Anandtech's review of the iphone 6 is out!

[Phokus]

http://www.anandtech.com/show/8554/the-iphone-6-review

Is it me, or is there a big ethical lapse here? The site's owner, anand lal shimpi, is employed by Apple. As we saw with the Gamergate debacle, journalists did not disclose their financial/sexual conflicts of interests and that caused a big poopstorm which made many sites revise their conflict of interest policies to include disclosures (including revising past articles with disclosures).

 

[boomhower]

Didn't Anand leave the company though? Regardless I assume that every review I read is at least partially influenced in one way or another. Read many and take an average.

 

[Phokus]

Didn't Anand leave the company though? Regardless I assume that every review I read is at least partially influenced in one way or another. Read many and take an average.

Good question, but I assume he still owns the site?

 

[boomhower]

Good question, but I assume he still owns the site?

I would imagine so, it's got to be a big money maker.

 

[Red Storm]

It would be nice to be given the exact method used for battery testing so that we could attempt to reproduce their results. 200 nits on a full white display, does that mean the phone was literally just showing a white display the whole time?

 

[rcpratt]

I will certainly read it with these concerns in the back of my mind, but really these concerns are not much larger than my previous concerns with Anandtech's typical Apple slant anyways.

 

[benzylic]

It would be nice to be given the exact method used for battery testing so that we could attempt to reproduce their results. 200 nits on a full white display, does that mean the phone was literally just showing a white display the whole time?

Part of the test is they have a script on the phone load a different website like every ten seconds, so not displaying white the whole time. I believe they mean they had the phone display an all white screen then calibrated thee brightness to 200 nits based on that all white screen.

 

[Red Storm]

Part of the test is they have a script on the phone load a different website like every ten seconds, so not displaying white the whole time. I believe they mean they had the phone display an all white screen then calibrated thee brightness to 200 nits based on that all white screen.

Ah. Would be nice for them to give us access to that script...

 

[dawheat]

http://www.anandtech.com/show/8554/the-iphone-6-review

Is it me, or is there a big ethical lapse here? The site's owner, anand lal shimpi, is employed by Apple. As we saw with the Gamergate debacle, journalists did not disclose their financial/sexual conflicts of interests and that caused a big poopstorm which made many sites revise their conflict of interest policies to include disclosures (including revising past articles with disclosures).

I'm an Android user myself, but you seem to have quite the axe to grind against Apple in multiple threads.

The bulk of the review is based on objective measurements, not subjective. That alone makes it superior to pretty much any other review out there. While it's clear the reviewers thought very highly of the phone, I didn't see anything like the bias in Apple fansites like Appleinsider or imore.

Surely Anandtech has earned credibility over the last decade in the quality of their reviews. Having a disclaimer at the end of every product in a category that Apple competes doesn't seem justified.

However we the users of the site can and should hold the staff accountable for biases found in their reviews. So don't be a douche and instead, if you have specific, credible complaints on their reviews, post them and let the community decide.

 

[krumme]

All the Screen measurements is nonsense as an example. I for one actually own my own calibration tool, and all my ips/pls and even projector screens are calibrated to eg. +/- 30 6500. But what does +/- actually for eg. greyscale matter when blacklevel is just very bad and color spectrum is plain flat.

Look at the screens. Look at it our eyes is far better for judging that this nonsense. Modern amoled absolutely kills those screens.

And take the remarks about resolution in the review? - seriously - if an android phone at this pricelevel had a resolution like this it would rightfully get some bashing.

Camera and cpu looks superior though. The rest is just boring and 2 years old tech like.

 

[purbeast0]

awwww OP is butthurt that they didn't bash an apple product. he should go make a thread about it.

oh wait...

 

[Ravynmagi]

Holy crap, check out that internal NAND performance. That's as fast as some SSDs.

 

[paperwastage]

Apple usually doesn't get it first, but they do it better (for the average consumer)

- battery life, camera, CPU/GPU (single-threaded performance), NAND ...

no obvious surprises for me

 

[kpkp]

I have a small complaint about the web battery method. Is not really a complaint, because I understand that is hard/impossible to make a perfect battery test, but is something I want to point out.

I think it's clear by now that javascript/web based benchmark are quite useless when it comes to measuring performance of the SoC cross platform, the state and optimisations of web browsers and javascript engines is so different that the results do not mean much at the SoC level.

That being said, we can see how great the iOS devices perform on those benchmarks, giving them a significant advantage in the web based battery test. If the browser is better optimised the CPU has longer idle states therefore extending the battery life of the device.

While web usage is a big part of what we do on smartphones it is far off the 100% as simulated by this test.

 

[cheezy321]

awwww OP is butthurt that they didn't bash an apple product. he should go make a thread about it.

oh wait...

His obsession with apple is seriously pathetic. I am not joking when I think it might be an underlying mental issue.

As for the reviews, its mostly what we have come to expect from Apple. They get more out of less every single time.

Smaller battery? Still has top notch battery life.

Low CPU speed and memory? Still some of the best and fastest real world usage.

8 MP camera? Who cares, it shoots great photos.

NAND performance is insane.

Just goes to show what you can do when you develop both the software and the hardware.

 

[Aristotelian]

With all due respect - coming from someone who is certainly not an Apple basher, but comparing it to the Sony z1s? I skimmed through the rest of the review when seeing that. I'm not calling the review's ethical backdrop into question, but comparing:

http://www.amazon.de/Apple-iPhone-1...12104503&sr=1-48&keywords=apple+iphone+6+16gb (from Apple, the iPhone 6 here is 759.99 Euros)

vs

http://www.amazon.de/Sony-Smartphon...n=device_only&keywords=sony+xperia+z3+compact (from sony, 499 Euros).

I would love to see a detailed review like the one Anandtech does, including real flagships being released at a similar time. I should be receiving a Sony Xperia Z3 soon, and I'd be happy to ship it to Anandtech for them to conduct a solid review of that device, perhaps comparing it to the iPhone 6 plus.

I am not saying that the iPhone 6 is 'not a good phone', I just find it a bit strange that the iPhone 6 was compared to some of those other phones (not just the Sony z1s, but not even a Z2? Let alone the Z3 compact).

From where I stand (in Europe), the phone is absolutely not worth the price premium I'm seeing over other products. But I stand to be proven wrong - and my offer above stands.

 

[sgrinavi]

http://www.anandtech.com/show/8554/the-iphone-6-review

Is it me, or is there a big ethical lapse here? The site's owner, anand lal shimpi, is employed by Apple. As we saw with the Gamergate debacle, journalists did not disclose their financial/sexual conflicts of interests and that caused a big poopstorm which made many sites revise their conflict of interest policies to include disclosures (including revising past articles with disclosures).

I'm finding that most forums are bias these days, it's called capitalism. I'm just happy when they don't shut us down for having a different opinion. He, or whoever owns the site, can advertise in any way they see fit - as long as they remain truthful they can spin it however they want.

Did you know that google is an advertising company and they don't show you the most relevant results, they show you the ones that pay them the most? Is that un-ethical too?

 

[openwheel]

Anandtech does some of the best reviews, if not the best.

 

[Anubis]

With all due respect - coming from someone who is certainly not an Apple basher, but comparing it to the Sony z1s? I skimmed through the rest of the review when seeing that. I'm not calling the review's ethical backdrop into question, but comparing:

http://www.amazon.de/Apple-iPhone-1...12104503&sr=1-48&keywords=apple+iphone+6+16gb (from Apple, the iPhone 6 here is 759.99 Euros)

vs

http://www.amazon.de/Sony-Smartphon...n=device_only&keywords=sony+xperia+z3+compact (from sony, 499 Euros).

I would love to see a detailed review like the one Anandtech does, including real flagships being released at a similar time. I should be receiving a Sony Xperia Z3 soon, and I'd be happy to ship it to Anandtech for them to conduct a solid review of that device, perhaps comparing it to the iPhone 6 plus.

I am not saying that the iPhone 6 is 'not a good phone', I just find it a bit strange that the iPhone 6 was compared to some of those other phones (not just the Sony z1s, but not even a Z2? Let alone the Z3 compact).

From where I stand (in Europe), the phone is absolutely not worth the price premium I'm seeing over other products. But I stand to be proven wrong - and my offer above stands.

id like to see the Z3 reviewed in the same fashion. I believe the reason you don't see reviews for the Z1 and Z2 are because Sony has basically ZERO marketing in the USA and thus sells close to zero phones and anandtech is a US based website

The Z3 I think is being marketed in the US so hopefully we see a review of it, we should get an in-depth look at the Note 4

 

[Commodus]

With all due respect - coming from someone who is certainly not an Apple basher, but comparing it to the Sony z1s? I skimmed through the rest of the review when seeing that. I'm not calling the review's ethical backdrop into question, but comparing:

http://www.amazon.de/Apple-iPhone-1...12104503&sr=1-48&keywords=apple+iphone+6+16gb (from Apple, the iPhone 6 here is 759.99 Euros)

vs

http://www.amazon.de/Sony-Smartphon...n=device_only&keywords=sony+xperia+z3+compact (from sony, 499 Euros).

I would love to see a detailed review like the one Anandtech does, including real flagships being released at a similar time. I should be receiving a Sony Xperia Z3 soon, and I'd be happy to ship it to Anandtech for them to conduct a solid review of that device, perhaps comparing it to the iPhone 6 plus.

I am not saying that the iPhone 6 is 'not a good phone', I just find it a bit strange that the iPhone 6 was compared to some of those other phones (not just the Sony z1s, but not even a Z2? Let alone the Z3 compact).

From where I stand (in Europe), the phone is absolutely not worth the price premium I'm seeing over other products. But I stand to be proven wrong - and my offer above stands.

The lack of an Xperia Z2 comparison is probably just due to AnandTech's US focus -- you can't get one through a carrier like you can in other countries.

As for the Z3 Compact? Well, there's a few reasons you're paying a premium for the iPhone 6, I'd say: higher resolution display, slimmer build, Touch ID and (possibly) better real-world camera performance.

 

[Phokus]

His obsession with apple is seriously pathetic. I am not joking when I think it might be an underlying mental issue.

As for the reviews, its mostly what we have come to expect from Apple. They get more out of less every single time.

Smaller battery? Still has top notch battery life.

Low CPU speed and memory? Still some of the best and fastest real world usage.

8 MP camera? Who cares, it shoots great photos.

NAND performance is insane.

Just goes to show what you can do when you develop both the software and the hardware.

Iphone 6/6+ batteries kinda suck to other top phones, especially compared to the Sony xperia Z3/Z3 Compact actually. TThe Z3 cameras are better than the 5s, maybe better than the 6's too. The compact actually beats the 6+ by a mile lol. Note 4 has a better camera than the 6+ and possibly better battery life (waiting for reviews, but anecdotally, it's insane).

 

[Anubis]

Iphone 6/6+ batteries kinda suck to other top phones, especially compared to the Sony xperia Z3/Z3 Compact actually. TThe Z3 cameras are better than the 5s, maybe better than the 6's too. The compact actually beats the 6+ by a mile lol. Note 4 has a better camera than the 6+ and possibly better battery life (waiting for reviews, but anecdotally, it's insane).

why do you care so much?

 

[Aristotelian]

The lack of an Xperia Z2 comparison is probably just due to AnandTech's US focus -- you can't get one through a carrier like you can in other countries.

As for the Z3 Compact? Well, there's a few reasons you're paying a premium for the iPhone 6, I'd say: higher resolution display, slimmer build, Touch ID and (possibly) better real-world camera performance.

Higher res display? 7ppi density difference. Slimmer build? 1.7 mm thinner. On Touch ID - my subjective view is that this isn't so important to me.

You say there's a premium for the iPhone 6 vs the Z3 compact but what about the premiums of the Z3 compact in comparison? E.g., far better battery life (one of the best of any smartphone out there); water resistance, while maintaining the same weight as the iPhone 6. SD card slot? My z3 will be coupled with a 128gb micro SD. So three significant premiums (to me), while being significantly cheaper.

I'm going with the full Z3 in any case, and I understand that there is a subjective element in the premiums you mention, but I like detailed reviews - I just wish that the actual competition for the iPhone 6 was reviewed alongside it. I'd like to see a detailed review like this one comparing the iPhone 6 to the Z3 compact, especially a value for money comparison given the (EU) EUR 260 difference.

 

[zokudu]

Higher res display? 7ppi density difference. Slimmer build? 1.7 mm thinner. On Touch ID - my subjective view is that this isn't so important to me.

You say there's a premium for the iPhone 6 vs the Z3 compact but what about the premiums of the Z3 compact in comparison? E.g., far better battery life (one of the best of any smartphone out there); water resistance, while maintaining the same weight as the iPhone 6. SD card slot? My z3 will be coupled with a 128gb micro SD. So three significant premiums (to me), while being significantly cheaper.

I'm going with the full Z3 in any case, and I understand that there is a subjective element in the premiums you mention, but I like detailed reviews - I just wish that the actual competition for the iPhone 6 was reviewed alongside it. I'd like to see a detailed review like this one comparing the iPhone 6 to the Z3 compact, especially a value for money comparison given the (EU) EUR 260 difference.

I'm pretty sure the data for other phones in the review comes from previous reviews they have done. If you want to see the Note 4 or Z3 compared to the iPhone 6 they would need to review that phone, which Anandtech has not done yet. When/if they put out a review of the Note 4 or Z3 the iPhone 6 results would be in the tables so that is where you will find the comparison you're looking for.

 

[cheezy321]

Iphone 6/6+ batteries kinda suck to other top phones, especially compared to the Sony xperia Z3/Z3 Compact actually. TThe Z3 cameras are better than the 5s, maybe better than the 6's too. The compact actually beats the 6+ by a mile lol. Note 4 has a better camera than the 6+ and possibly better battery life (waiting for reviews, but anecdotally, it's insane).

Wow, you are so ridiculous you don't even realize how bad it is. Sad.

You post the iPhone 6 anandtech review first so you can throw in your snide remark about it being a somehow biased review.

Then, in order to 'prove' the terrible battery life in the iPhone 6/6+ you post a battery test from another source?!?! Why the hell wouldn't you just use the battery test graphic FROM THE REVIEW THAT YOU MADE THIS POST FOR??? That is exactly the point of this thread, to discuss the merits of the review. Why did you even post the review in this forum if you aren't ever going to reference it?

Here is the battery test on AT for all the people who aren't off their kilter crazy when it comes to apple: