With Apple iPhone 6 and iPhone 6 Plus officially launching in Qatar this Saturday,
consumers will have from up to four distinct Apple models to choose from
techknow beat
by Bilal Iqbal
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So then, the first of the winter crop of mobile phones are upon us. The iPhone duo, iPhone 6 and iPhone 6 Plus, are officially releasing in Qatar this Saturday (September 27), even though they have been unofficially available all over the country at eye-popping mark-ups.
Doha News reports that consumers paid up to QR9,900 to get early access to 128gb version of the iPhone 6 Plus in the grey market. When the dust settles in the coming days, the same model would cost you QR4,000 with an official warranty.
Even now, the base iPhone 6 (16gb) is going for about QR4,200 when its price is all but guaranteed to come down to QR2,800 come Saturday — a 1/3rd drop. Assuming then that you have waited this long, wait a few more days and take the time to decide what model it is that you actually want.
There will be four iPhone models that Apple will be selling in the market once the latest duo launches. The first is the unloved iPhone 5C, which has a colourful plastic body and sports the internals of the aging iPhone 5 (which itself was discontinued in favour of the iPhone 5C and the iPhone 5S last year). This phone will set you back QR2,000 in the market (although you may be able to get it for less if you look around). Avoid this model. It lacks the sleek metal body that the iPhones are known for and is already two years old now: paying QR2,000 for a two-year old device that will serve you well for one more year is not advisable. The iOS 8 barely runs on the iPhone 4S (many tech blogs are advising people against upgrading) and come this time next year, there is a good chance that iOS 9 will be pushing the iPhone 5 and iPhone 5C to the limits of their hardware.
Next up is the iPhone 5S, which is one year old and is retailing for around QR2,400 in the market. If you are looking to buy a new phone and have already written out Android, Blackberry and Windows Phone devices: add this to the discarded list. On contract, the iPhone 5S costs half as much as the iPhone 6 does ($100 vs $200). But you pay full prices in Qatar. As such, iPhone 6 16gb will cost you about 17% more than an iPhone 5S 16gb (QR2,800 instead of QR2,400). Factor in the upgrades you are getting with the iPhone 6 and the math isn’t hard to do. Consider also that the iPhone 6 will continue to be supported for at least a year longer (going by past record) and that newer versions of apps may be optimised to use the bigger screen better.
The only people that the iPhone 5S may make any sense whatsoever to are people with small hands. Even so, we would urge them to try out the iPhone 6 in real life before deciding that 4.7 inches is a screen just too big for them. If they are still convinced that the iPhone 6 is just too big, they may want to settle for the smaller 5S. The rest need not apply.
What about upgraders? The differences this time — unlike last year with iPhone 5 and iPhone 5S — are enough to warrant an upgrade, if you feel like it. Assuming then that you want to upgrade and do not mind paying the difference between the price of your used iPhone 5S and the newer iPhone 6, the bigger screen itself is a compelling enough reason to opt for the upgrade. On the other hand, if you think the iPhone 5S is serving you well enough, you can easily wait out another year for the successor to the iPhone 6. The upgrade is compelling, but not substantial enough to make it a must: wait a year, stick to the two-year upgrade cycle.
On to the two debutants then, the Apple iPhone 6 and the Apple iPhone 6 Plus. The three key differences between the two are: the iPhone 6 Plus has Optical Image Stabilisation (OIS), the iPhone 6 Plus has a substantially bigger screen with a higher resolution and the iPhone 6 Plus should have noticeably better battery life. Apart from these differences, both phones sport the exact same internals, down to the amount of RAM.
As far as performance goes, you can expect the iPhone 6 to perform about 8 to 13% faster than the iPhone 5S in the CPU department, according to preliminary testing by Anandtech. The graphics’ processor also improves, but now has to contend with higher resolution screens. Expect similar gains in the case of the iPhone 6, although, curiously, the iPhone 6 Plus seems to be slower than the iPhone 5S on one graphics test due to its higher resolution screen.
The camera is the same 8mp unit you have been finding in the iPhones of yesteryear. Apple claims to have improved the picture quality over last year and initial reports seem to corroborate this claim: the 8mp camera unit on the new iPhones should be able to keep up with and even beat some of its Android and Windows Phone counterparts in terms of picture quality. It does lose out on resolution, but many would argue that 8mp is sufficiently big enough for digital use (read: Facebook). Even if the camera unit does not live up to all the hype surrounding it, it should serve you well enough for your daily needs.
The OIS on the iPhone 6 Plus will definitely help you out with taking blur-free pictures and videos, and it is a pity that Apple had to strip the smaller phone of the rather useful feature. That said, Apple’s jab at the big screen market (or phablet in common parlance) is just not convincing enough for us. Like others manufacturers, Apple fails to equip the iPhone 6 Plus with an active stylus like that on the Samsung Note series. Call us pedantic, but the S-Pen on the Note series is not a superfluous tool and can be quite useful for productivity if used to its full potential.
Without the active stylus, a phone with a big screen is just that: a phone with a big screen. Sure, Apple has introduced some UI elements from its iPads to make use of the bigger screen, but the overall package does not cut it for us.
The iPhone 6 Plus sports a smaller screen than the Note 4 (5.5 inches vs 5.7 inches) and yet is taller. Its thinner profile gives it a smaller volume, but brings with it another problem: some people putting the bigger phone in their back pockets are finding it rather easy to bend. The iPhone 6 Plus is 0.2mm thicker than the iPhone 6. Forbes does the math: “But given the fact that the 6 Plus has a third more surface area than the 6, that measly extra 3% of thickness should have been a clue that [iPhone 6 Plus] could have significant structural weaknesses.” Consider also the QR400 higher asking price, and the iPhone 6 Plus starts looking a whole lot less enticing.
Before you rush out to buy the iPhone 6 16gb version, a word of caution: you will have somewhere around 13gb of usable space out of box. Install your favourite apps and the usable space will be even less. Games take up a lot of space. Consider also the size of the music collection you are planning to put on your phone. Add the space that the pictures and videos you capture will take. It is, in fact, much easier to run out of space on a 16gb iPhone than you would imagine. Assuming you do not want to live with worries about space constraints or compromise your usage of the phone, and considering the fact that iPhone does not offer expandable storage, higher storage options must be explored.
This year Apple has done away with a 32gb version. It is instead offering a 64gb iPhone for the same price it offered the 32gb version for. So for an extra QR400 (QR3,200), you can walk away with an iPhone 6 64gb. Another QR400 will get you the 128gb version, if you really need all that extra space. But if it were us in the market for a new iPhone, we would go for the 64gb version.
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