The most serious Apple smartphone yet.
The Good The bigger battery means great battery life, and the 5.5-inch screen is not only big but bright and high-contrast. Optical image stabilization improves low-light photography.
The Bad The big footprint of the iPhone 6 Plus is not for everybody, and it's less visually distinctive in overall design than previous iPhones. Also, apps that haven't been optimized yet look blurry and have big keyboards.
The Bottom Line The iPhone 6 Plus is too big for everyone to love it, but it's Apple's best phone this year. If your budget and your pocket can make room for it, give the iPhone 6 Plus serious consideration.
It's hard to imagine a phone more eagerly anticipated than the iPhone 6. After the design revolution that was the iPhone 4, the much-anticipated iPhone 5 disappointed some with its modest visual update. People craved a handset with looks significantly different than what had come before, and so those expectations shifted to the iPhone 6.
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| Apple iPhone 6 Plus |
In many ways, the iPhone 6 delivers on those design expectations (and in many other ways, as you can see in our full iPhone 6 review here), but if you're really longing for something totally different, look to the iPhone 6 Plus. The iPhone 6 Plus is significantly larger, noticeably thinner, and -- perhaps most importantly -- offers far more endurance on a single charge than any previous iPhone.
The iPhone 6 Plus is a great phone, but it isn't for everybody. I hate the word "phablet" (literally, "phone" plus "tablet"), but you can't deny that's exactly what the 6 Plus is. Its 5.5-inch, 1080p IPS LCD deftly straddles the chasm that existed between the former 4-inch iPhone 5S and the 7.9-inch iPad Mini. While the new 4.7-inch iPhone 6 fits in the same gap, the 6 Plus sits right in the sweet spot for those who'd like a little more tablet in their smartphone.
In the grand scheme of phone dimensions, the 6 Plus is on the large side, measuring 6.22 inches high by 3.06 inches wide (158.1mm by 77.8mm), nearly a half-inch (12mm) taller than the Samsung Galaxy Note 3, though slightly narrower. At 6.07 ounces (172 grams) it does come in just a touch lighter, and it's noticeably thinner -- just 7.1mm in thickness, compared with the Note 3's 9.6mm. However, the newer Note 4 is closer in most dimensions, with its 6.04 x 3.09 inch span (153.5mm by 78.6mm), and at 8.5mm thick.
Regardless of dimensions, there's no denying that the iPhone 6 Plus feels better in the hand than any of the members of the Note family. Like previous iPhones, it's made of matte aluminum, but where harsh lines and chamfered edges give the iPhone 5 a stark, industrial feel, the new phones are more organic. They nestle comfortably in your hand rather than cutting into it.
That said, this new rounded shape -- complete with glass that blends into the rounded edges -- does provide a less distinctive appearance. That curved glass will be familiar to owners of Nokia Lumia devices, and the inset lines of plastic on the back are reminiscent of the HTC One. The iPhone 6 Plus looks and feels great, but it must be said that it doesn't offer the unique stylings of its predecessor.
Even the button placement matches the competition's, with the power/lock button moving to the right side. That's a good thing, given how far a reach it would be up to the top. Volume buttons still live on the left -- now wide and flat rather than round -- directly beneath the ring/silent toggle switch. The 3.5mm headphone jack sits at the bottom, as it did with the 5S, next to eight holes that allow sound from the (surprisingly powerful) internal speaker to escape.
Then, of course, there's the home button, front and center below the display. It is of the Touch ID variety, as on the 5S, meaning you can unlock the iPhone 6 Plus quickly with a thumb. Or an index finger, if you'd rather, or any other digit that you care to train. While this feature is no longer as novel as it was this time in 2013, Touch ID still proves quicker and more reliable than the fingerprint detection we've seen on other smartphones.
Touch ID is particularly useful here on the iPhone 6 Plus, because punching in a traditional four-digit PIN for unlocking can be a bit of a stretch on a big display like this. Pressing on the Home button for a moment is certainly a fair bit easier. And with iOS 8 -- which all iPhone 6 Plus models ship with -- you'll finally be able to use fingerprint access for a much wider variety of apps, not just the lock screen and iTunes Store.
Reachability
To avoid any unfortunate thumb-straining incidents, Apple has provided a feature on the iPhone 6 Plus called "Reachability." Two quick taps on the Home button slide any content at the top of the display -- app icons, Safari's URL bar, whatever else is up there -- down to the bottom. (That's a double tap rather than a double press -- the latter of which opens up the app switching screen, as it does on iOS 7.) It's handy in theory, but not particularly useful in practice.
For example, if you want to open a folder of icons on the top of the display, a double-tap brings that folder down. Tap on the folder and it opens, but then slides back up to the top again. Another double-tap on the Home button is needed to bring it down a second time so that you can select an icon within. It's simply too much tapping to be of regular use, even for those with short thumbs, but could be handy if you're on a bus or train and need your other hand to hang on.
Landscape mode
Another software tweak, exclusive to the Plus, is a special layout for some apps when the phone is held sideways in landscape mode. Apps like Mail and Messages give you an iPad-like view, with a list of messages on the left and their content on the right. This is quite helpful, and though we're still waiting to see more app developers add support for their own apps.
Pocketability
The size of your hands, and your tolerance for straining to reach the corners of the device, will play a large part in determining whether the 6 Plus is for you. Another deciding factor will be whether it fits into your pockets. Unless your pants are of the cargo variety, you're probably going to want the iPhone 6 Plus in a back pocket when you're out and about.
For phablet newbies this can take some getting used to. So, too, will remembering to take it out of that back pocket before sitting down. In the interest of fully comprehensive testing I sat on the 6 Plus numerous times and it registered nary a creak nor a crack. Still, I wouldn't advise doing so regularly, if only for your posture's sake.
Camera
Both the iPhone 6 and iPhone 6 Plus feature revised cameras front and rear, but the Plus offers even more upgrades. The rear shooter here is 8 megapixels as on the iPhone 6, but the Plus adds optical image stabilization to the mix. In our testing we found the Plus consistently shot with a slower shutter speed than the iPhone 6, yet delivered images that were just as sharp. Longer exposures mean lower ISO and noticeably less image noise, plus better color.
There's new video stabilization on the 6 and 6 Plus as well, and though it's a digital effect, the results are still quite impressive. I shot multiple videos free-handed, even while moving, and the footage is smooth, without any of the distortion you sometimes see from other digital stabilization techniques. There's real-time autofocus while filming, too, so you won't have to tap-tap-tap on the screen to follow the action.
Video is still 1080p, though now captured at 60 frames per second if you want it. (30fps is optional.) Slow-motion videos have also been boosted, up to 240fps from 120fps.
The front-facing camera has been updated as well. It lacks stabilization, but does now offer an f/2.2 aperture. This means more light hits the sensor than on the old model, offering better selfies in dark conditions. Perfect for pub crawls.
Performance and battery life
Inside, both iPhone 6 models offer the new A8 processor, though curiously the Geekbench benchmark reports it as running ever so slightly slower on the 6 Plus -- 1.35GHz versus 1.39GHz. Benchmarks were very comparable between the two, however, and consistently 10 to 20 percent faster than on the previous-generation iPhone.
So, a nice step up over the iPhone 5S, and overall the iPhone 6 Plus is very snappy and responsive in daily usage. We did notice some stutters and poor performance on occasion, but for now we're putting that down to this being the early days of iOS 8. Hopefully things will improve.
One place you will certainly notice a huge difference between the 6 Plus and the iPhone 5S, and indeed the iPhone 6, is battery life. The iPhone 6 Plus managed a solid 13 hours and 16 minutes in our battery rundown test. It backed that up with impressive real-world performance, easily and repeatedly making it through a full day of heavy use (constant Web surfing, gaming, video streaming, and GPS navigation), often lasting well into a second day before needing a charge.
Sadly, charging still requires that you fish out a Lightning cable. While the Apple Watch will offer wireless charging, the iPhone 6 and 6 Plus still make do without.
Comparative benchmarks appear below; as always, they should be taken with a grain of salt. That said, unlike in 2013, when the iPhone 5S and its A7 processor blew away the competition at the time, the iPhone 6 and 6 Plus don't dominate every ranking.
Display
Battery life is doubly impressive considering how large and how bright the 5.5-inch IPS LCD is. It's easily viewable in bright sunlight and isn't lacking for contrast, even if you're viewing at an odd angle. That 1,920x1,080-pixel resolution makes it ideal for watching 1080p content, but does pose a few problems.
First, few iPhone apps have been optimized for this resolution. For the moment, nearly all will need to rely on the phone's integrated scaler, which simply blows up apps to fit the screen. It works well enough, but results in some blurry text and, more problematically, scales the keyboard up too. Yes, as you go from app to app the keyboard gets larger or smaller, which, as you can imagine, poses a bit of a problem if you're into touch-typing.
This problem will be reduced as more third-party apps are optimized for the iPhone 6 and 6 Plus, but for now it's quite annoying. Also annoying? It doesn't run iPad apps. You'd think that scaling apps from a 7.9-inch display down to 5.5 inches would be no more complicated than scaling up from 3.5 inches. I'm still holding out hope that developers will someday start to migrate features and designs from their iPad-only apps down to the iPhone 6 Plus, but the outright running of iPad apps is sadly verboten.
Versus the Note 4
And how does the iPhone 6 Plus fare specifically against its strongest competition on the Android side, the Samsung Galaxy Note 4? I've been testing the two side-by-side for quite awhile now, and it is indeed a very close battle. In general, the iPhone 6 Plus features better aesthetics, better comfort in the hand and slightly better battery life. The Note 4 feels more durable and offers much more productivity when it comes to usability. But, the real story is much more complicated than that, so I highly recommend checking out our in-depth comparisons, both part one and part two.
Conclusion
The iPhone 6 Plus is not a phone for everybody. Its size is its biggest drawback and, indeed, that will likely be the deciding factor for many on whether to go with the 6 or 6 Plus. If you can live with a device of these dimensions, the additional $100, £80, or AU$130 is well worth it for the upgraded battery life alone. It's doubly worth it if you're intrigued by better performance of the camera -- or if your eyesight could benefit from extra room for larger fonts.
The iPhone 6 Plus may not be the most visually distinctive phablet device on the market, nor the most feature-packed, but it is a big step forward in the world of Apple mobile devices. This is the most potent iPhone yet, and a serious contender in this, the most serious segment of the smartphone market.
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