Apple has come out with their latest generation of iPhone and you want to know if you should upgrade. The answer to that burning question almost entirely depends on what you are looking for in your smartphone. There are some areas where Apple has definitely improved on its previous product and some where the improvements are either marginal or superfluous.

I purchased the new iPhone 6 and have had the opportunity to use it for everyday normal activities for about a week now. This article won’t be a review of the technical specs that have been plastered all over the internet since Apple’s announcement of the new phones and iOS 8, but instead a real user’s thoughts about how the new hardware and software work in everyday life.

The first thing you notice is the size. The phone feels lighter in your hand, it is thinner and sleeker, and the face is bigger. The larger screen did take a little bit of getting used to, and I noticed a few more errors than usual in typing the first few days, but overall I like it. If you use your phone as your primary web browser as a lot of people do now, it definitely helps to have the bigger screen for surfing and reading.

I was a little skeptical of the larger display at first but I’m finding that I’m liking it more than I thought I would (as long as it doesn’t bend in my pocket. No issues yet, fingers crossed). It’s obvious that a lot of the apps aren’t optimized for the bigger screen yet and are instead just a magnified version of the apps from the 5 generation, I’m sure those tweaks will come.

To me, I didn’t notice a huge difference in the picture quality. It is better, but it isn’t really too noticeable until you get to the new camera features in iOS 8. The slow-mo camera is a real cool thing to play around with and the time lapse feature can be a great way to capture a night’s worth of memories or just make a cool video.

I’ve found the battery life to be about the same as the iPhone 5. I’m still not thrilled with the battery life. I had a charging case on my 5 and most likely will be purchasing one for my iPhone 6.

Ok, I know I’m late to the party on this one, but I love the fingerprint recognition. I upgraded from an iPhone 5 to an iPhone 6 and skipped the 5s, so this is my first experience with it. I know it’s a tiny little detail, but you don’t realize the beauty of both feeling secure and not having to type a password until you try it.

I have noticed speed and responsiveness improvements in this model over the 5 model. I suspect this is a combination of the faster hardware combined with the fact that my 16GB iPhone 5 was completely maxed out on memory. I decided to spend the extra money and get the 64GB this time around hoping it would ease my issues with memory space and speed and so far so good but we’ll see what happens in another year or so.

All in all, I like the phone. I have always been an iPhone user and have never tried Android. Honestly, I see no reason to change and I have always been happy with the experience my iPhone has given me. This new phone and new OS aren’t huge improvements but I really like the product I’ve been using the last week or so. I would recommend it to anyone in the market for a new smartphone.