I Phone 6 question.
 

My I phone is getting old and I'm thinking about upgrading to the new I Phone 6 or the 6 Plus, I'd like some advice or thoughts as to which one to purchase, also whether to buy one outright or to go for a contract, thanks Stuart.

Hi Stuart,

A large part of the decision comes down to dimensions.

The 6+ obviously has a bigger screen, which is nice to look at and also allows you to use some of the new functionality in the upcoming iOS8 relating to landscape mode.

But.... you need to consider the practicalities. Can you comfortably shove something that big in your pocket ?

There is obviously demand for larger screens on smartphones... indeed, if you go to Korea, you'll see them all with massive display smartphones stuck to their faces.

But personally, I prefer something more modestly sized. I'm a believer in the right tool for the job... a smartphone is a smartphone, if I want a bigger screen, I'll get an iPad !

On the other hand (not being rude) at your age, your eyes may thank you for buying the 6 plus with a larger screen ! :p

If you don't mind the size (or regularly travel with a bag/rucksack/briefcase ) , then the 6 plus has a few little things here and there going for it based on the spec...... such as longer battery life (I guess the dimensions allow them to put a larger battery in there) and optical image stabilisation on the camera.

But whether you really need image stabilisation on a smartphone camera I'm not sure .... I've got a DSLR and a bunch of lenses, half of which don't have image stabilisation, the only lenses that do are the longer/heavier lenses where it is most useful, I don't miss or need it at all on my shorter lenses. Therefore I wouldn't necessarily hinge my buying decision on that. But if you're sitting on the fence it's obviously an extra point in favour of the 6 plus.

The phones should be in the Apple Stores next week (19th)....so if you want to be cheeky and you've got an Apple Store near you, assuming the stock hasn't all already been reserved by other buyers, you could reserve one of each for collection on the 19th and make your decision on the day once you've played with the display models .....:cool:


Technically its cheaper to buy outright because you'll be paying a financing premium on the amortised cost when you buy on a contract.

But if your personal finances would cope better with the amortised cost, then the premium may be a small price to pay.

Also bear in mind that places like Mazuma are offering special deals for previous model owners.... I got almost £300 for an iPhone 5s.

I carry my phones in my pocket. That determines what I buy. The android decision has been for 3 years now - get the best one - S5 or get one for your pocket - S5 mini.
The pocket decision that we androiders have had for a while comes to Applers.
On the buy vs pay thru contract - Vodafone did me a deal that was cheaper than GiffGaff, so I took it.

A pal of mine has devoted a large chunk of his life filming to broadcast standards and when I dropped by and saw a hi-ish def movie of him on the Broads I thought little of it . . . until he told me it was filmed on his phone. A moderately priced THL I think it was.


When I was the modest age of the OP, an eye surgeon told me I had fabulous eyesight. However, like most middle aged people (if you're going to live to 120) I'd have needed a 50" screen if I'd forgotten my readers.

My Motorola Cliq XT must be one of the first Android phones. It never worked properly in the US, but every time I came home and put the UK sim in it, it worked faultlessly. However, I still can't make head or tail of the OS. So many things that I don't want to happen, just happen. Like loads of folk's email addresses being added - and not to their listing, but in a new listing for that person. That's just an example of me not being in control, there are load of other niggles. I keep it because it's a fantastic phone. However, I guess the specs are too primitive to spend on upgrading the OS. Darn MR wanted $160 plus postage, so time to get some modern kit.

Some real concerns. I was being shown a thl the other day. The friend demonstrated Barclays on-line banking via an app. I mentioned Barclays supplies Kaspersky free of charge, and did she think it safe to be doing her banking on a phone. What think you?

Indeed, and as it happens the more recent Apple adverts have either been entirely shot on, or substantial footage shot on iPhone/iPad.

Its quite impressive to think how far we've come from the humble ubiquitous Nokia phones where a simple black and white screen running a game where one had to navigate a snake round a maze was enough to keep one more than satisfied during a long commute.... :cool:

First thing I'd point out is that Kaspersky is anti-virus software, and that no doubt Barclays supply that for desktop PCs, not phones ? So Kaspersky is somewhat irrelevant in this instance.

The second thing I would say is that browsing the web or doing stuff on your phone is no more or less dangerous than doing so on a PC/laptop. Infact, I would go so far as pointing out that it is safer to do stuff on your phone than it is to do so on an untrusted PC/laptop (e.g. a friend's PC, an internet café etc.).

In terms of having banking and other "personal" apps on your phone, the first thing I would want to do is ensure the security of the phone itself. So on an iPhone that means:
- using a proper password to login (not a pin number)
- configuring auto-lock
- configuring auto-erase after too many incorrect passwords
- not being so stupid as to jailbreak the phone
- not letting anyone untrusted use your phone
- don't use the "auto-login" or "remember me" function of the high-risk "personal" apps, ensure you are always prompted for a password
- only use your high-risk "personal" apps on either the phone network's data service, or a trusted hotspot....do not use untrusted public WiFi for online banking !

If you take basic precautions in maintaining the trust and security of your phone, then you can treat with the same degree of trust as your own PC/laptop (as mentioned above).

Finally, I believe Barclays do 2FA (two factor authentication) when logging onto their website (i.e. you need a little barclays device and your chip & pin card) ? I assume the phone app makes use of this functionality ?

Thanks mixture, much food for thought.

I don't want to hijack the thread so will try to keep to the point, though I'll just mention I'm ever increasingly reliant on KeePass for the plethora of passwords one is required to have these days. Them saying even the NSA can't break it seems to me to be a challenge to bright young minds.

So, is it worth paying for ix when there are so many cheap alternatives? I know it's akin to the old Mac v PC argument, but there must be more to it than just buying a Rolls v a Ford.

Jail Breaking. I know there's a distinct difference, but my phone was unlocked with the blessing of T-Mob in the US. (we did a lot of business with them then) It enabled me to use the phone in the UK with a simple change of SIM leaving my phone lists - but oddly changed as mentioned earlier. Note: T-Mob (EE) in the UK are a different company! It seems Jail-braking is all to do with delving into the inner workings of the OS and opening it to third party software. This I hadn't realized.


This I found interesting, especially the American law re Apple's right to refuse (or not) the warranty after jail-breaking.

Jailbreaking (iOS) - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

Anything that encourages people to use longer passwords with more entropy is a good thing.

I personally wouldn't trust an online service though. I use Zetetic STRIP as a password manager, it saves the passwords to a local encrypted database and then you can synchronise that encrypted database file between multiple devices (phone, tablet, pc,laptop) using dropbox, google drive or just over wifi. The reason I chose STRIP is I found a presentation somewhere where someone compared various offline password managers and it came out top, I'll see if I can find the link....ah, here it is .... https://media.blackhat.com/bh-eu-12/...ion-Slides.pdf. Its a bit techy, so feel free to skip to the summary and conclusion at the back of the document !

Indeed, I'm a great fan of unlocked phones so you can swap simcards.. But not jailbreaking. So as long as you don't unlock your phone through jailbreaking, I'm happy !

I was told that when you buy an iPhone/iPad from Apple, as soon as you put a sim in then the phone locks to that network and you need to unlock it to use a different sim. However this isn't the case as I tried a different one and it worked. Maybe if you buy from a phone company then it is locked.

I always thought that jail breaking a phone was for those who wanted to avoid paying top whack for an app via a torrent site.

You were told wrong.

iPhones are sold unlocked, and have been sold unlocked for a number of years now.... you can put whatever SIM you like in them.

If you buy from a phone company, on a contract, then it is a different case, for obvious reasons..... and you will have signed a contract to that effect !

There is that, and there's also the desire to fiddle with the software on the phone.

But whichever way, jailbreaking is bad because it removes an important security layer.

On an iPhone, apps run in a sandbox, which means they cannot interfere with each other, from Apple's own description :

Basically, sandboxing prevents a compromised (or dodgy) app from compromising other apps or the rest of the system. Thus it is an critical security feature.

Thanks for your help Mix, I've decided to go for the 6 plus because I use it as a sat nav in my skip lorry and the bigger screen is a distinct advantage at my age !
Security isn't an issue because I remove it from the truck every time I get out and I also have a snappy little Jack Russell who regards the truck as his mobile kennel and is not to be messed with, your advice is much appreciated Mix, cheers Stuart.

Physical security isn't the issue. It's the security of the information on the phone. Jailbreaking allows malicious apps potentially to access anything on the phone and to interfere with the way it works. Chewing through your data allocation is the least of the potential worries.