Apple iPhone 6 Plus: My next phone

Summary: The hoopla is over and Apple's newest products have been unveiled. The two new iPhones don't have ground-breaking features, but are solid entries to Apple's product line.

The iPhone 6 and iPhone 6 Plus are Apple's latest efforts in the profitable product line. Both are similar in design with curved lines all around. The iPhone 6 has a not-too-large 4.7 inch display while the iPhone 6 Plus is rocking a 5.5 inch screen. The bigger iPhone is going to be my next phone.

(Image: Apple)

I skipped the iPhone 5 generation and kept using my iPhone 4s until the Samsung Galaxy Note 2 became my daily phone. While I don't have a problem with iOS I like Android, and the big screen on the Note 2 appealed to me.

Both the iPhone 4s and the Galaxy Note 2 are getting old and it's time to dump both of them. My contract is up and it's time to get a sleek, modern phone. The iPhone 6 Plus ticks all the boxes on my wish list, so that's what I will be getting soon. I will wait until it has been available for a while before I pull the trigger, as I don't like getting involved in lines in the store or dealing with artificial inventory shortages at launch.

The iPhone 6 Plus display

I'm looking forward to using the 5.5 inch display on the new iPhone. It isn't the biggest on the market, but is a decent size for doing online stuff. I can imagine how well web pages will look in Safari on that big screen.

There are a few features that Apple has produced to make one-handed operation of a big phone easier.

Apple has adjusted iOS 8, the next version that will ship with the iPhone 6, to take advantage of a larger screen. The familiar home screen will rotate appropriately in landscape orientation, something I imagine I will be doing regularly. I dislike phones that lock the home screen in portrait orientation when the phone is rotated into landscape. It's jarring and not very efficient.

The home screen rotation is another reason pushing me to the bigger iPhone and away from the smaller iPhone 6. Information I've received indicates the iPhone 6 will not rotate the home screen like the bigger one, and that's a no-go for me.

Additional features on the iPhone 6 Plus

The auto-rotation of the home screen in landscape is not the only new feature to handle the larger phones. There are a few touches that Apple has produced to make one-handed operation of a big phone easier. These include making the screen elements slide down toward the bottom of the screen on demand, closer to the hand holding the new iPhone.

It's hard to tell how effective this will be without trying it, but it sounds like a good thing and worth having, and it should add more value to the iPhone 6 Plus than the smaller handset.

The landscape advantage isn't resigned to just the home screen. As part of iOS 8, other apps will be able to display more effectively in landscape than in portrait like on the iPad. The 5.5 inch display of the iPhone 6 Plus is better suited for such display tricks, giving it one-up on the iPhone 6.

Big feature behind choosing the iPhone 6 Plus over competition

All other reasons aside, the biggest one for buying the iPhone 6 Plus instead of a phone on another platform has to do with a new feature in iOS 8. The ability to link the iPad Air with the iPhone 6 is big for me.

I regularly use the iPad Air for my work, and the ability to see text messages and get incoming calls to the iPhone is huge. The iPhone can stay in my bag or pocket, and I can deal with them on the iPad if I choose.

This may not sound like much to some, but hands-on experience with this feature in webOS years ago proves it is valuable. The ill-faited TouchPad could link to the Palm Pre, and it was magic. Calls could be taken on whichever device was in hand. Text messages could be reviewed the same way, and responses sent.

iPhone 6, and super-size it

The bigger iPhone 6 is the one for me, and I will probably get the 64GB version. That's how much storage I have on my iPad Air and other tablets, and it's plenty for my needs. I'm not sure which color I prefer for the iPhone 6 Plus, to tell the truth it's not that important to me. I just want my phone to do the things I need, not to impress people.

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