touch ID sensor (as opposed to a double press of the button, which invokes multitasking), the top of the display scrolls down so that you can reach stuff at the top. For me it’s more a “stretch” reach the opposite side of the display with my thumb. For example, when I’m holding it in my left hand I can barely reach the apps on the far right side of the display.Other than that I love the size.

The Pocket Fit

iphone6plus_in_my_pocket
the shirt pocket and pants pocket test

Yes, I’ve seen all the #bendgate stuff and I just smile. First off ANY aluminum and glass gear is subject to damage in a pocket without a case. I only recently started carrying my iPhone 5s in my pocket over the past couple of months. Prior to that I was always a holster guy. I’ll carry the iPhone 6 Plus in my front pocket and remove it prior to sitting down if I think that there will be added pressure to it. By the way, if you apply enough pressure to ANYTHING, it will bend!

The Camera

iPhone6Plus-shot

The Camera seems awesome and as good as advertised. I’ll spend more time with it over the weekend capturing images. So far I love it.

Speed, Apps, etc.

The speed is noticeable, especially the 802.11ac WiFi. Downloads are MUCH FASTER! I haven’t found any of my 491 installed apps to have any problems so far. No freezes or weirdness. I haven’t had it on battery long enough to judge battery life so you’ll have to wait till Monday for that one.

 

One disappointment so far

iPhone-6-Plus-standard_vs_zoomed

When setting up the iPhone 6 Plus you have a choice between Standard and Zoomed. Apple even lets you preview them to decide. With Zoomed the icons look bigger and better to my eyes, so I went with zoomed. Great! Happy! However, I didn’t realize until a little later in the evening that you give up 3 things with Zoomed. You give up the new landscape display of home screens.

iPhone-6-Plus-expandedkeyboard

You give up the two column display in Mail and you give up the extended landscape keyboard. I switched back to Standard (which requires a reboot) to get these features back and I already miss the larger zoomed icons and display overall. I wish there was a middle ground.

iPhone-6-Plus-landscapehomescreen

 

The Bottome Line – So far, so good

Overall I’m happy that I went with the iPhone 6 Plus over the iPhone 6. My eyes definitely like the larger display. Check back Monday for a more detailed look.

 

On a side note – Finally a durable 3rd Party Lightning Cable

newertech_lightning_cable

While this really has nothing to do with the iPhone 6 Plus itself, I think I finally found a DURABLE 3rd party Lightning Cable. I have been frustrated by the quality of 3rd party Lightning cables to date. They either don’t work out of the box, stop working after a while or worse they start to fall apart where the connector connects to the cable. NewerTech makes this cable and I ordered a couple of the 3 meter version. I’m impressed with the way they are constructed. Definitely the best I’ve found so far.

0.5 Meter Length

1 Meter Length

2 Meter Length

3 Meter Length

 

iOS 8 Tips and Tricks

13 Replies to “iPhone 6 Plus: 1st Impressions”

  1. Good work Terry!

    Mine is still on the way. I got the silver 64GB and looking at Oct 13th at the earliest. Cannot wait.

    Thanks for the tip on the better cables too. I will definitely be checking those out.

    1. yes, that’s the only way to buy a “factory” unlocked version. This is the t-mobile one, which is standard GSM with my AT&T nano sim in it. I did the same with the 5s.

      1. I bought all my iPhones at full price to get them unlocked but was rejected by AT&T on all. You can only unlock 5 per year and with my large family and usage, I had used up my 5. Bummer. Gil Amelio is on the AT&T board so I might seek a favor. I travel a ton. I bought a T-Mobile iPhone 5 to have the unlocked iPhone and I still have it for travel. This rule about 5 per year is way too artificial. All my kids’ phones and family phones are on my single AT&T Wireless account.

        1. Wow! I had no idea there was a limit to the number of unlocked iPhones you can have on one account. That’s ridiculous especially if you pay full price for the phone. Thanks for the heads up Woz!

          1. The fact that none of would think there was a limit is my point. With a large family and a willingness to buy upgrade-approved iPhones at full price, I got an unexpected shock when I couldn’t unlock them. Some of my prior iPhone 5S’s may have been unlocked but what got me into trouble was a prior batch of iPhone 5’s that I spent months going through unimaginable hoops and confusion to get unlocked. I hope others bring this issue to greater attention. I might get some special exceptions from AT&T but even I may get nowhere.

      2. Oh, I hung onto my T-Mobile iPhone 5 because it’s really fun to show off with the FLIR One heat camera.

  3. Terry, you forgot to mention that you may have larger hands and pants than the average guy. The iPhone 6 Plus won’t fit in my pants pockets when I set to drive or when at a meeting. it looks like a pocket protector in my shirt pockets.

    You lost the landscape display and two-column precisely for the reason that zoom makes icons and text larger. Laws of physics.

  4. I started trying to order iPhone 6’s at midnight and didn’t get through to the Apple Store until 2:30 AM that night. Two of my kids were the most important so I diverted to AT&T and Verizon online to order their iPhones. I finally managed to order 7 iPhones (3 kids, Janet, myself), all with delivery on the 19th. But only 1 of the 7 made it. One of my kids had to fly off to Lake Placid for Olympic training the next morning so he was super bummed. I called the Apple Store in Albany and managed to get a favor from the manager. A friend of mine out there handed it to Gary at midnight when his flight arrived, so he was only without it for a day. I was traveling hard but the local store managers helped fulfill my other family needs for Janet. She couldn’t ship them to me right away because I didn’t trust a Sunday delivery in Manchester, UK. Janet shipped them to my next stop in Florida. All told, I got them a few days later than everyone else.

  5. Janet and I love our 6+’s better than the plain iPhone 6’s. One strange caveat, that is probably with iOS 8 (I did not install it prior to the new iPhone) is that it won’t let me forward the phone number to an 888 or 800 area code, which turns out to be an important part of my phone existence. Also, I handed my iPhone 6 along with a Nexus 5 to a friend, saying that it was only a matter of time until I dropped my new iPhone 6. I was trying to let her feel how slick the iPhone 6 is. Just as she got both phones in her hands the iPhone 6 slid out right onto the table. Message received. The new iPhones are very slick but I can’t bring myself to cover them.

    1. I found a nice CLEAR cover that definitely makes the iPhone 6 plus easier to hold/less slick.

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