iPhone 6 Plus: 5 Compelling Reasons To Buy One

As part of an ongoing buying guide for confused shoppers this Christmas and Black Friday, I’ll be summing the best of the latest handsets. Knowing which handset to buy this year means selecting from a number of excellent devices, this is what this guide is for – you can read yesterday’s guide to the iPhone 6 here. It’s here to break down the basics and help you make your decision. In future posts I’ll be focussing on  Sony Xperia Z3, LG G3, HTC One M8, Nokia Lumia 930, Samsung Galaxy S5 and others.
Today, I’m taking a look at Apple’s biggest ever iPhone, the iPhone 6 Plus.
READ: Apple iPhone 6 Plus Review: Size Really Does Matter
Bigger is Better

Image credit Gordon Kelly

Adobe recently conducted some research that found that consumers prefer to browse the internet on larger screens, more specifically 5-inches or above. With browsing on smaller screens falling 11% year on year. The iPhone 6 Plus’ 5.5-inch screen easily falls into this bracket and it also spells the future of not just iPhones, but smartphones in general. As my colleague Gordon Kelly explained in his iPhone 6 Plus long term review:
“There is no getting away from the outrageousness of the iPhone 6 Plus, but there is also no getting away from the fact that outrageous is fast becoming the new normal in the smartphone/phablet sector.”
READ: The Top 5 Super Robust Cases For Your iPhone 6
The extra inches will be become the new normal and your smartphone apps and experiences will be tailored for bigger screens. This is already happening in many ways thanks to Apple’s decision to allow apps on the 6 Plus to mimic those on the iPad with better functionality in landscape mode. This means that you’ll be able to enjoy the best of both the iPhone’s and iPad’s apps – a bonus few handsets can offer.
Camera
The iPhone 6 and 6 Plus were named as the best smartphone cameras on the market by camera experts DxO labs, with a combined score of 82. Better than the 20.7 MP Sony Xperia Z3 and better than the 16MP Samsung Galaxy s5 – both of which had a score of 79. Apple has to be commended for the iPhone 6’s 8MP snapper, showing that it’s not just about megapixels.
But the iPhone 6 Plus slightly edges out the iPhone 6 thanks to faster autofocus and the addition of opitcal image stablisation (OIS), which doesn’t feature on the iPhone 6. As Forbes’ Paul Monckton explains:
“Apple’s latest phones both have excellent cameras, but when it comes to picture quality, the larger iPhone 6 Plus has one extra trick up its sleeve: Optical Image Stabilisation (OIS).
“You might imagine that this feature is designed to prevent your pictures from coming out shaky and blurry. That’s true to an extent, but what might not be immediately obvious is that the use of OIS can actually reduce graininess and improve colour reproduction, especially in low-light situations.”
Battery life
The iPhone 6 Plus’ 2915-mAh battery means that you won’t run the battery down in a day, in fact you’ll comfortably get two days out of it from moderate use. What’s more, in standby mode, the iPhone 6 Plus will only consume around 1-2% battery overnight. Compare that to the Galaxy Note 4 - which uses 5-10% battery overnight in standby mode – and it’s clear which handset comes out on top.
READ: Better Battery Life And Faster Charging: 11 Tricks For The iPhone 6
However, the iPhone 6 Plus doesn’t offer faster charging out of the box like some of its rivals, but you can half charging time by using an iPad charger.
Apple Pay
As I mentioned in my iPhone 6 piece yesterday, Apple Pay has a bright future. The partnerships with retailers and banks, coupled with Apple’s huge market share in the US suggests that Apple Pay has a better chance than its faltering rivals. Recent data shows that it’s already gaining ground, too. Within 72 hours of its announcement 1 million credit cards were registered and, recently, Whole Foods told the New York Times that 150,000 transactions had been completed with Apple Pay since its launch.
Accessories
Another port from yesterday’s iPhone 6 piece that’s relevant for the iPhone 6 Plus. Accesories are big business and they’re becoming more and more sophisticated. Gone are the days of the tacky $2 market stool case, now it’s all about function and quality.
READ: The Top 5 iPhone 6 Accessories And Cases
Apple’s sheer popularity in the US and around the world has had the knock on effect of creating a complimentary, but huge, Apple accessory market. From the Otterbox Defender to the Olloclip (although a Samsung Galaxy version has just been released) The iPhone 6 Plus accessory market far outtstrips any other newly released handset.
The cons
Of course, it’s not all good news with the iPhone 6 Plus, it does have it flaws. One of the major criticisms is its size, some people have found that it’s simply too big to use with one hand. Whilst there is a reachability option in the settings menu, it will render part of the screen black and ultimately unusable. There’s also the fact that the sleek, metal, finish isn’t ergonomic for a phone this size, which means it’s far more likely to slip out of your hand.
Making the jump from an iPhone 5 to the 6 Plus is huge, so make sure that you head down to a phone store and get a feel for it before you open up your wallet.
Jay McGregor is a freelance technology journalist who writes for The Guardian, Forbes, TechRadar and is a tech correspondent for BBC’s James Hazel show.