iPhone 6 review: Tech critics love the new Apple smartphone

Apple’s iPhone 6 and iPhone 6 Plus will go on sale officially on 19 September in the US and 9 other countries, and it seems that the company already has a hit product on its hand s given that pre-orders reached 4 million in just one day. On the flip side, this means that a lot of users will have to wait at least month to get their hands on the devices.   Apple mania aside, the reviews for the iPhone 6 and iPhone 6 Plus are also out and it would appear that everyone is in love with the new iPhones. What stands out in all the reviews is the design and the camera. However not everyone is impressed with battery life.   We take a look at what some of the reviews are saying.   The Verge’s David Pierce feels that with the iPhone 6, Apple has given the customers what they wanted for so long, a bigger screen.   He notes that where design is concerned Apple has kept “the top and bottom bezels” at the same size and “the phone is much taller than it needs to be,” but “is usable in one hand.” He also felt that iPhone 6’s battery has significantly improved and it lasted him “a day and a half, from one morning to the next afternoon.” This is a big plus for the iPhone, given that battery as an issue has long plagued iPhone users.   For Pierce what really stands out is the camera. Remember Apple hasn’t yet given into the megapixel war and is still sticking with an 8-mp shooter on the back. According to Pierce, Apple’s new “focus pixels” is one of the best features, as he found that even he “moved the phone around and it never appears to be focusing, yet everything is always crisp and ready.” In conclusion Pierce feels that Apple could have done more, but instead just gave in to please the crowd.   Tech Crunch’s Darrell Etherington is similarly blown away by the iPhone 6 and writes, that as far as design goes, the “iPhone 6 is a much more comfortable device to hold vs. the iPhone 4, 4S, 5 and 5s, all of which preferred straight edges and right angles to the 6’s sloping curves.”   He also felt that animations and visuals were better on the iPhone 6’s bigger screen and that the phone “delivers better battery life even when tackling visually intensive tasks.” He says he got “about a day and a half, normal use” worth of battery life on the iPhone 6, which is astonishingly high, given that current iPhone 5s or iPhone 5c users would be lucky if they got 8-10 hours.   Re/Code’s Walt Mossberg writes that this is the best smartphone both for iPhone users who want to upgrade and Android users who want to switch sides. Mossberg also notes that where “iPhone’s Wi-Fi speeds — both downstream and upstream — were roughly double those of the 5s, and about 25 percent faster than those of the Samsung Galaxy S5.”   On battery he writes that he got about 14 or 15 hours, again a really high number given that he adds that the iPhone 5s was giving him 8 to 10 hours. “Most people will still have to charge it nightly, but won’t be hunting for plugs during the day,” he notes as well.   He does point out one issue he faced with the iPhone 6 which was when to connecting with his car’s built-in Bluetooth. Mossberg writes that the Apple then asked him to remove “old, unused devices” from his iCloud list and that this fixed the problem.   CNET’s Scott Stein brings the Apple love party to end with his review noting that the iPhone 6 still “lacks extra battery life and optical image stabilization.” He adds that the iPhone 6 hasn’t got an “optimized apps that take advantage of the extra pixels other than Apple’s core preinstalled apps”, and while most apps looks great some do “end up looking too large in the magnified display size.”   He also feels that the A8 chip isn’t really a breakthrough on the previous A7 chip. He writes, “On our tests, we found that the A8, while faster, is nice bump rather than a giant vault.” What he loves is the video with the 240 frames per second recording capability and the new panorama mode, which has better pictures.   Engadget Brad Molen is similarly cautious noting that what Apple has done with iPhone 6 is not ground breaking and adds that “it feels more like the company is catching up than innovating.” He also lists out some noticeable cons of the iPhone 6 which is the Battery life, lack of optical image stabilization and the fact that NFC can only be used for mobile payments.   He also points out that even though “the iPhone camera may not always be the best in every circumstance, but it’s consistently near the top in almost every scenario.” But he says there aren’t too many drastic improvement to the new iPhone cameras either.   As far as the iPhone 6 goes, it’s never really going to be about the number of cores in the processor or the megapixels in the camera. As far as both these things go, Apple has consistently delivered on these two fronts.   But what has really changed in the iPhone 6 is the screen, again a good thing but not new if you’re an Android user. More importantly, it doesn’t look like everyone was too impressed with the battery, which remains a critical issue for Apple.