~ MamakTalk ~: Trying–and failing miserably

New Mexico through an iPhone 6 Plus

Even before Apple formally announced the iPhone 6 and 6 Plus in September, I was bombarded by questions from folks who wanted to know: Which one should they get? I asked them a series of questions to arrive at a personalized recommendation, which ultimately led me to write a blog post about how to decide between the two .

I wrote this even though I’d not actually spent time using the 5.5-inch 6 Plus myself. I’d handled friends’ phones and spent some time in an Apple Store playing with one, and decided I really didn’t like it. It felt too big and awkward in my hands, and looked ridiculous sticking out of my top shirt pocket, where I usually carry my smartphone.

But spending a few minutes with a device is no substitute for actually trying one. I wanted to give it a fair shake, since most people I know who bought one love it. So, I called Apple and asked for a review iPhone 6 Plus. My intention was to use it for about two weeks, then write about the experience.

But I lasted about a week before I caved, putting my SIM back in my standard, 4.7-inch iPhone 6. It was such a relief to go back – I simply couldn’t stand to use the 6 Plus a minute longer.

Before I provide details about what happened, let me say up front that my experience wouldn’t necessarily be yours. The iPhone 6 Plus is, technically, an excellent phone, and in a couple of ways is superior to the standard 6. But the overall size proved to be increasingly annoying to me. Instead of getting used to it, I grew to dread having to pull it out of my pocket to use it. Once I realized I wasn’t going to come around, I went back to my own phone.

I received the iPhone 6 Plus on Tuesday, Oct. 28, and that night swapped the SIM from my iPhone 6 into the bigger phone and transferred my apps and music to it. I put it the blue silicone case Apple sent along with it and set out to use it as my own.

Initially, I was impressed by the screen; it has a higher resolution and is brighter than the standard 6 – which is no slouch itself. In my first few hours with it, I was happy to have the extra screen real estate in those apps that support it. And I really liked the tweaks Apple made to its Messages and Mail apps to take advantage of the greater real estate, providing horizontal layouts that are similar to that found on the iPad.

But my problems began the next morning, when I left for work. I instinctively slid the 6 Plus into my shirt pocket, and grimaced – fully half of it was sticking out the top. I slid it into my pants pocket and headed out the door.

Now, I know a lot of people keep their phones in their jeans or trouser pockets – which is how the silly Bendgate meme began with the 6 Plus – but that really doesn’t work for me. I keep other things in there, and I didn’t want the phone’s screen getting scratched. Also, every time the phone rang or buzzed, it was a hassle to fish it out, particularly if I was sitting down. It might not have been so annoying getting it out of my pants pocket had it not been oversized, leading me to have an, um, interesting exchange with my wife over the phone.

Said to my wife after struggling to pull out the iPhone 6 Plus to answer her call: "It's so hard to get this big thing out of my pants."

— dwight silverman (@dsilverman) October 29, 2014

Fortunately, all she did was laugh.

We left on Thursday for a trip to New Mexico to visit friends and walk the streets of Santa Fe on Halloween. I was looking forward to trying out the iPhone 6 Plus on the road, and particularly testing its camera with the spectacular New Mexican scenery.

Both the iPhone 6 and the Plus 6 have image stabilization built into the camera, which can help prevent blurry photos, particularly in low light. But while the smaller 6 does this via software, the bigger 6 Plus uses hardware. This results in better images, particularly in low light, when the aperture opens wider to let in more light. Indeed, the photos the 6 Plus took were spectacular, as you can see in the photo gallery above.

But once again, the size of the 6 Plus was an annoyance. I tried stowing it in several different places – a jacket pocket, front jeans pocket, back pocket when I wasn’t sitting. Pulling it out was irritating, and when we were hiking along the Los Conchas Trail, I was always afraid I would fumble and drop it. I couldn’t get comfortable handling it.

I was happy with the bigger battery in the 6 Plus, which let me go almost two days without a charge in Houston. But in New Mexico, where AT&T’s signal was often week, the battery’s staying power wasn’t as great. I wound up setting the phone in Airplane Mode when we were away from civilization to keep the battery from draining as the phone tried in vain to find a signal.

I used 6 Plus for a few more days once we returned to Houston, but finally swapped it out on Election Day. As I said earlier, it was a relief to get the iPhone 6 elephant off my foot.

What was most interesting was the time I used it was the reaction to it. A flight attendant on the plane heading out to Albuquerque wanted to know all about it. People asked to hold it. And almost everyone who did said, “Oh, that’s too big!”

And I have to agree. While Apple has indicated demand for 6 Plus has surprised them, there’s also a large contingent of us who would not carry it. I also am hearing from people who think the iPhone 6′s 4.7-inch size is too large – my wife included. She finds the standard 6 somewhat uncomfortable to use, and probably would be a candidate for a 4-inch version of the 6, if Apple offered it. I’ve heard that from many folks, mostly women with smaller hands.

I have a prediction – we will see either next year or in 2016 a return to a smaller-sized iPhone as an offering. And I think Apple will be surprised by the demand for that one, too.