iPhone 6 review for peeps who don’t get tech-specs (like me)

September 21 2014

I won’t for a minute profess to be tech-savvy and I can promise Sublime Finds is not on the verge of becoming a tech site… but I am a hardcore Apple devotee and have been eagerly awaiting the release of the new iPhone 6! My gold, 128 GB edition arrived in it’s sleek white packaging on Friday – we’ve had 48 hours together now and I’m ready to spill the beans on my first impressions. There’s no technical jargon here sublime-seekers, we’re just talkin’ what it’s like to use!

iPhone 6 Gold

It’s big!

I opted for the regular sized iPhone 6 rather than the iPhone 6 plus as I didn’t want to forfeit the option to slide my phone into my jeans pocket or a hidden pocket in a dress. Put the iPhone 5 next to the iPhone 6 and the 6 doesn’t look that much bigger… but it feels very different to hold.

iPhone 6 vs iPhone 5

 

I have small hands. In fact my hands are so small JS referred to me as ‘little paw’ for a good chunk of time. The way I held and drove my iPhone 5 (with one hand) does not work on my iPhone 6 – my thumb can’t reach right across the screen! It’s also kinda slippery compared to the last one, the different finish and smooth edges makes me feel like I am at risk higher of dropping it… lets hope I’m wrong about that.

JS is planning to get the iPhone 6 Plus… bigger again. He’s got big paws, so not such much a ‘driving’ issue, more a ‘will it fit in my pocket’ issue. First work pocket problems, TBA.

It’s fast

I read that the new phone was going to be faster, and it is. No waiting time to load! I was waiting days for the old phone to tell me how much (or rather little) storage I had left on it… now, no problems. The internet is faster, too…  there’s some tech stats (on other sites) that explains why it’s a real thing.

Fancy pants fingerprint technology

I realise the fingerprint thing came in with the iPhone 5S; I’m having my first experience with it now. It’s cool!

iPhone 6 review for peeps who don't get tech-specs

Holding you finger on the home button a second longer means no swipe to access, and no pin. You can still enter the pin though if you’re driving your phone with your non-finger-print hand. Or if you lose your thumb (I can’t be the only one who was worried about losing access to my phone if my thumb somehow got cut off? I can live without a thumb… but I cannot live without access to my phone.) You can also use your finger print to approve purchases in the App store! So clever, apple. It’s drunk-proof!

The camera is awesome

There’s a lot of buzz about the camera being able to better identify peoples faces, and for the first time the video being able to autofocus while filming. The camera lens also sticks out verrrry slightly from the back of the iPhone which is being hailed as a bit clumsy/ugly in terms of design, but seemingly has some red hot reasons behind it based on my observation of pics like this:

Screen Shot 2014-09-21 at 5.09.53 pm

The battery is sweet relief 

My phone use was of the nature that I burnt out one iPhone 5 battery and was onto a second – and even my second phone was needing twice-daily charges to keep from going flat. The battery situation (and storage situation, my phone was full) were totally the things I was hoping to ditch from my life. And first impressions suggest drastic improvements! I charged my phone to 100% first thing Saturday morning, was out all day yesterday, on and off my phone with regular-type use and I still had 35% battery left this morning.

Space, so much space! 

Visually there’s heaps more space for apps on the home screen (by ‘heaps’ I mean one extra row), and the edition of the 128 GB model to the iPhone family was music to the ears of people like me who take half a dozen pictures of their dog daily and aren’t good at the clean out. This phone is four times the storage space of my old one, I am beyond thrilled and have upped my photo taking to celebrate.

Glitchy Apps

I hadn’t been updating my apps on my iPhone 5 ’cause of the space issue, so when I restored all the stuff from my iPhone 5 to my iPhone 6, I was maybe a couple of updates behind on some apps. EVERYTHING crashed. Instagram… facebook in particular – couldn’t even get the app to load! Everything needed updating and it now all seems to be working ok.

The new operating system rocks

iOS8 (the new operating system) brings with it more than just a new U2 album. I am MOST excited about the features with the camera! There is now time lapse video, and slo-mo video; very very cool. The camera now has an inbuilt timer as well! It can be set for 3 seconds or 10 seconds and when you use it, the camera takes a ‘burst’ of pics; 10 photos in one second! It gives you the chance to pick the best one! The blogger in me is super excited about this feature.

There’s also now the ability to adjust the exposure when you’re taking a photo (so much easier than after!). All you do is touch the screen to focus your pic and up comes a little sun that you can push up (more light) or down (less light). Very cool, very easy.

You can also now ‘favourite’ your pictures from your albums by clicking a little love heart when you view the pic, this automatically sends a copy of the pic to a ‘favourites’ album.

I’m seeing a new app on the main screen called ‘Health’ – I haven’t played with it lots yet but seemingly you can track your food, weight, fitness etc and the app will graph it for you. You’re also able to enter key medical info (like allergies and medical conditions) that can be accessed from the emergency dialler screen on your phone.

iPhone 6 review for peeps who don't get tech-specs

iOS8 also comes with a bunch of iPrograms; iMovie, GarageBand, Numbers (excel for mac), Pages (word for mac), Keynote (powerpoint for mac) and some other stuff I’m not sure about (what’s iTunes U??).

New iOS8 iPhone Apps

I read that Siri is now able to tell you what song is playing (like Shazaam does) by asking ‘what song is this’. I tried this out and found Siri to sound different, but still be same moody insolent bitch she’s always been (we’ve never seen eye to eye).

Siri

After asking three times she eventually told me what the song was, but by that point I wished I hadn’t bothered.

I also saw something that says you can now do app sharing with people in your ‘family’ – in the same way you’ve been able to share music libraries, it seems like you can now share apps to save you both paying to download the same stuff. Seems pretty clever, looking forward to checking that out. Then possibly discovering there isn’t a single app JS and I both desire.

The Verdict 

The iPhone 6 is being hailed as ‘the best iPhone ever’… which seems utterly ridiculous to me;  if it’s not ‘the best iPhone ever’ we’ve got a serious problem, people!

That said, I’m pretty thrilled with mine. Fast, dynamic, cool features and for Apple devotees like me; it is constantly syncing with everything else. It’s also pretty damn good looking and I can’t wait to get myself an Apple Watch (seriously why is that thing not called the iWatch?!) next year to fully geek out with my Apple shiz everywhere. It’s a Sublime Find!

Are you going to get yourself a new iPhone? Have you got one? Are you loving it sick? Tell me your thoughts below! 

 

4 Comments

  • LOL “still be same moody insolent bitch she’s always been” Love it. Siri and I have never seen eye to eye either. I’m still waiting for mine to be delivered after a mix up with delivery addresses… Looking forward to the extra battery life! The camera timer sounds awesome as well, definitely handy for selfies ha.

    • I’m kinda relieved I’m not the only one having Siri issues! Hope you get your phone today! Some of the camera features really felt they were custom built as a special nod to bloggers. This morning I discovered iOS8 has more info in weather, too! As a weather nut, this was a particularly exciting discovery! Enjoy ur new gadget!

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