iPhone 6 Plus Full Review

The iPhone 6 Plus has a special place in iPhone history as the firm’s first ‘phablet’ handset. Breaking through the 5-inch screen mark with a 5.5-inch offering, the 6 Plus set a trend that’s still going strong today. Apple’s debut phablet is still a winner if you’re in the market for a cheap iOS device with a big screen. It’s no longer top of Apple’s pecking order, having been replaced by the iPhone 6S Plus, 7 Plus and most recently, the iPhone 8 Plus. Yet, despite launched more than three years go, the iPhone 6 Plus still gets the annual iOS update from Apple, ensuring it remains relevant in today’s market. If you already own the handset, has your iPhone 6 Plus exhibited symptoms of the dreaded Touch Disease, like a flickering display? That might not seem so unusual now, but when it first appeared it was something which would have sent a shudder down the spines of a collective of die-hard Apple fans, as it was a handset some thought we’d never see from the Cupertino-based outfit. It arrived alongside the iPhone 6 – Apple’s 2014 flagship smartphone – which measured 4.7 inches, making it more welcoming to a wider array of palms than the supersized iPhone 6 Plus. Many of you, especially those of an Android persuasion, may be wondering what all the fuss is about – after all, the Samsung Galaxy Note 2 turned up with a 5.5-inch display a few years before the 6 Plus graced us with its presence. It’s less impressive now, with the launch of the iPhone 6S and iPhone 6S Plus (and even more recently, with the iPhone 7 and iPhone 7 Plus) reinforcing Apple’s commitment to the larger screen sizes. In terms of specs and design, there isn’t a huge amount of difference between the iPhone 6 Plus and the iPhone 6, apart from the obvious size. The iPhone 6 Plus does boast a couple of unique features however. It was the first iPhone to pack a full HD display, plus its bigger body means it houses a larger battery than its 4.7-inch brother. Both sport A8 64-bit processors, 1GB of RAM, M8 motion coprocessors and 8MP rear-facing cameras – although the snapper on the iPhone 6 Plus benefits from OIS (optical image stabilisation), while the iPhone 6 makes do with EIS (electronic image stabilisation). This is a much smaller difference than we see in today’s batch of iPhones, with the iPhone 7 Plus sporting a dual-camera setup.

Design

• Wider, taller and heavier than other 5.5 inch displays competitor
• Premium metal body
• Smooth, flat, brushed metal rear

Performance

• Average performance
• Run pretty smoothly but it’s not quite as quick as some of the top Android phones of the same generation
• Graphically intensive games loaded up in good time and gameplay was smooth

Battery life

• Very good battery performance
• Can suffers if you push the phone really hard
• High-intensity gaming and watching movies can drain the battery pretty quickly

Camera

• Not a poor camera but only have 8MP
• Flash, HDR and timer controls as new options
• “Focus Pixels” gives a faster-focus with better results