At one time, the iPhone 5S was a flashy device with a unique design and features. When the iPhone 6 came out, users were convinced that it was much more convenient and practical to use. Even though it's hard to mix form and function, Apple does a great job.
When did it appear and what was it like?
In what year the iPhone 6 came out, not everyone will remember today. It arrived in stores in September 2014. Users immediately noted that the device is very well designed. Its back panel is made of a metal plate, which clearly curves on the sides. There are only a few seams on the entire device. There are no ugly extra details. The only real downside is the design of the antenna. Apple designers decided to circle the top and bottom of the back of the phone with small plastic strips through which wireless radios can transmit a signal. According to user reviews, it does not look too goodgood, like someone drew stripes on the phone with a marker.
When the iPhone 6 came out, many commented that it was a lot bigger than the 5S or other iPhones that came before it. It even outsized some of the 4.7-inch phones coming out at the same time.
Such dimensions were explained by the fact that the company refused to replace the top and bottom panels so as not to interfere with the large Home button. However, the device still fit in one hand and was quite comfortable.
What features of the screen
The screen is, of course, one of the main positive features of the iPhone 6. Its diagonal is 4.7 inches: 1334 pixels high and 750 wide. It has excellent color reproduction and phenomenal viewing angles. It can be viewed even in bright light thanks to the new polarizer. Your eyes will not be able to distinguish individual pixels anywhere. The glass on the front slopes very gently into a curved metal edge, giving the iPhone 6 a kind of infinity pool effect: the screen never ends.
According to users, screen control is surprisingly soft and smooth. There is a feeling that images and icons are literally controlled by fingers.
However, the world famous company couldn't figure out a way to take advantage of the new screen or make it easier to navigate. Other devices from this brand have smart locking mechanismsscreen, styluses, split-screen multitasking or always-on voice control. The iPhone 6 allows you to access Siri, but only when it is in active mode.
How does the battery work?
The iPhone 6 battery is one of the most important advantages. The phone can easily work for a day and a half - from morning to evening the next day - no matter how much it is used.
What other innovations have been noted?
When the iPhone 6 came out, reviews immediately noted the benefits of built-in NFC, which allows you to use the ready-made Apple Pay system. In addition, the smartphone has support for faster LTE and Voice over LTE, plus new Wi-Fi standards. The bottom-mounted speaker is louder and brighter than on the 5S. These improvements don't seem like much on their own, but together they make the iPhone more reliable and comfortable. According to user reviews, the iPhone 6 cannot be called a revolutionary model, but it is quite a luxury smartphone.
However, there is one feature that really sets the iPhone 6 apart from other devices released at the same time. This is a camera. It shoots 8-megapixel images, but - unlike previous iPhones - it does so with a new sensor. It also features what Apple calls "focus pixels". It is used to achieve phase detection autofocus. In practice, it looks like this: if you move the phone while shooting, no time is wasted refocusing, but the photos are clear and high-quality. Some manual controls are available, including exposure lock.
The iPhone 6 now takes higher resolution panoramic photos. In general, the pictures are better than any smartphone released in the same year. When shooting video, this model also leads the way compared to its contemporaries. You can shoot 1080p video at 60-240fps.
Movies look better thanks to the new "Cinematic Stabilization" that does a great job of shaking the user's hands. You can shoot while walking or stretching your arm out of the window - the video is still smooth and without shaking.
Hardware properties
At one time, Apple amazed everyone when it demonstrated the A7 processor on the iPhone 5S. The dual-core 64-bit component has destroyed the competition between quad-core and octa-core processors. The 5S still worked great on iOS 8, showing that the A7 was really powerful.
When the iPhone 6 went on sale, users discovered that it was equipped with an even more advanced A8 processor. However, just looking at the specs, it didn't look like there was much of an increase in performance.
A8 is a dual-core processor clocked at 1.4GHz, slightly faster than the 1.3GHz of the A7. Imagination's PowerVR GPU is also quad-core like the previous iteration, not hexa-core (that's six cores) as some have reported.
Despite this, Apple has managed to significantly improve performance. This means that the iPhone 6 is very fast.
Users note that Touch ID - a fingerprint recognition function - works noticeably faster when unlocking the phone. Scrolling through menus and opening apps is as easy as ever. Mobile gamers immediately enjoyed playing the latest 3D games with all the extra graphic effects on the big screen.
The only performance issue users had was with certain apps. The Facebook service, for example, often gave errors when used.
Besides tracking the accelerometer, gyroscope and compass, the M8 co-processor takes care of a new sensor, the barometer. The iPhone 6 can measure height. This means it knows when you're climbing stairs and can provide this information to your activity tracking apps.
According to users, the hardware of the iPhone 6 is good, but it does not have anything really new. It's just putting a lot of existing ideas into a much nicer package.
Storage devices
One of the features of the iPhone, which many consider to be a disadvantage, is the lack of slots for microSD cards. The iPhone 6 is no different: if you need extra storage for music, apps, photos, and movies, you'll have to pay for it up front. It is also worth noting that this smartphone model does not have a 32 GB version.memory.
At the end of September 2014, when the iPhone 6 went on sale in Russia, the 16 GB version cost 32 thousand rubles, the 64 GB version cost 42 thousand rubles. In fact, it turned out to be cheaper than the 5s model at the time of its introduction.
Operating system
In 2013, iOS 7 was truly innovative. The platform had a new look, functions. There were ideas about how consumers would use smartphones. Many of them were great, some not so good. So, the whole OS looked a bit chaotic. When the iPhone 6 went on sale in 2014, Apple introduced iOS 8 as a refinement of the previous system.
The new OS was focused on making common activities simple and accessible. The keyboard has predictive typing, guessing (often exactly, but sometimes not so much) what you're about to write. This is really convenient, especially for those who can't type sentences at high speed.
There are faster ways to reply to text messages, and at the top of the multitasking menu is a list of people you've recently contacted. Throughout the OS, there are settings that make everything faster. You can remove yourself from annoying group chats, send quick audio messages (voicemail is back) and save documents much easier with iCloud Drive.
New Search
Many users have been blown away by Spotlight, which now includes App Store, local and other search results as you type. For most, this has become the best way.find something. This option is much faster than opening Safari or dealing with Siri.
iOS adapts well - if not perfectly - to the iPhone 6's larger display. Several Apple apps have been updated to new resolutions, allowing more data to be shown on the screen at the same time. Most third-party services simply scale, so you get slightly larger text and pictures.
However, when the iPhone 6 came out, many of the new features of iOS 8 were not available. It was not possible to test "Continuity", which allows you to move calls and texts between devices. Also unavailable was the handy handoff feature that allows you to pick up where you left off on the first device on another device.
Final part
From camera features to apps to the hardware itself, the iPhone 6 was one of the best smartphones on the market in its day. It is worth noting that in Russia the iPhone 6 can still be found on sale, but updating it can cause certain difficulties.
