Eli, being a couple hours ahead of me time zone-wise, has a bit of a leg up in terms of new iPhone impressions. In case you hadn’t seen already, he opted for the larger iPhone 6 Plus, or as he’s dubbed it, the iPhone XXL. Be sure to check out his first impressions of the device from earlier this morning. Me? I went with the regular old iPhone 6, and while I’m waiting for my iTunes backup to load sweet, sweet iOS games onto the new device, I thought I’d similarly share my first overall impressions of the new iPhone 6. Being that the 4.7-inch iPhone 6 isn’t THAT much larger than the iPhone 5s, my impressions aren’t quite as drastic as Eli’s with the iPhone XXL, but I definitely have some initial thoughts on the new device.
First of all, the new rounded design is absolutely killer. We’ve been living in a hard-edged, boxy iPhone world since the iPhone 4, and it’s nice to be back to the more curvy feel of the first few iPhones. An important difference, though, is that the iPhone 6 is still flat. Only the edges are curved, not the back, which I like a lot. Also, it’s hard not to admire how the front glass curves down into the side edges so seamlessly. As with all iPhones, the iPhone 6 is just an all-around beautiful device. It has a nice weight to it, but it’s not heavy at all, and it feels like its incredibly well-built. Perhaps most important of all, the lovely rounded edges of the iPhone 6 go a long ways towards making the device feel even less bulky than the iPhone 5s, despite it being an overall larger device.
Other design changes on the iPhone 6 include different volume buttons, which are now two oblong strips rather than two circles. Again, this is a nice throwback to the older iPhone generations. I can’t really say if I prefer one or the other more, but I will say the iPhone 6 volume buttons feel more clicky and actually make a louder click noise than the volume buttons on the iPhone 5s. Another big change is the power/sleep button, which has always existed on the top of every iPhone device but is now nestled on the opposite side of the device from the volume and silent buttons. This… is going to take some getting used to. However, seeing as both the iPhone 6 and XXL models are larger devices, it makes sense to move the power button somewhere that’s more convenient. I’m sure I’ll be absent-mindedly pressing the top of the iPhone 6 trying to put it to sleep for months to come, but I think in the end it’s a better design choice putting it on the side.
Now, let’s talk about something really important: CameraBulgeGate. Yes, the camera lens on the back of both the iPhone 6 and the XXL bulges out just a tad, and a lot of fuss has been made about this since the unveiling of the new iPhones. It’s really pretty simple: Apple always tries to make their new iPhones thinner than previous versions, and they always try to make the cameras better too. In this case, they’ve finally gotten to a point where the whole device is thinner than the actual camera lens. They could have made the device thicker to come up flush with the lens, or they could have opted for a lower-quality lens that was as thin as the device was. Or the third option, which they went with, is to have the camera lens bulge out slightly.
I’d have to say, of those three options, I’m happy with the way Apple went. I wouldn’t want the iPhone 6 to be thicker, and I wouldn’t want the camera to be lower-quality either. The lens bulging is a compromise, and one I’m totally OK with. That said, the bulge makes me nervous. I don’t like using cases with my iPhone, and so I get extremely nervous laying the device down flat on a surface. It’s not so bad laying it down on a wood coffee table or something, but I laid the iPhone 6 down on the flat part of my aluminum MacBook Air and it was scary. It made an audible metal-on-metal scraping noise, though it didn’t leave a scratch. I can only imagine how scary it will be to lay my iPhone 6 down on a concrete picnic table or something. I think I’ll just have to be extra mindful of stuff like that, but it can be tough. This is a device I use everyday for a multitude of things, so “where and how am I laying my iPhone down" isn’t always at the forefront of my mind. I’ll get used to it I’m sure, and like I said I’m happy Apple went this route, but I definitely don’t love the bulging camera lens.
Overall I’m incredibly happy with my iPhone 6 purchase. It’s still being set up with my old iPhone’s backup, so I don’t have any impressions on making calls or using any software, but the hardware itself is lovely. I’m very happy to have a larger screen, but even though the iPhone 6 is larger, it doesn’t FEEL substantially larger than the iPhone 5s when it’s in my hand or my pocket. In fact, I think the iPhone 6 is less noticeable when it’s in my pocket than the iPhone 5s was. I’m very anxious to get some games on it and try those out with the gorgeous new “Retina HD" screen. Be sure to tune in later for some gaming impressions on both new iPhones from Eli and myself. In the meantime, if you picked up a new iPhone, which one did you get and how are you liking it?
