Is the iPhone 6 Plus just big, or is it too big?

When Apple opened up preorders for the new iPhone 6 I immediately – pretty much instinctively – pulled the trigger on the iPhone 6 Plus. My thinking was "why would I want the 4.7-inch display when I could get a 5.5-inch display?"

After all, if I think of all the work I've done on my iPhone 5 with it 4-inch display, then going to 5.5-inches will mean much more screen to work with. 

But a 5.5-inch display is a huge ramp up from the 4-inch display that I've been used to on my old iPhone, and so over the days between placing the order and receiving the handset, a question has nagged at my brain:

Is the iPhone 6 Plus just big, or is it too big?

I didn't manage to score an iPhone 6 Plus on launch day, but one has fallen into my hands this morning, so after tearing off the cellophane and freeing it from it's little cardboard delivery vessel I decided to find out for myself.

Note: This is a first impressions review based on a few hours of handling and using the iPhone 6 Plus. I will follow this piece up in 10 days with another, where I will pass on further thoughts, and decide whether I will keep the iPhone 6 Plus or move to the smaller iPhone 6.

The iPhone 6 Plus is big. Very big.

I've handled handsets this big – and bigger – before, and yet an iPhone with a 5.5-inch display still comes as a bit of a shock. It feels like I've upgraded from an iPhone that fits comfortably into the palm of my hand to one that barely fits into my hand. I know that this is partly down to muscle memory, since I've been handling my iPhone 5 with its 4-inch display almost daily for nearly three years.

But change is change, and by going up to the bigger display I've sacrifices – for the time being at any rate – ease of holding for a bigger display. At this stage this bothers me because I've traded one form of usability for another. 

Another thing that has become apparent is that one-handed typing is out – at least for now. My thumb can't make it all the way across they display to reach the far side of the screen.

I'm either going to have to will my thumb to evolve to the task, adopt a different grip, or switch to two-handed typing approach where I use one hand to cradle the handset, and the other to type. However, at this point in time I'm skeptical that one-hand typing is possible on this handset.

Even handling the iPhone 6 Plus isn't easy. The length gives it a top-heavy feel, while the rounded contours don't give the hand anything to hold onto. It has all the gripability of a wet bar of soap.

Dropping the iPhone just became a whole lot more likely.

This might change when I get a case for it, but even without the case the iPhone 5/5s was easy to handle and manipulate, partly because it was smaller, but partly because it had square edges as opposed to curved edges.

Gone are the days of tucking the iPhone into a pocket unless you have gianormous cargo pants pockets. A shirt pocket might work, but it's going to feel like a slab of body armor rather than a phone.

I've not pocket carried an iPhone for years – I carry too much junk in my pockets – and have been using a Nutshell leather belt pouch, and the good new is that the iPhone 6 Plus will fit in the oversized iPhone 5 case I bought. But if you're used to pocketing an iPhone, the iPhone 6 Plus might present you with a challenge.

The extra screen space is indeed welcomed, and the display is gorgeous to look at, and turn the iPhone into a mini-tablet that I can see myself using more and more for content creation. But the size of the handset, combined with the thinness and rounded corners, makes it hard to make proper use of the screen.

I certainly need a case of some description – I have a silicone case on order from Apple but it isn't scheduled to arrive until October – and that might improve gripability as well as flatten out the "camera nubbin" on the rear of the case that otherwise make s using it on a flat surface a pain.

I'm going to spend the next 10 days with the iPhone 6 Plus and see how I get on, and at the end of that time decide whether the iPhone 6 Plus is the handset for me, or whether I should switch to the smaller iPhone 6.