iPhone 6 Plus Review

I treated myself to an iPhone 6 Plus in silver — my favorite color.土豪 gold is too tacky, black too dull. I've always preferred light colors.

I've always maintained a 1:1:1 split between Android, iOS, and Windows Phone to stay familiar with all three platforms and give fair, objective evaluations. My previous iPhone was the iPhone 4, Jobs' final masterpiece. Since then, I used Android for about a year and a half, and WP8 for another year and a half. Now it's time to switch back to iPhone. My iPhone 4 still works — Apple really does make quality devices. After a few days with the iPhone 6 Plus, here's my review.

Hardware pros:

1. Excellent hand feel. The rounded edges and the swipe-back gesture from the left edge — smooth and seamless. It feels great.
2. Battery life is impressive — I can go two to three days between charges. Of course, I turned off fancy features like Handoff and Siri.

Hardware cons:

1. No notification LED. You have to turn on the screen to see if you have notifications. If they put an LED in the Apple logo or Touch ID as a notification light, that would be awesome.
2. The protruding camera is unbearable. I'd much rather the phone be thicker.

Software pros:

1. iOS 8 has relatively strict control over apps — not as many background data transfers as Android. I appreciate that. Of course, some Chinese Android phones like Xiaomi and Huawei have patched this with Xposed.
2. Excellent software-hardware co-design. That's the advantage of a closed system like iOS. TouchID, landscape mode — all good.

Software cons:

1. Built-in apps can't be uninstalled, even after jailbreak. Unlike Android where rooting lets you delete anything in settings. I had to create a folder called "Junk" containing: Stocks, Game Center, iTunes Store, Reminders, Notes, Videos, Podcasts, Tips, Voice Memos, Passbook, Newsstand, Music…
2. Lacks configuration options for power users. I only want to enable WiFi and cell tower location, not GPS. iOS still can't do that.

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