[NewsPoster]

The wait is finally over as the Apple iPhone 6 and iPhone 6 Plus finally start landing in the hands of customers. As has been suggested, the iPhone 6 Plus is indeed in relatively short supply at launch with greater stock availability of the new 4.7-inch model. We have got our hands on a 64GB iPhone 6 in Space Grey and a 16GB iPhone 6 Plus in Silver, and both are stunning devices to behold. So how are they shaping up in our first few hours with them?

While last year marked the first time Apple launched to new iPhone models simultaneously, one was the then high-end iPhone 5s, which was joined by the colorful iPhone 5c that was then Apple's mid-range handset. Twelve months later, the iPhone 5s is now the mid-range handset and the iPhone 5c is the new entry-level model.These are now topped by two new high-end models, the 4.7-inch iPhone 6 and the huge 5.5-inch iPhone 6 Plus. Both of the new iPhones feature near identical hardware and designs, but there are a few subtle differences between the two.

The first thing you notice about the new iPhones is just how much nicer they feel in the hand, thanks to the new curvaceous design that does away with the square, chamfered edges of the iPhone 5s. These are truly premium devices and you really do need to hold them and examine them closely to appreciate just how beautifully designed they are. The way in which the glass display bends away to an almost imperceptible join at the edges; build quality is immaculate. The iPhone 6 at 4.55 ounces (129 grams) and just 0.27-inches (6.9mm) thin feels just right. The larger iPhone 6 Plus is substantially larger and heavier coming in at 6.07 ounces (172 grams), but is still a svelte 0.28 (7.1mm) thin.

Both of these devices are adorned with what must be the best looking iPhone Retina displays yet, which can be put down to the new 'dual domain pixel' technology that offers more accurate color at wider viewing angles. Contrast and color saturation is excellent, with both displays set to make viewing and consuming content much more enjoyable on an iPhone than ever before. The 4.7-inch iPhone 6 display is 750p or 1334x750 pixels for a pixel density of 326ppi, which will be familiar to iPhone users since the iPhone 4 was introduced. The 5.5-inch iPhone 6 Plus display is 1080p or 1920x1080 pixels for a pixel density of 401ppi. While this is the most pixel dense iPhone display yet, at first glance, there is no immediately discernible difference between the two.

Both are of course powered by Apple's second-generation 64-bit A8 dual-core chip clocked at 1.4GHz and matched with 1GB of RAM. Apple says that the new chips are 25 percent faster than the A7 chip and feature 2 billion transistors, which is putting it well and truly into the domain of desktop-class chips. Its new six-cluster PowerVR GPU is also said by Apple to deliver up to 50 percent better performance than the four-cluster PowerVR GPU in the iPhone 5s. Although the chip is more efficient, Apple claims that battery life of the iPhone 6 offers some marginal improvements over the iPhone 5s, however the much larger battery in the iPhone 6 Plus is said to offer much more substantial gains in this regard.

Although we will run the two models through our usual battery of tests, first impressions suggest that no-one will be complaining about the performance of their new iPhone 6. When it comes to single-core performance, which is the best measure of how well a smartphone functions in everyday use, the Apple A7 chip was already well-ahead of the 32-bit Android competition. The Apple A8 should help to maintain a substantial lead in this metric, at least until the Android competition finally launch their 64-bit high-end designs, some twelve months after Apple first introduced the technology. Early indicators suggest that new chip, in combination with the faster LTE performance coupled with Wi-Fi 802.11ac, will make using the iPhone 6 a true joy.

Stay tuned for our full reviews of the iPhone 6 and the iPhone 6 Plus in the coming days.

By Sanjiv Sathiah

[Gazoobee]

Please cover the fact that the iPhone 6 cannot be laid flat on a table due to the protruding camera in the full review. It's really a non-starter for a lot of us.

[iphonerulez]

There are people already complaining about the new iPhones because many of them seem to think Apple should be giving them more than 1 GB of system RAM because all Android smartphones have at least 2 GB and many of them have 3 GB, soon to be 4 GB.

[DiabloConQueso]

Apple's not in the game of having a specifications war. They're concerned with performance and usability.

Increasing response time, getting higher frame rates out of games, making the interface more fluid -- some of those things don't scale linearly with the amount of RAM in the device.

If you wanna play the whose-got-a-bigger-schlong game, by all means, you'll probably always be able to get an Android phone with better specs -- more ram, more cores, faster processors -- but if the phone doesn't leverage those things, then it's just a pissing contest over who has the higher number.

People have been doing this with desktops for two decades or more -- "I've got a dual-core 3.5GHz!" "Oh yeah? I've got a quad-core at 3.7GHz!"

Well, both of you still suck at Photoshop and can't type more than 27 wpm, and no amount of RAM or CPU cores are going to help you there. If you can't do it on a slow computer, a faster computer certainly isn't going to give you magical abilities or skills.

Do people run into daily occurrences where 1GB of RAM in their iPhone isn't enough? Is it a limiting factor? Would bumping it to 2GB even be noticeable? What purpose would it serve?

[abbaZaba]

Originally Posted by DiabloConQueso 

Do people run into daily occurrences where 1GB of RAM in their iPhone isn't enough? Is it a limiting factor? Would bumping it to 2GB even be noticeable? What purpose would it serve?

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[Charles Martin]

Gazoobee: are you not seeing the photo (the last in the gallery) that shows the iPhone 6 and 6 Plus laying flat on a table?

[pottymouth]

Sure it LOOKS flat, but just try using it while it's "flat" on a table. It wobbles annoyingly. Still, since 99% of the world will put it in some sort of case and 100% of those cases are thicker than the iPhone lens wart, I agree that it's a non-issue.

[pottymouth]

And my $0.02, I'm seriously considering returning this iPhone 6 because it's just too damn big. My old 5S was perfect. That 6+ must be a nightmare.

[climacs]

really amusing to read these comments a year later. It's just anecdote, but myself and quite a few others I know of either got the 6+ and love it, or like me got the 6 and wish they'd moved up to the 6+. Now that I have discovered the usefulness of a large-screen smartphone and bluetooth keyboard while traveling... I really would like to have that extra real estate. Alas, I must wait until 2016 or find someone to pay me a good price for my 6.