“Apple has two new iPhones debuting today, including the iPhone 6. The iPhone 6 is the heir apparent to the flagship line of Apple smartphones, as it comes in at the same price point as the iPhone 5s, but Apple has done something new this year by introducing a premium priced iPhone 6 Plus,” Darrell Etherington writes for TechCrunch. “The iPhone 6 is still plenty premium, however, and its 4.7-inch screen is likely going to be a better fit for most users, which is why it earns our vote as the best smartphone currently available.”
“Apple’s new A8 chip is the powerhouse behind the iPhone 6, and it delivers the kind of performance you’d expect from cutting edge processor technology. The A8 strains the limits of what you’d think was possible in terms of overall device speed and responsiveness, with the entire user experience feeling perceptibly quickened,” Etherington writes. “It’s one of those situations where you don’t realize how the device you were using (iPhone 5s in my case) could get any better in terms of general speed, until you pick up the new device.”
“The iPhone 6 packs a higher resolution display than the iPhone 5s, with 1334 x 750 resolution,” Etherington writes. “This is truly one of Apple’s most amazing technical achievements overall – it looks like a placeholder high-res print image placed expertly just behind the glass, until it springs to life. Leave it to other manufacturers to debate the relative merits of this or that kind of display tech; Apple’s is simply the best-looking and most pleasant to use, and the iPhone 6 reaffirms that with some of the best color rendering I’ve seen on mobile.”
“The iPhone 6 is the best smartphone available. It offers improvements in almost every way that matters, and it delivers those in a striking new design that balances consumer demand for larger screens with a thin, light and durable case,” Etherington writes. “Apple has managed to recapture the energy and excitement that came with the original iPhone with the new iPhone 6. It feels like a return to form in all the right ways, in addition to packing a ton of new features like Apple Pay that light the path for what Apple as a company is to become. For users, though, it’s all about delivering the best computer you can keep in your pocket, and that’s exactly what the iPhone 6 is.”
Much more in the full review here.
MacDailyNews Take: The best smartphone available. Are you getting it?
Don’t settle for less than the best.
With Apple’s all new, 64-bit smartphones, the gorgeous 4.7-inch iPhone 6 and the stunning 5.5-inch iPhone 6 Plus, there’s never been a better time to stop settling for imitations and make the move to the real thing.
Related articles:
Apple posts new how-to guide: Switching from Android phone to iPhone – September 16, 2014
USA Today’s Baig reviews Apple’s 64-bit iPhone 6/Plus: ‘Smartphone stars’ – September 17, 2014
Walt Mossberg reviews Apple’s 64-bit iPhone 6: ‘The best smartphone on the market’ – September 16, 2014
The Wall Street Journal reviews Apple’s 64-bit iPhone 6: ‘The best smartphone you can buy’ – September 16, 2014
Macworld reviews 64-bit iPhone 6 and iPhone 6 Plus: Bigger is better (in the right hands) – September 16, 2014
Anybody want to buy a slightly used Galaxy Note 2 …. Anybody? …. Bueller?
“Bueller?” LOL. I love that film.
Do we a reoccurring theme her? “Best Smartphone You Can Buy”!
Yup, a very angry Samsung…Apple just keeps on whacking that hornets nest.
Yep, just dropped the Bomb.
Android: “Somebody set us up the Bomb!”
Apple: “Make your time. All your base are belong to us!”
From the comments all over the web, the haters are going ballistic! Hahahaha!
Yeah, the comments are over the top angry. I’m sure there’s some bad commenters fueling the fires too.
I love everything Apple….. Have it all…. Even a few shares of stock (from $55 – about 10 years ago)….
I say that to emphasize I’m not bashing the phone, but really….. If you can have a protruding lens because it makes better pictures, then you can put speakers on the face of the phone so we can hear it.
And two speakers are better than one.
How many times, while watching or recording video, have your fingers blocked the mic or speakers.
Also when you listen to music do the speakers on your stereo face you or do you stand to the side and let them point 90 degrees away from you.
Maybe the way to sell iPhone7 and make us all upgrade again is to next fix the sound problem…. Not everyone carries headphones all day.
Sometimes you show a video to more than one person at the same time. In its current configuration, you have to silence the entire room, so they can hear the sound from speakers pointed in the wrong direction…. Or cup your hands around the speaker and imitate the universal hand gesture for “can you speak louder?”
If you feel the same way, let’s see if we can get Jony Ive to make it happen. Feel free to repost this….. Spread the word.
Innhitman from the old ‘Imagjnation Network’
I totally appreciate where you are coming from, and the “cupping” thing I do myself. I can’t say that the poor speakers have ever really been a problem for me though and I am happy to use the headphones..
In all honesty though, if better speakers on the iPhone means that it will be thicker and/or encourage kids to walk the streets playing their music without headphones, then I’d prefer to stick with the crappy speakers.
Two speakers are definitely NOT better than one at such small distance. The only time two speakers are better than one is when they are supposed to provide a two-dimensional stereo image, and that can only happen when the distance between the speakers is approximately the same as the distance between each speaker and the listener.
When two speakers are put in close proximity to each other, there is no stereo image, but instead, you get phase shifting problems with frequencies whose wavelength is close to double the distance between speakers. If there were two speakers at each end of the iPhone (or even at the bottom of the iPhone), they would be 2 – 3cm apart, which would cause phase shifting for frequencies above 5kHz. Translated into simple language, when you slightly move your phone (or your head) while listening to your music, you would hear weird sweeping sound effect (particularly in the treble region).
I’m not sure about the speaker being on the face of the phone. It is enough already to have that slit near the top for the earpiece for the phone; having some other opening (or grille) elsewhere on the screen would dramatically spoil the perfection of the smooth glass surface, without bringing a meaningful improvement. Over the past three years of owning a smartphone (first Android, then iPhone), I don’t think it was more than ten times that I needed to play audio out loud, through built-in speakers. I’m not sure the difference in audio quality of that playback would be enough for me to tolerate an unsightly grille on the front surface that I’d had to look at every single day. To me, as a professionally trained musician, that difference is fairly negligible; I’d rather offer one “earpod” than have anyone listen to playback form tiny iPhone speakers, no matter how powerful they are and in which direction they are pointed.
In fact, even if we disregard the grille issue, I’m not sure I’d prefer speakers pointing towards me; the sound would still be very tinny. At least when they point to the bottom, I can create a resonator by cupping my hand (as you point out). That wouldn’t work that well if they were on the face, pointing straight.
You can debate the relative merits of various designs, you can prefer one over the other, but I think it’s very clear that Apple seriously strives to create the best design it possibly can, something it things will serve people well, other manufacturers often seem to just do what they think they need to in order to sell to a particular demographic or offer perceived parity in some way.
You can similarly argue that Apple could perhaps offer some more variation in it’s offerings, but at the same time other companies typically offer far too many, most of which truly suit no one.
Apple 6 price is very high that is the reason of its sales failure in India….. Since 2012 Apple sold only half of the amount in 2013 which is highly reducing the graph till now ….