The iPhone 6 and iPhone 6 plus will only hit stores on Friday, but they've been in the hands of gadget reviewers around the world for weeks.
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With bigger screens, faster processors and an improved camera, the iPhone 6 series could be the biggest shake-up of the iPhone in quite a few device generations.
So what do the media's gadget gurus think about the changes made to Apple's flagship device?
Design
Many reviewers have noted the rounded edges, thinner body and sharp bezel of the new phones brings them in line with the most recent design of iPads and iPods, and most appreciated the change.
"It's very hard to feel the seam between glass and aluminium", said John Gruber at Daring Fireball. "Examined closely, it's just a phenomenally nice enclosure."
Brad Molen at engadget also appreciated the seamless aluminium design, but noticed it brought a negative side-effect. "The phones are prone to scratches if you're not careful", he wrote. "After just a day of use, I started noticing a few small marks on the backs of both devices. The most extreme thing I did to the phones during this time was slide them around on an office table."
A good case may be in order for those concerned about staying scratch-free.
David Pierce at The Verge savaged the phones' antenna placement, saying the small plastic stripes on the back of the phone "just looks bad, like someone drew on my phone with a marker. HTC's simple, striped design on the One M8 is far better, and even Apple's glass-strip-on-the-top-and-bottom approach for the 5S looked nicer".
Size
While almost all commentators have so far celebrated the slightly larger iPhone 6 for stepping closer to (but not quite up to) the 5-inch smartphone standard, opinions were decidedly mixed on whether the "phablet" iPhone 6 Plus may be a little too big.
"The iPhone 6 Plus is so big that in landscape mode, I had a hard time reaching the keys to type", said Molly Wood at The New York Times, who also mentioned that the increased size of both phones, combined with the new rounded edges and smooth surface, put her in constant fear of dropping the device as she reached her fingers across the screen.
Charles Arthur at The Guardian agreed, but concluded the extra screen space may be worth it. "Choosing between the iPhone 6 Plus and the smaller iPhone 6 could be surprisingly difficult if your hand, and your wallet, is large enough", he said. "It is large, yet the extra screen space is a boon. But that also makes it unwieldy."
Gruber was concerned that even the 4.7-inch iPhone 6 may be a little big for current iPhone users (the 5S is only 4 inches), as it makes the device much more difficult to use one-handed, but the Wall Street Journal's Geoffrey Fowler thought the jump brought definite advantages.
"You get an extra row of apps on the home screen and can see an extra email in your inbox", Fowler wrote. "And anyone with poor vision will appreciate a new 'zoomed' mode that's like reading glasses for your iPhone."
Camera
Praise has been virtually unanimous for the improved main camera on the two phones, despite Apple sticking with an 8 megapixel sensor in the face of much bigger cameras on rival devices.
Mashable's Lance Ulanoff said the changes "take smartphone image capture to another level", especially when it comes to exposure and focus.
"I never found the iPhone 5S' autofocus lacking", wrote Ulanoff, "but when I ran a simple test – covering both smartphone lenses with my fingers and then seeing which could focus more quickly on the scene when I removed them – the iPhone 6 won every time".
The imaging experience is even better on the iPhone 6 Plus, said Darrell Etherington at Tech Crunch, thanks to an optical image stabilisation module that can physically move the camera to reduce blur and, "in addition to the software-based stabilisation Apple already uses in its iPhone camera, results in a photo-taking experience like no other."
Battery
Almost unanimously, reviewers have spoken a word of caution about the new phones' battery life. While the iPhone 6 Plus has definitively been shown to outlast the iPhone 5 and 5s thanks to its bigger battery, the smaller iPhone 6 has not fared as well.
"In our video-playback tests, the 6 lasted 10 hours and 19 minutes; that's actually worse than the 5s results from last year", reported Molen. "The iPhone 6 Plus, on the other hand, still had 14 per cent battery left when the 6 died."
Still, the battery in the iPhone 6 appears to be sufficient enough to get through the day.
"I easily got one day's use, and sometimes much of a second day", said Arthur. "Comparisons are difficult, though, because they depend on network availability [when out of range the phone amps up its output to try to contact a mast] and screen brightness."
Verdict
The overwhelming majority of reviews have so far agreed that the iPhone 6 is the best phone Apple has made, with many going further to say that, as of now, it is the best smartphone on the market.
Opinions of the iPhone 6 Plus have varied greatly depending on the reviewers' usage needs and familiarity with phablets, indicating it may be more of a niche version of the iPhone 6 for users who need the extra screen real estate.
"Everything is better and nothing is different", concluded Pierce, with Molen mirroring that common sentiment by saying, "This year's iPhones aren't groundbreaking, nor are they perfect. But they demonstrate something far more important to Apple's success in the long run: freshness."
