iPhone 6 Plus vs iPhone 5C and Apple Watch: Both options are £619 but which should you choose
Picture this: You've got £619 to spend and you want to spend it in the Apple Store. You're in the market for a new smartphone, but you can't decide whether to go for Apple's flagship or an older iPhone that'll save you money and even leave room to throw in the awesome new Apple Watch that everyone's after right now.
It's a dilemma (#firstworldproblems would definitely apply here), but here, we've got some advice to help you decide whether to buy the more pricey iPhone 6 Plus or get two new devices for the price of one by buying the older iPhone 5C and Apple's newest gadget, the Apple Watch.
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iPhone 6 Plus vs iPhone 5C & Apple Watch: Design & capacity
Let's start with option one, the iPhone 6 Plus. It's Apple's newest, most high-tech smartphone and it is a beautiful, powerful device. It's also the most expensive of Apple's iPhones, of course.
£619 will get you the 16GB model of iPhone 6 Plus, and you'll be able to choose between silver, gold or space grey aluminium. It looks and feels premium, at a tiny 7.1mm thick, and has an overall slick and stylish finish.
16GB isn't going to be enough for everyone, though. Apple also offers 64GB or 128GB iPhone 6 Plus models at £699 or £789 respectively, and we'd strongly recommend considering whether to spend the extra money to get more storage before you buy as there is no microSD slot so you won't be able to add space at a later date (unless you use one of these gadgets). See also: 17 ways to save space on your iPhone
As far as iPhones go, the iPhone 6 Plus couldn't get much more different from the iPhone 5C, which is part of our option two. The 5C costs £319 so is almost half the price, making it Apple's cheapest iPhone. It's got even less storage, at 8GB, and there's no option to get more storage - it's 8GB or nothing in the 5C's case.
It looks very different too, with a plastic chassis available in white, pink, green, yellow or blue. It's fun, that's for sure, but it doesn't have the same premium feel as the iPhone 6 Plus. It's also thicker, at 9mm, but we still couldn't consider it to be chunky, and the smaller overall size means that it's significantly lighter at 132g.
iPhone 6 Plus vs iPhone 5C & Apple Watch: Display
Then there's the display difference: The 5.5in display on the iPhone 6 Plus is Retina HD, with a resolution of 1920x1080 at 401ppi. The iPhone 5C, on the other hand, has a 4in display with a resolution of 1136 x 640 pixels at 326ppi.
But of course, what you get it you choose option two is the Apple Watch. For £299, you'll get the Apple Watch Sport with the 38mm display, which means you get a bit of extra screen estate for tasks like Maps, reading notifications and much more (we'll talk more about what the Apple Watch offers later).
The Apple's Watch display is OLED and the 38mm model is 272 x 340 pixels.
iPhone 6 Plus vs iPhone 5C & Apple Watch: Specs
When it comes to the hardware inside the two iPhone's we're looking at here, there's quite a significant difference there, too. The iPhone 6 Plus boasts Apple's latest 64-bit processor, the A8, as well as the M8 co-processor with its sensors that help improve the efficiency of the smartphone.
The iPhone 5C doesn't have the M8 chip. Instead, it has an A6 chip, which is the same chip found in the iPhone 5 from 2012. It's still zippy, and both smartphones have 1GB RAM, but it's likely that the iPhone 5C will stop being supported by Apple in the near future because the technology it uses is getting older. This means that some future iOS updates won't be available on the iPhone 5C, and other peripherals might not be compatible either.
The Apple Watch is compatible with the iPhone 5C, though, as well as the iPhone 5, iPhone 5S, iPhone 6 and iPhone 6 Plus. We expect that the next generation of Apple Watch will be compatible with iPhone 5S and newer, which is something to bear in mind with the iPhone 5C.
It may sound like the camera in the iPhone 5C and iPhone 6 Plus are the same - they're both 8Mp iSight cameras on the rear - but they're actually quite different. The pixels in the iPhone 6 Plus are larger, at 1.5 microns, meaning better quality photographs overall. The aperture is also better, at f/2.2 rather than the iPhone 5C's f/2.4, and there's optical image stabilisation in the 6 Plus that means super-sharp images.
The iPhone 6 Plus also boasts a True Tone flash, which is dual-LED rather than the single LED flash on the rear of the iPhone 5C. Both have similar front-facing cameras, though, and can both capture 1080p HD video.
One final thing to mention is that the iPhone 6 Plus comes with the Touch ID fingerprint sensor, which lets you unlock your phone with just your finger rather than requiring a passcode, and it's gradually becoming more and more useful as third-party apps begin becoming compatible with the technology. And soon, when Apple Pay finally arrives in the UK, you'll be able to use the Touch ID combined with the NFC chip in the iPhone 6 Plus (which by the way is otherwise completely redundant because Apple doesn't allow you to use it for anything other than Apple Pay at the moment) to pay for things in shops around the country.
The iPhone 5C doesn't have Touch ID or NFC and therefore doesn't support Apple Pay, but we're forgetting that option two includes an Apple Watch and guess what: Apple Watch works with Apple Pay! (Problem solved).
iPhone 6 Plus vs iPhone 5C & Apple Watch: What does the Apple Watch add to iPhone 5C
So far, you're probably convinced that it's a much better idea to buy the iPhone 6 Plus, because it has a better processor, better camera, better display, nicer design and more capacity - but so it should considering the fact it costs a whopping £300 more.
With that £300 you could buy the Apple Watch (and you'd even have £1 left over for an ice cream).
The Apple Watch has some of its own built-in sensors that'll help you forgive the lack of an M8 chip in the iPhone 5C, and we've already mentioned that it'll mean you can use Apple Pay in stores.
It'll also stop your friends from noticing that you've got an older phone when you show them the awesome gadget that you've got strapped to your wrist (if that's the kind of thing you worry about, of course).
The Apple Watch can help you achieve a huge variety of things without requiring you to get your iPhone 5C out of your pocket or bag. You can see notifications for most applications, including Apple apps like Messages and Mail and third-party apps like Facebook Messenger, Twitter or Whatsapp. In some cases, such as Messages, for example, you can also use your Apple Watch to reply.
Other features include the ability to get turn-by-turn directions using the Maps app, remotely control your music. You can even make and receive phone calls on the Apple Watch, and use it to track your workouts and activity throughout the day.
That's only the tip of the iceberg, and you can find out much more about the Apple Watch in our complete guide.
There's a catch, though. As it's a first generation device, it has emerged that it has lots of downfalls. It doesn't work properly with tattoos so if you've got a tattoo on your wrist you'll probably want to avoid it, and the battery life is proving to be less than impressive.
We've also had some trouble with the Apple Watch and our iPhone 5C. They work together well, and Apple says their compatible, but there was no denying that the iPhone 5C slowed down significantly with the Apple Watch attached. We're going to continue investigating this one but it's something to bear in mind.
It's also a bit complicated, and our verdict is that Apple has tried to squeeze too much into the Apple Watch. We're expecting the second generation to be miles better, which is why we'd actually hesitate to recommend buying it at all.
iPhone 6 Plus vs iPhone 5C & Apple Watch: Verdict
So, you've still got that £619 to spend in the Apple Store, right Here's what we'd actually recommend doing with it: Buy the 64GB iPhone 6, which has all of the qualities of the iPhone 6 Plus but with a 4.7in in screen at 326ppi. There's no optical stabilisation in the camera, but it has an even thinner profile of 6.9mm and you can get the 64GB model for the same price as the 16GB model of the iPhone 6 Plus.
We know that this'll leave some of you disappointed - that Apple Watch sounded mighty appealing. But we'd recommend putting £25 aside each month for a year in preparation for Apple Watch 2 instead of coughing up for the Apple Watch now.
Remember the original iPad When the iPad 2 came out a year later it blew its predecessor out of the water and made the original iPad look instantly old-fashioned. We're expecting a similar situation with the Apple Watch, so waiting an extra 12 months should be well-worth it.