For the first time ever, I preordered an iPhone on launch day. I had planned on staying up till midnight to get my order in as soon as possible, but I’m getting older, and didn’t make it till midnight. I did, however, wake up at 4am for no reason, so I ordered it then. The confirmation email said my phone would ship mid-October. Not a big deal—I was still really happy with my iPhone 6.
To my surprise, on September 24th, I got an email saying my phone had shipped, and that I’d get it the next day.
I received it approximately 2 minutes before I had to jump on a 2-hour long conference call, so the box just sat there. On my desk, Beckoning me.
Finally, I ended my conference call, and opened the box.
It’s huge. But I like it. There are two things I immediately liked about it. Landscape orientation for the home screen, and the thumb typing experience. No more fat-fingering the wrong letter. It’s faster, but that was to be expected. iOS 9 is cool, but it was cool on the iPhone 6. I’m sure 3D Touch will be cool if I ever remember to use it. Live photos are meh. I turned them off. Video recording with the optical image stabilization is incredibly smooth, but 4k video isn’t a selling point for me. I didn’t anticipate it getting here this early, so I don’t have a case for it yet. That makes me paranoid. Luckily, Amazon carries the Twelve South BookBook cases. Hello overnight shipping, (no Prime Now for the Book Book case, unfortunately.)
Are the photos noticeably better? Yes. Zooming in on a photo taken on the iPhone 6 compared to one taken on the 6s Plus shows a significant difference. The 6s Plus photo has far more detail. The old 6 photo looks muddy in comparison. For a camera that has almost completely replaced my little EOS M as far as daily snapshots go, I welcome the advancements.
I’m on AT&T Next, so this morning I boxed up my old iPhone 6 to ship back. This is the first phone I’ve returned on the AT&T Next plan. I usually sell my old phone on Craigslist after upgrading. I’m not sure how I feel about AT&T Next yet—I’ve never been a fan of leasing stuff. I like to own my things. But I also like to have a new phone every year, and that started getting expensive. I’ll give AT&T Next one more year before I really pass judgement.
Daniel Hedrick 
Leave a Reply