Probably the biggest change in the iOS 10 for me is lock screen and all that’s changed about the locked phone. Only after updating did I notice, that I had a few habits that are hard to change. One of them is putting my finger on the Sleep/Awake button while getting the phone out of the pocket and pressing the button to see the lock screen as I look at the phone. What happens now, is I get the phone out of the pocket, it automatically turns on, because of the Rise to wake feature and I turn the display off, by pressing the Sleep button, so then I need to wake the phone, by pressing Home or Sleep button. I have mostly changed the habit in less than a week of using the iOS 10, but there are those little things you don’t notice while using the phone.
Also, the big change — sounds. I’ve always been in love with Windows Phone keyboard sounds. When I’ve had Android phone, I was looking for a keyboard, that made sounds similar to WP. Now on iOS it comes pretty close. I love those new sounds. Actually, I’ve had my phones muted for about two years and now more and more I keep turning the sounds on, just to listen to the keyboard sounds.
This year Apple made a very solid update to the operating system. It totally feels like a new phone after installing iOS 10. Love all the changes introduced.
Last year, I had to make a choice between 4” iPhone 5S and HTC One. This time it was much harder choice – iPhone 6, iPhone 6 Plus or LG G3. I looked at LG at a store and so I was ready for a bigger phone and watching Apples presentation I was leaning more towards 6 Plus. But considering my use of a previous phone and iPhone 6 Plus prices and the fact that LG G3 was free, I made my choice in favor of the Android device.
iPhone 6/6+ sale date for Latvia wasn’t announced, but here are the prices on the grey market:
First of all, LG G3 is smaller than the iPhone 6 Plus, because there is no Touch ID in the front, so the bezel is smaller, it’s actually not that bigger than my HTC One m7 with 4.7” screen, so it was comfortable in my hand from the start. The only different thing – all the buttons are on the back of the phone, but after about an hour I was very comfortable with that and considering how you hold phone this big it makes a lot of sense. And I use knock to unlock a lot, it’s just easier to knock on the screen two times and the phone comes out of sleep. It is also lighter than the iPhone 6 Plus, but that’s because it is plastic instead of aluminum. It doesn’t feel as premium as some aluminum phones do, but you can use it without case (which is not the case with iPhone, you really should use a case, just to not have this camera sticking out, which Apple photoshops out of every picture).
I’m surprised how many people are comparing 5.5” phones to iPad Mini. Maybe some uses are similar, but the phone this size is much smaller even than the iPad Mini.
Regarding the phone itself. The screen is gorgeous, it’s QuadHD, maybe even too much, I can’t even imagine what the battery life would be with 1080p screen. Similarly to TVs there are two 4K videos loaded on the phone, which look outstanding, but you probably won’t have access to more such high resolution content, so it’s nice to brag about, but maybe not that useful.
I didn’t have time to test the camera, but a couple of shots I’ve made looked good and the focus is instant. It’s laser focusing system and it seems to work very well. As soon as you tap the screen, the phone focuses and takes the picture. Much faster than HTC One m7 and pictures look a lot better. I also think HTC made a mistake sticking to 4 mega-pixel camera with additional camera for focusing later. There is a mode in LG, where you take a photo and after that pick a point to focus and it works great.
Battery life is a great improvement over my HTC One, I had to charge it two-three times a day and then leave it charging all night. This one lasts me all day from 6:30 to midnight with some 20-30% remaining. Also, you can change the battery on the go, I’ll probably buy another battery and won’t have to worry about the charging for a long time.
LG’s software on top of Android isn’t that bad, but I still changed the launcher to Nova, because of all the gestures I can do, otherwise sticking with default launcher is a good choice.
Kudos to LG Electronics Latvia for giving me a gold phone and it’s gold with black, unlike iPhone, which is gold with white front. Gold with black looks so much better.
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:
Apple A8 processor. Imagine new microchip containing two billion transistors! Yes, two billion!
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.
