
The iPhone 6 Review - wittyphrasehere
http://anandtech.com/show/8554/the-iphone-6-review
======
SwellJoe
It's amusing how much space is devoted to the location of buttons and ports. I
don't recall ever thinking, "I want a phone with the power button on the right
side and the charge port on the bottom. Those are my primary requirements."

Phone hardware just isn't interesting, anymore. We've reached the point that
personal computers reached a couple decades ago: They're all pretty good and
not much different from the model released two years ago (though they are
faster and have more storage and RAM).

~~~
drzaiusapelord
This is classic bikeshedding. A lot of mobile device reviews are pretty
unsophisticated, so there's a lot of spilled ink about button location, how
the metal/plastic feels, etc. Its a strange regression. Like we just can't
judge or weigh the complexity of a modern mobile OS and all its services and
apps and just take on this simplified, "Uh, it looks nice" point of view.

Strange that even a hard-nosed tech site like anandtech can't resist the
typical fetishiztion of buttons and whispered sighs of "So intuitive" and
"designey!" Meanwhile, valid competitors like the Nexus or Samsung line-ups
either get strict apathy or get criticized in a way that Apple is immune to
(for example the Note's size being unacceptable yet the 6+ size being
perfect). Or the Jobsian logic that the press repeats (size of iphone is
perfect because of human thumb size) and then ignores when even Apple itself
doesn't buy that argument anymore.

I think the world of tech reviewing proves how well marketing works,
especially against those who often see themselves as resistant to it and self-
declared rational/skeptical/intellectual thinkers. If anything, these types
seem more susceptible to it for some reason.

I don't even really read reviews in a serious fashion at this point, except
maybe at Ars. Reviews seem to be marketing vehicles, either consciously or
sub-consciously on the part of the reviewer. Ars seems to be more even-handed
than most and they try not to fall too deeply into the trap of bikeshedding or
pandering for ad impressions. I can't be the only one unhappy with how these
things are reviewed nowadays. It seems like the narrative of the "nerds have
won" in regardless to tech is pretty disingenious. If anyone has won, its the
marketers. The more you spend to promote your talking points, the more often
those talking points will be believed or, at least, repeated. It doesn't seem
anymore complex than that.

I'm also willing to concede that there's a subjective element here that makes
reviewing of commodity tech almost like reviewing the arts. At a certain point
performance, durability, etc are all fine for the top competitors and reviews
just address things that are more subjective than objective for the lack of
things to talk about. Mobile has certainly reached that space and the only
rational move for these companies is to just invest more in marketing to make
your 'SoC tied to a touchscreen tied to a mobile OS tied to an app store' look
better than the other guy's 'SoC tied to a touchscreen tied to a mobile OS
tied to an app store.'

Now the role of the reviewer is to communicate these marketing messages
effectively.

~~~
iaskwhy
Just the other I realised Jobs was right saying the size of the iPhone was
perfect because of human thumb size, his mistake at the time (assuming he
really thought this through and wasn't just being a salesman) was to think
consumers would always value the ergonomics above everything else. In time,
even Apple realised consumers were probably favouring other things like the
screen size itself even when ergonomics suffered a lot with it. It's a very
important message right there for any one size fits all strategy.

~~~
smacktoward
It wasn't a mistake -- "consumers don't know what they really want, so we'll
only sell the version they _should_ want" was straightforward Jobsian
thinking.

It's similar another famous case of a perfectionist founder rejecting
customers' demands, Henry Ford's famous statement about the Model T that "any
customer can have a car painted any color that he wants, so long as it is
black."
([http://www.gutenberg.org/cache/epub/7213/pg7213.html#id00226](http://www.gutenberg.org/cache/epub/7213/pg7213.html#id00226))

------
stevewepay
I've had the iPhone 6 since Sept 19. In the 10 days since then, I've shattered
the screen, when it slipped out of my pocket as I got out of a chair, and bent
the phone just yesterday, after putting it in my back pocket and sitting down
on it (and then immediately getting up when I realized what I did). Let me
tell you that the bending issue is very real. My phone isn't bent like those
consumer reports videos, but it is definitely warped.

I realize that both incidents are my fault, but this phone is by far the most
fragile iphone I've ever owned, out of 4. In the 10 days that I've owned it, I
haven't changed any of my behavior and it already has been damaged twice. I'm
pretty disappointed with the poor durability of the phone and am considering
replacing it with my reliable iphone5, and waiting for the 6S which hopefully
fixes these durability issues.

~~~
georgespencer
> after putting it in my back pocket and sitting down on it

> the bending issue is very real

I'd suggest that the issue is that you're a guy who thinks sitting on $1,000
of glass and aluminium is a normal thing to do.

~~~
stevewepay
I did this all the time with my iPhone 3, 4 and 5 without any issues which is
why it developed into a habit. The fact that I can't do that with the iPhone 6
is a surprise and disappointment.

~~~
ghshephard
I'm with the parent. If you think sitting on a phone in your back pocket is a
problem, I don't think the solution is a "stronger phone."

~~~
hnal943
You're wrong. I also do this all the time and if my phone broke I'd be
outraged because _every phone_ built before the iphone 6 can handle that kind
of stress.

The phone is the outlier, not the use case.

~~~
CountSessine
Not really, no.

My ex-wife always sat with her 3 in her back jeans pocket because fashion
designers refuse to put sensible front pockets on women's jeans. The 3's case
began to crack at the top around the power button after a while. And this is a
girl sitting on her phone - not some 200lbs guy.

And I certainly wouldn't sit on my nexus 5 or the SGS4 that it replaced.

------
bshimmin
Great review, as always.

I was pretty entertained by the second comment, which I think has the highest
density of Apple hatred the web has thus far witnessed.

~~~
Tyrannosaurs
I'm sure he feels better getting it all off his chest and it's good to have a
hobby.

And if you can't have a hobby then being irrationally angry on the internet
will do instead.

~~~
jbigelow76
_And if you can 't have a hobby then being irrationally angry on the internet
will do instead_

Judging by scope, being irrationally angry on the internet seems to be a hobby
unto itself.

~~~
Tyrannosaurs
I see it more as a state of mind. An angry, angry state of mind.

------
cle
This is an amazingly detailed review.

But, at the end of the day, fussing over curvy edges, chevroned pixels, and
extreme CPU and GPU performance is irrelevant to me. I bought the iPhone 6,
but then I took it back and returned to my Nexus 5. I just can't justify
spending over $700 (upgrade fees, contract, etc.) for a phone that does nearly
everything my current $350 phone does.

I'm sharing this because I hope that some people will avoid this mistake.
They're taking advantage of the denomination effect
([http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Denomination_effect](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Denomination_effect)),
and I got sucked into it too. For most of the people reading this: your
current phone is just fine, save your money and use it for something more
important.

~~~
ghshephard
This really depends on (A) How often you use your phone, (B) What you use your
phone for, and (C) most importantly, how old your phone is.

Anybody who actively uses their phone, particularly the Camera, CPU and GPU
capability, definitely stands to see a pretty big improvement if they upgrade
every three years, and definitely every four. The jump (for me) from the 3GS
to the iPhone 5 was massive, particularly around the camera. The shutter is
_incredibly_ fast on the iPhone 5. And the Games/Display also were a pretty
big leap forward.

Anybody who is currently on an iPhone 4 can definitely justify moving to the
iPhone 6 if they are an active user, and I would even suggest there might be
value for 4S users.

I'd concur with you that iPhone 5 users can probably wait another round before
seriously considering upgrades though, and obviously iPhone 5S users under
contract (unless they have some really huge need for the large screens), don't
have any need to update anytime soon.

All this is predicated on you owning your phone. Obviously anybody stuck in a
contract with the carrier in which they are "subsidized" should just upgrade
every two years and re-sell your phone.

[Edit - I just checked out
[http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nexus_5](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nexus_5)
\- The Nexus 5 is _less_ than a year old and already has a 4.9" display.
Unless you are a professional phone reviewer, I'm not sure what would motivate
you to pick up an iPhone 6. Returning it was almost definitely the right
decision]

~~~
saturdaysaint
If you're on corporate e-mail, which almost always demands a password, I
couldn't think of living without TouchID. Even using a dead simple/dumb
password or swipe pattern would drive me up the wall.

~~~
ghshephard
I'm looking forward to touch ID, particularly as I have a 10 digit passcode
and a (company enforced) 5 minute timeout on my phone.

------
mbillie1
> At this point, it’s not really possible to revolutionize the smartphone

I see this sentiment batted around quite a bit these days. Just because nobody
_has_ revolutionized the smartphone in the past few years doesn't mean it's
not possible.

~~~
Alphasite_
No, but there isn't any low hanging fruit.

~~~
ZenoArrow
There are tons of ways to innovate with smartphones, but the technology to do
so is either too young, too niche or hasn't made it beyond the drawing board.

To pick three innovative features that have made it into real smartphones, you
can look at the Samsung Galaxy Beam pico projector, Jolla's 'The Other Half',
and the YotaPhone E-Ink backscreen. Some would argue that these are gimmicks,
but isn't all innovation a little gimmicky before it reaches mass market
adoption (I'd argue camera phones were in this category originally, and they
certainly aren't gimmicks anymore).

Jolla's The Other Half is especially interesting, as it allows for people to
personalise the functionality of their phone (along with the look). Whether it
takes off or not remains to be seen.

~~~
seunosewa
Shatter-proof screens would be more revolutionary.

~~~
ZenoArrow
Not really. Screens on most high end smartphones are already toughened, you'd
just end up with an evolutionary improvement rather than a revolutionary one.
Plus, there's no such thing as shatter-proof, so the screens should be easily
replaceable as well.

------
mwcampbell
Interesting that the only problem the reviewer could find with sticking to 1
GB of RAM is that you can't keep several tabs live in Safari. To me, that just
highlights the inefficiency of the modern web stack, rather than any problem
with iOS or with the iPhone sticking to 1 GB of RAM.

------
Diwoto
One thing I think Apple should do is to license Nvidia's GPU for their SoC.
Especially when Maxwell is ready for mobile.

Nvidia clearly wants to license it out and I think Apple would be the best one
to take advantage of it. Apple seems to be pushing the GPU side of their SoCs
quite a bit.

~~~
leonroy
I've always been a HUGE fan of the PowerVR tech (the GPU inside the
iPhone/iPad), even going so far as buying shares in the company when I was a
kid (I was an odd kid).

From what I understand of the technology it was built with efficiency from the
ground up as opposed to the nVidia tech of the time such as the TNT and
Geforce which were designed for raw performance.

Good article about it:
[http://www.anandtech.com/show/558/4](http://www.anandtech.com/show/558/4)

I think Videologic/Imagination Tech patented the heck outta a lot of the
techniques they came up with so wouldn't be surprised if they're ahead of the
pack on efficiency.

------
morbius
The quality of writing has definitely dipped since Anand's departure. Though
this review does contain a lot of information, it seems like it was written in
a very sophomoric way.

~~~
leonroy
First thing I noticed was how many authors it took to write that article.
Believe Anand used to write past iPhone reviews solo - think they're gonna
find it tough to replace him.

------
zyngaro
"On August 30, 2014, Anand announced his decision to retire from the
technology publishing industry to work at Apple, and named longtime AnandTech
editor Ryan Smith as his successor."
[http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/AnandTech](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/AnandTech)

------
personZ
"It remains to be seen if other SoC manufacturers will catch up in their CPU
architecture at one point or another"

This is surprisingly ignorant from Anandtech. Surely they know better.

While Apple raced to win the spec war (I say that tongue in cheek, but the
truth is that Apple tries really hard to give you bragging rights, buying the
biggest PowerVR designs, jumping on incomplete ARM specs, etc), going to ARMv8
far before her peers by creating a derivative of early A57 designs (much like
Qualcomm did with Krait, getting in early on the new A15 design), every other
vendor has been soberly pursuing ARM A57 at their own pace: It isn't like
there is some great lack of performance in competing devices, and this simply
isn't a critical thing, so there seems to be no great rush.

The Tegra K1 Denver will be the first salvo from alternatives, and early
indications are that it will provide pretty extraordinary performance, and
presumably we'll search for ways of using that power productively.

Looks like I've stepped into the distortion field, where Apple is both
uncatchably ahead of everyone, and simultaneously not even trying.

~~~
pinaceae
Apple tries really hard to give you bragging rights through their processor!?

are you posting this from bizarro world? apple is the one tech company that
does not advertise tech specs. they mention them in the keynotes and move on.
as if you ignored thousands of articles about this very fact. amazing.

~~~
personZ
I see comments like yours fairly frequently, and it really is bizarro world.
It's buying into an obviously untrue narrative that hasn't been
true...well..ever.

Apple makes a _really_ big deal about their cores and GPU, as they have every
right to (they're pretty great). Quite aside from their keynotes that focus
extensively on this, on the product page you learn, right near the top, about
the A8 64-bit processor and M8 coprocessor, as if these facts have any
relevance to an end user. They're bragging points. Apple talks about their
64-bit advantage ad nauseam.

They absolutely brag about their chip. They boast specs (as they boast
"retina" displays and thinness and grams and materials).

~~~
dragonwriter
> They boast specs (as they boast "retina" displays and thinness and grams and
> materials)

They tend more than other manufacturers to boast brands and subjective
description rather than the base specs -- "retina" rather than PPI, for
instance -- but its true that they do sometimes boast specs.

They'll brag about their (completely meaningless) processor _name_ (A8), but
won't spend as much focus as others boasting _measures_ like GHz or core
count, etc. -- IOW, they don't spend a lot of focus on things that you can
meaningfully compete with and compare across vendors.

Because they are selling magic and brands, not concrete features.

~~~
personZ
I've heard Apple talk about their 64-bit processor magnitudes more than I've
heard Samsung or HTC talk about Ghz or core counts. I've heard Apple talk
about GPUs more than every other vendor combined, but somehow we all need to
roll with the ridiculous notion that Apple cares not a whit about specs,
despite talking about them endlessly.

------
jabberwock
Curious to see no mention of the bending controversy given the huge furore
about it(regardless of whether it's actually true or not). If the reviewer
thought it was a non-issue, he could have written a single sentence clarifying
the same.

~~~
n00j
"Along the left side, we see the standard volume buttons and mute switch that
continue to have the same solid feel and clean clicking action. As I discuss
in the iPhone 6 Plus review, going by Consumer Reports' data it seems that
there is a weak point near the bottom of the volume rocker, although it's far
less likely to be an issue on the iPhone 6 due to its smaller size."

He mentions it on the third paragraph.

