After a record-breaking opening weekend of sales for the iPhone 6 and 6 Plus, which saw customers queue up around the world to purchase 10 million of the larger-screened smartphones, it's clear that Apple has a major hit on its hands.
This Friday, the iPhones 6 is released in more than 20 new countries, including Ireland.
In a pre-release briefing with Apple executives, they suggested the hype over this year’s release is similar to the excitement over the launch of the original iPhone in 2007, and with lines stretching up to 20 blocks in Manhattan, not to mention blanket TV coverage, they have a point.
This year’s sales figures beat the opening weekend sales of the iPhone 5S and 5C last year, when nine million units were sold, and far ahead of the five million iPhone 5 units sold in 2012.
Features
The most obvious change is the screen size, with the iPhone 6 growing significantly to 4.7inches, significantly bigger than the iPhone 5S screen. The iPhone 6 Plus sees Apple make its debut in the so-called “phablet” space pioneered by Samsung with its Note series. It looks just like the iPhone 6, but at 5.5inches, in the hand it almost feels like an entirely new category of iOS device.
Apple has long touted the thumb-span width of the iPhone as a major feature, but with these new models, that attribute has been sacrificed.
To compensate, Apple has developed a one-handed operation mode called “Reachability”, prompted by a double tap of the home button, which sees the screen drop towards the bottom half to bring important functions within thumb’s reach.
It’s definitely clever, but at the same time feels like an elegant hack rather than an obvious improvement in usability.
Aesthetics
The biggest design change is a curved edge instead of the sharp right-angled edges from the iPhone 5S, a design that has defined the iPhone’s form factor since the iPhone 4, which was unveiled in June 2010.
In that sense, this revised design has been a long time coming, and dramatically changes the feel of the device in your hand - more like an ocean-smoothed pebble than a minimalist piece of engineering.
Camera
The iPhone 6 Plus features optical image stabilisation, in which the lens moves to counteract for camera shake, which makes for significantly less blur and much improved low-light performance. The slightly raised camera lens on the back of the device is a very un-Apple-like compromise to accommodate the lens, but really isn’t so significant as to ruin the impressively svelte body.
Given that Apple’s lead in industrial design had been whittled away by rival handsets on Google’s Android platform, such as the HTC One M8, Samsung Galaxy S5, LG G3 and Sony Xperia Z3, a hands-on preview is enough to suggest these two new iPhones have seen Apple retake the initiative, though only a comprehensive review can determine if they live up to the engineering excellence in day-to-day usage.
