iPhone 6 Review Round-Up: Best Smartphone Ever From Apple

Weeks before the iPhone 6 and iPhone 6 Plus hit the stores worldwide last Friday, gadget reviewers have already taken hold of the latest Apple marvels and were nearly unanimous in praising the products to high heaven.

Many gadget gurus hailed Apple for developing the "best smartphone" that money can buy. TechCrunch's Darrell Etherington called the latest iPhone 6 series as the "best smartphone currently available," adding that the iPhone 6 "offers improvements in almost every way that matters, and it delivers those in a striking new design that balances consumer demand for larger screens with a thin, light and durable case."

The Wall Street Journal's Geoffrey Fowler called the iPhone 6 series as the "ultimate answer to Android envy." The devices as a "big leap forward in what a smartphone can be in our lives," he said, citing the iPhone 6's real digital wallet "that could eventually become the only thing you grab when you leave" home.

Although the two iPhones have different sizes – iPhone 6 measures 4.7 inches while the iPhone 6 plus measures 5.5 inches -- their design is nearly identical.

Many reviewers appreciated the rounded edges, thinner body and sharp bezel of the new smartphones – just like the most recent design of iPads and iPods.

"It's very hard to feel the seam between glass and aluminium," said John Gruber at Daring Fireball. "Examined closely, it's just a phenomenally nice enclosure."

The reviewers also admired the improved main camera on both phones even though Apple did not bother to upgrade their 8 megapixel sensor to challenge the cameras on rival devices with higher megapixels.

Nevertheless, Mashable's Lance Ulanoff cited the new Apple smartphones for taking "image capture to another level," taking notice of its sharper exposure and focus.

"I never found the iPhone 5S' autofocus lacking," Ulanoff said. "But when I ran a simple test – covering both smartphone lenses with my fingers and then seeing which could focus more quickly on the scene when I removed them – the iPhone 6 won every time," he added.

Imaging is even better on the iPhone 6 Plus, said Darrell Etherington at Tech Crunch, noting its optical image stabilization module that can physically move the camera to reduce blur .

On battery life, tests show that the iPhone 6 Plus outlasts the iPhone 5 and 5s. However, the same could not be said of the smaller iPhone 6.

"In our video-playback tests, the 6 lasted 10 hours and 19 minutes – that's actually worse than the 5s results from last year," reported Brad Molen at engadget. "The iPhone 6 Plus, on the other hand, still had 14 percent battery left when the 6 died."

But Charles Arthur of The Guardian said the battery of the iPhone 6 is good enough. "I easily got one day's use, and sometimes much of a second day," he said.

However, there are a few negative views on the iPhone 6 series. Molen at engadget noticed a negative side-effect of the smartphones' new design. "The phones are prone to scratches if you're not careful," he wrote. "After just a day of use, I started noticing a few small marks on the backs of both devices. The most extreme thing I did to the phones during this time was slide them around on an office table."

David Pierce at The Verge criticized the phones' antenna placement, saying the small plastic stripes on the back of the phone "just looks bad, like someone drew on my phone with a marker."

Some commentators also said that the iPhone 6 Plus may be a little too big. "The iPhone 6 Plus is so big that in landscape mode, I had a hard time reaching the keys to type," said Molly Wood at The New York Times.

She said she is in constant fear of dropping the device because of its increased size, new rounded edges and smooth surface.

Apple also does not allow users to use multiple apps at the same time in its iPhone 6 series. "Apple could have taken a cue from other makers of so-called phablets... and come up with powerful ways to take advantage of those bigger screens," wrote Molly Wood in The New York Times.

Despite the smattering of criticism, a great majority of reviews agreed that the iPhone 6 and the iPhone 6 Plus are the best phones Apple has made. Many reviewers even went further to say that, at present, they are the best smartphones on the market.