iPhone 6 plus underpowered from the start and always will be?

[shenfrey]

Many complain since the release of the 6 plus that it has struggled running iOS fluidly, with stutters being common place. The phone works sure and stutters are arguably a small thing to complain about, but since iOS 9 promised improvement and there are still stutters with the 6 plus while other phones performing much better leads me to believe that the 6 plus was underpowered from the start?

Perhaps the combination of the higher resolution screen, the desktop scaler and the transparent redesign of iOS was just too much for the A8 (I think) in the 6 plus to handle?

It baffles me because iPad Air uses the same processor much taller and higher res'ed screen, yet performs much better.

 

[TommyA6]

Agree with everyrhing except for the iPad Air part. It runs iOS 9 worse than iPhone 6 Plus.

 

[shenfrey]

Agree with everyrhing except for the iPad Air part. It runs iOS 9 worse than iPhone 6 Plus.

Oh really? Perhaps I was using an air 2 at the time then without realising.

 

[Zaft]

I would say yes it's underpowered. 6 Plus is the first iPhone I had that was jittery out the box. Is it really bad? No, but the A9 will fix all of this.

 

[Kendo]

Dumb question but I haven't noticed these jitters with my iPhone 6. Is the iPhone 6 Plus screen that much more of a back breaker for the A8? Isn't it just a slightly higher resolution?

 

[shenfrey]

Dumb question but I haven't noticed these jitters with my iPhone 6. Is the iPhone 6 Plus screen that much more of a back breaker for the A8? Isn't it just a slightly higher resolution?

Pretty much. That and I guess the desktop scaler built into iOS 8.

 

[WilliamG]

iOS 9 has made it worse, actually. The app switcher is really stuttery. Hopefully 6s Plus solves that.

 

[shenfrey]

iOS 9 has made it worse, actually. The app switcher is really stuttery. Hopefully 6s Plus solves that.

Using a chip thats 70% faster than the 6 plus? I would certainly think it has solved it.

 

[Alx9876]

I knew this since the 3GS/4S models. I will never buy the first new model. Better off and safer sticking to the "s" models if you plan on using an iPhone. The non "S" models are never powerful and always suffer. Never worth it.

 

[Phone Junky]

I knew this since the 3GS/4S models. I will never buy the first new model. Better off and safer sticking to the "s" models if you plan on using an iPhone. The non "S" models are never powerful and always suffer. Never worth it.

Every new model iPhone has a newer, faster processor.

 

[cheesyappleuser]

Every new model iPhone has a newer, faster processor.

Yes, but you generally get a good difference in speed and stability with the S versions.

 

[Kendo]

Yes, but you generally get a good difference in speed and stability with the S versions.

A4 to A5, A5 to A6, A6 to A7 all had double CPU and double GPU. So it doubled regardless of S or non-S cycle. A7 to A8 only had 25% and 50% because the chip was designed for efficiency and only drew 50% of the power of the A7.

 

[Zaft]

I knew this since the 3GS/4S models. I will never buy the first new model. Better off and safer sticking to the "s" models if you plan on using an iPhone. The non "S" models are never powerful and always suffer. Never worth it.

Not entirely true, the iPhone 5 was very powerful and still is fine to this day.

 

[TheRealAlex]

Not entirely true, the iPhone 5 was very powerful and still is fine to this day.

True I wish I still had my 5s 64GB and the iphone 5 was my first iphone in Black amazing

iOS 9 will help alot but the 6 Plus simply struggles with 1080p and the regular 6 which I have, at the lower resolution is miles slower than my Note 5.

This years 6s Line, will simply destroy everything on the Market.

 

[ipadded]

it's gonna be pretty nice to see how the new 6s performs against the 6.

 

[scrtagntman]

A lot of the 6+ lag issues were believed to be caused by the need for additional scaling. This site explains pretty well what is going on. http://www.paintcodeapp.com/news/iphone-6-screens-demystified However, I can't say to understand WHY apple is doing this. Maybe someone here can explain the why's...

 

[shenfrey]

A lot of the 6+ lag issues were believed to be caused by the need for additional scaling. This site explains pretty well what is going on. http://www.paintcodeapp.com/news/iphone-6-screens-demystified However, I can't say to understand WHY apple is doing this. Maybe someone here can explain the why's...

So it's being down sampled from a much higher resolution. Interesting...

 

[sterl320]

well it was never meant to be on par wit the 6S, a phone that was most likely worked on even before the 6 even came out lol.

 

[davistld01]

it's gonna be pretty nice to see how the new 6s performs against the 6.

I agree. I've been almost 100% happy with my 6...but have been leaning toward upgrading to the "biggie size" 6s+ on the 25th (or so). Speed & fluidity of operation is paramount though, even more than screen size to me, so I'll be waiting to see how the faster processor in the 6s+ improves things before I pull the trigger. Heck, I might just stay with the smaller 6s and have pretty much everything, except the stabilty control of the camera...which is not a dealbreaker to me anyway.

Looking forward to the 25th!

 

[Gav2k]

iOS 9.1 solves most of the jitters and breathes new life into the plus.

 

[Zaft]

iOS 9.1 solves most of the jitters and breathes new life into the plus.

I must be using a diffenet phone, 9.1 is worse then 8.4 on my plus.

 

[shenfrey]

I must be using a diffenet phone, 9.1 is worse then 8.4 on my plus.

It was in my experience too, especially the task switcher. I am hoping future updates solve it, if it is on par with at least 8.4.2 ill be happy. It is funny though, I swear apple said they focused on performance and battery life with this new update.

 

[Travisimo]

I definitely noticed the stuttering on my 6 Plus while using it over the last year. It wasn't nearly as bad as many Android phones I used, but the Galaxy S6 Edge+ is the first non-Nexus Android phone I've used that doesn't have a lick of stutter. I plan on switching back and forth between it and the iPhone 6S Plus for the next 6-12 months, so we'll see how they both hold up. I know many Android phones are notorious for getting worse over time (requiring a factory reset), but iPhone's definitely benefit from this as well. I wouldn't call the stutter on the iPhone 6 Plus bad, but it is definitely noticeable at times. Whether this is from the scaling, the lack of RAM, or just janky iOS... who knows, but Apple has really needed to optimize iOS for a while. Looks like they're finally doing that, after a series of mishaps, bugs, and reliability issues.

I'm particular curious to see if there's any stuttering when using 3D Touch. I can imagine this happening when trying to bring up a context sensitive menu when using 3D Touch, for example. On the 6 Plus, it mostly rears its head when bring down the notification panel, app switcher, or search bar.

 

[Gav2k]

I must be using a diffenet phone, 9.1 is worse then 8.4 on my plus.

It was in my experience too, especially the task switcher. I am hoping future updates solve it, if it is on par with at least 8.4.2 ill be happy. It is funny though, I swear apple said they focused on performance and battery life with this new update.

Honestly 9.1 has sorted my 6+ right out. No lag issues what so ever. I was shocked!

 

[shenfrey]

Honestly 9.1 has sorted my 6+ right out. No lag issues what so ever. I was shocked!

Even on the task switcher?