iPhone 6: First Impressions

September 10, 2014
3 min read
Maybe you don’t know, but Apple had an announcement yesterday. I’ve poured myself whiskey, opened Twitter on my laptop and Live Keynote on the iPad. If you were watching the event live, you’ve probably noticed how bad the streaming was. I’ve rewatched the begging of the keynote today before writing my thoughts on the new iPhone.
So, two new phones – 6 and 6 Plus. Naming is better than the iPhone 6 Pro, or whatever adjective they could have used regarding the size, so that’s a plus. 
The rumors were true regarding screen sizes – 4.7’’ and 5.5’’, that is logical change, after using 4.7 inch phone for a year, iPhone 5 feels like a toy in my hand. Interesting choices in resolution – 750p in iPhone 6 and 1080p in iPhone 6 Plus. Apple didn’t get in the race with Android phone manufacturers with latest QuadHD screens and I think it was a right choice. iPhone 5S screen looks great and 6s screen in terms of ppi is the same. Name for the new screens is a bit odd – Retina HD Display – something Samsung could have come up with. Great use of a bigger screen with Plus being more like an iPad with two column view and additional keys on a keyboard (I’m actually not sure about that, my first reaction was – they’ll surely be in the way, but I’ll have to try it out, for sure). Reachability – interesting function, after Hands-on many are saying implementation is not that good, you have to toggle it every time you tap on the screen. I also think Back button (regardless of the controversy around it) is the better option. Also double touching vs double tapping – two very similar gestures, which do very different things. 
The all new A8 – 2 billion transistors, I think Murdoch’s tweet pretty much sums it up, I still don’t get why he would write that:

The camera has the same 8-megapixel sensor with some things improved. The IPhone 5Ss camera is one of the best on the market, so why fix something that isn’t broken. Nice call. Photos shown in the Keynote were beautiful, but those are made by professional photographers, still I’m sure it will produce great pictures for everyone else. A lot of focus (no pun intended) on Video capabilities, I don’t shoot a lot of videos, so not so interesting to me. While Android vendors make shooting 4K videos with the phone a reality, Apple doesn’t do it and in my opinion, that’s the right choice, no need in 4K video recording. OIS in iPhone 6 Plus definitely the thing to consider choosing one of the phones. 
Battery life is the same for iPhone 6 and even better for the iPhone 6 Plus. I’m not sure the same battery life is enough for heavy users, so again, something to consider choosing between two phones.
Otherwise, both are great phones, smarter, faster, better, thinner, larger. Everything got better and they look good (except the camera bump, but you will get used to it, I guess). 
Last observation – Beats music is now on the second screen of every iPhone, at least in all the Hands-on pictures.