First impressions.

I picked mine up two days late from the Apple Store as the early lines even for those with reservations were daunting. As stress free an experience as you can imagine from the masters of US retail. Chatting with a couple of oldies on this Sunday afternoon who also recall the iPhone 1 roll out, we all thought the lines for iP 6 were far longer than for iP 1. I put it down to disillusioned Android users returning to the fold from Samsung.

iPhone 6 and iPhone 5. Apple adds the Health app, lower left.

The new phone harkens back to the elegant design of the iPhone 1 and while the camera’s protruding bezel is no big deal in the latest device (the iPhone 1 had no camera!) it’s the only ugly touch to a device which otherwise recaptures the elegance of the original. My white-fronted version has a chromed rear plate and is quite remarkably thin, not to mention lighter than iPhone 5.

This is my first iPhone with TouchID and it works really well – I have programmed two of my fingers in and one of my son’s. This will revolutionize point-of-sale security and the sales clerk in the Apple Store told me all their stores will be using it by October with some 200,000 US stores of all ilks adopting the technology by December, presumably in conjunction with Apple Pay for credit card-free payments. No more Russkie credit card thieves at Target/Home Depot/Neiman Marcus/you name it. Another Cold War victory for American technology. So perfect is the implementation that the technology becomes invisible after a couple of uses. (“Any sufficiently advanced technology is indistinguishable from magic.” – Arthur C. Clarke)

Other first impressions:

• 80% charged out of the box
• The Stocks app is noticeably faster than iP 5. My favorite app, of course!
• Very slim – reminds me of the elegant design of iP1
• Health app looks very interesting – have to input data first. Fried food devotees south of the Mason-Dixon need not apply.
• Protruding rear camera bezel is no big deal – looks far worse in pictures – but still ugly
• Recovery of all iP 5 data from iCloud was very fast and seems complete – I was up and running in 18 minutes – 12GB download over 802.11ac wifi
• Predictive word suggestions when typing in iOS8 are far superior to the mess in iOS7
• The keyboard is noticeably easier to use owing to better key spacing
• One hand use is as simple as ever, provided your hands are not tiny
• (Just) fits my old iP 5 belt case!
• It’s not so large that you look like a dork making a phone call (not sure the same can be said for iP 6+)

I bought the 16GB model and that may have been a mistake. The Apple Store person told me I can upgrade to the 64GB model ($100) within 14 days as long as they have them for sale. The odds of that being possible are decent as it’s the bigger iPhone+ which is supply constrained. (Update: I upgraded to the 64GB model a couple of days later; this will provide adequate space for the usual iOS code bloat as well as more room for games for my 12 year old son! And yes, like the previous two, my iPhone was just sold to the inevitable Russkie on eBay – $245 net of fees. Enjoy it, comrade).

Two years ago when I migrated from iPhone 4 (AT&T) to iPhone 5 (VZ) I had to visit the Verizon store to have my telephone number rolled over, a process which made a root canal or appendectomy fun occasions by comparison. This time I decided to stick with VZ and the Apple Store migrated my number in 3 minutes with no need to transplant SIM cards from the old phone. Nice. The phone worked immediately when I checked it in the Apple Store.

I recommend adoption of Two Factor ID verification, wherein a code is sent to one of your devices when you change key settings in your iPhone (passwords, account access, etc.). I have been using Two Factor ID for several months on all my Apple devices and it’s far more secure than the simple passwords all those Hollywood nudists use. One more step in keeping Ivan at bay and helping to protect The American Way. If you already use two factor security, be sure to take one other device, like an iPad, to the Apple Store if you want them to set up your new iPhone. Without the other device Apple will be unable to retrieve the two factor code to set up the iPhone.

You can elect 6 rows of icons compared with 5 but they appear small; I prefer the ‘zoomed’ view which sticks with 5 rows, but much larger.

More on the camera – which now adds time lapse and single picture HDR, next time.

Bumper:

If you dislike bulky cases as much as I do – be it for phones or cameras – I recommend a bumper like this:

Available for a few dollars from Amazon, it keeps the plane surfaces off anything flat surface place the phone on, while materially improving the grip owing to the rubberized edges. The iPhone 6 is far more slippery than any iPhone which came before it, and easily dropped.

Disclosure: Long AAPL.