The Problem with the iPhone 6 Plus

[hypno]

Sanlitun:

Please return here and let us know what your decision ended up being. Thanks.

Also, can you give us more color on that LG G3? What's it like in comparison to the 6 Plus. I mean, is it close or better than the 6 Plus?

I still have my LG G3 and I think the iPhone 6+ screen is better. The LG G3 screen lacks contrast out of the box, and in order to get this most people are performing a well documented color adjustment within settings to increase this. The problem is in order to get this increased contrast you lose color accuracy.

I speak to this from the perspective of a photographer with several calibrated screens. Sure the LG G3 screen is razor sharp, but there is a lot more to what makes a screen look right than aliasing. The G3 is far from perfect.

 

[ihonda]

Right?

Facebook, etc. are comically gigantic on the Plus. Doesn't make them less useable though, so I'm fine with it for the time being.

until you try to post a picture and half of your camera roll is cut off lol

 

[urkel]

That's the problem: the screen isn't big enough for that either. It's its own category and needs unique designs. This, I predict, is going to be a huge problem and nobody's really talking about it.

Just because you thought of something doesn't make it a problem.

The 6+ isn't for everyone, but it also isn't for no one. There are many many people that have been waiting for a big phone for years and it fits in their workflow exactly the way they expected it to.

I'm not trying to be a "big phone advocate" or anything. I really feel that a lot of 6+ owners actually did buy a product that doesn't fit their lifestyle. But in the same way, I feel a lot of 6 owners may have dismissed the benefits of the 6+ too early.

 

[booksbooks]

Just because you thought of something doesn't make it a problem.

The 6+ isn't for everyone, but it also isn't for no one. There are many many people that have been waiting for a big phone for years and it fits in their workflow exactly the way they expected it to.

I'm not trying to be a "big phone advocate" or anything. I really feel that a lot of 6+ owners actually did buy a product that doesn't fit their lifestyle. But in the same way, I feel a lot of 6 owners may have dismissed the benefits of the 6+ too early.

Ok Urkel here we go. I've been designing OS X and iOS Apps for several years. This is a well established problem that even Steve Jobs was aware of regarding tweeners.

Let's take iWork: Pages, Numbers, and Keynote. The problems here as others have pointed out, is that in landscape mode, the keyboard takes up half of the screen where the App content is is cut off making the usability poor. Trying to glue on productivity Apps that barely cut it on a massive screen like the iPad 9.7" into something so much smaller isn't just destined for failure, it's stupid. Now I don't think these Apps are totally unusable: in my tests Numbers is kinda usable because it's a lot of touching cells and basic number input... but the problems with the small screen and the usability of such Apps remain.

We can also take a homegrown App like Mail or Notes and see that the split screen is ugly where everything is smashed down shrunk down too much to make it usable like it is on the larger screen tablets.

There's no easy answers with an odd screen size like this because you simply cannot design something for say a 4.7" and expect it to just work and look great on a screen that is 5.5". And you can't design something for a 5.5" screen and expect it to work and look great on a screen that is 7.9"/9.7". The jump between a 4.7 and 5.5 is huge. You get all kinds of design bugs like too much white space between buttons, etc. You have to rethink how you design an App for such a screen size.

So this is what causes fragmentation is you get another screen category, not just iPad/iPhone. It's iPad/Tweener/iPhone.

 

[kinster]

Discussion aren't allowed on a discussion board? Odd.

I'm giving my thoughts on the 6 plus. The reasons why I passed on it. I left iphone at the 4 and swore to come back when the screen size was increased. I didn't like the elongated 5/5s screen. I thought the 6 plus was my next phone but it simply isn't. Too long, huge bezels, nothing optimized foe the big screen, no split screen, etc. To me it is beta, I'm sorry if that offends you. It is a stupid phone and this is my opinion. I think the plus will be great in 2016.

No, it doesn't offend me. Just be happy with what you have now. No need to justify your reasons and make excuses

----------

Right?

Facebook, etc. are comically gigantic on the Plus. Doesn't make them less useable though, so I'm fine with it for the time being.

Yeah there are a lot of apps that seem massive on the Plus. Looking forward for the updates

----------

Ok Urkel here we go. I've been designing OS X and iOS Apps for several years.

Ten-a-penny mate. Just reminds me of the "I've been a season ticket holder for x years"

 

[Dranix]

Let's take iWork: Pages, Numbers, and Keynote. The problems here as others have pointed out, is that in landscape mode, the keyboard takes up half of the screen where the App content is is cut off making the usability poor. Trying to glue on productivity Apps that barely cut it on a massive screen like the iPad 9.7" into something so much smaller isn't just destined for failure, it's stupid. Now I don't think these Apps are totally unusable: in my tests Numbers is kinda usable because it's a lot of touching cells and basic number input... but the problems with the small screen and the usability of such Apps remain.

I don't know what you mean - iWork is pretty good useable on the ip6+:

 

[luigi408]

All I hope is that we get access to iPad apps in the future. I know developeds will have to redesign them a bit but it should be doable. Right now I feel the apps for this phone lacking badly and wasting a lot of space that could be used like in iPads.

 

[booksbooks]

I don't know what you mean - iWork is pretty good useable on the ip6+:

If that's usable to you then knock yourself out.

 

[Dranix]

If that's usable to you then knock yourself out.

Well - What doesn't work? Yes it's no desktop, but you can work fine with it.

 

[Sanlitun]

I thought I would come back to this thread and mention that I had returned my 6 plus after 13 days. I feel pretty down about it as there were many things I liked about the phone.

Pros:

- Great operating system and 3rd party apps. Apps like Fantastical are great and there are very few well thought out and professional apps like this for Android.

- IMessage is a killer app. Loved it.

- Fingerprint security and seamless ICloud backup.

- Great screen legibility for text. The legibility made the phone very usable. I love the way the display seems to be on the glass.

- Great music playback quality and music app. 16/44.1 music on the 6+ sounds better than the hi res files the LG G3 can play back.

- Super build quality despite what is being said about it.

Cons:

- Very poor call quality from the earpiece. There was a lot of low end rumble and not enough treble resolution to hear the difference between sounds like "th" and "s" in spoken conversations. This was the biggest dealbreaker for me.

- Much to my surprise I found the camera in the G3 is much better. I bought some apps like Cortex Camera but I could not really improve on the picture quality.

- Poor video playback quality. Using Mctube to playback 1080p Youtube video was no where close to the appearance of 1080p video on the G3. And you have to use Mctube as the Youtube app is not working natively for the 6+. Same for Netflix. I realize these are 3rd party apps but it's a bit difficult to understand why these are not ready to show off the phone at launch.

-$1200 CDN with Applecare. At this price it has to be pretty much perfect.



So a lot of what I didn't like could be due to a defective unit and I understand other 6+ users were having call quality issues. I did talk to the staff at the Apple store but they had no replacement stock so I had to do a return. In general I get the impression that everything is very rushed for this phone and if you are on the fence, or picky about things as I am I would wait a couple of months until the bugs are all worked out.

I am back to my G3 for now and using what I learned from my time with the 6+ to make it a more usable phone. I feel I will wait until some of the bugs are fixed and possibly pick up another 6+ in a couple of months.

 

[mashinhead]

Outside of a number of things, like:

• Weird bugs (try typing in landscape mode in Mail... the text is cut off for me)
• Low volume from ear speaker for phone calls
• It may be weak and bend too easily (compare to Note 3)
• It's very big and awkward

Here's the major problem: It's a tweener.

What does that mean? It's such an odd size that it's effectively, in some ways, in between a full size tablet and a smartphone. No, it's not as big as a 7" tablet, a size typically used as the benchmark for tweeners. But it approaches tweener territory. And what does this really mean?

It means that Apps need to be designed specifically for it.

Right now, the lack of Apps is a huge issue for me. Everything is blown up and looks like crap. Facebook, banking Apps, everything. iOS does not do this well: it just blows everything up, including the text. It's pixelated and looks like garbage. This is in some ways even worse than Android, and I hate Android.

This is fragmentation. Tim Cook and company should have done a lot more to prepare a better App showing out of the gate. And they should have done a deeper dive into iOS to deal with better scaling. I know to be patient as developers change their Apps and the 5S was a screen jump from previous iPhones, but there's the problem:

It's a tweener, and it needs more customized design when it comes to Apps.

The 5S was easy: it was just another row. The interfaces of Apps didn't really change at all. There was just a bit more vertical room for content. The 6 Plus is different because it's so fundamentally different as to be a huge leap in screen size both width and height wise. For example, Apple has introduced split screen in things like Mail, Reminders, etc. The problem is, it doesn't work very well because it's trying to do things that a large screen full size iPad does and it doesn't translate/work very well. And just blowing up the same interface from the smaller screened iPhones (e.g., 5S) doesn't translate either.

I believe this is going to be a challenge and it's not clear what the results will be, or when the situation will improve dramatically. But my opinion is that the 6 Plus is a different category of device and developers simply cannot just make the same interface for a 5S/6 over to the Plus.

Couldn't agree more. I basically wrote this exact same thread yesterday. It's a whole new device.

 

[circa7]

Why iOS developers don't have the option for a CSS "media query" or something similar for styling is beyond me. Just add some extra code so their applications adapt to different screen sizes. We do it for the web, why can't we do it for native applications?

 

[deviant]

I had high hopes for the 6 plus and I was let down. It is that simple.

I will quote the great George Carlin to you.
"If your needs aren't being met - lower your needs"
Same goes for hopes. It's easy to hope and expect. It's much more difficult to deliver.

 

[booksbooks]

I thought I would come back to this thread and mention that I had returned my 6 plus after 13 days. I feel pretty down about it as there were many things I liked about the phone.

Pros:

- Great operating system and 3rd party apps. Apps like Fantastical are great and there are very few well thought out and professional apps like this for Android.

- IMessage is a killer app. Loved it.

- Fingerprint security and seamless ICloud backup.

- Great screen legibility for text. The legibility made the phone very usable. I love the way the display seems to be on the glass.

- Great music playback quality and music app. 16/44.1 music on the 6+ sounds better than the hi res files the LG G3 can play back.

- Super build quality despite what is being said about it.

Cons:

- Very poor call quality from the earpiece. There was a lot of low end rumble and not enough treble resolution to hear the difference between sounds like "th" and "s" in spoken conversations. This was the biggest dealbreaker for me.

- Much to my surprise I found the camera in the G3 is much better. I bought some apps like Cortex Camera but I could not really improve on the picture quality.

- Poor video playback quality. Using Mctube to playback 1080p Youtube video was no where close to the appearance of 1080p video on the G3. And you have to use Mctube as the Youtube app is not working natively for the 6+. Same for Netflix. I realize these are 3rd party apps but it's a bit difficult to understand why these are not ready to show off the phone at launch.

-$1200 CDN with Applecare. At this price it has to be pretty much perfect.

So a lot of what I didn't like could be due to a defective unit and I understand other 6+ users were having call quality issues. I did talk to the staff at the Apple store but they had no replacement stock so I had to do a return. In general I get the impression that everything is very rushed for this phone and if you are on the fence, or picky about things as I am I would wait a couple of months until the bugs are all worked out.

I am back to my G3 for now and using what I learned from my time with the 6+ to make it a more usable phone. I feel I will wait until some of the bugs are fixed and possibly pick up another 6+ in a couple of months.

I have the same issues you've listed here. Particularly the call quality through the earpiece is terrible. It leaves me scratching my head.

----------

Couldn't agree more. I basically wrote this exact same thread yesterday. It's a whole new device.

Thanks. For those of us in the industry who develop software, we know how challenging another screen size category is to developing Apps. It's expensive as hell and requires lots of work to "do another screensize".

Again, you cannot simply design something for a small screen (iPhone 5/5S) and expect it will work on a much larger screen. It rarely ever works out that way. At the least, your white space will be all messed up and FITTS principle, among other user interface design principles, will start rearing their ugly head when it comes to usability.

 

[epphllps]

I have the same complaint about call quality through the earpiece. It's subpar to say the least. Like the phone, in general, but as it is a new device the programming seems to be much different to accommodate it. It will turn into a solid device, but it will take some time for the refining process to occur. Hopefully, a lot of the quirks can be fixed through software adjustments.

 

[booksbooks]

I will quote the great George Carlin to you.
"If your needs aren't being met - lower your needs"
Same goes for hopes. It's easy to hope and expect. It's much more difficult to deliver.

This is just absurd. There is no need to "lower your needs" when your needs are perfectly reasonable and within the realm of what's possible and even being done by other companies. For instance, Android does scaling better than iOS, and we're using media-queries online in a successful way.

No, this is a lack of vision and work on Apple's part. I'd imagine they've been so busy with the Watch that even a company like them as big as they are, you're seeing something suffer/rushed (iPhone 6 Plus). Native iOS Apps and how iOS handles scaling is terrible when it comes to the iPhone 6 Plus. Where were all the App developers that Apple could have worked with to show off the new screen of the Plus?

Memba the first iPad? Memba the New York Times and a few others who showed off custom native Apps for the new screen size?

I can't really find any decent, popular App that has had any design customization for the Plus.

It's not acceptable to launch a product like this without the software support. Thanks Apple, I love the phone with the big screen and the fact that you updated your own Apps, but outside of this, pretty much all mainstream Apps are crap. I can't even barely look at them let alone use them. Blown up pixelated garbage. It's not usable. And then you STILL have a problem on the 6! What made the iPhone such a great experience was the Apps: they were designed so well and looked excellent on the phone because of a lack of fragmentation (blown up Apps on multiple screen sizes). I do not think Apple is ready for these new screen sizes. Their development tools, even though they've come a long way, still will not help developers much in this regard.

 

[deviant]

This is just absurd. There is no need to "lower your needs" when your needs are perfectly reasonable and within the realm of what's possible and even being done by other companies. For instance, Android does scaling better than iOS, and we're using media-queries online in a successful way.

No, this is a lack of vision and work on Apple's part. I'd imagine they've been so busy with the Watch that even a company like them as big as they are, you're seeing something suffer/rushed (iPhone 6 Plus). Native iOS Apps and how iOS handles scaling is terrible when it comes to the iPhone 6 Plus. Where were all the App developers that Apple could have worked with to show off the new screen of the Plus?

Memba the first iPad? Memba the New York Times and a few others who showed off custom native Apps for the new screen size?

I can't really find any decent, popular App that has had any design customization for the Plus.

It's not acceptable to launch a product like this without the software support. Thanks Apple, I love the phone with the big screen and the fact that you updated your own Apps, but outside of this, pretty much all mainstream Apps are crap. I can't even barely look at them let alone use them. Blown up pixelated garbage. It's not usable.

I not only remember iPad 1, I own one. It was a beautiful device. Changed everything. Too bad it only had single core, like iphone 4, so it faded out pretty quickly. It's been what, a couple of weeks 6+ has been out? And you pretend that every major app has to be perfect? Man get out of here, it doesn't work like that.

 

[aneftp]

Sadly. Until apps get updated. It's ironic when Apple made fun of android saying android apps were just blown up apps (on android tablets).

Now we can say iPhone apps are just blown up apps on the iPhone 6 plus (from the older generation iPhones).

 

[Dranix]

Well blown up is way better then the insanely tiny fonts in some of the updates apps for ip6+ 8( Some devs really are insane if they think anyone can read that.

 

[booksbooks]

Sadly. Until apps get updated. It's ironic when Apple made fun of android saying android apps were just blown up apps (on android tablets).

Now we can say iPhone apps are just blown up apps on the iPhone 6 plus (from the older generation iPhones).

This. I cannot believe that more people and even fanboys aren't talking about this. Everyone is glossing over it but it's a major problem because Apps need to be custom designed for this new screen size. There is no way of getting out of this.

 

[aneftp]

This. I cannot believe that more people and even fanboys aren't talking about this. Everyone is glossing over it but it's a major problem because Apps need to be custom designed for this new screen size. There is no way of getting out of this.

It's going to take a while to get apps updated for 1080p resolution. Some gaming apps werent optimized for iPhone 5 until almost one year after its released.

I hope the streaming apps like Netflix HBO etc update quicker since streaming video apps are the ones that need it the soonest.

 

[icowboys]

Even many of the apps that have been updated for the 6+ resolution still have no concept of landscape mode. Having to constantly rotate back to portrait mode when switching to one of these apps is currently a major drawback.

 

[Zinthar]

The 5.2" phone is the Moto X. I think it's too thick but very cool and with their ear piece and Moto 360 watch and Android L, I'm seriously considering defecting over to Android and getting the Moto X, Moto 360, and ear piece. All of that combined would be cheaper than the iPhone 6 Plus 128 GB that I have!

The Moto X maxes out at 32GB without the option to add your own storage. Also, its battery life, display, and camera do not stack up well against the 6 and 6 Plus. With the display, it appears that they're using a 2013 AMOLED from Samsung, likely because Samsung wants to retain the better AMOLED's in the S5 and Note 4 to differentiate their own phones. And the battery life is among the worst for a 2014 flagship.

If you're looking at Android, I'd try to hold out for the Z3. Or get the 4.7" iPhone 6.

----------

This. I cannot believe that more people and even fanboys aren't talking about this. Everyone is glossing over it but it's a major problem because Apps need to be custom designed for this new screen size. There is no way of getting out of this.

Your point is valid, but it's a temporary problem. The developers of non-defunct apps will get their apps updated to support the new point counts of 6 & 6 Plus and then by November/December this is largely a non-issue.

The same thing happened last year with some apps being slow to adopt iOS 7's look and features.

Google finally got their iOS 8/iPhone 6/6 Plus updating underway when they released an update to Gmail. I'd bet Google Maps and Hangouts are fixed before Halloween.

 

[booksbooks]

The Moto X maxes out at 32GB without the option to add your own storage. Also, its battery life, display, and camera do not stack up well against the 6 and 6 Plus. With the display, it appears that they're using a 2013 AMOLED from Samsung, likely because Samsung wants to retain the better AMOLED's in the S5 and Note 4 to differentiate their own phones. And the battery life is among the worst for a 2014 flagship.

If you're looking at Android, I'd try to hold out for the Z3. Or get the 4.7" iPhone 6.

----------



Your point is valid, but it's a temporary problem. The developers of non-defunct apps will get their apps updated to support the new point counts of 6 & 6 Plus and then by November/December this is largely a non-issue.

The same thing happened last year with some apps being slow to adopt iOS 7's look and features.

Google finally got their iOS 8/iPhone 6/6 Plus updating underway when they released an update to Gmail. I'd bet Google Maps and Hangouts are fixed before Halloween.

Good points but there's something missing from your analysis that I keep discussing:

The iPhone 6 Plus is a tweener. A new category of screen size for Apple. Developers/Designers cannot design something for a smaller phone (iPhone 5, iPhone 6...) and have that same design work well on such a larger screen. I do this for a living. It doesn't happen.

It's not just about resolution, you have to redesign your App. You will get problems with white space issues, FITTS principle will be out the window, etc.

Some tangible stuff: all your hit targets (buttons) have to be carefully designed/sized in consideration of the screen size. You have to look at how content is appearing. You may completely toss the idea of designing any navigation at the top of your App because the screen is so tall (bad usability to reach). You now have more room for main content, not just heightwise, but widthwise... how is that looking? Will it affect our UI? Most probably yes...

You have to consider all of these things to get a good experience going out of an App for a device of this "odd" size. The point is this isn't trivial anymore. This isn't just a point sync over. This is a device that demands redesigns all for itself.

 

[Truefan31]

Well if you're that unhappy with the 6 plus/6 u can always try something else.