IPhone 6 review

We put the iPhone 6 through its paces

Apple unveiled the iPhone 6 on 9 September 2014. With a 4.7in display, new design, improved specs and new features, it’s bigger and better than ever.

Price

The price will start at £539 – £10 lower than the starting price of the iPhone 5s was last year. That’s still pricey for a smartphone, though, and

is much higher than many of its Android and Windows Phone rivals.

If you want more than 16GB capacity, you’ll need to cough up £619 for the 64GB model or £699 for the 128GB model. There’s no 32GB model this time.

Design

With the increasing popularity of larger smartphones from the likes of Samsung and other Apple rivals, it seems that the iPhone 6 and the even bigger iPhone 6 Plus are a reply to that success. Both models will undoubtedly help Apple reach new audiences that weren’t being served by its 4in iPhone models, but it comes at the risk of losing those customers who preferred that smaller screen.

One glance at the iPhone 6 and you’ll see that it is noticeably larger than the 5s, with a 4.7in screen rather than the older phone’s 4in screen. Pick it up and you’ll find that it’s a lot different to Apple’s previous handsets, with rounded edges more akin to those found on the iPod touch and iPad. It also brings to mind the original iPhone, which also had curved edges and an all-metal back.

Without making that softening design change, the iPhone 6 would be monstrous. It is slightly heavier than the 5s, but it’s so thin at 6.9mm and surprisingly easy to hold in your hand. Even the display’s edges are slightly curved, a touch that we really like. It helps make holding the device extremely

comfortable, which is something Apple had at the forefront of its mind when designing this phone.

We love the size of the iPhone 6. It’s the perfect medium, sitting between the now too-small screen of the 5s and the too-big screen on the 6 Plus. It still fits in your pocket (and no, ours didn’t bend), it’s fantastically light and provides the ideal amount of screen space to comfortably watch video content, play games and view image slideshows.

As you’d expect, the build quality is excellent. Some of the buttons and switches have been moved and/or redesigned, but they’re still firm and responsive. The 5s’s round volume buttons have been replaced with long metal ovals set into a slightly recessed indent, while the sleep/wake button has been relocated to the right side instead of the top. The new position of the sleep/wake button will definitely take some getting used to for anyone already using one of Apple’s older iPhones, though. We found we was used to it after just a day of use, but we’ve used several Android devices with the lock button in that position in the past.

Nonetheless, it does make it easier to hit the button without adjusting your grip or resorting to

a second hand. Yes, Apple is still keen on its one-handed use motto for the iPhone, despite the bigger screen sizes, and it’s doing everything it can to make you believe it.

Apple has even introduced a new feature to address the issue of the bigger screen for one-handed use. It calls this new feature Reachability. A double-tap on the Home button slides down the entire interface to about a third of the screen, letting you quickly access the interface without having to strain. The interface is fully functional – you can even tap the iPhone’s status bar to jump back to the top of a web page, for example.

This feature is not something we’d normally expect to see from Apple. It makes sense, but it’s not very elegant. Initially, we found it to be a bit inconsistent, but Apple has updated iOS 8 to 8.0.2 and that seems to have solved some of the Reachability bugs. It’s quick to get used to and fine for one-handed use with the iPhone 6.

It seems that Apple didn’t quite manage to squeeze in the rear-facing iSight camera when it decided to slim down its iPhone. The camera lens protrudes slightly from the back of the iPhone 6 and it’s definitely noticeable. You can still place the device flat on its back, but it doesn’t quite sit evenly, which is another un-Apple-like move in our eyes. We’ll be doing some further digging to find out exactly why Apple made this decision.

Display

The 4.7in display of the iPhone 6 has a resolution of 1334x750 pixels, which actually means the same 326ppi pixel density as the 5s, but Apple has dubbed the new screen ‘Retina HD’.

This refers to the number of pixels across the screen rather than the pixel density: obviously there are more pixels on these larger screens, but they are stretched over a wider area. But it also encompasses some slight modifications in the screens’ design, such as dual-domain pixels – which Apple says increases viewing angles, and we discuss below – and an improved polariser which makes the screen clearer when viewed through sunglasses in bright sunshine.

That’s a bit disappointing compared with some rivals, which have in excess of 400ppi displays. Apple has, however, made the 6 Plus 401ppi, so you’ll have to buy the 5.5in iPhone if you want that better screen.

Nonetheless, we loved using the iPhone 6’s display. It’s bright, crisp and the content appears almost stuck on top of the glass rather than beneath it. Apple has made some adjustments to the display to improve viewing angles and the contrast ratio, and it seems to have made a significant difference to the overall display quality.

Thanks to the use of scaling, iOS apps will still work on the iPhone 6 even if they haven’t been updated for the larger display, because it’ll simply scale up to fit the new size. If you look really closely you might notice the difference but the apps will still work in the same way.

For those that struggle with the size of the text on the iPhone 6’s bigger screen, Apple has introduced a new feature called Display Zoom, which actually emulates the display of a smaller phone but scales it up to fill the iPhone’s display.

But if you turn on Display Zoom, you’ll miss out on some of the tweaks Apple has made thanks to the extra screen real estate. There are new columns of buttons on the iOS keyboard when used in landscape orientation, which introduce an undo button and a comma on the left, and cursor keys and a full stop on the right. Of course, with iOS 8 comes support for third-party keyboards and also an optional QuickType suggestion bar.

Specs and hardware

Inside the iPhone 6 is Apple’s new 64-bit A8 processor, which is, as expected, more powerful than the A7 processor that preceded it.

As Apple continues to improve its processor it’s becoming increasingly difficult to match the percentage increase in speed each year. Apple has managed to make the A8 even faster than the already speedy A7, but the improvement is more modest than the jump from the A6 to the A7.

Apple has managed to make the A8 processor 13 percent smaller than the A7, though, and it’s designed to be 50 percent more power efficient so should provide slightly better battery life. The A8 chip is running at 1.2GHz, according to GeekBench,

which is similar to the A7’s clock speed. The 6 Plus, on the other hand, has a clock speed of 1.39GHz. Both new iPhone models appear to have the same 1GB of memory as older versions.

GeekBench tests of the iPhone 6 found it can achieve a single-core score of 1569, higher (and better) than the 1409 of the 5s. In the multi-core test, the iPhone 6 achieved 2794 compared with 2549 of the 5s, as illustrated by the charts below.

When compared with some of the best Android smartphones, the iPhone 6 competes solidly. The Galaxy S5 scored 926 points in the single-core test (much lower than the 6’s 1569) and 2869 in the multi-core test.

We also tested the iPhone 6’s graphic performance in the updated GFXbench, and were very impressed by the results. It achieved 26 frames per second (fps) in Manhattan and 49fps in T-Rex, which suggests that the iPhone 6 is capable of handling very challenging games and apps.

In the SunSpider JavaScript test, it achieved an incredibly good average of 351ms.

A new version of the M7 co-processor has been introduced with the iPhone 6, too. Unsurprisingly, it’s called the M8, and to determines when you’re walking, cycling and running. It can also estimate

distance and elevation, so it’ll know when you’re running up the stairs, for example. That’s in part thanks to a new barometer sensor in the M8.

All of the sensors, and also the Touch ID fingerprint sensor, will be available to third-party developers for future iOS apps.

In terms of connectivity, the iPhone 6 has better LTE capabilities, and it also has NFC for the first time, which will work together with Apple’s new Apple Pay mobile payment service. We haven’t been able to test Apple Pay yet because it won’t be available until October and that’s only in the US. It’s expected to arrive in Europe next year.

It’s also worth noting that Apple has confirmed that NFC will not yet be opened up to third-parties so will only work with Apple Pay to begin with. We

expect Apple will wait until the next generation of iPhone to open the tech up to developers.

Camera

The camera has been improved in the iPhone 6, though you might not realise it if you simply look at the specs. The rear camera is still 8Mp, it still has a True Tone dual-LED flash, its aperture is still f/2.2 and the pixels are still bigger, at 1.5 microns.

Apple says that the sensor is all-new, though, and that new autofocus, advanced face detection and digital image stabilisation features will mean improved photographs.

Apple has added dedicated ‘focus pixels’ to the camera, which means speedier and better autofocus for both photos and video. The main area of improvement we noticed was the video autofocus, which was clear and smooth instead of robotic and jarring as we’ve seen in previous iPhones.

There’s also an even slower slo-mo feature that can shoot at 240fps, so when running that clip at one-eighth of the speed of normal video you’ll get some impressive slow motion results, improved even more so by the better video stabilization.

The front-facing FaceTime HD camera has a new sensor, a better aperture and better low-light photographs. It’s also able to use the Burst mode and HDR.

Software

The iPhone 6 runs iOS 8, which has now been release. For

further details about Apple’s latest mobile operating system turn to page 36.

iPad & iPhone User’s buying advice

It’s clear that the most important change with the iPhone 6 is its size. Yes, the processor is a bit faster and the camera is slightly improved, but it’s the 4.7in display that makes the biggest difference. It means a better experience when watching TV or movies on your iPhone, it displays photos better, and it allows more information to be shown on the screen at once.

If you’ve got an iPhone 5 or older, the iPhone 6 is a sold upgrade that you’ll get used to after just a few days of adjustment, but 5s owners might want to seriously consider waiting another year for the 6s as they’ve already got a brilliant smartphone and aside from that bigger display, the iPhone 6 doesn’t bring many other new features to the table.