iPhone 6 Plus is the next big thing, all right
The larger screen looks great - but some simple tasks are now two-handed affairs.
NEW YORK - As I stood in line at my local AT&T store, preparing to plunk down $399 for Apple's next big thing, a fear crept into my thoughts: What if the iPhone 6 Plus is too big to fit into my pants pocket? Am I going to have to start carrying a purse?
As it turned out, I had no problem sliding the iPhone 6 Plus into the pockets of my chinos. Yet as I began to rejoice that I hadn't wasted money on a phone I couldn't carry, a different drawback became apparent: no easy way to use the device with just one hand.
Over the years, I've grown accustomed to operating a smartphone one-handed. Not only can I comfortably cradle the iPhone 5 in my palm, but the tips of my fingers have no trouble reaching the farthest corners of the screen. I've even mastered the art of swatting home runs one-handed on my favorite mobile game, 9 Innings Pro Baseball.
No more. Just typing in your passcode to unlock the 6 Plus requires either a second hand or a feat of manual acrobatics. Reaching the top buttons on the home screen - you know, trivial things like "messages" "photos," and "camera" - is out of the question, unless you're NBA player Kawhi Leonard.
When Apple announced the 6 Plus, I noted that it included a feature that allows you to pull the top buttons halfway down the screen by double-tapping the home button. I did not anticipate that I would quickly come to rely on this feature for almost everything I need to do on the phone.
Opening my Gmail app and composing a message used to require just three actions: Tap to open the app; tap the "compose" button; start typing.
Now it requires the following finger dance: Double-tap the home button to bring the Gmail app within reach; tap to open the app; double-tap the home button to bring the compose button within reach; tap the "compose" button; start typing.
That might sound like a small difference. If you use your phone a lot, it isn't. It nearly doubles the amount of time it takes to complete certain tasks. And while the double-tap feature makes it relatively easy to reach the top of the screen, it remains a struggle to reach the sides without dropping the device altogether. Two people to whom I briefly loaned the phone fumbled it in the first 30 seconds.
The obvious solution is simply to use two hands at all times. I get that. The 6 Plus works beautifully in landscape mode, and its spacious screen shines when it comes to reading articles, watching videos, or playing games. Its battery life, reputed to be significantly longer than that of the iPhone 6, was a major selling point for me. Like the Galaxy Note, this is a phone that some people will love even as others eschew it.
Unlike the Galaxy Note, however, the 6 Plus doesn't come with a stylus, and it wasn't explicitly marketed as a compromise between a phone and a tablet. No Galaxy Note buyer should be surprised to find that her device is unwieldy. Apple addicts may have been lulled by the company's marketing into believing that it would never sell them a phone that didn't feel perfect in their palms.
A device that requires two hands demands your full attention. It's not a device you can whip out of your pocket and glance at quickly in between other tasks. It's not a device you can use to quickly scan your e-mail while carrying a grocery bag or hanging onto a subway pole. And perhaps that was Apple's intention: An awkwardly sized phone might be just the incentive some people need to buy a $350 smartwatch.
I'm not ruling out the possibility that I'll grow dexterous enough that the virtues of the I6 overshadow its limitations. But I'm also not ruling out that I'll soon be standing in line to exchange it for something more manageable.