iPhone 6 Review for Travel

The iPhone 6 and iPhone 6 Plus were announced last week and it’s the biggest change Apple has made to the iPhone line in recent years. Hundreds of reviews have already been written about the 2 new iPhones, but as I’ve done in the past I want to give my opinions with regards to travel. Is it a worthwhile upgrade or should you wait until the next upgrade cycle? Read on to find out!

Screen Size

The most significant change in the iPhone 6 and iPhone 6 Plus are the larger screen sizes, with the 6 measuring 4.7 inches and the 6 Plus measuring a whopping 5.5 inches! This should make for better web browsing, game play while stuck in airports, and jotting down notes on the phone. With the 6 Plus, it may even replace the need for you to have a tablet on the road (one less thing to carry). You might be thinking that 5.5 inches is way too big for a phone. I would tend to agree with you, but I won’t be able to decide for sure until I can make it over to an Apple Store and play with both for myself.

Memory Capacity

With the new iPhones, Apple has eliminated the 32GB version, opting for a 64GB version at the same price point, plus adding a 128GB version for the first time. I currently have a 32GB iPhone 5 and I’m constantly running out of room for music, photos, and my ever-growing podcasts list. I’ll probably go with the 128GB version so I never have to worry about this.

Camera

While Apple still stuck with an 8MP iSight camera, they’ve added what they are calling ‘Focus Pixels’. The idea is that the camera should be able to autofocus significantly quicker than previous iPhone cameras. The biggest camera update comes to the iPhone 6 Plus, which comes with Optical Image Stabilization (OIS). This will especially help with shooting in low-light situations. I wish they had included this on both new iPhones, so if you use it as your main camera then this might be a deciding factor.

Worldwide LTE Connectivity

The iPhone 6 and 6 Plus support up to 20 different LTE bands, meaning that you can use them in most countries that have LTE networks. No more (slow) 3G speeds while traveling outside the US! Just show up in a new country, buy a SIM card at the airport, and be off with your fast LTE speeds. This really makes the iPhone one to rule them all. The new iPhones also support Voice-over-LTE, so those of us with Verizon in the US can finally talk and surf the web AT THE SAME TIME! I don’t understand why this took so long.

Apple Pay

The feature that I’m most excited about is Apple Pay. This involves using your phone to make payments via NFC. You link all of your credit cards to the phone, hold your thumb on the fingerprint sensor, swipe your phone past a machine at checkout, and voila, you’ve paid. No need to take your wallet out and fumble through getting out a card. This technology has been around for a while, but has never really taken off. Hopefully Apple integrating it in the new iPhones will help with mass adoption. The only issue you’d have to worry about would be if the battery in the phone dies. Then you’d have to have a physical card as a backup.

Verdict

So now the final question. Should you buy one of the new iPhone 6 models? I say absolutely. The larger screen size is a winner in itself, but then you add in larger memory capacity, an improved camera, and mobile payments. For me, it’s a must-upgrade. Which size you get really depends on your personal preferences, but from what I’ve heard I’ll probably be going with the iPhone 6 rather than the iPhone 6 Plus.

What do you think? Are you going to be upgrading to either the iPhone 6 or iPhone 6 Plus?