As most of you know I'm an outspoken advocate of the Note 4 which will probably be my next phone. This is with the major caveat that I have never physically handled either the Note 4 or either of the new iphones so my mind was never made up 100%.
I finally got the chance to take a peek at the iPhone 6 physically as I was in the mall to attempt a preorder on the Note 4, more on that in a bit. My initial impressions of the new iphones from pictures and videos were that it looked cheap, the plastic antenna strips were gaudy and horrible, the bezels were huge and unnecessary and made the phone look larger than it should have been.
Actually feeling one in store my opinion has changed in some ways, and not changed in other ways. This is mostly an aesthetic assessment, which is VERY personal and everyone will have different feelings:
antenna lines: On the black model with the grey back they weren't as terrible as I thought. They were very flush with the aluminum, the color did stick out but not as garishly as in pictures, and the plastic felt high quality, still it kind of felt like a step down in quality when I rubbed my finger on the aluminum and came to the plastic strip. On the gold and silver models the antenna lines looked horrible, especially the gold model, the difference in color was just absolutely horrible.
Bezels: They are still pretty huge. On the black model it's acceptable because you can't really see them unless the screen is on, and even then they blend in well. I personally could deal with the bezels on the black model. On the white models they look stunningly horrible, just awful. Combined with the chrome surround on the home button and that bezel was just a shining beacon which would easily be used as a light house to bring ships home.
Thinness: Wow, I'm impressed, especially with the reports of battery life. I put my Note 3 next to it and noticed a substantial difference, and the Note 4 is supposed to be just a tiny hair thicker. The thinness and narrowness made it feel a tiny bit better in the hand than the Note 3, it felt a tiny bit lighter although I don't have the specs in front of me.
Overall feel: The iPhone plus feels very nice, it's got that smooth cold metal feel. That may be a negative though. With the stories about the phone bending, that's a concern. Also I could see that backing and sides getting scratched the instant I walked out of the store if the scratchability (is that a word?)of the 5s is similar. This phone just screams for a case, and that's a negative to me, negating the thinness factor and the nice aluminum feel factor. Maybe a rear plastic screen protector might work like a full body armor suit, but I'm not sure you can really stick much to the curved sides.
In conclusion I liked it a lot more than I thought I would. Enough where it has earned some consideration over the Note 4. I'm also having difficulty with the Note 4 in terms of dealing with a locked bootloader through ATT which may sway me away from it and Samsung. In the end it's great to have decisions like this.
I finally got the chance to take a peek at the iPhone 6 physically as I was in the mall to attempt a preorder on the Note 4, more on that in a bit. My initial impressions of the new iphones from pictures and videos were that it looked cheap, the plastic antenna strips were gaudy and horrible, the bezels were huge and unnecessary and made the phone look larger than it should have been.
Actually feeling one in store my opinion has changed in some ways, and not changed in other ways. This is mostly an aesthetic assessment, which is VERY personal and everyone will have different feelings:
antenna lines: On the black model with the grey back they weren't as terrible as I thought. They were very flush with the aluminum, the color did stick out but not as garishly as in pictures, and the plastic felt high quality, still it kind of felt like a step down in quality when I rubbed my finger on the aluminum and came to the plastic strip. On the gold and silver models the antenna lines looked horrible, especially the gold model, the difference in color was just absolutely horrible.
Bezels: They are still pretty huge. On the black model it's acceptable because you can't really see them unless the screen is on, and even then they blend in well. I personally could deal with the bezels on the black model. On the white models they look stunningly horrible, just awful. Combined with the chrome surround on the home button and that bezel was just a shining beacon which would easily be used as a light house to bring ships home.
Thinness: Wow, I'm impressed, especially with the reports of battery life. I put my Note 3 next to it and noticed a substantial difference, and the Note 4 is supposed to be just a tiny hair thicker. The thinness and narrowness made it feel a tiny bit better in the hand than the Note 3, it felt a tiny bit lighter although I don't have the specs in front of me.
Overall feel: The iPhone plus feels very nice, it's got that smooth cold metal feel. That may be a negative though. With the stories about the phone bending, that's a concern. Also I could see that backing and sides getting scratched the instant I walked out of the store if the scratchability (is that a word?)of the 5s is similar. This phone just screams for a case, and that's a negative to me, negating the thinness factor and the nice aluminum feel factor. Maybe a rear plastic screen protector might work like a full body armor suit, but I'm not sure you can really stick much to the curved sides.
In conclusion I liked it a lot more than I thought I would. Enough where it has earned some consideration over the Note 4. I'm also having difficulty with the Note 4 in terms of dealing with a locked bootloader through ATT which may sway me away from it and Samsung. In the end it's great to have decisions like this.
