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HiRez

macrumors 603
Jan 6, 2004
6,250
2,576
Western US
I remember iOS 7.0 was absolutely horrible on my 4S. Lag and stutter everywhere. But by 7.1 it got much better and I don't even notice it anymore. So, there's hope, I'm not really surprised the Plus has some early issues.
 

MattXDA

macrumors 6502
Original poster
Aug 18, 2014
477
470
UK
I feel the need to post an updated first impression because I hadn't given the phone enough time to settle and for me to get used to it.

The UI speed is fine, honestly. I think Spotlight may have caused the issues as Spotlight wouldn't work either and now it is: it was indexing everything on my phone. (I started from fresh, only have a few apps).
Gaming performance is amazing: games load fast, look sharp and the phone doesn't heat up, honest! ;o It stayed cool playing Asphalt 8 while charging and that amazed me...

Apps seem to load faster than on the 5s, albeit marginally at best. Twitter has a noticeable improvement for me. However, many apps haven't been updated for the screen and are simply scaled up iPhone 5 apps, which looks pretty awful especially with the huge keyboard within those apps. Also, performance in these scaled up apps seems really bad. They just need updating. Every Apple app looks great.

Safari performance is good, I haven't had any tabs reloading and scrolling is buttery smooth. The tab view is especially good, in landscape.

The form factor of the phone is great. It feels lighter than it is, I've been holding it for a few hours and my arm isn't aching. I can use it with one hand, and my hands aren't THAT big. However, I need two hands to type as my finger can't reach the 3 far left letters on the keyboard. The phone feels GREAT in the hand, it's so slim.
Any questions, please ask.
Also, battery life seems good. While playing on Beach Buggy Racer I unplugged the phone and it went down a % in 20 minutes
 

bmms8

macrumors 68020
Dec 19, 2007
2,492
112
Matt, how is the cursor scroll in landscape keyboard? Can you hold it down and have it skip through or is it letter by letter? Thanks
 

craigc_

macrumors 6502
Jul 5, 2007
468
117
Matt, how is the cursor scroll in landscape keyboard? Can you hold it down and have it skip through or is it letter by letter? Thanks

You can engage caps lock (double gap shift) and then use the cursor buttons to highlight text. Does not work if you hold down the shift though.
 

bmms8

macrumors 68020
Dec 19, 2007
2,492
112
You can engage caps lock (double gap shift) and then use the cursor buttons to highlight text. Does not work if you hold down the shift though.

Cool nice, thanks for the tip.

I really wish Apple implemented swipe selection via cydia!
 

Ergates-thi-Ant

macrumors 6502
Sep 9, 2013
343
75
For me battery life currently seems about the same as the 5s - I get just about a full day (daytime), and then need to recharge. To be fair, I was using the phone fairly heavily yesterday. Day off, kids birthday party, and just the joy of a new phone. Lots of twitch.tv watching too.

Otherwise the phone seems buttery smooth. I never noticed any stuttering, and it seems super responsive to me, and perhaps slightly faster than the 5s. I have noticed that the phone occasionally seems slow in changing from portrait to landscape on occasion. Mostly it's fast and smooth, but every now and then there's a fail to switch or a laggy switch in mode. Actually, this seems to happen mostly with Whatsapp, and occasionally with Twitch.tv. I'm not sure it's happened to any native Apple apps yet.

Like everyone else I hate the scaled up apps, and can't wait for those to be updated. I'm also taking a little time to get used to the new sleep/wake button location, but that's improving now.

I haven't used mine without a case bar two minutes, as I'm too scared to damage it. This isn't much different than the way I've treated all my previous iPhones, mind. I do have AppleCare+, mind, but work in a risky environment for phones.
 

MentalFloss

macrumors 65816
Mar 14, 2012
1,019
841
I also don't notice any lag whatsoever, and I am usually quite sensitive to that kind of thing.

I did have a major issue yesterday, where the screen became unresponsive in landscape mode. But that seems to be an iOS 8 problem, and a restart seems to have fixed it. Other than that, the 6 Plus handling is just silky smooth.

I also love the battery life. Granted, the battery drops quickly when playing Asphalt 8 (which is beautiful on the big screen), but that was the same on other phones. But leaving it at 98% in the evening and picking it up with 97% (with Bluetooth active) the next morning is a nice experience.
 

revenent

macrumors regular
Jul 26, 2008
159
6
For one handed SMS or composing of emails, does the auto correct in the centre help make one handed sms easier?
 
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