The iPhone, one of Apple's most iconic products, has changed a lot this year. The one and only, special, original suddenly ceased to be so. Now there are two of them and you will have to choose which one to buy. The task, I will say right away, is not an easy one, and if you think that you will pick up both new products and immediately understand everything, I have to disappoint you - it’s difficult to decide. On the one hand there is an iPhone with ideal proportions, on the other there is an iPhone for ideal content consumption. Let's try to choose?
Before the full review, watch our short video of the iPhone 6 and iPhone 6 Plus - short and most important. Enjoy watching:
Design: iPhone 2G is alive!
The appearance of the last two generations of iPhone has become boring, to put it mildly. Yes, the iPhone 5s looks like a jewel with polished edges, but I’ve been wanting something new for a long time. And we know that the new is the well-forgotten old, which is why the iPhone 6 in your hands is so reminiscent of Apple’s first smartphone.
Rounded edges, a solid piece of aluminum and a comfortable fit in the hand. I’m talking now about both models - iPhone 6 and iPhone 6 Plus, since they are identical in design, the only differences are in size and in some hardware.
The new iPhone could be a real revelation for me, because I've always wanted a true smartphone of the future - a stylish, but no-frills slab of aluminum and glass. This is what the new product would look like if someone in Apple's design department had pulled Jony Ive's cue when he came up with the design of the antenna module in the iPhone 6. The lines you see on the back cover look mediocre. And using the example of thin and neat stripes on the back cover of the Taiwanese flagship HTC One M8, it’s even somehow sloppy and this is strange. Nevertheless, you can get used to this feature (controversial, by the way, this is a matter of taste).
After two days of use, the iPhone 6 already seems familiar. Eyes are already refusing to look at the 4-inch display, hands are reaching for the thin body and fingers want to run across the glass of the new smartphone again. Its edges are slightly rounded, so that the gadget looks and feels like a monolithic piece made of the right materials.
The only caveat is that it is slippery, so I recommend that you think about buying a cover in advance. It seems that Apple accessories are just the thing.
Other noticeable external changes include separate volume control buttons, which are now recessed into the body and can be pressed incredibly clearly. The Power button of the same shape has moved from the top edge to the right side. The thumb of the right hand or the index finger of the left hand rests directly on it. For the first few hours, of course, you continue to fumble around the top edge in search of a button, but over time everything falls into place - this is the only place where you can comfortably reach with your finger and lock/unlock the device.
Regarding the protruding camera module. He didn't bother me at all. Yes, it's noticeable, but the iPhone lies flat on the table and doesn't wobble when you press it on one side. Maybe there is still a minimal, almost imperceptible movement, but in normal use you don’t notice it. I tried to pry at the module with my fingernail, but nothing came of it.
Screens: Steve was wrong
iPhone 6 Plus, iPhone 6 and iPhone 5s
Immediately after the release of the iPhone 4 (3.5-inch screen), Steve Jobs commented at a press conference on the situation with smartphones equipped with large screens:
It is impossible to control them with your hands, no one will buy them. They're just like Hummer SUVs.
Four years later, his successor Tim Cook introduces two new SUVs. One with a large screen, the second with a huge one.
The screens of the new iPhones have been greatly increased in size compared to previous models. This is striking when you pick up the iPhone 6, and probably shocking when the iPhone 6 Plus falls like a shovel on your fingers. The awkward “hmmm-hmm” quickly changes into surprise - the quality of the display and pictures on them are a cut above those of the iPhone 5s.
The display displays colors perfectly, they are natural - not dull or violently burnt, as in Super Amoled screens, which Samsung is actively promoting in Galaxy smartphones. Viewing angles, I think, are the maximum possible. Just imagine that you turn your iPhone towards you, and the text on the screen remains perfectly readable. Yes, thanks to the new polarizer film in the iPhone 6/6 Plus, the display behaves much better in the sun than the iPhone 5s.
With the screen of the iPhone 6 Plus, the situation is exactly the same as with the iPhone 6. If you do not take into account that its dimensions will seem extremely large for the user of the “five”. The iPhone seems very unusual with such a screen and, it seems to me, that’s what Apple intended. This is practically a new device that can “eat up” some iPad mini users and launch the process, predicted by many, of turning iPad tablets into full-fledged computers with touch screens.
- iPhone 6: 4.7 inches, 1334×750 pixels
- iPhone 6 Plus: 5.5 inches, 1920x1080 pixels
Is a resolution of 1920 by 1080 pixels enough for a 5.5-inch screen? With your head. And don’t believe those who recommend urgently switching to QuadHD displays, which are already available in some Android smartphones - LG G3 and Samsung Galaxy Note 4. The human eye can only distinguish pixels at up to 300 ppi, while in the iPhone 6 Plus it is a whopping 401 pixels per inch. The performance race has never led to anything good. The iPhone compared to top Android gadgets is a prime example of this.
⇡#Conclusions
To form an opinion about the iPhone 6 Plus, you first need to decide on your attitude towards “plafonds”. If a large screen size is your priority, then the iPhone 6 Plus is worth a closer look. And vice versa, in the opinion of a connoisseur of the compact iPhone 5s and similar devices that competitors have the word Mini in their names, even a regular iPhone 6 may be too large, let alone the 6 Plus.
In its class, the iPhone 6 Plus performs quite well. Thanks to the Apple A8 SoC, both new iPhones clearly outperform their competitors in CPU-based tasks and are at least as good in graphics. The display is one of the best among IPS matrices, and indeed in mobile gadgets in general. The 1080p resolution isn't mind-blowing, but it's still more than enough to make the pixels impossible to see even at close range. The increase in PPI clearly benefited iOS.
Unfortunately, we can’t return other lamps for testing in order to compare the iPhone 6 Plus in terms of battery life with equal screen brightness, but if we turn to other sources (for example, Anandtech has everything), then under casual load, excluding 3D games, the iPhone 6 Plus is one of the best smartphones in terms of battery life. Those who value lamps mainly for their large batteries will be pleased with the iPhone 6 Plus because it allows them to gain an hour or two away from the outlet compared to the regular version.
The optical stabilizer in the main camera works wonders. In normal lighting it doesn't make itself felt at all, but it allows you to take clear, low-noise photos without a flash in extremely dark conditions.
With the iPhone 6 Plus, iOS enthusiasts who wanted a bridge between the iPhone and iPad but have been shying away from Android devices can now finally find a device to suit their needs. And if changing the usual ecosystem is not difficult, then the iPhone 6 Plus is at least not a worse alternative to the Galaxy Note line and other popular “plafonds”. Perhaps the only bone in the throat is the relatively small amount of RAM, which is easy to feel when switching between 6-8 pages in Safari. And, of course, the price.
Iron: simply better
It is not customary to talk about technical characteristics in the world of Apple mobile devices. Where have you heard users of different generations of iPhones talk about processors, RAM and, excuse me, overclocking? But you want this, right? Then here is a comparison of two smartphones in the Geekbench iOS application to calculate processor speed:
Yes, the iPhone 6 and iPhone 6 Plus are currently the most powerful smartphones Apple has ever created. They run on the same new generation Apple A8 processor with a clock speed of just (for the modern smartphone world) 1.4 GHz. Feel free to add the M8 coprocessor here, which helps you clearly count the number of steps taken and calories burned. RAM - 1 GB, same as in iPhone 5s. But was it ever not enough? This isn't a Mac.
What's the result? My overall impression is that iOS 8 runs slightly faster on the iPhone 6/6 Plus than on the iPhone 5s. The difference is very small, literally minimal, but it is there. This is traditional Apple magic, when you pick up a new iPhone, after which you no longer want to use the “old” one.
Yes, games load a moment faster, the multitasking menu with thumbnails appears in a second, but this is far from the main feature of the new iPhones. Oh yes, if you are confused by the operation of iOS on a 5.5-inch display with Full HD resolution, I will say that there are no problems. Both smartphones work almost identically, if you do not take into account minor slowdowns in literally a few games (Real Racing, this one is the most). This is an optimization question that developers need to ask. I played Asphalt 8, updated to work with direct access technology to GPU Metal, Modern Combat 5 and the graphics, I admit, were impressive.
Let's talk about loss of precision
Now we know that magic compression works hard to fit all those millions of pixels into a small space. (This is Singapore!) Some pixels will inevitably be rendered inaccurately, and it's time to remember our friend Antialiasing. The main question is: will these blurred lines be noticeable to the eye?
Let's imagine that we draw a 1 pixel thick black line on a non-retina screen with initial coordinates X=0; Y=0.25. In a pixel grid, this line will occupy two rows, each of which will be drawn in different shades of gray. If you draw the same line on a “double” retina screen, it will already consist of ½ a completely black pixel and two more gray half-pixels. Now let's take a Retina HD screen with triple definition - ⅔ of the pixels will be completely black. On screens with such high resolution, the pixel grid size is approximately 0.06 millimeters. My eyes start to cross just thinking about it.
Battery: powerful, but lacking in innovation
I’ll be honest, it’s not easy to understand in two days how the batteries behave in new Apple smartphones. No, it's not even possible. I can say one thing for sure - my iPhone 5s, which I have been using for about 8 months, has held its charge several times worse during this time than both new items that were lying next to each other. Yes, the battery in the iPhone 5s could get “tired” during this period of operation, but the fact remains that in the evening my smartphone lay down to rest with 0% charge, while the iPhone 6 had 30% left, and Plus, it seems, was ready to work even before lunch the next day. It had about 55% charge left. Worthy.
The numbers, which can be found on Apple.com, speak for themselves. The iPhone 6 can last 250 hours in standby mode, while the iPhone 6 Plus can last 384 hours in a locked state. The younger model will be able to show you about five films of medium length, the older one - all seven. The indicators are not bad, but not revolutionary. I would really like innovations in mobile batteries, but not this year, unfortunately. Nowadays mobile photography is in fashion and you will definitely like everything here.
Apple iPhone 5 specifications
- Weight: 112g
- Dimensions (size): 123.8 x 58.6 x 7.6mm
- Operating system: iOS
- Screen size (diagonal): 4″
- Permission: 1136×640
- Random access memory (RAM): 1GB
- Internal memory (ROM): 16GB
- Cameras: 8MP
- Processor: Apple A6
- Battery: 1440mAh
Total information
Operating system (OS) iOS
Geekbench Benchmark 278 (Multi-Core) – Compare with other models here
Manufacturer Apple View all Apple models here
Geekbench Benchmark 157 (Single Core)
iPhone 5 model
Performance test antutu benchmark ~32177.
Weight and Dimensions
- Length: 123.8 mm.
- Width: 58.6 mm.
- Thickness: 7.6 mm.
- Weight: 112 g.
Screen
Resolution 1136×640 View other models with a resolution of 1136×640 here
Gorilla glass screen protection
IPS type
Multitouch (number of touches) 5
Frameless No – View other models with a frameless screen here
Frame size 4.5 mm
Surface utilization percentage 61%
Brightness 400 cd/m²
Screen size (diagonal) 4 “
Sources
- https://SmartPhonus.com/%D0%BA%D0%B0%D0%BA%D0%B0%D1%8F-%D0%B4%D0%B8%D0%B0%D0%B3%D0%BE% D0%BD%D0%B0%D0%BB%D1%8C-%D1%8D%D0%BA%D1%80%D0%B0%D0%BD%D0%B0-%D1%83-iphone/
- https://www.devicespecifications.com/ru/model-display/5d342ce2
- https://ProNormy.ru/tekhnika/bytovaya/diagonal-ayfon-6
- https://bloha.ru/review/iphone-6-cena-kharakteristiki-data-vypuska-eh-3/
- https://ProNormy.ru/tekhnika/bytovaya/diagonal-ayfon-7
- https://blog-android.ru/interesting-facts/razmery-iphone-7-v-santimetrakh/
- https://Unite4Buy.ru/specs/Apple-iPhone-5/
- https://bloha.ru/appleiphone5s/kharakteristiki-iphone-5s/
Cameras: Where are my megapixels?
There is none of them. More precisely, there are as many of them as in last year’s model. And in the year before last, and even in the iPhone 4S. You were deceived, set up and pushed with outdated hardware at an exorbitant price. You are wrong.
iPhone 6
iPhone 6 Plus
Indeed, the iPhone 6 and iPhone 6 Plus have an 8-megapixel camera with an ƒ/2.2 aperture, but with new lenses. One of the most impressive technologies in these cameras is Focus Pixels. This is a phase focusing system that seriously reduces focusing time when the camera moves. The principle of its operation is as follows: you take your iPhone out of your pocket, open the Camera application and begin frantically photographing several objects around you at once, abruptly changing the position of the smartphone. There is no additional focusing, it seems that the camera is reading the image around you immediately after you take out the phone. Forget tap-to-focus—iPhone does it for you.
iPhone 6
iPhone 6 Plus
The quality of the images is at a high level, with a minimum of soapy scenes when photographing indoors, this is truly impressive. This is especially true of the iPhone 6 Plus with its optical stabilization system, which can take stunning photos. If you have direct hands, you can create real masterpieces, print them and hang them on the wall.
iPhone 6
iPhone 6 Plus
Apple also worked on video quality. The cameras in the two new products can shoot FUllHD video at 60 frames per second, while slow-mo videos can now be made in two formats - 120 and 240 frames per second. Together with cinematic stabilization during video shooting, we get the most desired mobile video camera for a real video maniac.
Appearance of the device
Bluetooth 5.0 transmits data at a speed of 2 Mbit/s. Above the display there are sensors, a 1.2 MP front camera, and a speaker. At the bottom there is a round touch key with a sapphire coating.
On the left side of the case there is a button for adjusting the volume, on the right there is a power button and a compartment for a nano format card.
Charging socket
At the bottom there are 8 speaker holes, a Lightning connector, a microphone, and an audio compartment. On the back of the panel there is an 8 megapixel camera, an additional microphone and a dual flash.
The camera protruding forward doesn't look particularly neat, but that's not that important. The main thing is that thanks to the sapphire glass, its peephole is not subject to scratches or other damage. It is recommended to put a cover or case on your smartphone, then the camera will be inside.
Images and videos obtained thanks to the camera of the six+ model are high-quality, bright, and juicy. The technical specifications indicate that the matrix is equipped with full support for the sRGB color standard with dual-domain pixels.
Model difference
This allows colors to be displayed accurately and clearly at a wider viewing angle. iPhone 6+ reproduces shades with high quality. Black looks deep, white is as close to white as possible.
Features of iPhone 6 Plus: mini iPad mini
It’s not for nothing that I said above that the iPhone 6 Plus does not seem like just a new smartphone or the second model of this year. This is something new that may soon affect other Apple devices. For example, on the iPad mini. I sincerely don’t understand why a user needs a small tablet with a 7.9-inch screen when there is an iOS smartphone with a 5.5-inch display that is always in their pocket. It is simply created for consuming content in huge quantities - you want to watch movies, play action games and arcade games, surf the Internet through Safari or, for example, do video editing through the iMovie application. This is the ultimate gadget for the active user who is “on the edge.” That is, it is really huge for a phone, but at the same time it is so convenient during use. In addition, Apple took care of the pioneers and made some changes to iOS 8 that are only available on the iPhone 6 Plus.
First, it's landscape mode, like on the iPad. The desktop, icons, content - everything is in a horizontal position. This feature is activated in Settings -> Display and brightness -> View. Here we select the normal mode, where work in a horizontal position is available by default.
If you select the “Zoom” mode, all icons and text will become slightly larger. It’s promising, but it requires support from developers who optimize their software to work in this mode.
Another point is changes in the location of some interface elements in standard applications. For example, Mail and Messages have dual-screen mode enabled, just like on the iPad. This also includes the supposedly improved keyboard, to which quick access buttons for the “Copy, Cut, Paste” functions have been moved, but you need to seriously get used to them. It feels like the system is not perfected. Either the iPhone 6 Plus was released ahead of schedule, or it was simply overlooked.
Unlike other manufacturers of large smartphones, Apple has done a good job of making them more convenient. While competitors are introducing complex control schemes for large screens into interfaces, Cupertino is simply adding one, but useful, function. Double tapping (not pressing) the Home button lowers the entire interface of any application so that you can reach the status bar with one finger. Simple and convenient.
There is also a problem with the display of some applications. No, I didn’t notice any pixels, but the software that looked normal on the iPhone 5s screen now looks strange on the 5.5-inch Godzilla. There is a lot of space on the screen, but the interface elements are stretched and look somehow awkward or even clumsy. I think developers are already aware of this nuance and are already reviewing the interfaces of their programs.
A little about screen resolution
Here we should make a small digression and remember that in addition to the physical screen resolution in pixels, iOS also has a logical screen resolution, measured in so-called dots. Points and pixels are related by a scaling factor (“retina” factor).
For older iPhone models, this factor was equal to one, and the physical resolution of 320x480 pixels corresponded to the same logical resolution - 320x480 pixels, or 163 dpi (scaling factor 1×).
The retina screen in the iPhone 4 received four times the physical resolution - 640x960 pixels, or 326 ppi, but the logical resolution of the display did not change, and was still 320x480 pixels, only now these points were drawn with double clarity (scaling factor 2 ×).
iPhone 5 received new display sizes, but its clarity remained the same - 640x1136 physical pixels with a 4″ diagonal give the same pixel density of 326 ppi, corresponding to a logical density of 163 dpi (2×).
Finally, in the new iPhone 6, the display has increased again to 750x1334 pixels, but its density is still 326 ppi, and the logical resolution is scaled with a constant factor of 2x, and is 375x667 pixels, or 163 dpi.
Why are points so important? Because it is in them that the sizes of interface elements on the device screen are measured. The 44-point high button will have the same size both on the screen of the old iPhone 3G and on the screen of the new “six” - approximately 7 millimeters. The only difference will be in detail: in the second case, the button will be drawn with double clarity (the same scaling factor).
Changing the logical density of the screen in points changes precisely the physical size of the interface elements. Fluctuations in the region of 150–170 dpi will be practically invisible to the eye. If the density becomes more than 170 dpi, then the elements will “shrink”, the buttons will become small, and it will simply be impossible to hit them with your finger. Conversely, if you reduce the logical density below 150 dpi, the entire interface will increase in size, as was the case with the 10-inch iPad displays, whose density is 132 dpi.
To summarize: increasing the physical clarity of the screen (ppi) makes sense only while maintaining an acceptable range of logical clarity (dpi), which ideally should be in the range of 150–170 dpi. Only in this case will the system and application interface elements retain their usual sizes.
About not the most important: boxes and kit
Please note the changes in the appearance of the boxes from the new iPhone 6 and iPhone 6 Plus. Now they are completely white without any pictures, except for the model name on the side. The silhouette of a smartphone is embossed on the lid of the box. It looks unusual and unusual. With the kit, everything is much simpler - inside the box everything is the same as what came with the iPhone 5s: EarPods, a Lightning cable, a charger and a bunch of paper materials with a “clip” for opening the SIM slot inside.
Comparison of sizes of iPhone 5, 5S and 6, 6S, 6 Plus
For those who are not yet ready to consider the very expensive but highly desirable iPhone 7 model, we suggest comparing and choosing earlier models.
Size comparison of iPhone 6, 6S, 6 Plus
Comparison of sizes of iPhone 5, 5S and 6, 6S, 6 Plus
We hope we have answered all your questions regarding iPhone sizes, and you have finally decided which model to order.
