Our guide to buying an iPhone 6/6 Plus

It’s definitely too early to make a judgment on the new iPhones without spending real time using them in the real world. But after spending limited time with the new phones in Cupertino, we feel comfortable giving some basic early advice on them—especially for those already committed to the iOS ecosystem who are going to get one anyway, preordering before reviews hit. Here’s another truth: Newer iPhones are always better than the old ones, so at a certain point, consecutive reviews are academic. That’s why even some of our staff will be preordering iPhones as soon as the window opens.

(Preorders start on September 12th at 3 a.m. EST/12 a.m. PST, arriving on Sept 19th.)

Having said that, there’s still a lot we don’t know about the new iPhones, so if you’re on the fence or thinking of switching platforms, you should probably hold off for a couple of weeks.

If you’re not going to wait, here is our advice for those of you who are going to preorder your phones.

Table of contents

• How iPhone 6 is better than iPhone 5s
• Why we like iPhone 6 (so far)
• The iPhone 6 Plus is (probably) too big for most people
• What size should I get?
• What we don’t know/what we expect to learn after we can test for a while
• Why iPhone?
• Wrapping it up

How iPhone 6 is better than iPhone 5s

The iPhone 6 and 6 Plus, both introduced on September 9, are physically larger than the iPhone 5s. They have slightly faster and more efficient processors, better Wi-Fi and LTE radios, slightly better battery life, smarter cameras, and now NFC chips for wireless payments using Apple Pay. The power button is now on the right side of the phone instead of the top. Beyond that, most of the changes you’ll notice will be from iOS 8, not the phone itself. Those changes include the ability to add third-party keyboards like SwiftKey, new health and smart home feature sets, and better family settings for app purchases (finally). Also, iOS 8 supports Apple Pay and the new Apple Watch.

The new phones are faster and better in pretty much every respect than the iPhone 5s, and they’re also taller and thinner. The iPhone 6 has a 4.7-inch screen and is about the size of last year’s Moto X. The iPhone 6 Plus has a 5.5-inch screen and is more along the lines of the Samsung Galaxy Note 4. Both are harder to use with one hand, but the 6 is closer to the size of the 5s (or a Nexus 4), and actually smaller than most Android flagship phones these days.

If you own a phone that’s older than the iPhone 5s, like the iPhone 4 or 4S, or if you’re eligible for a carrier subsidy, you’ve got no excuse to avoid upgrading. Every aspect of the phones, and especially the larger screen sizes of the iPhone 6 and 6 Plus, will feel like upgrading from an apartment to a house (and we say this despite our own skepticism of huge screens). Plus you’ll be better able to notice the performance benefits of the upgraded processors and wireless speeds. And if you own something prior to the iPhone 5, you won’t be able to use Apple’s payments system in retail without a newer phone (for the iPhone 5/5s, you’ll need an Apple Watch).

If you have an iPhone 5s, the iPhone 6 and 6 Plus aren’t as obvious a step up. But if you’re a heavy phone user, and because the cost of a handset is far less than the cost of a carrier service plan over a few years, it makes sense to upgrade from an iPhone 5s/5c if you use your phone heavily on a daily basis and can shoulder the cost without flinching. (Our founder wrote about this reasoning in depth in The New York Times.)

We’ve published this guide based on the information we have available before the iPhone 6 is actually in buyers’ hands. We sent two editors to the iPhone 6 launch and we got some hands-on time with both phones, but we’ll know more specifics about them once they start shipping on September 19th. Once we are able to spend some quality time using the new iPhone in real-life scenarios, we will update this guide with our testing notes.

Why we like iPhone 6 (so far)

Both the iPhone 6 and 6 Plus are bigger than the iPhones that came before. Regardless of whether the larger screens improve the user experience, they’re what people seem to want. The average size of Android phones has been steadily creeping up; every single flagship Android phone this year has a screen size of 5 inches or larger. Apple’s reason for keeping previous generations of iPhones small was that it enabled easier one-handed use. While millions of people continued to opt for the smaller iPhone for various reasons, it appears that many people were doing so despite the smaller screen, not because of it. The allure of more immersive video and photo viewing, easier-to-read text, and more space for playing games was enough to lure people away from iOS in droves. Now with the 4.7-inch iPhone 6 and 5.5-inch iPhone 6 Plus, people will no longer have to choose between a big screen and an iPhone.

We were initially skeptical of the larger size, but the iPhone 6 feels surprisingly comfortable to use compared to the smaller 5s. It’s noticeably thinner and its edges are more rounded, so the hard corners aren’t as obnoxious in your hand when you’re reaching with your thumb. We’re comfortable recommending the iPhone 6 to most people for this reason—we expect most people will be able to use an iPhone 6 just fine. If you’re unsure about which size to get, Tested has mockups and did some size comparisons of the iPhone 5, iPhone 6, and iPhone 6 Plus.

The camera systems of both phones feature phase-detection autofocus and the ability to record at 240 frames per second for slow motion capture. The 6 Plus adds optical image stabilization (the 6 doesn’t) and both still use 8-megapixel sensors. Unlike contrast autofocus systems, which can hunt for focus and can be troublesome in low-light situations, phase detect instantly snaps into focus. It requires extra hardware, but it appears a number of the pixels in the new image sensor will be used for this updated focusing system. The camera looks like it’s going to be better than the 5s’s, but even if it’s exactly the same it would be one of the best smartphone cameras around. (And that’s despite the fact that most Android phone cameras are now higher resolution than the iPhone’s.)

The new iPhones are the first with 802.11ac Wi-Fi, which has been in MacBooks and Android phones for a while. A single-stream wireless-ac radio like the one in the new iPhones can theoretically reach 433 megabits per second—three times faster than wireless-n. Of course, unless you’re streaming something from your local network, you probably won’t notice the difference. That said, wireless-ac is the standard now and it’d be pretty inexcusable for a new iPhone not to have it. The new iPhones also support Voice over LTE for carriers that support it, as well as Wi-Fi calling (again, on carriers that support it). So far T-Mobile’s the only US carrier that does.

One big thing about the iPhone 6 and 6 Plus is the NFC chip, which lets you use your phone instead of your credit card to buy things in stores that support Apple Pay. It should actually be more secure than using your credit card, since neither Apple nor the vendor has access to your real credit card information. (See here for our explanation of Apple Pay). Apple Pay works on the iPhone 5 or later, but if you have an older phone you’ll need the Apple Watch to use the NFC capabilities. It’s cheaper to upgrade to a new iPhone than to buy a smartwatch, so if Apple Pay is important to you you should probably get the iPhone 6.

The iPhone 6 Plus is (probably) too big for most people

The iPhone 6 Plus is a good choice if you want a phablet-sized iPhone, but it’s harder to use in one hand, and its size means it’s also harder to carry around in your pocket or purse.

We feel the iPhone 6 feels about as comfortable in the hand as the 5s. The 6 Plus, not so much. It’s way larger than the iPhone 6, and it has a 5.5-inch Retina HD screen that packs almost 150% of the pixels as the iPhone 5s. It has an interface that’s finally optimized for landscape use, and should have slightly better battery life. A bigger phone has more room for a physically bigger battery.

The iPhone 6 Plus may appeal to people who want something more tablet-ish than a phone but don’t want something as large as the iPad Mini. The 6 Plus also has a slightly better camera package than the 6; it has optical image stabilization, which should result in sharper pictures and less jolty video than the digital image stabilization on the 6.

Still, we weren’t particularly taken by its size or how it felt in the hand. Most of us have average-sized hands (hence… average), and it just wasn’t easy to reach different parts of the screen one-handed. And the 6 Plus can barely fit into standard pants pockets without feeling uncomfortably large when you sit down; it’ll be even bigger if you put a case on it.

The iPhone 6 Plus is so big that Apple is adding a feature called Reachability to iOS 8. By double-tapping (but not clicking) the home button, the stuff on the screen slides halfway down so you can reach the top corners more easily with your thumbs. The implementation is a bit campy and it feels like a feature that shouldn’t have to exist, but in practice it works fine. We’re not jumping for joy about needing this feature, but it functions as expected and users with smaller hands will probably appreciate it. Still, unless you’re looking for a huge phone that can basically replace a tablet in your life, most people will probably be happier with the iPhone 6 instead of the 6 Plus.

What size should I get?

64 gigabytes is probably a happy medium for most folks. The new iPhones come in 16GB, 64GB, and 128GB flavors, and in gold, silver, and space gray colors. We’ll let you make your own decisions about which size to get based on your previous experience, but our gut feeling is that 16 GB is cutting it close and 128 GB is more than most people need.

On-contract prices for the iPhone 6 start at $200 for a 16GB model, $300 for 64GB and $400 for 128GB. The iPhone 6 Plus costs $100 more than the equivalent 6–so $300 for 16GB, $400 for 64GB and $500 for 128GB.

Off-contract, add $450 to those prices; it’s thus $949 for a 128GB iPhone 6 Plus.

What we don’t know/what we expect to learn after we can test for a while

Apple says the battery life should be a bit better than you’re used to from the 5s, but we won’t know for sure until people have had more time with the new phones. We also don’t have a good sense of how the new cameras perform, or of how well Apple Pay will work. Or about how well the Apple Watch, which requires an iPhone to use, will actually work. There’s always the chance for weird production bugs (covered by warranty) or sometimes bigger problems, like Antennagate (which cost Apple almost $200 million).

Why iPhone?

Many of us use the iPhone because it has the highest ratio of functionality-to-annoyingness among gadgets we own. And again, J.D. Power & Associates surveys have for yet another year in a row said iPhone owners have been the most satisfied. In a 2013 interview with Tim Cook, Businessweek wrote that iPhone users use their phones more often, at least partially because of an affinity for their handsets.

It’s not perfect, and we have niggles with the UI in iOS 7, and probably will with iOS 8 too. But you’ll probably never have a sense of dread about the phone or feel like you have to mess with it to make it work. That’s just not the case with most other phones. Earlier-generation iPhones were kind of dreadful at times because they lacked so much in the way of then-standard smartphone features like GPS or apps at first, but that’s a thing of the past.

And then there’s service. Most of us at the Wirecutter have destroyed our iPhones at some point in the past, but were able to replace it—along with images, data, and apps—just by going to a local Apple store and having them honor the AppleCare+ warranty. After doing an iCloud restore of the data, which were automatically backed up the night before, it’s easy to be back in business.

(Android will automatically back up your Google account data (including mail, contacts, calendar, Wi-Fi passwords, etc,) and photos (through Google+), as well as a list of apps on your phone, but it doesn’t back up the data from third-party apps like iCloud does. You need something like Helium ($5) for that. Many carriers also offer warranties on their phones for an extra cost. The iPhone does all of this this out of the box.)

And the consistency of Apple’s customer service is unparalleled. All Apple stores look and function almost identically, but you don’t have that same guarantee with carrier stores, some of which are merely partner stores or affiliates.

Malware is another thing you don’t have to worry about with iPhones. The US government released a report last August showing that only 0.7% of recorded malware attacks were directed at iOS; 79% were aimed at Android, which now has over 1 million questionable and/or malicious apps available for download. A big part of this discrepancy is due to the fact that Apple can patch security holes for all their devices as soon as they appear, like they did last year with the launch of iOS 7.

Google doesn’t have that flexibility due to hardware fragmentation and carrier constraints. This probably won’t affect you if you only use apps from major companies on a recent phone, and it’s unlikely that this is really going to affect most Android users–none of the Android users on our staff have ever had a malware issue. We’re not trying to be alarmist. But malware is just one less thing to worry about when you’re using an iPhone.

Google’s lack of control over who gets updates and who doesn’t isn’t just a security problem, either. On-contract Android phone owners have no guarantee that they’ll get the latest and greatest version of Android (unless they get a Nexus or an expensive, unlocked Play edition phone). New versions of Android have had to be modified for each phone by the manufacturer, then validated and sent out by the carrier, neither of which have much incentive to update old phones; they’d rather get you to buy new ones. It got so bad that Google started detangling its core features updates from the operating system and putting them into programs that can be updated via the Play store. This means that even older versions of Androids can take advantage of many of the features introduced in later versions. Android fragmentation isn’t as bad as it used to be, but it’s still way worse than on the iPhone.

Meanwhile, Apple is still providing software updates for the 3-year-old iPhone 4S (albeit without certain cool new features). When Apple encounters a security issue, as with the launch of iOS 7, they can focus on solving it, then immediately push fixes out to millions of users, who can then get them as soon as they’re ready a few days later. Yet again, it’s one less thing to worry about.

The bottom line: an iPhone is just easy and convenient to own and use. And that’s ideal because it’s better to spend your thoughts, energy and time on the rest of your life, spending as little as possible of it tinkering with your phone. Unless you enjoy tinkering, in which case Android is better.

If you care about having the most balanced phones in terms of hardware, iPhones are great; the new ones are, as always, better than the old ones.

But it’s bullshit to say that iPhones are flat-out better than the competition from a hardware perspective. Virtually every new feature on the iPhone 6 and 6 Plus (NFC, wireless-ac, large high-def screens) has been on flagship Android phones for years, and Android phones still have features iPhones don’t, from IR blasters to removable batteries to water-resistance to expandable storage to better touchless controls. Those don’t make a phone great, but no great phone is missing the most important features.

Wrapping it up

If you’re happy with the iPhone ecosystem but your iPhone is a couple years old, you should get the new iPhone 6. It’s bigger than the iPhone 5s, but should be better in every way that matters, and it still feels good in the hand. The iPhone 6 Plus is for people who want a phablet but don’t want an Android.

We’ll update this guide again once more reviews hit and we’ve had more time with the new iPhones.