iPhone 6 Flaws: The 4 Worst Things About Apple's New Phones

Review after review confirms that Apple has delivered on expectations and then some with the release of its new iPhone 6 devices, but nitpicky tech wonks are still glad to point out flaws when they present themselves.

Keep in mind that these flaws only come amid heaps of generalized praise. TechCrunch's Darrell Etherington calls the 4.7-inch iPhone 6 the "best smartphone currently available," offering "improvements in almost every way that matters." The Verge sings similar praises for the oversized 5.5-inch iPhone 6 Plus, arguing that you could easily replace your older iPhone and iPad Mini with this oversized smartphone device.

But hidden within these torrents of praise are some pretty substantial flaws; indeed, some big enough they might just give some pause to someone with a perfectly good iPhone 5s or an Android phone. Here's what Apple needs to fix in the next version:

The camera lens sticks out

The iPhone 6 Plus’ camera lens protrudes from the backside of the device. It appears that Apple has even taken steps to hide this in its marketing materials — blogger Ben Brooks writes that it’s by way of “clever lighting and placement [that] Apple hides that bump in profile view where it clearly would ruin the clean line and sleek looks.”

The lens design also means that the phone doesn't sit level when you lay it on a table, as seen below:

Antenna lines are unattractive

On the reverse of the iPhone 6, you'll notice two gray lines that run boldly across the device. These lines are where the phone's antennas are, and Vikas Shukla at ValueWalk says that the result is an Apple iPhone that looks “less disciplined” than others. He's not alone in his thinking.

Most apps aren't ready for the larger screen size

The iPhone 6 Plus is by far the largest phone Apple’s ever produced — its 5.5-inch screen is 37 percent larger than that of the iPhone 5s and can pump out 2 million individual pixels on its 1920 x 1080 resolution. But many iPhone apps today are only formatted to be used on the iPhone 5s' 4-inch screen. The iPhone 6 and 6 Plus have a "desktop class scaler" that will artificially blow up app interfaces so that they take advantage of the entire screen. But as this process is artificial, it's imperfect. Lines are less defined, text gets fuzzy, and The Verge remarks that the official Gmail app is "particularly bad" when scaled up.

These problems are only short term until developers rework their apps to function natively within the newly resized screen.

Maybe it's just too big?

Some people decried the iPhone 6 Plus for its size. If you have smaller-than-usual hands, you're likely better off with the standard iPhone 6. Lauren Goode writes in her review that "it didn’t fit well in pockets. And it was too big to hold in my hand, or even wear on my arm, during fitness activities. This is key for me."