3 months with the iPhone 6 Plus

In my previous blog post I described the “logics” behind choosing the iPhone 6 Plus. Now, after more than 3 months using the iPhone 6 Plus the big question is: Was it worth it?

To answer the question I will list some pros and cons with the iPhone 6 Plus and then conclude:

Pros

• Premium build quality
• Big, but not too big
• Good camera
• Good battery
• Excellent screen (resolution, color, brightness)
• Good speaker
• Good call quality
• Fluid OS
• Extreme app availability
• Frequent OS updates

Cons

• Expensive compared to other high-end smartphones
• Too delicate and slippery device – protection a must
• Boring and static start screens
• Boring and static icons
• No glance screen
• Too many apps available
• No dedicated camera button

iPhone 6 Plus Gold (picture from http://www.apple.com)

Comments to the pros and cons

If you read my previous blog post you already know that I have a Nokia Lumia 1020 with Windows Phone 8.1. And that I for different reasons chose to “upgrade” to an iPhone. Thats why some of the pros and cons are directly related to my experience with the Windows Phone operating system.

Live Tiles?

In regard to boring and static start screens and boring and static icons (above):
What I miss most from the Windows Phone, without doubt, are the Live Tiles. They’re just genius: Almost every icon on your start screen can be resized and moved. Furthermore, and most important, most of them display live info (received emails, calendar info, missed calls, Twitter updates and much, much more). This is essential information that you get without interacting with your phone, and is extremely useful. For more about Live Tiles, see this info from Microsoft.

What I miss almost equally: The Glance Screen. With it, the lock screen on my Windows Phone always shows the time, day and date, missed calls, unread messages. This without much effect on the battery. And without picking up or touching the phone. You can change the Glance Screen settings so it only shows info in intervals, when you move your hand over the phone or when you double tap the screen. In addition to this you can have weather info for your location displayed when moving your hand over the phone (when the screen is locked). Also workout info if you are using the Microsoft Health app. All this is valuable information in a glance.

Live Tiles on a Windows Phone (picture from http://www.windowsphone.com)

 

Watch?

Come to think of it, the Live Tiles and Glance Screen on a Windows Phone are so useful that you do not need a (smart)watch. But if you have an iPhone, you might need the Apple Watch so you can get (amongst other things) useful information without picking up or touching the iPhone.

Too many apps?

No, I’m not crazy. But the overwhelming amount of apps in the Apple App Store makes you install apps you don’t need (your choice of course), but more important: I have a hard time finding apps I need in the flood of apps. And Apple doesn’t make it easier when they only lists some of the (most popular) apps. You have to dig deep and search hard to find other, interesting apps. Yes, this is a luxury problem, I know.

Camera

I miss a dedicated camera button. On my Lumia 1020 I just have to push and hold the camera button to wake the camera when the phone is locked. But it’s when taking photos the button is really useful and intuitive: Push it halfway down for focus, all the way down to take the picture. It makes me feel more in control when taking pictures, and it gives me more of a “take a picture”-moment than with the iPhone. And so far I must say the picture quality is slightly better on pictures taken with the Lumia 1020 than with the iPhone 6 Plus.

But, and this is important, the camera on the iPhone 6 Plus is blazingly fast! So you will get the action photos there and then, long before you have shot the first picture with the Lumia 1020 (which is, as you understand, extremely slow both in startup and in picture-to-picture). Then again, the Lumia 1020 shoots 41 megapixels against 8 megapixels on the 6 Plus, and the Lumia can save in the .DNG-format (for finetuning the pictures in eg. Adobe Lightroom).

Conclusion

OK, I’ll admit it: I miss using my Lumia 1020. Sometimes. But the iPhone 6 Plus, as “boring” as it is, will stay as my main device due to the big screen and the app availability.

The iPhone 6 Plus is of course a great smartphone, and who knows what changes iOS 9 will bring? But when the time comes to change smartphone, a Microsoft flagship will be considered.