iPhone 6 Plus and iGlide

Since the board seems kind of dead today (everyone getting their gliders ready for the season?) I will weigh in with a brief review of this combo. I like iGlide, which seems quite modern compared to the other commercial offerings and it pairs well with the Butterfly/Air variometer. Last year I was running it on an iPhone 5s alongside an Avier(Oudie/V2) running SYM, XCSoar, and Winpilot on various days. The problem with the 5s is the screen is considerably smaller and not apparently as bright as the Avier. Though the display is much higher resolution, you have to hold it closer to you (not ideal for mature eyes) and sometimes hope you are under a cloud.

I bought an iPhone 6 Plus just to run iGlide. It's pretty big to carry around as a phone, however you can swap the SIM card back and forth if you have a 5/ 5s and want to use it that way. In any case, I did so with some trepidation that though the display is bigger and reputedly a bit more sunlight readable, it is an expensive experiment to perform. I now have it running, though I have not flown with it yet.

It is a great deal better than the iPhone 5s, it seems a little brighter held side by side in the sunlight but the shear size means a lot more light is falling on your eyeballs. It is quite readable even in direct sun behind while the 5s was not. Only when you get a direct refection of the sun orb on the screen is it illegible. iGlide just scales up everything to fit the display, so the text, icons, everything is bigger and easier for someone over 50 to read. The touchscreen is also better than the 5s, which seemed to take just a bit more firm touch than the previous iPhones. The 6+ is very sensitive and nice.

The surprise was holding it next to the Avier. There is a mismatch of specs, the Avier/Oudie/V2 claims are in the 800 - 1000 nit brightness and the iPhone 6+ has been independently tested at around 560. However they seem about the same apparent brightness held side by side with both at highest brightness. And the iPhone 6+ is more readable at any angle, in any light. The worst for both is the sun orb directly reflected from the glass, neither is readable there although you can see the edges of the iPhone. At slightly off that angle you can read the iPhone first, and it is simply better in all conditions. Of course the resolutions and touchscreens are not even in the same century. The iPhone display is both physically larger and higher resolution (1920 x 1080 vs. 480 x 272). The less said about the Avier touch screen the better.

I also have Winpilot iOS installed on it, this is also pretty modern and has some nice ideas incorporated, however for me it has been too buggy to use, yet.

I'm looking forward to flying with it.