Apple releases its new iPhones every year and they only change the designs of their smartphone for every 2 years. Last year Apple has introduced their biggest iPhones and for the first time ever, they’ve release a phablet, the iPhone 6 Plus. A complete disregard of Steve Jobs’ belief that the smartphone shouldn’t be large for your hands.

Hardware & Design

Apple is one of the best companies to carefully design their products thanks to Jony Ive but the iPhone 6 Plus both impressed and disappointed me. I’m impressed with the feel of the smartphone. The design of the iPhone 6 Plus is very clean and sleek. The combination of the metal at the back and the curvy sides feels very premium. Compared to what other people had said, the protruding camera of the iPhone 6 Plus isn’t a deal breaker for me and I barely notice that.

However, I’m disappointed with the white lines at the back of the smartphone. Actually, I think it would be better if they just opt to making the top and bottom of the smartphone just white instead of making those annoying lines. I’m also disappointed that you really need to put a case on your iPhone 6 Plus and no, it’s not about the size that I’m disappointed with. I’m disappointed because the phablets are known for not being one-hand friendly but because the iPhone 6 Plus is very slippery to the hand.  Thankfully, the iPhone 6 Plus offers more cases and accessories compared to most Android smartphones.

One of the biggest deal breakers of the iPhone 6 Plus was the bending issue and fortunately, I wasn’t able to experience that. Again, it is really recommended to buy a case for your iPhone 6 Plus to make it more comfortable in your hand and of course to protect your smartphone from dents and bending.

The previous iPhones has their power button place at the top of the smartphone but thankfully on the iPhone 6 Plus, they’ve placed it on the side which is more accessible and more convenient for the hand to reach it. If you got small hands like me, it is impossible to type on the smartphone using only one of your hand and it is  impossible to reach the top of the display too but thankfully, Apple has introduced a new feature in where you have to just tap the home button twice (Note: Tap, not press) and the items or page at the top will automatically slide down for you to reach it.

One of my biggest gripes on the iPhone 6 Plus is the storage. We all know that the iPhones doesn’t have an expandable storage but that’s understandable because to keep the iPhones fast, the memory speeds  shouldn’t be bottlenecked by the speeds of the expandable storage however, I find the 16GB internal storage of the iPhone 6 and 6 Plus outrageous. When it comes to apps, iOS takes more memory than Androids and 16GB internal storage of the iPhone 6 Plus isn’t just enough to do the justice. I strongly suggest that you guys choose the 64GB variant whether you’re getting an iPhone 6 or iPhone 6 Plus. You know what, I think getting a 16GB iPhone 6 or iPhone 6 Plus should be a crime.

Display

There’s a 5.5-inch 1080p display on the iPhone 6 Plus. Compared to most flagship Android smartphones today, most of them pack a QHD display especially when you’re on the phablet range. Nonetheless, the iPhone 6 Plus’ display doesn’t disappoint. It looks good to me and the colors of the display feels just right. It is bright when I needed to and the outdoor visibility of the display is quite good too.

The display of the iPhone 6 Plus is not as crisp as the other Android flagship smartphones today but you know what?, you can barely tell the difference between QHD and FHD displays. Despite having a Full HD display, I think the iPhone 6 Plus’ display looks nice to me.

Software & Performance

iOS is not new to me. Most people find it inferior compared to Android but some disagree. For me, I think iOS is great but it lacks some features that are already on Android and the same goes for Android. The iOS experience is even better when you have a Mac thanks to Handoff and apps that works great on both OS X and iOS. It’s the advantage of having a control on both the hardware and software of a device.

Inside my iPhone 6 Plus is iOS 8.3. It packs a lot of new features including the new emojis. And as expected, the iOS is very smooth but there are only limited things to do. There’s no developer options and you can’t customize the iOS compared to Android except when you jailbreaked your device. But of course, most consumers doesn’t know how to customize, root or even jailbreak their devices. But hey, the iOS 8 is now beginning to be a little bit open to developers. Yeah, you could now even download new keyboards for your iOS 8 devices.

One of the biggest advantage iOS 8 has to offer over Android is the availability of games and apps. I know, most iOS apps are already on Android but there are still some games that are exclusively available on iOS. Like what? Well, we got Bioshock, Monster Hunster, Metal Slug (For retro gamers) and many more.  And playing on the iPhone 6 Plus is a breeze thanks to the powerful dual-core processor and 1GB of RAM. Yeah, 1GB RAM. So how does that work on the iPhone 6 Plus? Again, that’s one of the advantage of having a control on your software and hardware of the device. Apple could fully maximize and optimize its features.

Playing Hearthstone on the iPhone 6 Plus feels very nice. Compared to Android, Hearthstone on my iPhone 6 Plus is faster and it doesn’t show any lags. It feels very comfortable to play and the 5.5-inch display is spacious enough for games compared to the 4.7-inch display of the iPhone 6. If you are into iOS and gaming on a smartphone, I suggest that you get the iPhone 6 Plus instead because it is more comfortable to play on this one compared to the iPhone 6 but of course, you should get the 64GB variant because I’m pretty sure the 16GB internal storage won’t be enough for your apps and games.

Battery Life

When it comes to battery life, iPhones are known to be one of the worst. But the iPhone 6 Plus proved us wrong. Since the iPhone 6 Plus is bigger, it offers more space for the battery inside and yes, I was able to use the smartphone for a day without charging. The longest battery life that I got on the iPhone 6 Plus was a day and an half before running out of juice. Overall, the battery life of the iPhone 6 Plus is a great improvement over the previous generation

Camera

When you’re the type of person who is just looking for the megapixel count of the smartphone to judge the quality of the camera, well, you’re doing it wrong. The iPhone 6 Plus still offers an 8 Megapixel camera but every year, Apple kept on improving it and actually, the iPhone 6 Plus is still one of the best smartphones when it comes to camera.

The camera of the iPhone 6 Plus still only take 4:3 photos but the smartphone can focus and take photos really fast. At low light conditions, the iPhone 6 Plus can offer more natural colors than other smartphones. Most of the photos that I shoot were sharp and has less noise than I expected. Overall, the iPhone 6 Plus may not pack the best camera on a smartphone but I like how the iPhone 6 Plus performed. check out my sample shots below.

Verdict

The iPhone 6 Plus is an expensive smartphone but of course, that’s expected on an Apple device. The price of the iPhone 6 Plus may be on par with the Samsung Galaxy S6 Edge but compared to the latter, you’ll have to get the 64GB variant of the smartphone to fully enjoy it. The iPhone 6 Plus is a great smartphone that offers a better battery life and OIS than the iPhone 6. And yes, it’s a great iOS device especially now that this is a large screen iPhone               .

If you want to own an iPhone 6 Plus, then head over to http://smart.com.ph/iphone6 to get one now.