After a fair amount of time spent bashing Android smartphones for their unwieldy size by Apple fans, the Cupertino company has submitted to the dems of the public released a phablet of its own. The 5.5-inch ione 6 us shares a majority of the specs as the ione 6, but has some tricks of its own to set it apart. 

Of course, the ione 6 us is going head to head with the latest version of the phablet that started it all, the tried true Samsung Galaxy Note series, along with many other phablets. Below is a chart showing how the ione 6 us compares to some new some not-so-new Android phablets. 

For a comparison of the smaller ione 6 model, head over to this article.

Apple’s phablet holds its own

ione us ships with a large, 5.5-inch display, firmly solidifying its presence in the phablet market, there’s little doubt it’ll sell like hotcakes. It may lack the stylus of the Galaxy Note series, but that’s not terribly surprising, as not everyone really cares about that type of input, Apple has shown little interest in pursuing styluses even on the id.

Of course, the ione 6 us ships with a Retina display, which is just a fancy way for Apple to create it’s own display marketing, incidentally, get away with not having an ione with an HD display: a trend that started in 2011 for Android phones. Rejoice, then, as the larger ione 6 us has a 1080p Full HD display!

Of course, pixel density is what really counts in smartphone tablet screens, Apple has done a decent job in this department, pushing high-I displays before Android..

th a pixel density of 401 I, the ione 6 us easily bests the likes of the mid-range G3 Stylus the almost year-old G Flex, it can’t compete with the 2K displays found on high-end phablets, like the new Note 4.

The Apple A8 processor is a beast (we think)

Featuring the new A8 processor M8 co-processor, the ione 6’s bigger brother is just as powerful as the 4.7-inch model. The us is going to be a snappy piece of kit out of the box, but exact details are still on the sketchy side.

at Apple discloses about the A8 processor notwithsting, it’ll take time time to find out exactly what’s under the hood of the new chip, including how much RAM the A8 comes with. This also makes it hard to compare the A8 to existing processors on the market that ship in Android phones. By far the hottest of them all would be the Qualcomm Snapdragon 805, which is found on the new Galaxy Note 4.

The A7 was a blazing fast processor, Apple claims the A8 has a 25% faster C 50% faster G, so we expect it to hold its own against Android phones through the coming year.

should note that Apple doesn’t give battery specs, but claims that the ione 6 us will last two hours more than the 4.7-inch version when browsing the web, has nearly twice the talk time audio playback time. There’s definitely a much bigger battery in there, but the larger screen eats away at it when activities call for screen-on time.

Enhanced iSight camera

As a follow-up to the last generation iSight camera, the ione us has an updated sensor for the 8 megapixel shooter. ile a vast majority of Android smartphone surpassed the use of 8 megapixel cameras a few years ago, Apple hasn’t seen the need to, for good reason. It’s still a solid camera that takes great photos, no matter how you spin it. 

The camera features are identical between the 6 the 6 us, including super slo-mo 240fps video recording, enhanced panorama, phase detection autofocus.

One of the few differences between the ione 6 ione 6 us is that the latter comes with optical image stabilization (OIS). A feature that’s still isn’t found in too many Android smartphones today, the OIS on the ione 6 us should have a lot of people excited. 

The Facee camera has seen very few updates. It’s still the 1.2 megapixel shooter found on the previous ione, but it now has a slightly wider aperture (f/2.2 instead of f/2.4), Burst photo mode, HDR for videos. 

NFC finally makes an appearance with Apple y

A feature that Apple’s really been lagging on implementing into its smartphones is NFC, it, along with Apple y, has been introduced with the new ione lineup. ile Android smartphones have been shipping with these NFC chips for years, the payment system backing them, llet, never got off the ground. 

Now that Apple’s in the game, there’s a good chance that Tap to y will actually become a “thing” now. th Apple’s marketing prowess, mobile payments could take off in a way that will benefit even its competitors. 

More expensive than the stard model

Unsurprisingly, the ione us will cost more than the 4.7-inch model. This is the case for a hful of Android phablets, Apple’s premium hardware design will run you $300 for a 16GB version on a new contract. You’ll just need to think about how important an extra 0.8-inches of screen real estate is to you.