In total, Apple said twenty different LTE frequencies are supported by both iPhone 6, meaning it should be a great device to use around the world (where roaming rates are affordable of course).
You can have the new iPhone 6 in any colour you want, as long as they're silver, grey or gold. Any other colours requires putting the new iPhones in cases.
Size-wise, I'll admit that the iPhone 6 Plus is much larger than I thought it would be.
There's no doubt it'll be too big for some people, whereas the iPhone 6 will be the right step up in size compared to say, the iPhone 5s.
In that respect, Apple's done it right with the iPhone 6, unlike last year's devices - the iPhone 5c with the same size as the more capable iPhone 5s was a wasted effort.
I'm happy with the iPhone 6 Plus in terms of size, partly thanks to changes in iOS 8 that automatically add more screen elements to web browsing and other applications so that you see more information displayed. Also, it's easier to use for my large-ish hands.
That said, the iPhone 6 is probably the best compromise between pocketability and increased screen and device size. Despite the iPhone 6 Plus bringing a few more things to the table like a larger 2,915mAh battery compared to a 1,810mAh in the iPhone 6, I suspect the more moderate size and lower price will make the former the volume seller.
This is a good time to bring up battery life: the iPhone 6 Plus will go through a day and half of use, the iPhone 6 around a day. Neither gets uncomfortably hot even with intensive use; I expect the situation will get better once Apple optimises iOS 8.
The misses
Not even Apple can bend all the rules and laws of physics in its favour though: the slimmer case means the five-element lens for the eight megapixel camera protrudes a bit.
Scratching the lens isn't a worry, an Apple rep told me. You'd need a diamond to scratch the sapphire lens apparently.
We'll see how it fares in people's pockets in the long term but one surprising design miss due to the protruding lens is that iPhone 6 wobbles when used flat on their backs on hard surfaces - the Plus more than the smaller 6 - because the lens on the left side on the back of the device.
Easily enough rectified with small sticky spacer on the right side, but I expected Apple with its almost manic attention to detail to have noticed the lens making the iPhone 6 and 6 Plus unbalanced.
In fact, Apple could maybe have put a similarly protruding flash for the camera on the right-hand side to balance the iPhone 6s. Either way, a case - the Apple cases are I'm told made out of Connolly leather, same as you'd find in British luxo cars - will rebalance the iPhone 6 and 6 Plus.
There's no stereo speakers on the new iPhones, and Beats Audio didn't make it into this release, which is a shame. Likewise, the earbuds with the iPhone 6 haven't had a makeover and are the same as last year's edition.
Setup and use
I'm mentioning setting up the new iPhone 6s because it was actually a bit glitchy, as I restored the backup of the 5s to it via iTunes.
The iPhone Plus wouldn't recognise my correctly entered Gmail password despite several tries, nor would it acknowledge my Vodafone SIM that works just fine in the 5c.
Updating the phone to iOS 8.0.2 and reinserting the SIM seems to have taken care of the issues - and oddly enough, even though I cancelled the Gmail password entry dialog, the phone was able to authenticate me with Google.
My suggestion is to update to iOS 8.0.2 as early in the game as possible, over Wi-Fi.
The other thing that's noticeable for now is that some apps like Google's ones, are not updated to for the higher screen resolutions of the iPhone 6 and 6 Plus. The text and keyboards look much larger in those than the Apple native apps that have been tweaked for higher screen resolutions.
Not a show-stopper by any means, but a little jarring.
Other than that, the new high-contrast screens are excellent. Android users will no doubt point out that their devices have had iPhone 6 Plus's 1920 by 1080 pixel resolution - and 1344 by 720 as is the case with the smaller iPhone 6 - for a while. Higher than that even.
This is true, but the iPhone 6 screens are superb nevertheless, sharp, great colours and deep, dark blacks; plus, they're very readable outdoors.
The Reachability feature whereby a double-tap on the home button drops down the screen icons is handy (ha!) for thumb pilots, but in my hands, it was easier to adjust the grip on the iPhone 6 Plus and reach further up.
Much improved camera
One big selling point of the iPhone 6 is the new camera. This features very fast auto-focus, optical image stabilisation for less blur when you're shooting stills and video handheld, and a dual-tone light emitting diode (LED) flash.
The camera lives up to Apple's hype: it's fast to focus, and works much better in low light than in the 5s which has a pretty good camera already. If you're a phonecam fiend, the iPhone 6 is worth checking out.
I found the new 240 frames per second slow-mo effect fun to use, along with the time-lapse; neither of these will be available in older i-Devices.
But, it's 2014 and device makers are already showing off 4K video. Apple? Not so. You'll get 1080 high definition out of the camera for now, albeit at fast 60 frames per second. The video quality is very good.
Eight megapixels is enough for most situations and Apple is sticking with that resolution because it allows it to use a fairly small 1/3 inch sensor, yet have large 1.5 micrometre photo pixels.
Large pixels on the sensor means less noise and clearer pictures. However, more resolution is always better, as it allows you to crop and be more flexible with images, so don't for a second think that Apple will stop at eight megapixels.
Once a way around the pixel size versus image noise problem is found, expect Apple to up the resolution considerably. Competitors are hitting twenty megapixels already.
While on the topic of pixels, the front camera is the same 1.2 megapixel unit as in the iPhone 5s, providing a maximum resolution of 720p. No full HD selfies for iPhone 6 users then (unless they use the rear camera).
Power to the iPeople
The new 64-bit Apple A8 system on a chip that drives the iPhone 6 is still being analysed by hardware geeks but it's fair to say it performs very well indeed.
A number of performance testing applications that I wanted to use benchmark the new iPhone 6s with have not been updated, and either provided wrong readings or did not complete.
On those that did, like Futuremark's 3Dmark test, which is games oriented, the iPhone 6 Plus scored 17,799. On Geekbench 3, the processor hit 1,625 and 2,924 in single and multi-core tests respectively.
That's very good indeed, considering Apple only runs the dual core A8 at a mere 1.38 giga Hertz and equipped the iPhone 6 with just one gigabyte of memory. It's not a huge step-up on the Apple A7 in the 5c and other iDevices, which was already very quick - you're looking at a 15 to 20 per cent improvement if the benchmarks are to be believed - but still nice to have.
A Samsung Galaxy Note III hit 18,999 on 3Dmark and 939/2873 on Geekbench single/multi-core tests - this is thanks to a Qualcomm Snapdragon 800 running at 2.3GHz with four processor cores and 3GB of memory.
That Apple is able to keep up with on paper much chips and graphics processors that have more memory to play with suggests the company's hand tuned hardware design is paying off and there's plenty more margin left.
The long and short of this? The new iPhone 6 feels very quick and responsive, with smooth animations and graphics.
When will Apple NFC payments come to New Zealand?
I couldn't try out one of the most important new features of the iPhone 6 and iPhone 6 Plus, namely Apple Pay and near-field communications (NFC) payments - tap and go with your mobile, basically.
Apple is keeping mum on when the Pay stuff will arrive outside the United States.
Apparently existing VISA/Mastercard Paywave terminals will work with Apple Pay but so far, no New Zealand banks or retailers have said they've got the go-ahead from Big A to accept payments.
EFTPOS should probably start thinking about this really soon, if it hasn't already.
Bendgate?
Come on people... this is in the 128 gigabyte storage iPhone 6 Plus version a $1,449 phone. I'm sure I could break it with my hands if I really tried but I'm not going to.
That said, Consumer Reports has a fatter budget than I do, and they went and got bent with a bunch of smartphones.
App users: Tap here to watch the Consumer Reports video
iPhone 5s are the bend-resistance champs along with the Samsung Note 3, but the iPhone 6 Plus isn't too bad either. You'll have to work hard to bend the new iPhones basically.
Worthwhile upgrade
Price-wise, the iPhone 6 starts at $999 for the 16GB model, going to $1,149 for the 64GB one and $1,299 for the 128GB device.
The iPhone Plus costs $1,149, $1,299 and $1,449 for the 16GB, 64GB and 128GB models respectively.
That's the same old arbitrary pricing that makes the 16GB models very pricey in terms of dollars per gigabyte, so the 64GB ones are probably the best compromises with enough storage, yet not top dollar cost.
If you don't want the latest and greatest (literally) iPhone, the older iPhone 5s still works very well, especially with the iOS 8.0.2 upgrade.
The improved camera on the iPhone 6 and excellent screens on that and the iPhone 6 Plus make them worthwhile upgrades though.
There's a not so obvious reason to upgrade your iPhone from an older device: iOS 8. Apart from bringing in new features like third-party keyboards like Swiftkey, previous versions of iOS, even version 7, will not receive security patches.
This leaves users of iPhone 4 and older devices with phones for want of a better word, easily hackable. The iPhone 4s can be upgraded to iOS 8, but the new operating system runs slowly on that device.
The added security in iOS 8 goes beyond updates too, with Apple no longer having the decryption keys to the device, something that's infuriating government spy agencies and police everywhere.
