iPhone 6: the natural evolution of Apple’s handset

IT’S less pretentious than the competition, but the iPhone 6 is the natural evolution of Apple’s premium handset product.

IT’S less pretentious than the competition, but my time with the iPhone 6 suggests it is the natural evolution of Apple’s premium handset product.

Apple on Friday starts selling two new iPhones in Australia — a modestly bigger iPhone 6 with a 4.7-inch screen and a phablet-sized whopper, the iPhone 6 Plus with a large 5.5-inch display.

History tells us that it’s a radical step for Apple to up the screen size. The original iPhone in 2007 had a 3.5-inch display and while screen resolution improved, Apple stuck with that size until 2012 with the 4.0-inch display iPhone 5.

Two years later, the Californian company has leapt into the bigger screen market but conservatively so. The 4.7-inch display on the iPhone 6 is relatively small compared to screens on premium models by Samsung, LG, Sony and Microsoft/Nokia, all of which are 5 inches or more.

Unlike the iPhone 6 Plus which is phablet sized and arguably a different user experience, the smaller iPhone 6 doesn’t startle the horses too much by radically altering everything about the handset. In the smartphone world, that is a blessing and a curse.

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It’s a blessing in that existing Apple iPhone 4 and 5 users, in my view, will have no trouble adapting to the iPhone 6 size and other functionality is totally familiar. Many of them will be coming off two-year contracts here in Australia.

The curse is that Apple is increasingly taking a risk that users will stick with Apple’s familiar software and app ecosphere and won’t be lured by some of the more useful features now found on Android devices which generally cost less.

In Australia, the cheapest iPhone 6 with just 16 Gigabytes of storage costs $869. You pay big money but don’t get features such as a separate microSD card slot, a removable battery, USB3 file transfer, new VOOC fast charging of 75 per cent of a battery in just 30 minutes, 4K video shooting and new ultra high resolution quad HD screens with 2,560x1,440 pixel screen resolution, and bigger 16 megapixel cameras. iPhones too are not waterproof and dustproof like new Sony Xperia phones.

But Apple has never sought a hardware specs shootout with rival Android handsets. Instead the iPhone remains its own ecosystem with its processor, display and software tweaked to perform optimally, and with a rich array of apps that often have more features than Android or Windows Phone versions.

There is one pivotal innovation on iPhone 6 — the addition of near field communication, or NFC, a form of very short range wireless technology that means the iPhone 6 (and 6 Plus) can be used for contactless payments in retail outlets — hence Apple Pay, although don’t expect to see it in Australia until at least next year, despite its initial US rollout next month.

With Apple Pay, the Touch ID feature introduced with the iPhone 5S makes it possible to effect biometric authentication by pressing the home button as you scan your phone in front of the store’s NFC receptor in one seamless action.

Indeed there are lots of compelling reasons to own an iPhone: the apps, Apple Pay, the long awaited Apple Watch to be released next year, Apple’s health ecosystem that brings together activity and health monitoring of around 70 items and gleans data from a mountain of fitness devices into one app, and soon, HomeKit, a standardised framework for the growing industry of consumer home automation.

Apple’s slow rollout of iBeacons — little wireless devices that for example will prompt you that a particular pair of shoes are on special as you pass them by in a shop — is another example. Your phone or watch may alert you to a pie vendor approaching as you stand in the football crowd.

By owning an iPhone, you’re part of a global club of Apple’s innovative tech ecosystems, which is why extreme hardware specs may not matter so much. And stuff just works. You may not have the highest resolution screens on an iPhone, but the combination of screen, processor and battery is balanced to deliver a consistently fast and reliable performance.

But I believe Apple is on notice now that it can’t ignore the march of clever Android hardware innovation for too much longer. Despite its security weaknesses, the flexibility of Android and its affordability is a lure to a huge part of the smartphone market.

The iPhone 6 handset is beautifully built with an anodised aluminium back and a curved side that makes it pleasant to hold. Despite its bigger size, it’s 0.7mm thinner than the 5S and just 17 grams heavier. It feels really light. That’s why I think existing Apple users won’t have issues adapting to it.

Controls are where they were on the 5S, except for the power button which is on the right-hand side. You can press it while holding the device in one hand. I couldn’t do that had it remained on top. The home button doubles as the Touch ID fingerprint sensor as it did on the 5S.

The camera lens on the back slightly protrudes which means the unit doesn’t lie totally flat. But you need to look closely to notice this. Personally, I’m not a fan of the horizontal lines on the backplate but otherwise it’s a very compact, strong and attractive design.

The iPhone 6 has a 16:9 ratio 1334x750 pixel display at 326 pixels per inch resolution. The iPhone 5S also has 326 ppi, but on the 6 it’s over a larger screen area. So video doesn’t look just blown up; it retains the crispness of the smaller handset.

The screen pixel density however is conservative. Screens on premium handsets by Samsung, Sony, LG, HTC and Microsoft/Nokia have higher pixel density (424-534 ppi) and at least 1920x1080 displays, but as I’ve previously said, the iPhone has a history of balancing battery, screen and processor power for better overall performance.

To test performance, I played 1080p video on the iPhone 6 at 75 per cent resolution for almost 11.5 hours which is excellent performance.

The iPhone 6 has a new A8 system on a chip that gives it more umph for tasks such as driving slower slow motion video recording. Like the 5S before it, the 6 has a second chip — in this case an M8 co-processor that monitors activity sensors, even while the phone is asleep.

The M8 gleans information from the accelerometer, gyroscope, compass and the new barometer sensor which Apple says knows when you’ve travelled up a flight of stairs by measuring the air pressure difference and the steps you take forward at the same time.

Apple’s back facing iSight camera remains at 8 megapixels, the front-facing camera is just 1.2 megapixels. On the iSight camera features such as slow motion, time lapse, a new style of autofocus, and fast 1080p shooting work a treat. Rivals of course are offering 16 mp main cameras and even more than 3mp front facing ones.

Apple keeps its camera functionality relatively straight forward but what’s there tends to work. The new phase detection autofocusing does indeed reduce focusing time noticeably. It takes images from different sides of the lens and uses them for optimal focusing. This improves the ability to capture a momentary shot before the opportunity is lost — an action that can be dubious on phones at the best of times.

There’s 1080p full HD video recording at 60 frames per second in addition to standard 30 fps, and a new slow motion mode that records at 240 fps as well as 120 fps. The 240 fps mode slows motion 10 fold and I was able to reduce relatively fast moving traffic along Princes Highway in Sydney to an absolute crawl.

On the other hand, time lapse photography of the same traffic had it speeding up astronomically. These options are incorporated in the sliding panel next to the big red button in Apple’s camera app. Camera samples are included in the video accompanying this story.

Sadly, Apple did not include its new optical image stabilisation in the iPhone 6; it’s restricted to the iPhone 6 Plus. This is a shame because OIS certainly does smooth out video shake, something we found when trialling both handsets. It’s been around for some time, with Nokia making it a key feature of its top-end Lumia Windows handsets. If video matters, OIS is one reason for opting for the bigger iPhone.

There’s other improvements with the release of iOS 8, Apple’s updated operating system for the iPhone and iPad. Many of the new features will work with older iPhone models, but not all. See this story.

Both the iPhone 6 and 6 Plus also offer faster 4G LTE download speeds, and faster 802.11ac Wi-Fi with a claimed threefold speed increase.

As with the iPhone 5 before it, the iPhone 6 comes in silver, gold and grey colours. Silver and gold have a white front, grey a black front. There’s already a swag of covers for the phones, made by Apple and third party suppliers.

If you want an iPhone 5S, you will be able to buy 16GB and 32GB models at $749 and $799 respectively. An 8GB iPhone 5C model will sell for $529.

In summary, the iPhone 6 is a worthy successor to the iPhone 5 range and its increased screen size modernises its look. This should not prove an issue for iPhone 4 and 5 users used to a smaller handset size.

It may not have some of the hardware innovations of Android, but you get to continue to enjoy Apple’s extensive ecosystem of apps, its upcoming Apple Pay system and health and home automation experiences. You are a member of Club Apple.

But it’s also a case of watch out Android, in terms of the increasing sophistication of hardware and software specs.

Rating: 8.5

Price: $869, $999 and $1129 for 16, 64 and 128 Gigabytes of storage, or buy on contract from Telstra, Optus and Vodafone.

Click here for the iPhone 6 Plus hands on review.

Chris Griffith travelled to the Apple launch event at Cupertino courtesy of Apple