Apple iPhone 6 Review

Apple iPhone 6 Review Scoring Summary

Style & Handling
User Friendliness
Feature Set
Performance
Battery Power
Overall Score	Pros: Cons: + Beautiful build - Relatively low-res screen + Good size camera - Expensive + Great camera - Lacks innovation

Full Review and Specification for the Apple iPhone 6

The iPhone 6 is perhaps the most eagerly anticipated phone of the year and in just a few short days you’ll be able to buy one, but should you? There’s no doubt that it’s a great handset but for better or worse it’s also a big change over the iPhone 5s and on paper it doesn’t really offer anything that you can’t get elsewhere. So is it worth your hard earned money? Read on to find out.

Screen

After all the leaks and rumours in the run up to its announcement the iPhone 6 is a phone of few surprises and one of the biggest changes- its screen size, has been long expected. It’s gone from 4.0 inches as found on the iPhone 5s to 4.7 inches, which is the same size as the Samsung Galaxy Alpha or the original HTC One for example.

For our money that’s a good thing. 4.0 inches was starting to look distinctly on the small side and it’s about time Apple caught up, but we’d wager that a lot of people liked the compact design of iPhone’s past so for them it may not be such a welcome change.

But 4.7 inches is still far from the phablet territory of the iPhone 6 Plus. It’s a size which means the iPhone 6 is still easily pocketable and can just about be used with one hand, while at the same time it makes it far better for typing, web browsing and watching videos than the iPhone 5S ever could be.

Whether you’re a fan of the screen size or not the actual quality is pretty impressive. At 750 x 1334 it’s higher resolution than the iPhone 5S but with the extra size it still has exactly the same pixel density, so if you were happy with how sharp the iPhone 5S’s screen is you’ll be happy with this too.

That said Apple could have done more, because that’s a pixel density which falls some way short of most Android rivals and the difference in sharpness is noticeable if you put them side by side.

Thankfully while Apple may have slightly dropped the ball on the resolution, its Retina HD display is about more than just packing in the pixels. It also delivers superior contrast and viewing angles to any previous iPhone and even has better colour reproduction and an improved polariser so that it’s easier to see when wearing sunglasses.

All of which leads to by far the best viewing experience we’ve yet seen on an iPhone and means the iPhone 6 has one of the best phone displays around, despite the slightly disappointing resolution.

Design

If there’s one thing Apple always gets right it’s design and the iPhone 6 is one of the company’s best looking products yet. With a metal and glass build it was always going to look premium but Apple hasn’t simply used expensive materials, it’s also thought about the construction.

You can see that in the way the curved edges glide almost seamlessly into the screen and in the fact that despite being bigger than before it’s also slimmer at just 6.9mm thin. It looks and feels great and while you won’t mistake this for an iPhone 5s you also won’t think it’s anything other than an Apple handset.

Being bigger at 138.1 x 67mm it’s naturally harder to use one-handed but Apple has thought of that too, by moving the power button to the side and elongating some buttons as well as working in clever features on the screen to ensure that whatever you’re interacting with can always be aligned with your thumb.

It should be a little more durable than past iPhone’s too, thanks to a supposedly stronger display. This isn’t sapphire but it is supposedly strong enough to survive drops and scratches. It’s a little disappointing that Apple didn’t go one step further and make its phone dust and water resistant like other companies are starting to do though.

Power

It’s never easy to directly compare the power of an iPhone to anything else because on paper its specs just don’t match up. But to make things even harder we don’t even know for sure what the specs of the iPhone 6 are, as Apple has simply said that it has a 64-bit A8 chip, though many sites claim that it’s a 1.4GHz dual-core processor with 1GB of RAM.

Whatever the case though, in use the iPhone 6 feels as slick and smooth as you’d expect. Of course there’s nothing out there to really tax it yet, with all currently available apps and games designed to work smoothly on the iPhone 5s, so it’s hard to say how it will fare down the line but Apple promises that it’s substantially more powerful than last year’s phone.

Gamers can rest easy too, as the Cupertino company has included a new technology called ‘Metal’, which allows the CPU and GPU to work together to deliver console-style games.

Camera

We couldn’t help but feel a little disappointed when we heard that Apple once again put an 8 megapixel camera in its phone, but this isn’t the same 8 megapixel camera as we got in the iPhone 5S.

Focus Pixels allow it to autofocus faster than ever, there’s improved face detection, exposure control, digital image stabilisation to counter motion blur and shaky hands and improved photo apps to let you quickly edit images.

The video camera has seen even more improvements. It can film in 1080p at 60fps or 720p in slow-motion at 240fps. There’s video stabilisation to keep shots steady, continuous autofocus and you can even shoot time-lapse videos.

Meanwhile the FaceTime HD camera can capture up to 81% more light than previously and features a new burst mode which can take 10 photos per second, making it better than ever for both selfies and video calls.

Features

The iPhone 6 is light on new features which don’t directly tie into something else such as the camera or the screen, all of which have been discussed above. The main new feature is Apple Pay which uses NFC to allow you to make contactless payments. It’s got the potential to be a hugely useful feature and with Apple backing it contactless payments might become a lot more common than they are now.

On the other hand Android phones have included NFC and contactless payment solutions for a long time, so while it’s a useful feature it seems more like Apple is playing catch-up here than truly innovating.

The two big features from the iPhone 5S have made a return too, specifically the motion co-processor which tracks your activity without killing your battery and Touch ID, which lets you unlock your phone and approve purchases with your fingerprint.

These features are just as good as ever and in combination with iOS 8 Touch ID is getting even better, as developers can now use it with third-party apps. While the M8 motion co-processor can now measure steps, distance and elevation changes.

Battery life, memory and connectivity

As usual Apple hasn't confirmed the size of the iPhone 6’s battery, so we’ll have to wait for someone to take it apart. But the company has said that it can last for up to 14 hours of talk time, 10 days of standby time, 11 hours of internet use or 11 hours of video.

All of which is pretty good and is down to a combination of the battery itself and a more efficient processor. It still doesn’t sound like quite a match for the likes of the Samsung Galaxy S5 for example though.

The iPhone 6 comes with a choice of 16, 64 or 128GB of storage, with 32GB MIA for some reason, so there’s the potential for a lot, but there’s no microSD card slot and with the 128GB model costing £699 Apple hasn’t made higher storage capacities all that affordable.

For connectivity you get Wi-Fi, 3G, Bluetooth 4.0, 4G and NFC. It’s worth noting that the iPhone 6 also supports 4G LTE-A speeds of up to 150Mbps.

Early verdict

The iPhone 6 is a phone which has almost everything you could want all delivered in a stunning new design and with flagship power. It’s as expensive as always, the screen could be higher resolution and we can’t help but feel that it’s one of Apple’s less innovative offerings but the whole package has been put together so well that it hardly matters.

Apple iPhone 6 Specification

	iPhone 6
Colours	Available in silver, gold, and space gray,
Dimensions	138.1 mm x 67.0 mm x 6.9 mm
Weight	129 grams
Screen	4.7-inch (diagonal) LED-backlit widescreen Multi‑Touch display with IPS technology
Resolution	1334-by-750-pixel resolution at 326 ppi
Chips	A8 chip with 64-bit architecture
	M8 motion coprocessor
Memory	16GB,64GB and 128GB
iSight Camera	New 8-megapixel iSight camera with 1.5µ pixels
	Autofocus with Focus Pixels
Facetime Camera	1.2-megapixel photos (1280 by 960)
Video recording	1080p HD video recording (30 fps or 60 fps)
Touch ID	Fingerprint identity sensor built into the Home button
Battery	Talk time: Up to 14 hours on 3G
	Standby time: Up to 10 days (250 hours)
	Video playback: Up to 11 hours
Connectivity	NFC, VoLTE, WiFi, Bluetooth, 4G LTE
SIM Card	Nano-SIM

Do you really own the device you purchased?

Sounds confusing right?

Let's take a simple scenario – you purchase a smart phone, un-box it and powered up, initial boot completes, you enter your email and device is ready for use. Now you stand staring at home screen of new device swiping left and right, let's touch app drawer icon and it there goes... lots of apps pre-installed for your convenience.

You start exploring these convenience apps one by one, accepting complicated “terms of use” where needed and after playing around a while you realize that most of these pre-installed apps are absolutely unnecessary and proceed to delete them.

What happens next? The result:

To make story short, pre-installed convenience apps (called 'bloatware') cannot be deleted from a device that you thought you owned. Why? Because a corporate seeking ROI thinks these apps are best for you regardless of your opinion.

Story does not end here, let's think about:

• Any idea how these companies use your personal information/data? No
• Any idea what access privileges bloatware enjoy that you have to live with? No
• Any guess why terms of use have to be so tricky and lengthy? No

Lets take a step further and look at desktop PCs and laptops. Does it not seem like every manufacturer is telling us that we have been living a wrong and unproductive life? And its only them to tell us “best thing for you” as if we are morons having no idea about choice.

Now are you getting what I mean by “owning the device you purchased”? Let's look into breaking free.

'Own' a device

This part may sound too difficult (for some may be) but not at all – it is only a matter of willingness and exploring a few web pages to get going.

Smart phone devices

• Rooting the device: Rooting (or gaining super user access) gives you absolute authority over the device bringing everything at your disposal. Be it removing bloatware or installing apps requiring root access such as an app to manage device's storage the way you want, for example. Files needed for rooting each device vary by make and model but procedure conceptually remains same.

• Custom ROMs: At the end of day, every device has a processor meaning every device has to have an operating system – the same goes with smart phones. Fun and most adventurous part begins when you break free from bloatware loaded stock ROM shipped by manufacturer to install custom ROM of your choice, developed and maintained by faithful community of developers. Custom ROMs come with many features including new and creative user experiences, access to hidden features, improved battery life and best of all giving you an opportunity to do the device 'your way'.

• Firewalls: If you still feel need for full control on apps sending and receiving data, you can install firewalls to allow or restrict apps access. This makes sure nothing happens without your explicit permission.

Laptop and desktop PCs

It's all about Windows: No it's not, it just gets shipped with most of new personal computers sold without consumers' choice to have it pre-installed or not.

Unless you are not running a special purpose software that largely requires Windows platform, world is open and free to experiment with Linux. Wine (a Linux compatibility layer for Windows programs) runs most of Windows programs and games successfully on Linux.

Let's see this way, if you are into elegant and beautiful looking personal desktop then rest assured you have not seen anything yet. If it is about security and proven stability than Windows is not even coming close to it.

Linux world is full of options – as a starter you may be interested in exploring Solydkx or Zorin or Ubuntuand after gaining some experience may consider advanced (and my favorite) Manjaro and Antergos Linux (or even most elite Arch Linux) distributions to have complete choice about building your own desktop from bare bones OS.

You can play around safely in Linux using LiveCDs or installing on virtual PCs as both of the methods are non-destructive of your current setup.

What is gained or lost?

Be it rooting and installing custom ROMs on smart phones or installing Linux on your PC – every tool and software is open source, community driven and totally free. The process of experimenting with software gives you good knowledge about devices and not to mention yet again, the way you want your device to be. This at times saves unnecessary hardware upgrade costs, software licensing costs including fun of rejuvenating old devices using simple tools available at our disposal.

Believe me, the day you experiment with your device it will be a life long different vision of how you see your devices.

In the end, its all about freedom of choice not just the freedom of buying certain piece of hardware to have a signature device being an extension of yourself.

Thoughts and comments welcome!

Note: Rooting or installing custom ROM on your smart phone will void its warranty, you've been warned!

Are we already over Wearable Technology?

I've been wearing a Nike FuelBand for about 3 years now. I'm actually on my 3rd one (2 original and now on the SE version) having had the first 2 fail and been replaced by Nike in London - great customer service I have to say.

But despite enjoying the novelty of the points collection, the smooth, slick Bluetooth data transfer to my iPhone App and the pretty stellar batter life (usually around 8-10 Days) - essentially.. it's a watch.

Sure it's the watch I wear every day without fail, it's great in the dark and it does tell the time - but this is hardly the promise of the much heralded age of Wearable Technology.

Prove the utility. Fast.

I am struggling to remember how many years running it has been "the year of mobile" but I am pretty certain we are running onto a "decade of mobile" and even now most large brands / companies / agencies *ahem* are yet to truly embrace mobile.

This in some ways is hardly surprising as digital marketing and technology has grown up in a broadband first world - whereas in emerging economies it's far more appropriate to talk about "mobile natives" than the "digital natives" of the US and Western Europe.

However wearable technologies, be they wristbands / eyeware (Glass) / heartbeat monitors or cameras - need to overcome the same hurdle that mobile has been facing for so long - proving the utility.

More than just health tracking.

One area we see the utility case is in health. Devices in this space are seemingly appearing on a monthly basis and may even be a contributor to the stagnating personal health market in the UK.

According to Mintel the average spend by UK consumers on a gym membership rose just £2 between 2009-2014 (£40 - £42) - whilst in the same time period we have seen an explosion of health tracking devices from Jawbone, Nike, Adidas, Withings and many others besides.

However if we are to hold the actions of Google with any weight, (which I'm going to suggest is probably wise...) the world's largest mobile OS believes we are all going to be doing a whole lot more than tracking our steps with Android for wearables - unveiling a suite of new devices using it's scarily accurate Google Now predictive assistant technology.

The platform certainly shows a lot of promise - and finally adds the style factor to the tech which for many consumers is the ongoing barrier - but only in the implementation and ease of use - not to mention price are we likely to see them win the war on this one.

Time to close the gap.

The hype machine is good at killing a valuable idea - and I certainly believe many of the devices on show right now are valuable ideas, and could even be great - but as with every technology revolution we need to find ways of solving a essential human problem.

Right now it's hard to make a case that these devices do that problem solving orders of magnitude better than the current high end smartphone you already own, and already have gotten so used to carrying around that you can't go with out it.

The wearable tech industry may need to be willing to sacrifice the do-it-all smartphone model to succeed - and crucially build services that will sit on top of these that solve those problems.