Hey, just so you know ... this post is now about 9 years and 7 months old. Please keep that in mind as it very well may contain broken links and/or outdated information.

I’m not what you’d call an Apple fanboy, but for some reason I felt compelled to wake up at 3am on September 12 to place my 64gb iPhone 6 Plus pre-order with AT&T. I was disappointed to learn (later that day after finally receiving my order confirmation e-mail) that my new phone wouldn’t even ship until between October 2 and October 11!

Launch day, September 19, came and went, but the Plus was hard to find so I didn’t feel too bad about not having it right away. In fact, I felt a little foolish for getting up early and drinking the Apple kool-aid.  Oh well, whatever.

Surprise! Early Wednesday morning, September 24, I got a shipment notice from AT&T, and it was already out for delivery! After all of that, I ended up getting my new big (and yeah, it’s big!) phone just 5 days after launch.

Setup

At first I going to set up my new 6 Plus (6+?) from scratch, but after about 10 minutes I realized how much work that was going to be so I restored a current iTunes backup of my old iPhone 4S instead to give me a head start. I specifically avoided upgrading to iOS 8.0.1 to avoid the problems it was causing (I have since updated to iOS 8.0.2).

Once I had it set up mostly like my old phone, it was just a matter of using it and getting to it. I wasn’t expecting to have it right away so I didn’t have a case, screen protector, or accessories so I did a little shopping. I got a coiled Lightning cable for my car, the black Spigen slim case (which works great with the tiny metal plate in it for my magnetic car mount), and some matte screen protectors (I hate super-reflective screens).

Size

So, yeah, it’s big. In fact, after just using it for a few days my iPhone 4S now feels small (comically tiny almost!) in my hand. Is it a big phone, or tiny iPad? It’s both. I really like using it as a tablet. The screen is bright and beautiful and the new features in iOS 8 that bring some iPad-like features to the phone (like split-screen apps, rotation support on the home screen/springboard) really make it nice to use. That being said, it’s not that easy to hold on to (even with the extra grip afforded by my case) and I’m still trying to figure out where to put my fingers when it’s in my hand. Even with my big hands it’s not easy to use one-handed and I’m still getting used to the power button being on the side (which now means another new way of needing to hold the device when taking a screenshot).

And then there’s the pocket issue. There’s just no easy or comfortable way to keep the iPhone 6 Plus in your pants pocket. If you put it in your back pocket, it sticks out and you risk sitting on it. If you put it in your front pocket it inevitably rests in the wrong position when you try to sit down, and now there’s the bending iPhone issue to worry about. I get to wear jeans (not skinny jeans!) to work and am usually wearing cargo shorts or something similar on the weekend, so I have large pockets available, but still getting the Plus into and out of my pockets is just more of a chore than it was with my 4S. Time will tell if I find this more annoying than the convenience of having the larger screen, better battery life, and a better camera.

Camera

Right now I’m still a point-and-shoot camera person. I know the old adage “the best camera is the one you have with you” but I’ve just never been happy with the camera in my phones and prefer my Canon PowerShot. We’ll have to see if the iPhone 6 Plus changes that, especially since my Canon has got some dust in the lens that has been marring some of my photos recently. I took some comparison shots with my PowerShot, the iPhone 4S, and the iPhone 6 Plus which you can check out below. I haven’t had a chance to try out some of the new features like slow motion, time lapse, or optical image stabilization (OIS), which is exclusive to the 6 Plus. One note about the camera “nub” sticking out of the back: before I had my case on the 6 Plus, the camera nub did cause the phone to not lay flat and rock when I would type on it. That’s annoying, but most people put a case on their phones so that won’t be a big deal.

iOS 8

I was sad when I lost my iOS 7 jailbreak earlier this year, but have learned to live with “stock” iOS. And I have to say that Apple continues to build features into iOS 8 that addresses a lot of the reason why I liked jailbreaking in the first place. There are now contact pictures in the Messaging app (one of my favorite BiteSMS features), the useless “Missed” section in the Notification Center is gone, you can add widgets to the Notification Center, and you can install third-party keyboards (like SwiftKey). I still wish you could have folders-in-folders, or change the 3×3 in-folder icon view (which makes no sense on a larger screen like the Plus or an iPad), or even just rename icons (please?) but the further away I get from my jailbreaking days, the less I miss them.

Other Stuff

I’ve been rocking the iPhone 4S since 2012 so I’ve been missing out on some of the new features introduced in iOS for the iPhone 5, 5C, and 5S over the past two years. I like the TouchID sensor but it will take me some time get re-train my muscle memory for “swipe to unlock then type in PIN.” Being able to say “Hey Siri” when my phone is plugged in is actually pretty useful, especially when I’m in the car. I can now invoke Siri completely hands-free and that’s pretty cool. I’ve read that AirDrop can be convenient for transferring files, but I’ll have to see if I ever have a need for that. I’m also anxious for the developer community to update their apps to support the larger screen (and rotation capabilities) of the iPhone 6 Plus.

Conclusion

The iPhone 6 Plus is definitely “bigger than bigger.” I really like it as a mini iPad mini and as my new phone but will have to wait and see if I’m still annoyed by the inconvenience of its size after a few weeks.