www.apple.com

I recently upgraded my cell phone and as a loyal iPhone user, I knew the upgrade had to be to another iPhone.  The next step was deciding which model…the iPhone 6 or the 6 Plus.  After doing a quick hardware overview, not taking into account the screen size, I discovered that there were a couple of things the iPhone 6 Plus had that the iPhone 6 did not. These include:

• A higher resolution screen
• A larger battery
• More pixels per inch
• The Optical Image Stabilization

For a full hardware comparison of the phones, click HERE.

For me, it really came down to screen size.  Bigger must be better.  Better to do email, texting, photos and more.   And, I was right.  While I cannot compare between the iPhone 6 and the 6 Plus, due to upgrading from the iPhone 5, I simply love the real estate.   For the first week of owning the iPhone 6 Plus I thought I had made a big (Pun intended) mistake.  The problem and the benefit is the same.  It is a large phone.  It kind of fits in the front pocket of my work pants, but definitely will not fit in jeans.  So, carrying around this massive phone is a real problem.  Not real sure what I am going to do in the summer.  Fanny pack, maybe?  Or, a belt clip like I had when I first got a smart phone?  Either way, I will overcome that problem this spring. 

One thing I do know is that after week two, I will never go back to the smaller phone.  I am a big fan of the iPad and I think that if I didn’t have an iPad air, I could use this iPhone 6 Plus to do all the things that I use the iPad for.  I can read email easily, which I was starting to have a problem with on the iPhone 5, and I am sure it was the phone because it couldn’t be my vision.  I never used my iPhone 5 for searching the Internet unless there was no other choice.  The 6 Plus is easy to navigate and large enough that many times I use the desktop version of web pages.

The biggest and most important feature of the iPhone 6 Plus is the battery.  If you click on the link above, you will see that the 6 Plus has a significantly larger battery over the iPhone 6.  It is stated that the talk time goes from 14 hours on the iPhone 6 to 24 hours on the 6 Plus.   Both phones are up over the iPhone 5S, which was rated at 10.  With my iPhone 5, I spent most of my days looking for power.  At my desk I had power.  Even when I went home for lunch I would plug the phone into my car for the quick five minute trip.  With the 6 Plus, I now have found that by lunch I use no more that 20% and many times 10%.  So I have at least 80% battery left!  I think I could even go TWO days on a full battery!

If only this phone was a transformer and could transform into a smaller package when I put it into my pocket, it would be perfect.  Until this happens, I will be happy to carry this large phone with me.  Sure, some may make fun of this huge phone, but they are just jealous.

Steve Riat can be reached at sriat@nex-tech.com.