This year, I decided to join the iPhone queue again to get the new iPhone 6 right from the first day. Why not preorder? Why not just wait few more weeks and just get it easily from a store? Well, I did try to preorder but didn’t get the model and capacity that I want. And queuing for Apple product is more than just about getting the product in the first day. This year is my 4th time queuing in Apple launch day and so far I quite enjoy the process of queuing. I usually met new people in the queue and having some interesting chat.
I can easily justify waking up in the morning to join a product release queue, but I could never justified staying overnight outdoor. I prefer my own soft-and-nice bed at home to sleep. So I started this morning, woke up at 4am at home. I left house at 5:30 and took the earliest tram to Melbourne CBD. Arrived at Telstra flagship store at 6:15 and started queuing. Surprisingly, this year there are more people queuing at Apple Stores compared to telco stores. Either more people want outright (and unlocked) phones, or many of them might be resellers which will sell the phones in overseas market for significant profit. People queuing in front of telco stores are mostly going to take a 24 months plan with telco, so most of them would be residents.
After waiting for few minutes, I started a conversation with the guy standing in front of me. His current phone is iPhone 3G. He said he insisted to keep using it, until he finally gave up. His sons are already using iPhone 5S. A Telstra staff came and offered us brekkie wraps. We can choose chorizo wrap or vegetarian wrap. Then a Chinese lady joined the queue behind me. Her husband was queuing in Vodafone store across the street while she was queuing for Telstra. They might be in their 50s, yet still very eager to join a queue so early in the morning. After few minutes, her husband returned and both of them decided to get a Telstra plan instead of Vodafone.
She told me her bad experience with Vodafone. From dropping calls, no signal, to very unstable Internet connection. And all those problems happened even in Melbourne CBD. She asked me few times about my experience with Telstra. Well, Telstra is also not perfect, and it’s damn expensive. But it’s probably the best we can have here in Australia in terms of connection quality and customer services.
Next we exchanged tips about how to make cheap voice calls to overseas. As I predicted, she’s only familiar with WeChat messaging app. So I introduced her to few other options. Then she asked a lot of other questions about Internet. From data usage of voice chat using app, to the concept of calling landline phone from Skype.
The guy in front of me also shared his experiences with his phone. And his experiences in trying to use his sons’ “newer” phones. He told me he hasn’t even decided whether he wants to get an iPhone 6 or iPhone 6 Plus. Then I showed him the cases that I bought to give him the general idea about the sizes. He still couldn’t make up his mind because he has never seen any photo of the new phones. So he wanted to see the demo units first before making his final decision. I told him that before the store opens, Telstra staff are going to ask us which model, capacity and color we want to get. So I guess he needs to make a temporary decision before being able to see demo units.
The lady behind me told me that a new iPhone model could sell for AUD 7,000 if sold in China in the launch day. This is due to the fact that usually China doesn’t get new iPhone in the first batch of launch, so the demand is quite high with some rich people over there. Well, willing to pay $7,000 for a $800+ phone is indeed something worth to note. Maybe this is also the reason why Apple Stores are so packed. I called my local Apple Store yesterday evening and they said more than 100 people already queuing.
Another interesting question that I got is about a conflict island in Google Maps. There is an island currently being disputed between China and Japan. So the rumor in China now is trying to persuade people NOT to buy iPhone 6 because when people install Google Maps in iPhone 6, that island is going to appear as part of Japan, therefore Chinese people should not buy iPhone 6. I asked the lady 2 more times, is she sure the rumor is about Google Maps, not Apple Maps? She’s sure it’s about Google Maps. Then I explained that Google Maps is available for all smartphones, not just iPhone 6, not just phones from Apple. All phones from Samsung, LG, HTC, Sony and others are also capable of using Google Maps and IF one island is indeed appear in such a way, the exact same result will be displayed in all other smartphones. It’s very unlikely that Google will set up a special condition for a special island to appear differently when opened in iPhone 6.
Thanks to these interesting conversations, the waiting time didn’t feel boring at all. From time to time, Telstra staff would come and offer free coffee, free snacks, free bottled water for everybody. About 45 minutes before opening hour, we are given a printed card with the iPhone model, capacity and color that we want. The card represents their stock. So if we manage to get a card, we are guaranteed for that unit. A great relief that I managed to secure a card for 64 GB silver iPhone 6.
Another Telstra staff was trying hard to get few people queuing to go the stage they have prepared to do some dance. The prize is one year free movie tickets, gold class. Yet after 3-4x attempts to persuade anyone to come, no one came forward to do the dance. So the prize was not given to anyone. She asked the wrong kind of crowd, I suppose, lol.
The store opened at 8 am and the queue started to move. I finally entered the store around 9:25 but they didn’t immediately start the process of plan signing. They gave us few minutes to play around with 6 demo units first (iPhone 6 and iPhone 6 plus from each color) so we could have another opportunity to change our choice.
My first impression at holding a real working unit of iPhone 6 was how incredibly nice it feels on my palm. The curved edge is really well designed for comfortable holding. iPhone 6 screen is flat, not curved. Only the edges are curved, around 1-2mm. Overall, this design gives a feeling that the entire screen might look curved for some people, even though the entire viewable display surface is actually flat.
The display of iPhone 6 is bright and exceptionally crisp. The home button moves to the right side (from the upper side in all previous generations), which I find a little bit strange, but it might get better after I get used to it.
Next I tried iPhone 6 plus. It was huge. When I saw it on the display table, it looks super gorgeous. However, as soon as I tried holding it, my hand can barely hold it. So operating iPhone 6 plus with one hand is near impossible for my hand size, even with Reachability feature. Another person in my batch of “entering the store” quickly concluded that iPhone 6 plus is a great “purse phone” for ladies, but probably not for him as it didn’t even fit his pocket. I guess everyone might have unique situations, but his conclusion is surely an interesting one.
With the final test of actually holding the phones, I’m pretty confident that my choice to get 4.7″ model is the best option for me.
The process to start a postpaid plan was easy because I’m an existing Telstra customer. A Telstra staff asked my “stock card” that I received when queuing, then using that card to get my iPhone unit.
I was really surprised when I see the box of iPhone 6. For few generations, iPhone box always have the picture of the iPhone on top. iPhone 6 box is strikingly different. It’s… plain white with light grey Apple logo and “iPhone” word on two sides. The top is totally white without any picture, embossed with the shape of iPhone 6. I asked the Telstra staff to make sure she gave me the right phone. She ensured me there is no mistake. I looked around me, everyone else is also holding a plain white box with the same design. So I guess this year’s iPhone box is indeed without any picture of the phone itself.
Around 10am I walked out from Telstra store, carrying my new phone. In Australia, the upfront price of an iPhone with 24-months plan is $0 (zero, no upfront).
I was tired and sleepy when arrived home. But no one can resist the temptation of opening a new iPhone in sealed box. So I did my iPhone unbox, took few photos, and started the backup and restore process to move all my data from iPhone 5S to the new iPhone 6.
Inside the box, we have the usual iPhone 6 on top, wrapped in plastic. Then we can find 3 items at the bottom layer: wall charger, lightning cable and Apple earpods with remote and mic. Pretty standard for a smartphone, I guess.
I have backed up my iPhone 5S a night before. So I immediately started the restore process to the new iPhone 6. Since I have around 40 GB of content, the restore process took around 2 hours to complete.
After restore, I put the protection case I already ordered last week. I planned to put screen protector too. But the one I ordered is apparently too small. I know that the screen edges are curved, so most screen protectors would probably cut smaller than the phone dimension. But this one I got is way to small, not even covering the entire display area. Plus the cut for speaker and camera is wrong. The screen protector covers half of the front camera. How awful is that? Well, I guess we can’t expect much from $1 generic (non-branded) screen protector from China.
With no screen protector, I decided to order a new screen protector from Belkin and keep the plastic wrap of iPhone as my temporary screen protector. It works good, except for one small issue that I can’t use Touch ID yet, waiting for the Belkin screen protector.
After solving the issue of screen protector, now is the time to explore the software part of this new iPhone. When setting up the phone, we are asked to choose whether we want “normal” display or zoomed display. With normal display, the extra screen size would allow us to see more, but it retains the same size as iPhone 5S. With zoomed display, we see the same amount of information as iPhone 5S, but everything got slightly bigger. I choose the normal view.
I tried running my usual apps, all run smooth. However, I notice that if an apps that are NOT yet optimised for the new screen resolution of iPhone 6 is actually rendered at its original resolution, then got upscaled to fit the screen. As a result, text and other objects looks slightly blurry. It’s not that bad and it’s not the phone’s fault. For now, only apps made by Apple (and few other apps like Pinterest and Evernote) give crisp and beautiful interface. This is less noticeable in graphical apps like games, and more noticeable in apps with a lot of text like social media. Eventually most apps will get updated and we will see better interface. Sadly, I still find it annoying to see some frequently used apps like Facebook still have scaled up interface.
Other than the issue of scaled up interface of unsupported apps, everything else work nicely without problem. The overall user experience is smooth and snappy. I can still operate iPhone 6 using one hand, making this phone is equally mobile as iPhone 5S.
The new iPhone 6 is thin. It’s really really thin. The technical specs show that it’s heavier than iPhone 5S, but personally I don’t notice any significant difference. The weight of iPhone 6 feels just right. The overall build looks very solid with premium feel. Too bad Apple didn’t put sapphire protection layer on the display of this year’s iPhone.
Power button moves from top side to right side of the iPhone body. I find this change a little hard to adjust. First reason is obviously habit. Second reason is when taking a screenshot, it’s a lot easier when the power button is on top since our hand holding the bottom part would press the home button at the same time. Now, we need to press the home button, press the power button, while somehow holding the phone from left side to deal with button pressure from right side. Third reason, since the new location of power button is the same height as volume buttons, pressing the power button might trigger accidental presses on the volume buttons. This has happened multiple times during my first few hours with the new phone.
At the bottom side we can see the lightning port, standard 3.5mm audio port, mic, and speaker. In iPhone 5S, there are 10 small holes for mic and 16 small holes for speaker. In iPhone 6, there’s only one hole for the mic, and 6 holes for the speaker. The holes in iPhone 6 are equally sized, bigger than the holes in iPhone 5S. To my untrained ears, the speaker sounds a little bit louder than iPhone 5S speaker.
The back camera of iPhone 6S is slightly raised from the overall back surface. This might be an issue for people who don’t use case as the glass protecting the camera could get scratched easier. I always use protection case, so this is not an issue for me. As for the camera’s quality, I plan to take few comparison photos taken from iPhone 5S and iPhone 6 and post them in a separate post later.
In conclusion, I love this new phone. It brings larger screen while keeping all the great qualities I like from Apple product. With the record-breaking online preorder plus the long queue in many Apple Stores around the world today, I suspect a lot of people are going to love it, too.
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