Review: Smaller iPhone 6 proves bigger isn’t always better

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The iPhone 6 is as good as gold. Photo: Jim Merithew/Cult of Mac
Photo: Jim Merithew/Cult of Mac

Display

The Retina HD display has spectacular viewing angles. Photo: Jim Merithew/Cult of Mac
The Retina HD display delivers spectacular viewing angles. Photo: Jim Merithew/Cult of Mac

The iPhone 6’s screen is where the party’s at. It’s big, bright and beautiful. It’s not the highest-resolution screen out there, but it is a “Retina” display by Apple’s definition.

Measuring 1,334-by-750-pixels, the screen has a resolution of 326 pixels-per-inch, which means someone with 20/20 vision cannot resolve individual pixels at a normal viewing distance of 10.5 inches or more. Someone with my vision (blind as a bat) can’t see the pixels at all, even with my nose pressed right up to the screen.

Apple started the ppi war in 2010 with the iPhone 4, which also had a 326 ppi screen. This has since been eclipsed by a new generation of 400-plus ppi screens, which are getting ever closer to true 1,920 by 1,080 HD resolution. Samsung’s Galaxy S4 boasts 441 ppi and the HTC One has 469. At these resolutions, people with 20/20 vision can’t see the pixels at 7.8 inches away, which is uncomfortably close to the screen.

The 6’s screen is both bigger and brighter than the old 3.5-inch Retina display in the iPhone 4 and 4s. Anyone upgrading from these devices is going to be delighted.

Apple says it’s made several technical improvements to the screen, including better viewing in full sunlight when wearing sunglasses (it’s been too overcast in San Francisco to test) and some gobbledygook about using UV light to precisely position the LCD crystals. “Better-aligned crystals deliver a superior viewing experience,” Apple claims. Does that mean older screens are full of misaligned crystals? I never noticed.

It is amazing how thin and power-friendly Apple’s screen technology has become. I’ve seen a dismantled display, which is thin as a credit card. Apple claims the LED backlighting is the most energy efficient it’s made.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BdAAgRXIGcE&feature=youtu.be

Display Zoom and Reachability

With the 6 and 6 Plus, Apple introduced a pair of new view settings for the screen.

Display Zoom blows up the screen to the full extent of the larger displays, making everything a bit bigger and making maximum use of the extra real estate. Display Zoom doesn’t make a huge difference on the 6 — it’s more effective on the larger 6 Plus — and I turned it off after a while, preferring the standard view.

There’s also a new feature called Reachability, which makes the bigger phones useable with one hand. A gentle double-tap on the Home button zooms the display halfway down the screen. It brings icons and controls at the top of the screen within reach of your thumb if you’re using one hand.

It works well, for the most part, but it takes some getting used to — and it’s a bit goofy. The biggest problem is how often you have to double-tap to get a task done. The screen resets to its normal size after every tap, so something simple like sending a text message involves dozens of double-taps.

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