iPhone 6 Plus review

"The iPhone 6 Plus is the best looking phablet around. Its specs don't match the Android power houses and it can be tricky to hold, but there's no denying Apple's beautiful (yet expensive) 5.5 incher is a winner."

For

Best looking phablet
Great full HD display
Strong camera for day to day use

Against

Too big to use one handed
Very expensive
'Reachability' feels tacked on

A 5.5-inch iPhone. It's something which will send a shudder down the spines of a collective of die-hard Apple fans, a handset some thought we'd never see from the Cupertino-based outfit.
Yet here I am, staring down the barrel of the biggest iPhone in history - the iPhone 6 Plus.
It arrived alongside the iPhone 6 - Apple's new flagship smartphone - which measures 4.7 inches, making it more welcoming to a wider array of palms than the supersized iPhone 6 Plus.
Many of you, especially those of an Android persuasion, may be wondering what all the fuss is about. After all the Samsung Galaxy Note 2 turned up with a 5.5-inch display over two years ago.
Take a moment to glance at the history of the iPhone though, and you'll see why the iPhone 6 Plus is such a big deal.

Previously Apple has only dealt in two screen sizes - a 3.5-inch display graced the first five generations of iPhone, and just three have had the pleasure of a larger 4-inch display.

5.5 inches then is a huge leap forward for Apple, moving its iPhone range into the uncharted waters of the phablet market currently dominated by Samsung and other Android devices.
Apple is looking to reach a previously untapped audience of smartphone users - those who demand a large screen, with 'productivity' the main buzzword being thrown around. A key market for the iPhone 6 Plus is Asia, where general consensus seems to be bigger = better when it comes to smartphone screens.
In terms of specs and design there isn't a huge amount of difference between the iPhone 6 Plus and the iPhone 6 - apart from the obvious size.

The iPhone 6 Plus does boast a couple of unique features however. It's the first iPhone to pack a full HD display, plus its bigger body means it houses a larger battery than its 4.7-inch brother.
Both sport A8 64-bit processors, 1GB of RAM, M8 motion coprocessors and 8MP rear facing cameras - but the snapper on the iPhone 6 Plus benefits from OIS (optical image stabilisation) while the iPhone 6 makes do with EIS (electronic image stabilisation).
As with all Apple products the iPhone 6 Plus doesn't come cheap, and you may want to brace yourself because it's one of the most expensive handsets around.

SIM-free the 16GB iPhone 6 Plus carries a lofty price tag of $749, £619, AU$999 - and that's just the start.
Apple has ditched the 32GB variant for both the iPhone 6 and iPhone 6 Plus, with the next storage level coming in at 64GB, and for the 5.5-inch iPhone that equals $849, £699, AU$1129.
The good news for storage fans is that Apple has finally introduced a 128GB model - which may quieten those whining about the lack of a microSD slot - but it will cost you a small fortune. $949, £789, AU$1249 to be exact.

That makes the iPhone 6 Plus comfortably more expensive than rival phablets including the LG G3, OnePlus One, Nokia Lumia 1520 and I suspect the Samsung Galaxy Note 4 when it goes on sale too, if not on a par.
It's big, it's expensive and it's likely to play second fiddle to the iPhone 6 - so is the iPhone 6 Plus worth considering? Read on to find out

Design

There's no getting away from the fact that the iPhone 6 Plus is a big phone - but that's okay as it is, after all, the whole point of this handset.
If you're looking to upgrade from a 4-inch iPhone - or heaven forbid, a 3.5-inch iPhone - there's a good chance the 6 Plus will blow your palm to smithereens.
Even those who are accustomed to 5-inch Android devices will note the considerable width and height of Apple's first phablet.
It measures 158.1mm x 77.8mm x 7.1mm and tips the scales at 172g. To put that into some perspective the iPhone 6 Plus is wider, taller and heavier than LG G3 and OnePlus One - both of which also sport 5.5-inch displays.

The weight difference is obvious - the iPhone 6 Plus has a premium metal body while the other two sport plastic finishes and to be fair it doesn't feel overly demanding in the hand in this respect.
Where things start to fall apart a little for the iPhone 6 Plus is its width and height, which could be the sticking point for some prospective buyers.
iPhone's have historically been the smartphone you can depend on to fit nicely into your hand and the pocket of your tightest jeans.

At just 7.1mm thick, the 6 Plus is almost impossibly thin - making a slide into a jeans pocket easy, although you may find it peeking out the top, but that's one part ticked.
Slide it out and hold it in one hand though and it's less inviting. I've been using the OnePlus One recently, so my hands have learned to live with a large smartphone, but I still found the iPhone 6 Plus tricky to hold on to.
The sizable bezels above and below the screen provide additional height, and while the extra width may only be minimal compared to its rivals it's noticeable in the palm as the 6 Plus stretches your fingers.

It's a very attractive looking handset, line it up alongside the competition and the iPhone 6 Plus is easily the best looking phablet available.
I had the pleasure of using the gold version during the review, and while it's my least favourite of the three colour options Apple provides (space grey and silver being the other two), I still found it a pleasing device to look at, touch and play with.
There's no doubting the fact that the iPhone 6 Plus is a premium device, it oozes class and style - and so it should considering its lofty price tag.

The smooth, flat, brushed metal rear of the 6 Plus offers little in the way of grip, and while it sports a surprisingly slender profile the fact it isn't bulbous on its rear means it doesn't fit as snugly into the palm as the LG G3.
That lack of grip can be a little troublesome as you'll find yourself doing a fair bit of shuffling during one-handed operation as you move around different areas of the screen and aim to tackle the physical keys located on the sides and front of the 6 Plus.
The separated volume keys and rocker switch remain on the left side of the device - mirroring previous iPhone iterations - while the power key has been moved from its traditional position at the top to the side of the iPhone 6 Plus.

This makes a lot of sense, as it would be almost impossible to hit if it were located on top - and it's a location we see the majority of supersized handsets harness these days.
The power/lock key could do with being moved down the side of the 6 Plus a little, making it easier to reach. Sony has the right idea with a centrally located key as it falls nicely under your thumb/finger - depending on which hand you're holding it in.
It's a minor point, but if Apple swapped the location of the nanoSIM tray and power/lock key round the iPhone 6 Plus would be easier to use.

One blip in the smooth curves of the iPhone 6 Plus is the protruding rear 8MP camera. This isn't much of an issue and even though I feared it would make it more exposed to damage during my review I saw no evidence of any wear and tear.
It is, after all, protected by sapphire crystal glass making it super tough so you shouldn't have any issues with breakages here.
There were rumours in the lead up to the iPhone announcement that Apple's new handsets would come with dust- and water-resistant qualities. Sadly this isn't the case on either the iPhone 6 or 6 Plus - not a huge loss by any means, but it would have been a nice additional touch.

The top edge of the 6 Plus is an uninterrupted curve of gold metal, while on the base you'll find the 3.5mm headphone jack, microphone hole, lightning port and speaker grille.
I found the speaker wasn't located in the best position, with my hand sometimes covering it when playing games or watching movies in landscape. The front facing speaker setup on the HTC One M8 and Sony Xperia Z3 are far better placed.
While it is just about possible to use the iPhone 6 Plus one handed, I found that most of the time I was employing both hands to ensure a firm grip and stable typing platform.
As far as phablets go the iPhone 6 Plus is in the same boat as the rest of them - many will find it simply too big to be practical, while those longing for a supersized iPhone will be over the moon with its sleek, premium chassis and elegant curves.

Interface, performance and health

Interface

The iPhone 6 Plus ships with the very latest version of Apple's mobile platform - iOS 8 - which brings with it various enhancements and improvements as well as some new apps and features.
It carries on the fresh design ethos introduced by iOS 7 last year, providing a smart, slick and welcoming interface.
For those of you transitioning from older iPhone handsets you'll feel very much at home on the iPhone 6 Plus, while any Android users considering the jump will find the two operating systems have more in common than ever before.
The familiar rows of apps are displayed on home screens on the iPhone 6 Plus and during initial step up you're given the option of two icon and text sizes - I stuck with the default option which keeps things pretty much the same as the iPhone 5S.

The second option makes everything a bit bigger, reducing the free space surrounding the apps, filling the screen more and making everything a little easier to read.
I'd have liked an option to add an extra column of apps, as the 5.5-inch display of the iPhone 6 Plus could easily accommodate five columns, but unfortunately this isn't available.
Apple's simple drag and drop folder system still works wonderfully well, and Control Panel is present with a swipe up from the base of the display.
Options here remain the same from iOS 7, with quick settings for airplane mode, Wi-Fi, Bluetooth, do not disturb and screen rotation, alongside screen brightness and music controls.

You can also jump to the torch, calculator, camera and timer apps from Control Centre - and it can be accessed at any point, no matter which app you're currently using.
The notification bar has been given some tweaks in iOS 8 too. There are no longer three tabs (Today, All and Missed), but rather a more condensed two (Today and Notifications), providing a cleaner experience.
On the Today page you can select which widgets you have display by tapping "Edit" at the bottom of the page. Needless to say I made sure the "Stocks" widget was quickly hidden from view.
Another handy feature of iOS 8 is the ability to reply to a message from the notification alert at the top of screen, saving you from having to load up the messaging app every time.

Apple isn't the first manufacturer to offer this functionality - I greatly enjoyed a similar feature on the LG G2 - but I'm glad to see it land on iOS and it's arguably easier to use here.
When a message comes through you need to drag down on the notification to enter reply mode, where a keyboard will pop up allowing you to tap out a quick message and then return you to whatever you were doing.
If you'd rather ignore the message you can instead swipe sideways to remove it from view.
Double click the home key and you'll be taken to the familiar multitasking menu, allowing you to quickly and easily skip between applications.

You'll notice at the top of the screen there are some new additions to this area of the interface, in the form of shortcuts to your most popular contacts.
This means you can quickly make a call without having to navigate to the dialler app - just a double press of the home key and a tap on your friend's face will launch you into a call.
Another new feature in iOS 8 (only for the iPhone 6 Plus) is the ability to rotate your homescreen (and multi-tasking menu), as you can on the iPad.

This allows you to remain in landscape mode for longer periods of time, perfect if you find yourself jumping between games and videos.
Apple has also adapted some of the stock apps to run a dual-pane layout landscape mode, again mirroring the apps on the iPad, and these include Calendar, Messages and Mail.

Performance

Providing the power behind the scenes on the iPhone 6 Plus is a 1.39GHz dual-core A8 processor with 64-bit architecture and 1GB of RAM.
That may not sound like a great deal of grunt, especially when you consider devices such as the Samsung Galaxy Alpha and Huawei Ascend Mate 7 sport octa-core chips, but Apple always does a good job of deeply integrating iOS with the internal components of its devices.
I ran Geekbench 3 a number of times on the iPhone 6 Plus and it averaged a score of 2911, beating the iPhone 5S (2540) as well as the LG G3 (2561) and Sony Xperia Z2 (2765).
That's a strong performance and puts it among there scores achieved by the Samsung Galaxy S5, HTC One M8 and OnePlus One. In short, there's more than enough power housed inside the iPhone 6 Plus.
During day to day usage I found the 6 Plus ran pretty smoothly, but it's not quite as quick as some of the top Android handsets on the market. Every now and then the iPhone would pause for thought ever so briefly.
It wasn't long enough to cause any issues, but it was long enough for me to notice from time to time. However, after a few weeks' use, I've noticed the crashing bug creeping in again. Mail will sometimes drop out when playing with auto rotating the display.
It's not just there either, as other apps would sometimes drop and close. It's not as bad as it was on iOS 7 at the start, but the problems don't look good for a company like Apple. Similarly, the fact that sometimes in email I'm not able to activate the keyboard.
This seems to do more with third party implementation than anything else, but it's still frustrating to have to force-close the app just to reply to mail.
It's like being on an Android phone from 2010.
Graphically intensive games loaded up in good time and gameplay was smooth throughout - although I did find that Real Racing 3 refused to work correctly, while performing perfectly on the iPhone 6.
You can probably put that down to the fact iOS 8 wasn't officially available during the review and the developer may need to just update the game to fix that issue as no other games showed such issues. I'll be sure to keep an eye on it.
The iPhone 6 Plus (at 64GB capacities and above) comes pre-installed with a variety of Apple's own apps, most of which you can actually delete, which is good as else it would have been annoying if you know you'll never use them.
Among the applications here are some new and updated faces, including Health and Apple's now free-of-charge productivity apps (all of which can be deleted, if you so wish); Pages, Numbers, Keynote, iTunes U, iMovie and GarageBand.

Health

The Health app is a new addition for iOS 8 and aims to bring together all your health and fitness data into one unified application for your immediate consumption.
For those out there who currently use a glut of different devices and applications to monitor various aspects of their lifestyle then Health could be a real blessing.
At the time of review few apps were actually enabled for iOS 8, meaning I couldn't fully put it to the test.
The pedometer was active though, and I was able to keep track of my steps each day. The iPhone 6 Plus can even detect when you're going up and down flights of stairs thanks to the inbuilt barometer in the M8 co-processor - although accuracy does vary and I found it missed a number of flights on various days.

It can also tell you how far you've walked/run each day, and the attractive graphs make it easy to monitor at your progress over weeks, months and eventually years.
I'm yet to see the true potential of the Health app, but as developers enable their various third party devices and applications to sync up with Apple's offering it could well be an impressive offering.
And let's not forget about the Apple Watch, which will be reading your various vital statistics and beaming them straight back to the Health app
Battery life

Battery life has been a bit of a sticking for previous iterations of the iPhone, but there's good news with the iPhone 6 Plus.
Apple hasn't revealed the exact size of the battery inside the 6 Plus, but considering its larger footprint it will have a bigger power pack than the iPhone 5S.
The quoted web browsing time over 4G or Wi-Fi is pegged at 12 hours, while Apple reckons you can get up to 14 hours of life from a single charge during video playback, or up to 80 hours from pure music playback.
These figures are always on the generous side of things, but I have to say I was impressed with the battery performance of the iPhone 6 Plus.

With standard usage I was easily able to get a full day from the 6 Plus (from 7am to around midnight) with some juice still left in the tank when it came to plugging it back in at night.
That included continuous background syncing of several email accounts throughout the day, around two hours of music playback, a couple of hours of gaming and various calls, messages and social media activity.
It's not quite at the same level as the Samsung Galaxy S5 or HTC One M8, but Apple has closed the gap considerably between itself and its Android rivals.
The battery in the iPhone 6 Plus still suffers if you push it really hard. I ran the TechRadar 90 minute video test, which sees a HD movie played at full brightness with various accounts syncing over Wi-Fi in the background.
After the 90 minutes were up the battery level on the 6 Plus had dropped to 73% - a loss of 27%, which isn't a particularly stellar performance.

The iPhone 5S only dropped 16% in the same test, but the iPhone 6 Plus does have a much larger, brighter and higher resolution display so the increased drain is understandable.
Of course turning the screen brightness down will help preserve battery life a little, but along with high intensity games the 6 Plus can drain pretty quickly.
If your battery does creep into the red then a quick trip to the easy access Control Centre lets you reduce screen brightness to its lowest level, allowing you to conserve some extra juice.
There's no power saving mode on the iPhone 6 Plus though, so when you hit the dreaded 10% or 20% there's little else you can do to reduce power drain without either switching on airplane mode or turning the handset off completely.

As with any iPhone the battery is firmly sealed inside the metal chassis of the 6 Plus, meaning there's no option to swap out a flat battery for a fully charged one.
This is less of an issue on the iPhone 6 Plus though, as its battery performance is considerably improved.
With the iPhone 6 Plus you can go out for a full day and not have to worry about being away from a plug, and that simple pleasure will be a huge plus for many iPhone fans.

Camera

The iPhone 6 Plus sports a new 8MP iSight camera on its rear and a 1.2MP front FaceTime HD snapper.
As already mentioned in this review, the camera on the back of the iPhone 6 Plus protrudes slightly from surface, as Apple attempted to make the handset as thin as possible.
You're unlikely to really notice this, especially if you stick the 6 Plus straight into a case, so you needn't worry. Plus the lens is covered with a panel of sapphire glass, giving it some seriously tough protection.

Reading the 8MP spec you may fear Apple has just stuck the same old snapper from the iPhone 5S into the 6 Plus, but thankfully that's not the case.
It's done some tinkering behind the scenes to improve the quality of your snaps, and the larger 5.5-inch, full HD display means you get a lovely viewfinder to frame your shots with.
The camera app has been kept simple and clutter free, which also means the options you have at your disposal are limited.

What you do get is flash, HDR and timer controls along the top of the screen (when in portrait) along with a option to flick between the front and rear cameras.
At the base of the screen you get a link to the camera roll in one corner and a link to the effects overview in the other. The latter sports eight different effects and gives you a real time preview of all of them, including mono, fade, chrome and noir.
In the middle of these two is the large circular shutter button, but with the sheer size of the iPhone 6 Plus it can be a little tricky to hit.

Thankfully you can use the volume keys on the side of the handset to also snap your photos, and I found muyself using these far more than the on screen shutter.
Slide your finger from right to left over the shutter key and you can change the aspect ratio to square and also enter panorama mode.
Panorama mode only works in portrait, which may frustrate some users, but hold the iPhone 6 Plus in landscape in this mode and you'll be able to take a great shot from the foot of a skyscraper all the way to the top.

If you slide the opposite direction you'll come across the video modes. This first one is your straight forward video recorder, and with the iPhone 6 Plus you can shoot in full HD at 60fps.
Keeping going across and you'll find slo-mo mode inherited from its predecessors, but as well as shooting at 120fps the iPhone 6 Plus can also capture footage at 240fps, giving you some really awesome slow motion results.
One of the ways Apple has improved its camera on the iPhone 6 Plus is by introducing 'Focus Pixels', which provides the sensor with more information allowing for a faster auto-focus, producing better results.
Face, blink and smile detection have all been improved, allowing the 6 Plus to recognise more faces, more quickly, from further away.

If you fancy fine tuning the lighting in your photo just hold down on the viewfinder and then slide your finger up or down to adjust the exposure of your shot.
It's a simple yet effect way to control your photo, and the viewfinder gives you an instant preview of how your changes are effecting the shot.
Auto HDR (high dynamic range) is another handy feature brought over from the iPhone 5S, and it lets the iPhone do the work for you to ensure you get a generally well lit picture.
If you're not a fan of HDR then there is the option to switch it off (or instead, turn it on permanently), but even when it's set to auto you'll get two images saved to your camera roll - one with HDR applied and another without.
This can cause some confusion, not to mention a picture backlog, in your camera roll, so I'd recommend checking your shot after taking it and deleting the copy you don't wish to keep.

The iPhone 6 Plus also has a trump card up its sleeve, something not even the iPhone 6 can lay claim to: Optical Image Stabilisation (or OIS, for short).
It may be the first iPhone to sport OIS, but the technology is already widely available on a variety of Android and Windows Phone devices - nethertheless, it's good to see Apple finally embrace the tech.
So what does it mean? In the 6 Plus, OIS works with the A8 chip, gyroscope, and M8 motion coprocessor to reduce hand shake in lower light. This means that you'll get clear, sharper shots even when the lighting around isn't as good.
I found that the iPhone 6 Plus performed okay in lowlight, but it didn't exactly sparkle with some images still looking rather muddy.

There aren't pages and pages of every camera setting under the sun on the iPhone 6 Plus, as Apple is keeping things simple and that's exactly what the majority of smartphone photographers want. A camera which is simple and easy to use and takes great shots with minimum fuss.
For the more advanced snappers out there the additional enhancements Apple has added provide at least some level of control.
It's the automatic settings such as Auto HDR, Focus Pixel and OIS which are the real winners for me here, allowing the 6 Plus to snap a decent photo pretty much anywhere.
Camera samples