This is the phone I've been waiting for since smartphones first came around. Big, gorgeous, feels good in the hand, makes surfing the web or reading news articles an absolute joy.
A few years back I got a Note 2. I loved that thing. At first I thought the huge screen was a complete gimmick, and pointless as I already had a tablet. But a friend showed me hers and I was hooked on it before I could even give it back, so I got one for myself. I loved it, but I'm a constant upgrader, so when the Galaxy S4 came out, I figured I'd switch to that. Big mistake. It felt too small and the battery life was atrocious. I figured I'd hold out for the Note 3 and stick to that line from that point on.
But then two things happened. The first is that Samsung introduced their region lock system to try and shut out the grey market. This wouldn't have bothered me except that the system was so buggy that plenty of people who bought their phone and activated the phone in the same country still got locked out when they tried to use the phone in another country. I go out of the US enough that I couldn't risk having a phone that would lock me out even if I did everything I was supposed to do, and of course Samsung chose to use the Note 3 as the first device to utilize this stupid system. Suddenly I was on the lookout for a new world phone.
I knew that iPhones were considered world phones due to the amount of bands and frequencies they supported, plus any model could support GSM SIM cards. So I paid attention to the 5S announcement. I had the iPhone 1, 3G, and 3GS before switching to Android because I wanted to customize my phone more, and I had an iPad 1 and 3, so I was no stranger to iOS or Apple devices. Even so, I was underwhelmed. TouchID seemed like a gimmick, and 64 bit architecture meant nothing to me. I kept looking for a suitable Android world phone that pleased me like the Note 2 did. However, none of the options I found were as polished or powerful as the 5S.
What finally did me in was reading AnandTech's review of the 5S. They explained to me why TouchID wasn't a gimmick, and gave me solid reasons for why I should embrace a phone with a 64-bit OS. That, combined with the fact that I simply could not find anything better, led me to the 5S. Now, I still think the 5S is an exceptional phone, but the screen was so flipping tiny! My hands would cramp if I used it too often. It was a real detriment to using what I felt was otherwise an excellent device. That being said, being back on iOS was a breath of fresh air compared to Android. Not that Android is half-baked, but it's not as streamlined and unified as iOS is. I used to deride Apple's closed ecosystem, but at this point in the life of the OS, I can see where the consumer really reaps the benefits (although it does still place some limitations on the user experience, it's definitely not perfect).
When rumors surfaced of Apple releasing a bigger phone, I assumed it would be 4.7". It's a good fit in the hand, gives you a bigger screen without blowing the phone up too much, and works with the resolution Apple already uses for the iPhone. And if they had only announced a 4.7" phone this year, I would have bought it without hesitation. But I really hoped they'd go bigger. I had tasted the world of big screens with the Note 2, but I wanted it on iOS. I wanted it with Apple hardware.
And I think with the Plus, they've succeeded admirably. This screen is the best I've ever seen. Holding the phone just feels right. Yes, after using a 5S for a year, it felt massive when I first picked it up. And yes, even now I'll look at it and handle it and think that this is just so much phone. But it feels substantial, even though it's incredibly thin (too thin honestly). Most of the little extras baked into the phone are great, and the ones that aren't will hopefully get ironed out in time. And once third party developers really start working on the Plus, watch out. It'll be a whole new ballgame.
This is the first phone that's made me leave my tablet at home instead of doing a phone/tablet combo when I go out. It does just about everything I want it to do and I'm already used to how I need to hold it and handle it to use it the way I want it. It's really an incredible device and I know that I will stick with this line of phones for a good long while.
tl;dr: It's aces.
