Does size really matter? Do we really need everything to be bigger?
These are questions that have reverberated through history, and for about 2 1/2 weeks now, since Apple introduced to shoppers the iPhone 6 Plus.
If the traditional, iconic iPhone is the Honda Accord of smartphones — ubiquitous, compact and utilitarian — this new super-sized gadget is just shy of a Hummer. It’s large, wide and tall, and though it’s much thinner than you might expect (the 6 Plus is flattened down to coaster proportions), there’s no getting over that huge expanse of visual real estate on its surface. You could eat dinner off it.
The previous top-of-the-line iPhone, the 5S, had a screen that was 4 inches, measured diagonally. The 6 Plus is 5.5 inches. An inch and a half doesn’t seem that much larger, but in everyday use, held in the hand, jammed into purses and pockets, the dimensional difference is huge. It’s a big phone. It’s a significant size. It changes things.
Using an iPhone 6 Plus borrowed briefly from AT&T, I put my 5S phone aside to temporarily live large.
The first thing I noticed, taking it out of the substantial white Apple box, was that the device seems to employ some kind of sorcery that makes you think it’s much smaller on first view than you expected. That may be because of its thinness. In the hands, it feels light and sleek, with rounded edges.
Those edges (really, a lack of edges) made me extremely nervous. The gold model I tried out has no grip to it. Taking photos with the phone, I always felt I was about to have it slip from my hands and shatter on the ground like a picture window.
Conspicuous camera work
I carried the iPhone 6 Plus around the county fair in my shorts pocket, which wasn’t the problem I expected. The shorts had pretty huge pockets; without a case, the 6 Plus slipped in easily and was barely noticeable.
The 6 and 6 Plus phones have better camera specs than the 5 generation, mostly image stabilization, and an improved slow-mo video feature at 240 frames-per-second. Taking video of my kids on rides or of a spectacular pig race, I found slowing the world down was lovely. Video was sharp and saturated with color on the big 6 Plus screen.
While taking photos at the animal petting area, I noticed a problem. Pulling the phone out and holding it up horizontally made me feel like one of those people who takes photos at events with an iPad or similarly sized tablet.
Pocket matters
Perhaps that was me being self-conscious.
I asked a few new owners of the device if they’d experienced similar awkward moments.
Chris Newby, an engineer at 3M, said that after a week of owning the phone, he was starting to get used to the jarring size transition from an iPhone 4S (screen size: a puny 3.5 inches).
“I haven’t been too self-conscious about breaking it out. It takes pretty decent pics and the screen is very clear,” Newby said. “I had played with the larger Android phones of my friends and did have some concern about the size but figured I would try it out and could always downgrade to the smaller 6.”
He does worry that he’ll have to remove the phone from his pocket if he’s working on his car or leaning over to avoid bending the phone, an apparently uncommon but attention-getting tech problem dubbed “Bendgate.”
Some users reported that the phone’s larger size makes it susceptible to bending when put in, say, a back pocket for an extended period of time. Consumer Reports put the 6 Plus to the test, however, and found the phones are tougher than the Internet reports suggested.
Newby has been getting used to typing on a larger phone and says he’s living dangerously, eschewing a protective case for the 6 Plus.
“I don’t want to make it any bigger than it already is,” he said.
Brian Hill, a public school administrative supervisor, said he loves the 6 Plus and is using a very thin case to protect the back of the phone from scratches. He reports no pocket troubles and says he’s using a built-in feature called “Reachability,” which slides the top half of the screen down on the iPhone 6 Plus to make it easier to access when holding the phone with one hand.
The verdict
Like a giant adopted dog who ingratiates himself into your life in short order, the 6 Plus certainly can be lived with. I don’t have huge hands to match my giant pockets, so I wasn’t looking forward to Apple’s foray into up-sizing, but I found myself impressed by its speed, its light weight, battery life and software improvements like keyboard options (also now available on older iPhones).
There are places the 6 Plus is not meant to go: small purses, for instance. The pockets of skinny jeans or pants belonging to small people. With a case, it’s not a device I could just drop into my cupholder to charge up while driving.
But there’s a breed of tech shopper, let’s call them “Texans,” who won’t care about the compromises or complications the larger size brings. They’ll want that big, gorgeous screen and that big, gold (or silver, or space gray) slab of a back. They’ll want to make a statement, and the 6 Plus is as much of a statement phone as you can get without going in the other direction toward a 1998 flip phone.
The 6 Plus is big as the Texas sky and a lot easier to break, probably.
It’s not for me, but I must admit, it sure is something.
About the Author
