iPhone 6 Plus - Where my tech-quest achieves nirvana

“You don’t choose the iPhone, the iPhone chooses you.”

I take no credit for finally owning this spectacular piece of breath-taking craft. This was destined to happen ever since Steve Jobs conceived the very idea inside his head and was only a matter of time before my wish list met Apple’s viewpoint. It's only ironic that it was the man's philosophy of "one-handed use (of phone)" that had kept buyers like me at bay for so long.

Circa 2013, already spoiled by the giant displays of the ubiquitous android phones, I was dreading the very idea of sizing down to a smaller handset, in case I did opt for a full-fledged plunge into the Apple-ecosystem, iPhone being the only device missing from my collection. And I was hoping, Apple would notice the visible shift in user-interest towards larger screens. My hope didn't last long. Unperturbed by market expectations, Apple went ahead and released yet another 4 inch phone, the iPhone 5s. Frustrated, dismayed and disgruntled at Apple’s adamant fixation on beautiful yet tiny screen devices, I had all but resigned to my fate of spending an entire life-time without ever owning an iPhone. (Refer my last post “The man who never had an iPhone”).

Things finally changed last fall. Apple at last decided to play the catch up game and I got what I wanted. While both iPhone and iPhone plus were large enough, I went as big as I could and got myself the iPhone 6 Plus. Today, after a period of over ten blissful months with my prized possession, I have come to a conclusion that unless they tell me their new phone could teleport me to another planet, I’ve got no reason to look beyond what I have got.

Bewildered by the numerous technical reviews splashed all over the web, many people I know, were looking for an unbiased view of a layman iPhone user, so here I’m,  capturing my first few months’ experience with the best piece of gadget that I have ever owned, thus far. And I’ve owned quite a few of them.

The retina display

So what do I like about this iPhone so much? Well, pretty much everything. Having used the top-notch Galaxy S series and the Xperia Z series and the Galaxy Note series and the not-so-premium Nokia series and the erstwhile Ericsson series, I can tell you that none of the above experiences come even close to that of holding and fiddling and caressing an iPhone. It feels sleek yet sturdy in your hand with the all metal aesthetics oozing class. The rounded edges and the trademark seamless glass-metal transition completes the visual treat. Fire up the screen and you are greeted with that ever so familiar retina display that presents you the world on your palm in crystal clear clarity. Well, I am aware that iPhone has only 401 ppi (1920X1080) compared to Sony Xperia Z5 that boasts of a whopping 806 ppi (3840X2160), but who needs 4K resolution on a tiny screen? Being an AV enthusiast, even after so many years I’m yet to notice lack of those extra pixels in my giant 55 inch screen HD TV, in naked eye that is, leave alone a tiny 5.5 inch phone.

(N.B. For the record - if my family is reading this - I’m not messing with our bank account or bedroom space by getting that 65 inch 4K TV, so please don’t worry. If at all that happens, it would be a case of the 4K TV choosing me and not the other way round. And like always I would claim no credit for that either.)

Coming to the 8-megapixel camera, compared with those 13, 16 and 23 megapixel ones sported by rival manufacturers, don’t fool yourselves, I’m yet to see a phone that captures better picture than the iPhone 6 plus. Well, the iPhone 6S and 6S plus are set to debut with 13 mega pixel cameras, if the rumor mills are to be believed, but that alone doesn’t justify an upgrade as of now.

When I first started using iPad it had brought about a paradigm shift in how I looked at internet browsing. So much so that I almost stopped using my laptop or computer altogether, unless it was for off-line stuffs. Here was an all-in-one device that kept me abreast of news, entertainment, social media and to a large extent even books & magazines. It became an integral part of my day-to-day life. This was also the time when I was using my large screen android smart phones, which undoubtedly i liked. But none of these devices came even close to threatening my iPad, primarily due to the unbelievably smooth experience that IOS provided, the classy Apple hardware being the icing on the cake. The sheer joy of zipping through web pages, apps and games on a neat interface is something that no android device has ever achieved. Hence I would always use my iPad for all purpose except when I wanted to make a call. But when I was not carrying my iPad my android phones would do just fine albeit that inevitable scaled down feel of their comparatively scratchy interface.

My kid examining the iPhone & the iPad

But all that changed the moment I got my iPhone 6 plus. It effortlessly carried out all the tasks that were hitherto shared jointly by my iPad and my Xperia Z & Galaxy Note and before I realized, it quickly slipped into the slot of being my No.1 device. Now, any gadget that has the ability to make my iPad gather dust on my shelf has to be pretty special. Mind you, here we are talking about the new iPad Air 2 - I had upgraded to this iteration immediately after getting my iPhone more out of curiosity than necessity (also to match the gold color of my iPhone) - and not any other 1st generation random tab. Need I say more? 

To round things off, my iPhone provides me close to two days of battery life. That's commendable, given the heavy duty user that I am - the only exception being the absence of my official mails in there - It allows me to effortlessly stream YouTube to my Giant LG web OS screen, to watch a movie from the comfort of my couch, albeit the one-time effort of setting up a Plex server that streams my huge digital media library and last but not the least, to shoot amazing photos leaving my digital point and shoot camera almost worthless. 

Contrary to popular belief, an iPhone is nothing about status symbol, neither is it a gadget that you would go around displaying with unabashed pride - that is reserved for Samsung with all those funky party tricks - For me it’s about making myself comfortable, content and blissful. It has blended so well into my life that I can’t even remember what it was like when I didn’t have one.

And my final words on owning the iPhone? Here you go!

“You don’t own the iPhone, the iPhone owns you.”

My first impressions - Samsung Galaxy Note 3

In a recent post I had mentioned how I wish I owned an i-Phone. 

Less than a couple of months away and here I’m fiddling around with the supposedly most powerful mobile device on this planet, the Galaxy Note 3 from Samsung, Apple’s biggest rival. 

Galaxy Note 3

While I had managed to hold myself back with some gritty display of restraint (a rarity in my case) during the release of the earlier iterations from this phablet family, this time around, Samsung finally got me with loads of interesting features, a bucket-full of high quality functionalities and to top it up, with some innovative promotions. (They always had this habit of tossing at you more than you could take - but we love that anyway.) The adventure set me back by Rs 46999/- and I was desperately hoping not to end up disappointed with my effort. 

A fortnight with this beast, and I must admit that I’m mighty impressed with what I have got. It does everything I thought it would do and many things I didn't imagine it could do.

The first time I fired it up, it simply blew me away with its gorgeous 5.7 inch full HD, 1080 x 1920 Super AMOLED display – they have managed to fit in this gigantic screen within an even lesser real estate compared to Note 2, thanks to the ultra thin bezel running around the edges. 

The Snapdragon 800 processor allows you to run your apps lightning fast and provides you a astoundingly fast browsing experience. Battery back-up is vastly improved with the 3200mAh battery hidden in its slender frame.

I was pleasantly surprised to find that it shoots 4k videos. Even though my LG LED Smart TV doesn't do 4k, the videos I shot with Note 3, looked extra ordinarily amazing and lively on my giant screen.

S-pen action memo is quite cool; it lets you do much more this time around. Jot down the name of a place; it takes you right there in the Google maps. Quickly pen down a number and you could dial or save it in your contact list. All these stuffs were carried out with minimum fuss albeit my deliberate poor hand-writings, which is quite amazing. You could also draw a box anywhere on the screen and it re-sizes itself with a number of essential apps. I also love the scrap-booker and screen writing features that allow you to store a part of a web-page, video or a link for later under different categories.

It has got some cool party tricks too - hover your palm over the screen; it wakes up and dances to your gestures – makes you look like a Himalayan saint with divine powers.

It has taken multi-tasking to a whole new level. Pull out two apps from the left side multi-task bar and you screen runs them in two separate windows 50:50. Samsung’s touch-wiz interface was always nice, no surprises there this time too. Widgets are as seamless as ever and the 13-mega pixel camera is better than I would have imagined, with a loads of shooting options.The front facing camera is of 2 mega-pixel too.

The unimaginative faux leather finish rear cover

So do I have any complaints at all? Yes! The faux leather finish on its rear is a bit of a spoiler to an overall amazing experience. It looks tacky and just doesn’t work for me. Even as we all were hoping to see a HTC-like metal chassis, we could still have lived with that ever so familiar glossy cheap plastic-finished rear cover this one more time. Nevertheless, on a positive note, it does provide a better gripping experience in your hands.

That’s about it for now, will post a detailed review once I get to play a bit more with this latest addition to my gadget collections.

For now I’ll be switching between my Xperia Z (black) and Galaxy Note 3 (white) depending upon my mood and attire.