iPhone 6 Plus review round-up: Like a mini iPad Mini, but with a better camera

Early this morning, the embargo lifted on reviews of the iPhone 6 and iPhone 6 Plus. Reviews for the iPhone 6 are almost exactly what you’d expect — it’s just a bigger iPhone — so instead we’re going to look at reviews of iPhone 6 Plus, which have been a lot more divisive. Is the iPhone 6 Plus too large? Has Apple nailed the large-screen iOS experience on the iPhone 6 Plus, or does fuzzy zooming and app glitchiness ruin it? And perhaps most importantly, does that bigger chassis mean that the iPhone 6 Plus can turn in some truly amazing battery life figures?

Let’s dive in and find out.

iPhone 6 Plus: Is it too large?

If you already know that you’re in the market for an iPhone 6 or an iPhone 6 Plus — if you’re a stalwart iDevice owner who’s performing the ritualistic biennial upgrade — then the main deciding factor will be size. The iPhone 6 Plus, with its 5.5-inch display, is significantly larger and heavier than 4.7-inch iPhone 6.



Reviewers seem to be fairly split on the issue of size. They all acknowledge that the iPhone 6 Plus is large, and that you will probably need two hands to comfortably hit all of the buttons. It’s worth pointing out that most iOS apps have their buttons and menus at the top of the screen, and reaching the top of the screen with your thumb is very hard on a 5.5-inch phone. Reviewers say that the Reachability works just fine — but really, any feature that literally halves the display size, bringing the top of the app down to the middle of the screen, has to be considered a bit of a glitchy workaround. Plus, constantly double-tapping your home button to enable Reachability is going to get old rather quickly.

Read: iPhone 6 and 6 Plus sell out in 24 hours: Android was right all along about large screens

Many reviewers also note that, due to the aluminium chassis and curved edges, the iPhone 6 Plus is quite slippery — an issue that is exacerbated by the size of the device, and the fact that you will be shuffling your digits around to try and hit various on-screen buttons. If you’re set on getting the iPhone 6 Plus, you may want to opt for a case to go with it.

iPhone 6 Plus: Battery life

One of the main advantages of having a bigger screen is that you can also opt for a much larger battery (the circuitry and other components mostly stay the same size). Apple said the iPhone 6 Plus would have good battery life — and reviews of the new phone universally agree. Most reviewers managed a battery life of at least a day (12 hours) of mixed use, or two days of light use. With the larger battery in the iPhone 6 Plus, it seems Apple might finally be able to close the battery life gap with Android flagships.

Some reviews do point out that video playback might drain the battery more intensively than the iPhone 5S, however. TechRadar saw a drop of 27% after 90 minutes of HD video playback on the iPhone 6 Plus; the same test saw a drop of just 16% on the iPhone 5S. This is most likely due to the larger, brighter display on the iPhone 6 Plus. Still, this is a bit ironic, considering one of the main reasons for getting a 5.5-inch device is watching videos.

iPhone 6 Plus: Performance

The iPhone 6 Plus has the same A8 SoC as the iPhone 6. They’re both clocked at 1.4GHz and have 1GB of RAM. Reviews for the iPhone 6 Plus say that performance is fine — but some newer Android flagships can still feel a bit faster. (This could just be a software-level difference between iOS and Android, however). Games run well with the A8′s beefier GPU — but, perhaps a little ironically, the smaller iPhone 6 may actually manage some higher frame rates because of its lower-resolution screen.

Read: Does the iPhone 6 actually have console-quality graphics?

This video from Mashable gives you a rough idea of how the iPhone 6, iPhone 6 Plus, and iPhone 5S compare:

Source fromhttp://www.extremetech.com