Apple iPhone 6 Philippines
iPhone fans who have longed for an iPhone with a bigger screen finally had their request granted. Perhaps the biggest upgrade Apple have taken yet is the upsized screen of the iPhone 6. Though their screen sized is only comparable to Android’s mini phones, 4.7’ still is a big leap from the 4.0’ screen of its predecessor the iPhone 5s.
More Vivid and Surreal Display
Apple’s 750x1334 resolution has fully revealed its real beauty with the iPhone 6’s bigger screen. Its 326 ppi pixel density makes the screen’s icons and images look crisper than ever and is vividly lit up by its IPS LED backlit LCD. Also, the iPhone 6 phone display is more energy efficient than its predecessor despite having a big screen, all thanks to the hardware configurations influenced by its new screen size.
On top of its upsized screen is iPhones signature Ion-strengthened glass with oleophobic coating, making it resistant to scratches. And to provide that sexy finish, the iPhone 6 flaunts a very thin bezel, making it look the most seductive iPhone to date.
More Juiced Up!
Aside from the screen that literally got bigger, the battery department of the iPhone also had its major upgrade. The iPhone 6 now packs a 1624mAh Li-Po battery, which is 15% bigger than its predecessor’s battery. With a more battery conscious screen paired with a bigger battery capacity, the iPhone 6 will be able to endure longer hours of video, music, browsing, and gaming with single charge, definitely more than enough to get you by before your next charge.
8MP with Top Notch Point and Shoot Technology
Though there was not much upgrade in the camera department in terms of pixel size, Apple however upgraded its camera’s internal features, one of its prominent camera upgrade is the its autofocus hardware. The autofocus is a lot faster all thanks to the faster chipset of the iPhone 6. The face detection feature is also faster and more accurate; that picture perfect smile surely won’t go unnoticed. These two improvements from of the iPhone 6 camera is what they call the phase detection pixel technology. A camera upgrade that aims to please every photography enthusiast.
iPhone 6 Hands On Review: The Start of a New Era
The Apple iPhone 6 is the phone that paved the way for Apple to explore a whole new world of possibilities. For starters, Apple finally took the first step yet the biggest leap in stepping up their phone’s overall design – a bigger screen. The iPhone 6 is basically the start of a new era for the iPhone series. Due to its enlarged size, it is now possible for Apple to give its battery department a boost – a glaring issue in all of the iPhones before it.
All these years, Apple never bothered to really go above and beyond into their iPhone’s features. Rather, they go the extra mile to polish a simple function and make it perform seamlessly. Which explains why they still manage to be on top of the competition despite the lack of real new features to pit against high-caliber Android phones.
- Overall Design and Handling
- Display and Resolution
- Screen Size to Body Ratio
- Scratch Resistant Glass
- Camera
- Video Recording and 240fps slow-mo
- Phone Performance
- Touch ID settings
- Audio Quality
- Verdict
Overall Design and Handling
The iPhone 6 sports a bigger build than its predecessor, apparently this also means that it’s quite heavier. It weighs about 129g, making it just 10 grams heavier than the iPhone 5s. If you’re used to carrying the iPhone 5s, there will only be a slight to almost no difference at all in terms of weight. However, in terms of aesthetics, the iPhone 6 stands out greatly in slimness – it’s definitely sleek and sexy with just a 6.9mm thickness.
However, the thin profile (or lack of thickness) of the iPhone 6 makes it easily bendable. At one point, the iPhone 6 trended wildly on the internet, not for praises, but rather to warn users of the "bend gate" phenomenon. Many iPhone 6 users claimed that the phone easily bends when put in the back pocket of their jeans. Given the thinness of this phone, that is definitely not far from becoming a possibility. However, if you won't really be using your phone that carelessly, your iPhone 6 will be just fine.
In terms of overall design, the iPhone 6 really nailed it. It's a fresh take on the style department of the iPhone and it instantly became a face of an era that's been long overdue for the Apple's iPhone. Apart from the design, the iPhone 6 provides an easy grip for the hands to hold, which can be credited to its thin profile and precise body size. The phone is not too big, but not too small either - it's just the perfect size for users to hold the phone comfortably and to have an enjoyable a browsing or streaming experience. Without a doubt, this is how a smartphone's aesthetics should be done.
Display and Resolution
Apple’s iPhone 6 display is definitely rich in detail and colors. The 4.7-inch display is packed with a 750x1334 resolution which already sets foot into the HD resolution territory. Its pixel density is 326ppi and is already many steps ahead of Apple’s famous retina display (which is only 326 ppi). Compared to its predecessor which is the iPhone 5s which sports a 640x1136 screen, the display upgrade of the iPhone 6 is not really that big of a leap. However, the resolution is big enough to give justice to a pixel density of 326 ppi – resulting in a sharper and crisper display.
Screen Size to Body Ratio
The iPhone 6 flaunts a 4.7-inch screen, but for the Android community, this size is now just among the minis of the latest Android flagship devices. Putting this phone into a screen size competition against Android flagship devices is basically a non-issue, though. One of the things that Apple has proven with the release of the iPhone 6 is that they don’t really have to do better in order to win the market.
The screen size is nothing to really write about. Its bezel isn’t too think but it isn’t thin enough to deserve a praise either. However, it’s relatively unobtrusive and contributes to a perfect overall finish of the iPhone 6. Generally, there’s really nothing much to complain about its screen to body ratio. However, many famed flagship devices were able to fit it a bigger screen into a body similar to the iPhone 6. One good example of that is the LG Nexus 6. It was able to fit a good 5-inch screen into a body size similar to the iPhone 6. On the other hand, Samsung’s Galaxy Alpha carries the screen size as the iPhone 6, but with a smaller and thinner profile.
Scratch Resistant Glass
On the surface of the phone is the strongest scratch resistant glass in the smartphone industry today. Its screen is protected by an ion-strengthened glass with oleophobic coating. This is Apple’s answer to Samsung’s (and all other android phone’s) Gorilla glass protection.
Camera
Apple’s iPhone has never really attempted to jump into the pixel competition when it comes to their camera. In iPhone 6, we won’t be seeing any major upgrade into the sensor’s pixel count. However, whatever they lack in terms of resolution, they pretty much more than make up for it with the quality of their still camera. The iPhone 6 despite carrying only an 8MP sensor is no pushover just like the camera of the iPhones before it. The same 8MP resolution may have premiered long ago during the debut of the iPhone 4S, but the hardware of its camera has undergone a lot of impressive upgrades since, along with Apple’s constant iOS upgrade which adds up to generating top notch results. There are not many smartphones that can fair better than the iPhone’s and that’s a fact.
The denominator among all the iPhones that makes them such a great photography buddy is its ability to adapt to lighting conditions. Since the iPhone 4s, the camera of the succeeding iPhones really stands out against the competing smartphones during their time. And, iPhone 6 is no exception to that trend that Apple has led all these years. With a camera that managed to stand out without any sweat since the release of the iPhone 4S, coupled with a handful of camera hardware upgrade, the iPhone 6 manages to shoot its way to the top of the competition.
Phase Detection
One of the noticeable improvement of the iPhone 6 camera is the snappy auto-focus, which is called the focus pixel. This takes a few a few milliseconds for the camera of the phone to fully focus on an object and produce a clear and detail-rich photo of it. The iPhone 5S camera is, to say the least snappy, but the iPhone 6 takes auto-focusing into the iPhone series to a whole new level. Also when recording a video, the focus pixel works wonders. It can easily shift focus from one nearby object to another
The pixel focus is what we’ve already seen in many high-caliber Androids in the market today, and this feature is called phase detection technology on those devices. The Pixel focus feature of the iPhone 6 camera is among the best in the competition without a doubt.
Face Detection Improvement
With the iPhone 6 carrying a lightning fast processor plus the pixel focus technology, face detection of its camera sensor has improved, making it faster and more accurate.
HDR
Taking photos in the Dynamic range also proves to be snappier than ever. With the fast processor and snappy camera hardware, it now takes just 1 second to process and HDR photo. Even without the HDR, darker parts of a scene already have great exposures, with the HDR feature of the iPhone 6 these darker parts of a scene will look naturally lit. However, the iPhone 6 just tends to oversaturate the colors at times with the HD. Then again, the majority of cameras tend to do that a little bit.
Image Stabilization
Apple has finally added an image stabilization technology into this flagship device, but it kind of falls short because it’s not really rooted from the hardware. Rather, it only carries a digital image stabilization technology instead of an optical one. But, you don’t really need to fuss over this because it is sufficient enough to eliminate the blurring in still photos.
The real deal where image stabilization comes into play is in the video recording function. Optical image stabilization is far superior to the digital because it uses a gyro-technology inside the camera sensor that allows pieces of the lens glass to shift pieces in order to off-set any motion. Shaky which are caused by little yet persistent movement causes the camera shakes and optical image stabilization will allow the sensors of the camera to adjust to those movements that cause the photos or videos to become shaky or blurry. On the other hand, digital image stabilization only uses a software that adjusts does no physical adaptation to movements. Instead, the software’s effect mostly is applied in the post processing of a video or a picture.
If you’re into a full pledge iPhone photography experience and does not mind if it's bigger and pricier, you can go for the iPhone 6 Plus. However, this is not to say that the iPhone 6 is poor in terms of camera. To say the least, the iPhone 6 camera is among the best in the market and proves to be future proof. But, the digital image stabilization fares poorly in recording videos while in motion.
Video Recording and 240fps slow-mo
It’s safe to say that it’s the iPhone 5S that started the high fps video recording trend since its release. The high fps also paved the way for the slow-mo to be possible. The iPhone 6 is among the very few smartphones that could shoot videos in various fps modules. So, far, the iPhone 6 do it impressively, without making an obvious compromise in the quality department.
The iPhone 6 brings forth a highly improved video camera. It can capture videos in FullHD (1080p) at 30fps and a fast motion 1080p video at 60fps – only a limited few smartphones can do that. On the other hand, also has a major improvement. Alongside its 120fps 720p slow-mo video is a 240fps 720p option (twice as high as the already dated 120fps). The best thing about it is that they didn’t have to cut down the resolution of the phone to make the 240fps possible.
Sample Video:
The iPhone 6 camera does is not capable of shooting 4K videos, but it does the day to day video recording job smoothly and perfectly. There’s really nothing to complain about its video recording capability. However, if for some reason you feel like a 4K video and an optical image stabilization are significant to your smartphone needs, there are better options in the market today. Phones like Xperia X5 premium, Galaxy S6, and Galaxy S7 to name a few are some of the tight competitors of the iPhone 6.
Phone Performance
The iPhone 6 carries a next generation chipset which is the Apple A8 Chipset. While this chipset boasts a fast processing speed, it does not heat up easily and it consumes less power than the average chipset.
The A8 Chipset that runs the iPhone 6 is equipped with a 64-bit Cyclone processor which is clocked at 1.4GHz. It is 100 MHz faster than its predecessor’s A7 chipset, but it is battery friendly because it does not require a lot of power in order to perform at its best. On the other hand, its Graphics Processing Unit (GPU) is a quad-core PowerVT which is an outstanding performance. Games that are graphic heavy are easily rendered with minimal to zero hiccups, thanks to its GPU. Apple has really nailed it when it comes to their GPU. iPhones especially the iPhone 6 is really good at running Full HD games, and the improvements that they implement are very consistent in every new iPhone that they release.
Touch ID settings
Along the features that got improved with its software upgrade spread across the capable iPhone and iPad devices is the Touch ID. This feature can now store up to five fingerprint samples, giving users a highly customized security feature. The fingerprint sensor of the iPhone 6 is not the best one around because it may take some slight performance hiccups, but it’s not enough to make it inferior among its competing smartphones.
The touch ID feature is more than just an unlocking feature of the iPhone. Apparently, it has now been integrated into a fairly good number of apps and into the iPhone’s security feature beyond the lock screen. For one, it can be used to authorize app store, iTunes, and iBook store purchases. The fingerprint security can easily be applied through the settings menu.
Audio Quality
With the new build that is being rocked by the iPhone 6 comes with a minor setback in the audio output department. The iPhone 5S wasn’t really outstanding in delivering a loudspeaker performance, its successor the iPhone 6 does a little bit worse than its predecessor, though. Apparently, this is one of the minor compromises that the iPhone 6 has to do to give way to it's trimmed down waistline. However, connecting it to an external amplifier or speaker posts an excellent score. Also, the audio quality of the iPhone 6 through its ear pods is nothing short of brilliance. The audio performance of the iPhone 6 is best enjoyed with an external amplifier or a headphone.
Verdict
The iPhone 6 is definitely a bang for the buck. It’s a big leap towards innovation from its 4-inch screen predecessor. Many of its new features are nothing that we’ve never seen before, however, that’s never been an issue for most iPhone users. The iPhone 6 does not actually offer something that’s really new and groundbreaking in the smartphone market. However, it really does well in polishing these features completely that when they’re officially launched, there’s not a speck of imperfection that will ruin the experience. And, that is what the iPhone 6 has really brought to the table.
A bigger screen is indeed a major upgrade for an Apple device, but it’s simply an aesthetic overhaul for a smartphone if you really think about it. Given that the bigger screen provides a whole new experience to iPhone users, the real deal with the iPhone 6 is how it delivers all the features smoothly into a much bigger screen. Realistically speaking, the iPhone 6 does nothing new, but the well-loved user experience that most iPhone users sought after is perfectly transposed into a bigger screen. This is what mostly draws users into using the iPhone 6. Obviously, there are far better high-end flagship devices in the market today that are offered at a fraction of the cost than for an iPhone 6. However, the iPhone 6 triumphs in the area where most of these leading flagship devices are inconsistent with – the user experience. The user experience is simply well polished. It is not feature-centric but rather it offers a rich and friendly user experience. Having that work on a bigger screen is definitely what matters for most iPhone users. This explains why the iPhone 6 and even the iPhones before it continues to have a strong following of users despite placing excessive premium to its price tag.
