iPhone 6 review Part 1

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Let me start by a disclaimer (those who know me won’t probably need it): I am a die hard Apple fan and love everything Apple, but that doesn’t mean that my review of an Apple product would be a prefect 10/10 … and this review is about the iPhone 6 only; iOS 8 review will follow later on.

The new iPhone 6 is just beautiful….no? OK let’s start again 😉

First off, let me make one thing clear: NO I DID NOT AND WILL NOT BEND IT … Bend your own phone!

Display

The iPhone 6 is a huge upgrade from its predecessor the 5s; the 4.7-inch screen is a big welcome to the traditional iPhone family. While some still resist the bigger screens, I find it a good move by Apple to compete in the world of phablets out there, but that where I draw the line. For me, 5-inch is the limit and anything above that is just too big and defies the purpose of holding a “phone” – yes, yes, iPhone 6 Plus included; that thing is HUGE!

The 1334 x 750, 326ppi Retina HD display is a beauty from colour saturation to brightness – it just pops out! Yes, it’s not a full HD screen but the Retina HD technology does a great job and you can hardly (and perhaps unable) to notice any difference compared to a full HD screen with a higher ppi count.

Look & Feel

The iPhone 6’s transformation is absolutely beautiful, the rounded edges, the raised screen covering the bezels gives the device an amazing grip and view angles. I personally find the iPhone 6 the most comfortable to hold. Yes it’s heavier (at 129gm), but you will barley feel the difference due to the size of the phone and how the weight is actually spread across the device.

Antenna bands you ask? yeah, that’s one of the things I actually hate about the new iPhones. I would love to know what went through the designer’s head when he came up with them thick bands. If you share this particular sentiment, you might wanna stick the the space grey iPhone; the bands tend to blend with the back more than the other colours.

Yes, the iPhone 6 is still one-hand friendly; I’m able to type, swipe, and do most of the normal tasks by using one hand only – well, with he exception of reaching the top of the screen maybe. But this is where Apple’s new trick – “Reachability” – comes into play. Reachability pulls the top half of the display down to middle with a double-tap of the Home button.

Call & Sound

I listen to music a lot; my smartphone is my music library on the go, and I can tell you one thing: those new speakers at the bottom are loud and impressively clear.

I used the phone for nearly 3 days, and the call quality didn’t disappoint; the volumes are higher, the quality is clear and the HD voice is still as good as ever.

Battery life

Thinner phones mean smaller batteries. You might not agree with this approach and prefer to have a thicker device with a bigger battery (so do ). I believe a bigger battery would have been nice, specially with more apps now demanding more juice.

I go the phone to hold a good 11 hours and 30 minutes with a screen on time of around 8 hours, which included, browsing, messaging, emails, social media news reading on feedly. The screenshot below shows the phone at 26% (unfortunately I couldn’t take a screen shot of the above numbers on time before the phone switched off). Anyway, these number will surely vary depending on how you use the phone and what apps are actually running.

The iPhone 6 has also the ability to charge using the iPad charger, resulting in a faster charging time.

As for the internal specs, I’m sure everyone knows by now, but here’s a summary:

Click here to go to our part 2 review focusing on the camera performance.