At the time, the iPhone 5S was a bright device that was distinguished by its unique design and characteristics. When iPhone 6 came out, users were convinced that it was much more convenient and practical to use. Despite the fact that mixing form and function is quite difficult, Apple does an excellent job.
When did he appear and what was he like?
In which year iPhone 6 came out, not everyone will remember today. He entered 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 bends on the sides. There are only a few seams throughout the device. There are no ugly extra details. The only real drawback is the antenna design. Apple developers decided to circle the upper and lower parts of the back of the phone with small plastic stripes along which wireless radios can transmit a signal. According to user reviews, this does not look too good, as if someone drew strips on the phone with a marker.
When iPhone 6 came out, many noted that this smartphone is much larger than 5S or other iPhones that were available before it. It outsold even some 4.7-inch phones coming out at the same time.
Such dimensions were explained by the fact that the company refused to replace the upper and lower panels, so as not to interfere with the large Home button. However, the device still fit in one hand and was quite comfortable.
What are the features of the screen
The screen, of course, is one of the main positive features of the iPhone 6. Its diagonal is 4.7 inches: 1334 pixels in height and 750 in width. 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 panel leans very gently into the curved metal edge, giving the iPhone 6 a kind of endless pool effect: it seems that the screen never ends.
According to users, the screen control is surprisingly soft and smooth. There is a feeling that images and icons in the literal sense of the word are controlled by fingers.
However, the world famous company could not come up with a way to take advantage of the new screen or simplify navigation. Other devices from this brand have smart screen locks, styluses, split-screen multitasking, or always-on voice control. IPhone 6 allows you to access the "Siri", but only when it is in active mode.
How does the battery work?
The battery of the iPhone 6 model is one of the most important advantages. The phone can easily work a day and a half - from morning to evening the next day - regardless of how it is used.
What other innovations have been noted?
When iPhone 6 came out, reviews immediately noted the benefits of built-in NFC, which allows you to use the finished Apple Pay system. In addition, the smartphone has support for faster LTE and Voice over LTE, plus - new Wi-Fi standards. The speaker installed below works louder and brighter than on the 5S. These improvements do not seem significant separately, but together they make the iPhone more reliable and comfortable. According to user reviews, iPhone 6 can not be called a revolutionary model, but a smartphone of increased comfort - quite.
Nevertheless, there is one feature that strongly distinguishes the iPhone 6 from other devices released at the same time. This is a camera. She takes 8-megapixel images, but - unlike previous iPhones - she does it with a new sensor. It also has functionality that Apple representatives call “focus pixels”. It is used to achieve phase detection autofocus. In practice, it looks like this: if you move the phone while shooting, time is not wasted for a new focus, 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 in comparison with its contemporaries. You can shoot 1080p video at a speed of 60-240 frames per second.
The rollers look better thanks to the new "cinematic stabilization", which copes with the trembling hands of the user. You can shoot while walking or stretch your hand out of the window - video and at the same time it turns out smooth and without jitter.
Hardware properties
At one time, Apple hit everyone when it showed off the A7 processor on the iPhone 5S. The dual-core 64-bit component has destroyed the competition of quad and octa-core processors. The 5S model still worked great on iOS 8, which showed that the A7 really works powerful.
When the iPhone 6 went on sale, users found that it was equipped with an even more modern A8 processor. However, looking only at the technical specifications, it seemed that the performance did not increase much.
The A8 is a dual-core processor clocked at 1.4 GHz, which is slightly higher than the 1.3 GHz A7. Imagination's PowerVR GPU is also quad-core like the previous iteration, and not hex (it's six cores), as some have reported.
Despite this, Apple has been able to significantly improve performance. This means that the iPhone 6 is very fast.
Users note that Touch ID - fingerprint recognition - works much faster when the phone is unlocked. Scrolling through menus and opening applications is as easy as always. Fans of mobile games immediately liked to play the latest 3D games with all the additional graphic effects on the big screen.
The only problem users faced in terms of performance was related to certain applications. The Facebook service, for example, often issued errors in use.
In addition to tracking the accelerometer, gyroscope and compass, the M8 coprocessor takes care of the new sensor - the barometer. The iPhone 6 can measure height. This means that he knows when you are climbing stairs and can provide this information to physical activity tracking applications.
According to user reviews, the hardware of the iPhone 6 is good, but there is not much to it that is truly new. It is simply a presentation of many existing ideas in a much nicer package.
Storage devices
One of the features of the iPhone, which many attribute to disadvantages, is the lack of microSD card slots. IPhone 6 is no different: if you need additional storage for music, applications, photos and movies, you will have to pay for it in advance. It is also worth noting that in this model of the smartphone there is no version with 32 GB of memory.
At the end of September 2014, when iPhone 6 went on sale in Russia, the 16 GB version cost 32 thousand rubles, and 64 GB version - 42 thousand rubles. In fact, it turned out to be cheaper than the 5s model at the time of its appearance on the market.
operating system
In 2013, iOS 7 was truly innovative. The platform had a new look, features. There were ideas about how consumers will use smartphones. Many of them were wonderful, some were not very successful. So, the whole OS looked a bit chaotic. When iPhone 6 went on sale in 2014, Apple introduced iOS 8 as a refined previous system.
The new OS was focused on making common actions simple and affordable. The keyboard has predictive typing, guessing (often accurately, but sometimes not very) what you are going to write. This is really convenient, especially for those who do not know how to type offers with high speed.
There are faster ways to reply to text messages, and at the top of the multitasking menu is a list of users you recently contacted. Throughout the OS, there are settings that make everything faster. You can remove yourself from annoying group chats, send quick sound messages (voicemail is back) and it’s much easier to save documents using iCloud Drive.
New search
Many users were simply amazed at Spotlight, which now includes the App Store, local and other search results as you type. For most, this has become the best way to find something. This option is much faster than opening Safari or dealing with Siri.
iOS adapts well - though not ideally - to the larger display of the iPhone 6. Several Apple applications have been updated to new resolutions, allowing more data to be displayed on the screen at the same time. Most third-party services simply scale, so you get slightly larger text and pictures.
However, when iPhone 6 came out, many of the new iOS 8 features were unavailable. You could not test “Continuity”, which allows you to move calls and texts between devices. The convenient handover function was also not available, which allows you to continue working on another device from the same place where you left off on the first.
Final part
For a variety of characteristics, from camera features to applications and the hardware itself, the iPhone 6 was one of the best smartphones on the market at the time. It is worth noting that in Russia, iPhone 6 can still be found on sale, but updating it may cause some difficulties.