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iPhone 6 Plus size: Question for people who upgraded from the 5/5s

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saintforlife

macrumors 65816
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Feb 25, 2011
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For folks that are using an iPhone 6 Plus and who came from a 5/5s - How long did it take for you to adjust to the large size of the 6 Plus? Once you got used to it, did it start feeling natural? Do you ever find yourself in any situation where you feel like you would have preferred a smaller device? Once you go with the 6 Plus, is it hard to go back to something with a smaller screen size?

I am thinking of upgrading from the 5 to the 6s Plus this Fall and would like to know your thoughts.
 
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CYKBC said:
I went back to the 5s. Too heavy. Awkward to handle for on the go people like me.
Click to expand...
Same..eventually got the 6 and I like it. I feel the 5S to 6+ was too much a difference. a 6 to 6s+ will be what Im doing. I have confidence Apple will fix the bending issue in the S series.
 
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I adjusted pretty much immediately. I'm not a fan of a few aspects of the 6+ but I do appreciate the larger size. Much easier to grab and hold on to. My iPhone 5 seems very small now.
 
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Took maybe 1-2 weeks to really get used to the size, but i never had any regrets.
The 6 plus is awsome, the battery and the screen is great!
Sold my iPad after having had the iPhone for a couple of months, i didn't use it.
And btw, i have small hands and i have no problems with the 6+ size.
 
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I made the switch from the 5 to the 6 plus, but I'm now seriously considering trading it for a 6 in the fall when the S comes out. I've really tried to adapt to the larger format but find that at least for me it's too big. One handed operation is futile at best, it doesn't fit comfortably in any pocket, and finally I always have my phone in a case to protect it from drops, etc. and the case just makes it that much bigger. I do like the battery life as mentioned by others, it's great. I'm not looking forward to having to pay full price for the 6s as I'm not eligible for an upgrade so I may wait out for another year when the 7 comes out. Now my wife on the other hand likes hers because it sits fine in her purse most of the day, also I'm wondering if I buy the Apple watch & having that on my wrist might prevent me from having to handle the phone as much, but at least for now I'm waiting on version 2 of the watch before it buy it. Advice: get the iPhone 6
 
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saintforlife said:
For folks that are using an iPhone 6 Plus and who came from a 5/5s - How long did it take for you to adjust to the large size of the 6 Plus? Once you got used to it, did it start feeling natural? Do you ever find yourself in any situation where you feel like you would have preferred a smaller device? Once you go with the 6 Plus, is it hard to go back to something with a smaller screen size?

I am thinking of upgrading from the 5 to the 6s Plus this Fall and would like to know your thoughts.
Click to expand...

6+ has assistive touch feature which puts a floating soft touch button anywhere you want on screen. This means you tap on that to access home, double tap to multitask, you can pull down or pull up the shutters also so you don't even need to press the physical home button or double tap it for "reachability". - This feature makes the 6+ comfortable to use with one hand, even with relatively small hands - also you can position your most used apps in folders or positions also reachable with your thumb - this works very well, without it it would be a nuisance to have to keep shimmying up and down for home button.

The Big thing about the 6+ is the increased pixel density / resolution - it is over 400 ppi, the highest on any apple product and after using it for a while the 326 ppi of the iPhone 5 & 6 looks crap!

Its almost like going from a iPhone 4 back to a 3G - if you have sharp eyes the 6+ sharper display for text and images is such a major improvement - I can see the pixels on the 5 from about 10 inches.

Also the battery life is much better on the 6+ than the 6 and 5's - In fact before the iOS 8 update I was getting over 10 hours use time matching the IPAD! for gaming and all sorts. Now it has dropped down a couple of hours, but the battery life is amazing and I hope apple sort the loss of performance since the update.

Of course gaming is also much better on a 5.5 inch display than 4.7 or 4 - its about the perfect size for gaming, like a game controller size.

The only thing that would make the 6s or 7 appealing in my view would be if they increased the resolution to 1080p like the 6+ which would give it a 450+ ppi - I can see them doing this on the 7 as that is not a ridiculous resolution now adays
 
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VesselA said:
6+ has assistive touch feature which puts a floating soft touch button anywhere you want on screen. This means you tap on that to access home, double tap to multitask, you can pull down or pull up the shutters also so you don't even need to press the physical home button or double tap it for "reachability". - This feature makes the 6+ comfortable to use with one hand, even with relatively small hands - also you can position your most used apps in folders or positions also reachable with your thumb - this works very well, without it it would be a nuisance to have to keep shimmying up and down for home button.

The Big thing about the 6+ is the increased pixel density / resolution - it is over 400 ppi, the highest on any apple product and after using it for a while the 326 ppi of the iPhone 5 & 6 looks crap!

Its almost like going from a iPhone 4 back to a 3G - if you have sharp eyes the 6+ sharper display for text and images is such a major improvement - I can see the pixels on the 5 from about 10 inches.

Also the battery life is much better on the 6+ than the 6 and 5's - In fact before the iOS 8 update I was getting over 10 hours use time matching the IPAD! for gaming and all sorts. Now it has dropped down a couple of hours, but the battery life is amazing and I hope apple sort the loss of performance since the update.

Of course gaming is also much better on a 5.5 inch display than 4.7 or 4 - its about the perfect size for gaming, like a game controller size.

The only thing that would make the 6s or 7 appealing in my view would be if they increased the resolution to 1080p like the 6+ which would give it a 450+ ppi - I can see them doing this on the 7 as that is not a ridiculous resolution now adays
Click to expand...

Seems like an annoyance to have the assistive touch animation floating around. I've seen people use it on their iPads but no one with their 6 plus. 326ppi is hardly crap lol.
 
Since I went from iPhone 4S to Samsung Galaxy S4 and S5, going to iPhone 6 Plus was a quick adjust for me since I was already used to the bigger phone.
 
MLVC said:
I don't have a 6+, but how come somebody thinks it's heavier than the 5? I actually thought it was much lighter?
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Nah, it's actually somewhat heavier. Which I'm ok with because it's bigger.
 
It took a week or so for me to adjust to the size of the 6+ compared to my 5s but now it just feels normal to me.

Sometimes it does feel awkward using the 6+ one handed, having to move it around in your hand and for that I preferred the 5s. That being said however it's a small issue and having the bigger screen for me makes up for it.

On the performance front I'll admit I too have experienced the odd bit of lag and such like but it's not a very regular occurrence and doesn't hinder the experience too much but I would still like to see the problem confronted and solved.
 
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IamDave said:
On the performance front I'll admit I too have experienced the odd bit of lag and such like but it's not a very regular occurrence and doesn't hinder the experience too much but I would still like to see the problem confronted and solved.
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I am hoping the A9 processor and 2GB RAM on the 6s Plus will help resolve these performance issues that some are seeing on the 6 Plus.
 
I went from a 5 to a 6 Plus. It took me about two or three weeks to adjust, and now I love the size. In comparison, the 5 feels absolutely miniscule.

The 6 is quite a nice size and is certainly more convenient when you're in places like the tube, standing on the bus, sitting down with in it your front pocket etc, but on balance I value the larger screen more for Netflix and web surfing.
 
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Adjusting to using the 6 plus was not a problem. The screen resolution is beautiful. The battery life is incredible. OIS on the camera works great. But it has become burdensome to lug around. And mine lags. I rely on my Apple watch as much as I can.

When the S series comes out it is my intention to downsize to the 6s and trade in my 6plus. That's just to ease the burden of carrying it around. Sometimes I can't keep it in my purse and have no choice but to try and squish it into a pocket or carry it. That's when I sigh and wish the 6s were here already.

Ideally I'd prefer to have all the specs of the camera from the 6Plus in a form factor the size of the 5s. My all time favorite phone was the IPhone4/4S. If I hadn't needed the camera upgrades, that's the one I would still be running if I could. I find I prefer to use my iPad for real work and web browsing and content consumption and use my iPhone for quick texts and emails and snapping pics and phone calls and for some fitness tracking. I don't need a huge phone for that.

I didn't find my 6plus large enough to really replace my iPad. So the extra size it has doesn't outweigh the inconvenience of carrying it.
 
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GrumpyMom said:
Adjusting to using the 6 plus was not a problem. The screen resolution is beautiful. The battery life is incredible. OIS on the camera works great. But it has become burdensome to lug around. And mine lags. I rely on my Apple watch as much as I can.

When the S series comes out it is my intention to downsize to the 6s and trade in my 6plus. That's just to ease the burden of carrying it around.
Click to expand...
I agree with this.

The display is an absolute upgrade over my previous iPhone 5. And battery life is what I like most: I get almost double the battery life that I got over the iPhone 5.

It was very easy for me to adjust to its size and it fits in my pants just fine. But whenever I am more active (like when you're sporting), it becomes more troublesome to bring the device along.
Additionally, it's basically impossible to have a 'sneak peak' at your lock screen without anyone noticing... it's too big for that.

Maybe the 'iPhone 7 Plus' will have smaller bezels, which might make it more mobile.

Also, there are some performance issues in my opinion. First of all, sometimes there's the occasional lag. I very often play music and when I switch between apps - sometime - the music and animation stutters a bit.

Secondly, multitasking is subpar compared to the older iPhone 5. If I am lucky, it holds two apps in its memory - so that I can continue in an app right where I left off. But very often, the app reloads again when I switch between apps. I believe this issue mostly exists because it only has 1 GB of RAM, while it is pushing many more pixels than the iPhone 5 (and iPhone 6).

The iPhone 6 doesn't have these issues, which makes it a lot better for power users in my opinion.

I'm definitely considering going from an iPhone 6 Plus to a regular iPhone 6S this fall. Why? To get better performance and higher mobility.
 
I went from the 5s to the 6 Plus. When I first took it out of the box my initial thought was "oh my god this is massive, way too big". Within a couple of days I had completely adjusted, when I hold friends 6's and 5's they feel tiny now and I hate how small the screens are. I don't think I could ever go back as I'm just used to having that size display and I've never found the size of the device to be a problem.
It is worth nothing however that I'm a 6 foot 3 male and I can easily operate the device one handed. I think if i couldn't or if I struggled to use the 6 Plus one handed then I wouldn't have kept it, it would have been too big of an inconvenience on a daily basis.

Also worth nothing that I consider myself a power user (I have the top spec 15" rMBP) and i've not noticed any performance issues on the 6 Plus compared to other iPhone models, so i'd take the claims of poor performance and lag with a pinch of salt (just my personal opinion on the matter).
 
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I had a tough time deciding between the 6 and 6+ personally. I had the iPhone 5 before my current phone and thought it was a great size, maybe a little small, but not a big deal. When I tried out the 6 and 6+ at my local Verizon store, I felt like the 6 was the perfect size for one-handed use, but I really liked the great battery life and OIS of the 6+, which is why I chose that one in the end. I am happy that I did and although it probably took about a week to get used to it, I now don't even think about the size and the 5 seems positively kid-ish whenever I see someone with it. Before that, I thought anything bigger than my 5 was ridiculously big, so I guess it's all perspective and patience.
 
andyp350 said:
It is worth nothing however that I'm a 6 foot 3 male and I can easily operate the device one handed.
Click to expand...
I mentioned earlier that I adjusted pretty much immediately. I'm 5' 10" and my hands have always been considered to be small by the standards of others. I can handle the 6+ one handed with just the bottom half, the whole phone takes two hands - but I don't care because I like the size of the phone.

I used to say my iPhone 5 felt solid (and I still feel that way) but the 6+ is very solid as well in my hand(s).
 
Just as you adjusted to the bigger size over a period of time so shall you be able to readjust to a smaller form factor over time.

I hope Apple continues to make a 5s sized phone. Thinner lighter stronger but we a smaller bezel.
 
6+ now seems small lol I guess I'm way too use it now. Didn't take long to adapt maybe a week or so.
 
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saintforlife said:
For folks that are using an iPhone 6 Plus and who came from a 5/5s - How long did it take for you to adjust to the large size of the 6 Plus? Once you got used to it, did it start feeling natural? Do you ever find yourself in any situation where you feel like you would have preferred a smaller device? Once you go with the 6 Plus, is it hard to go back to something with a smaller screen size?

I am thinking of upgrading from the 5 to the 6s Plus this Fall and would like to know your thoughts.
Click to expand...
It depends on the size of your hand
I have relatively small hands so it took me a while
I eventually got used to it after I stopped using it with cases. The size of the phone alone is pushing the limit on what I can comfortably hold in my hand and having a case caused my hands to sore
 
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