Why I bought an iPhone 6 Plus
When Apple began sending out invites for its September 9th event, I knew I would be taking some time off of work to watch the live stream. As we know, that turned out to be a disaster for the first 30 to 40 minutes. However, during the keynote Apple announced that pre-orders for the iPhone 6 and iPhone 6 Plus would begin on September 12th. In keeping with tradition, I knew I would wake up at 2AM and pre-order the phone, which I did indeed do. The only remaining thing to determine was which model to pre-order.
Compared to the iPhone 5s, both the iPhone 6 and iPhone 6 Plus had bigger and better screens. The iPhone 6 has a 4.7" screen and the iPhone 6 Plus has a 5.5" screen. Over the iPhone 5s, the increases are 37.6% and 185.2% respectively. It is not just the resolution that is better, but also the type of screen. The iPhone 6 and iPhone 6 Plus have what Apple is calling a Retina HD screen; which is somewhat of a redundant name, but we will just have to deal with it. Regardless of which screen I went with, I would get more pixels and a higher resolution.
The second factor is battery life. Here is a chart comparing the battery life of the iPhone 5s, iPhone 6 and iPhone 6 Plus.
| iPhone 5s | iPhone 6 | iPhone 6 Plus | |
|---|---|---|---|
| Talk Time | 10 hours | 14 hours | 24 hours |
| Standby Time | 250 Hours | 250 hours | 384 hours |
| 3G Internet Usage | 8 hours | 10 hours | 12 hours |
| LTE Internet Usage | 10 hours | 10 hours | 12 hours |
| Wifi Internet | 10 hours | 11 hours | 12 hours |
| Video Playback | 10 hours | 11 hours | 14 hours |
| Audio playback | 40 hours | 50 hours | 80 hours |
As you can see, the iPhone 6 and more so the iPhone 6 Plus have increased battery ratings. Battery life is quite important to me. I always end up buying a Mophie Juice Pack for my phones, because the battery life is never enough.
The third determining factor was the ability to hand down the phone in the future. There is one thing that I usually upgrade every year, and that is my phone. When I get a new phone another family member gets my old phone. In the past it was my dad, however this year it will be my sister. With the slightly increased screen size of the iPhone 5 and iPhone 5s, the difference is minimal. Yes, it is bigger, but it is not that noticeable. However, with the iPhone 6 and iPhone 6 Plus, this is different. So it may be an issue next year.
The last and, possibly not surprising, most important aspect is development. The feature that most excited me, from a development perspective, is only on the iPhone 6 Plus. The feature is that when an iPhone 6 Plus is in landscape mode, it mimics an iPad. What I mean is that you will get a Split View. A split view, in case you are not aware, is where there are two distinct sections. For instance, in the Notes app, you get your notes on the left and the contents of your notes on the right. When using my app, wwrite, on an iPad you get this exact same view when in landscape view. If there is one thing that I have learned from all of my development is that the simulator will never exactly mimic the way an iphone works.
In the end I chose the iPhone 6 Plus. The primary factor was the development possibilities. After an hour of using my iPhone 6 Plus, I attempted to go back to using the iPhone 5s and found the screen to be too cramped. Yes, I know that the previous statement sounds strange, but it is entirely true. The larger screen has already made a difference for me. Despite this, I have not yet begun to update my iPhone app to work with anything modern. Maybe I will do this soon, but maybe I will just come up with an entirely new application instead.