It’s been a week since I got my new iPhone and it’s safe to say I’m in love. What do I love about it? It’s easier to say what I don’t love, and that’s pretty much nothing. ;)
Ok, to be honest the only thing that has me a little worried is reports of the phone getting bent in people’s pockets. It seems to be happening more with the iPhone 6 Plus, but I’m sure it can happen to either phone since they are thin and made of aluminum. I got the smaller of the two so I could still fit it into my front pocket but it’s rather snug in my jeans so now I’m really nervous about putting it in there. I’ve spent HOURS on Etsy trying to find the perfect little pouch that means my very specific criteria which is as follows:
1 – Closes at the top (whether that be via snap, velcro, or button with a bungie cord, I really don’t care).
2 – Has the ability to add a strap to turn it into a wristlet and/or crossbody purse.
3 – Has a way to attach it to a belt loop.
4 – Pattern is appealing.
I have yet to find one that matches all that criteria and price is not an object (within reason; but everything I see is below $50 anyway).
Ok, so here’s my review of the phone itself.
Predictive keyboard – This feature is awesome! As I’ve written here before, I suck at typing on my phone (or any digital device, really) and between the larger keys and the suggestions, I rarely have to type out a full word. I love that! It saves time and aggravation and is much better than the iPhone just auto correcting words since it likes to change correct ones to incorrect ones (at least for me).
Larger screen – Love that it’s easier to read text, plus I gained two extra rows of apps per page over my old phone.
Battery life – I used my phone on and off all day at work and when I got home it was around 60% whereas my old phone would have been almost dead. I’m not sure is an actual improvement over the 4S or just because the phone and battery is brand new opposed to three years old. In any case, now that you can view which apps are using up the battery, I have turned off Facebook and Facebook Messenger notifications as they were eating up 36% and 25% of my battery life respectively. eBuddy XMS (the app I use to chat with Joe) is also a battery killer but until I find a better alternative I will have to deal with it. I just wish I could pick certain apps to override the volume settings on the phone so that even if the volume isn’t turned all the way up the notifications from my chat app would still be at full volume.
Touch ID is frickin awesome! I let my phone lock within a minute because it saves on battery plus it’s so effortless to unlock it. I hated having to type in my pass code all the time. Plus I can use Touch ID to download apps which rocks because my Apple password is letters and numbers and switching back and forth between the two on the keyboard is annoying.
The camera is amazing and a very noticeable improvement over the 4S. I don’t feel the need to post-process anything before uploading it to Facebook. I’m impressed with the detail it picks up even in lower light situations and the focus appears to be spot on without any input from me. I am itching to make use of the panorama feature as that was always good even on the old phone so I suspect it will be even more awesome on this new one.
I haven’t really tested the video quality yet as I just learned this morning that if you want to shoot in 60fps (i.e. full HD) you need to turn that on in the settings.
I was having a weird issue where if I had the phone in landscape orientation with the volume buttons facing down, the red record button wouldn’t respond when I pressed it. After speaking to an Apple rep and updating to iOS 8.0.2 this morning that issue is now gone. Whew!
The larger screen has made me want to play games on my phone again so if anyone has recommendations, please post a comment!
