Once again Apple did it – My experience with iPhone 6Plus

When I was in Manhattan, NY recently, I made a promise to myself that I’d free up a few hours on my calendar to take a walk around downtown New York and see what was so enticing to people about Times Square. Even before I realized it, I was standing in front of a glass structure with this huge Apple logo on Fifth Avenue staring down at me. The Apple enthusiast in me took over and I was already walking into the store with the intention of checking out what all the excitement about the new iPhone was about.

As soon as I walked in, an Apple Genius (well that’s what they call the staff at an Apple Store) walked over to help me out. As I introduced as myself as Head of Mobile CoE of HTC Global Services, The Genius got an impression that I was the Head of HTC – the Smartphone manufacturer and introduced me to his entire team. Though I kept clarifying that I was actually the Mobile CoE Head of HTC Global Services and not HTC, I guess he was just too excited to realize that both companies were entirely different. I was not going to lose this opportunity to get some special treatment, especially if that meant I could get a sneak peek into the next generation iPhone.

Well, here is my experience:

Just holding the iPhone 6 Plus in my hand is a great feeling thanks to its lightweight aluminum thin body and 5.5” high resolution HD Retina display. I think Apple has made the right decision to enter into the “Phablet” space given the fact that this is a largely untapped market. But it also makes me wonder how it would be, looking at someone holding a 5.5” phone to their ear and taking a call J

When I moved from the iPhone 4S to the iPhone 5S, the change in screen size initially hurt my thumb when reaching for the upper left part of the screen with one hand. I’ll be one of the happier customers to welcome Apple’s “Reach-ability” gesture in the recently launched flagship. By gently double tapping the home button, you can bring the top portion of the display closer to your thumb. I also like the fact that the new iPhone has a zoom-in view and normal view options, ultimately giving the users more control.

I’m one of those Smartphone users not having a steady hand and this reflects on the videos that I take. They always end up shaky and make me the laughing stock among my close friends and family. Well not anymore – the iPhone 6 Plus will have an optical image stabilization feature that makes taking photos and videos easier. I tried shooting a few videos and I felt very comfortable with the overall handling and quality of the video.

These are exciting times for users with the introduction of features like NFC and Apple Pay expected to change the way people shop and improve user experience exponentially. The process is simple – pay using Touch ID finger print scanner without even unlocking the phone. What Apple has done here is make use of the existing security algorithms offered by NFC and make it stronger with its own fingerprint security program. I was told that the complete payment information is secured inside a separate chip. Lost your phone? Don’t worry, just use the ‘Find my iPhone’ app and delete all data on the phone remotely.

When the iPhone 5S was announced, Apple took one aspect of the iPhone that users with unhappy with – the battery life. With the iPhone 6 Plus, Apple has only made things better. The genius told me that the battery graphics performances are improved by about 50%. If rumors are to be believed, the new iPhones can support up to 13hours of continuous video playback on a single charge.

One new addition to iOS8 that I am excited about is the inclusion of predictive keyboards for texting and opening its doors for installing third-party keyboards. Another great feature I see is “Family Sharing”. This enables each member in a family to share calendars, photos, iTunes, iBooks and Apps with just a single purchase.

Some of the other interesting features I noticed are group messaging (Text2Group), Voice Messaging, Quick access to favorites and recent contact by double tapping the home button, and access to the health app on the lock screen.

There are some aspects of the new iPhone that I am a little disappointed with. I currently own an iPhone 5S 32GB and am very happy with its storage capacity. I used to have a 16GB iPhone before this and always ran out of memory, having to run to my PC to delete apps and data. The new iPhone 6 and iPhone 6 Plus comes in 3 options – the 16GB, 64GB, and 128GB. I wonder why Apple has opted out of the 32GB option. Personally, this is very disappointing for me. The price difference between the 16GB and 64GB is quite high and for most of the consumers it is expensive to opt for.

When I was trying for few things, especially when I tried new features I noticed few hitches like hanging, freezing, auto-rebooting, shutting-off etc. (I wonder whether Apple is trying Windows way  J ). But knowing Apple, I am very confident these snags will be fixed in the next iteration of iOS8.

Having said all that, there is no denying the fact that Apple has done it once again, changing the way we use our phones. Our phones are no more just devices for communication. They are now turning into devices that define who we are and what we do. The new Apple iPhone 6 Plus are here to stay, not just stay but lead.

P.S: The article is not a specification or recommendation but just a snapshot of my experience with Apple’s latest flagship iPhone.