Let’s start with some general observations that apply to both the iPhone 6 and the iPhone 6 Plus. The iPhone 5 and 5S both had flat fronts, sides, and backs with well-defined edges, but those are gone in the iPhone 6. The glass on the front now curves down slightly all the way around the edge to meet the newly-curved sides and back of the phone. It sort of recalls the iPhone 3G or 3GS, which had similar curves but used plastic all the way around instead of aluminum and glass.
The back of the phones are made out of aluminum with some clearly visible cutouts made to allow wireless signals in and out. The design as a whole is more reminiscent of the 2012 iPod Touch than current iPhones, an observation that extends to the slightly protruding camera lens. You won’t notice this bulge if you keep your phone in a case or sit it on a soft surface, but if you set the phone on a hard table it definitely will wobble a bit in place. Both phones feel lighter than you’d expect them to—4.55 ounces for the 6 and 6.07 ounces for the 6 Plus, compared to 5.64 ounces for the 5-inch HTC One M8 or 5.08 ounces for the new Moto X—but they still feel as sturdy as you’d expect from an Apple product.
The new screen is the star of the show here—the iPhone 6 has a 1334×750 display that retains the 326 PPI density of older Retina iPhones, it just fits more on the screen at once than the iPhone 5 or 5S can. All apps that have been optimized for the larger display can show more stuff at once than they could before, which is obvious if you open Safari or even the Settings app. Icons and buttons remain the same size they were before, in accordance with Apple’s best practices for app design—the Home screen can fit one additional horizontal row of icons than the iPhone 5 can, but you can still only fit in four icons per row.
To make one-handed usage easier on both phones, Apple has introduced a feature called “Reachability.” Double tap the TouchID button and the contents of the screen will shift downward, letting you reach the top half of your app’s contents even if you can only reach the bottom half of the phone’s actual screen. Once you’ve entered Reachability mode, you can also pull down from the top of the “window” to bring up the Notification Center.
We suspect that many iPhone 6 users (especially iPhone 6 Plus users) will simply adjust to using two hands more often with their iPhones, possibly without even realizing it. But Reachability feels like something best used only when you don’t have that option, rather than a great, easy way to handle all your navigation.
The back of the phones are made out of aluminum with some clearly visible cutouts made to allow wireless signals in and out. The design as a whole is more reminiscent of the 2012 iPod Touch than current iPhones, an observation that extends to the slightly protruding camera lens. You won’t notice this bulge if you keep your phone in a case or sit it on a soft surface, but if you set the phone on a hard table it definitely will wobble a bit in place. Both phones feel lighter than you’d expect them to—4.55 ounces for the 6 and 6.07 ounces for the 6 Plus, compared to 5.64 ounces for the 5-inch HTC One M8 or 5.08 ounces for the new Moto X—but they still feel as sturdy as you’d expect from an Apple product.
The new screen is the star of the show here—the iPhone 6 has a 1334×750 display that retains the 326 PPI density of older Retina iPhones, it just fits more on the screen at once than the iPhone 5 or 5S can. All apps that have been optimized for the larger display can show more stuff at once than they could before, which is obvious if you open Safari or even the Settings app. Icons and buttons remain the same size they were before, in accordance with Apple’s best practices for app design—the Home screen can fit one additional horizontal row of icons than the iPhone 5 can, but you can still only fit in four icons per row.
To make one-handed usage easier on both phones, Apple has introduced a feature called “Reachability.” Double tap the TouchID button and the contents of the screen will shift downward, letting you reach the top half of your app’s contents even if you can only reach the bottom half of the phone’s actual screen. Once you’ve entered Reachability mode, you can also pull down from the top of the “window” to bring up the Notification Center.
We suspect that many iPhone 6 users (especially iPhone 6 Plus users) will simply adjust to using two hands more often with their iPhones, possibly without even realizing it. But Reachability feels like something best used only when you don’t have that option, rather than a great, easy way to handle all your navigation.
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