It's still true that the iPhone 6s is not a major landmark overhaul model, but by building in some smaller but still substantial ways from last year's model it's a bit of a bigger deal than previous S category devices. The iPhone 6s and iPhone 6s Plus may be regarded as incremental in terms of how they fit in Apple's upgrade plan, but the changes are significant; a much faster processor, heftier camera hardware, and a brand new way to interact with the touch display.
Apple has announced it has sold more than 13 million new iPhone 6s and iPhone 6s Plus models, a new record, just three days after launch. iPhone 6s and iPhone 6s Plus will be available in more than 40 additional countries beginning October 9 including Italy, Mexico, Russia, Spain and Taiwan. The new iPhones will be available in over 130 countries by the end of the year.
“Sales for iPhone 6s and iPhone 6s Plus have been phenomenal, blowing past any previous first weekend sales results in Apple’s history,” said Tim Cook, Apple’s CEO. “Customers’ feedback is incredible and they are loving 3D Touch and Live Photos, and we can’t wait to bring iPhone 6s and iPhone 6s Plus to customers in even more countries on October 9.”
It probably won't come as too much of a surprise to many, after all, it took Apple a good long while to switch from smaller displays to larger ones (and even then many of "the faithful" weren't entirely convinced), but according to a report from analytics firm Localytics the smaller iPhone 6s is around four times more popular with consumers than the iPhone 6s Plus phablet. The iPhone 6s holds a much larger share of all iPhones currently in use at 1.5% compared to the iPhone 6s Plus at 0.4%.
But with that said, last year's iPhone 6 is still the most popular handset at the moment with a share of 33.2%, indicating that for all the new features onboard the iPhone 6s edition it may not have been enough to convince everyone to make a switch.
Regardless of its stellar sales, some people always say the S series is worth avoiding. “Wait until they get around to the prime number again (ie: the iPhone 7). But in my opinion, after using the iPhone 6s for about a week, it is clear that this is the most significant S series release to date. Here’s my full review.
iPhone 6s review: Specs
- Display: 4.7-inch display with a 1334x750-pixel resolution at 326ppi, 3D Touch enabled
- Dimensions: 138.3mm x 67.1 mm x 7.1 mm
- Weight: 142 grams
- Storage: 16, 64, or 128GB
- Memory: 2 GB RAM
- Processors: A9 chip with 64-bit architecture and M9 motion coprocessor
- Front camera: FaceTime HD camera. 5 MP photos and 720p HD video. Retina Flash
- Rear camera: iSight camera. 12 MP photos. ƒ/2.2 aperture. 4k video. True Tone flash.
- Battery life: Up to 12.5 hours mixed usage
- Touch ID: 2nd generation sensor
- NFC: yes
- Colors: Silver, Space Grey, Gold, or Rose Gold
Design
The same stick that some use to beat iPhone fans still exists: yes, visually this is almost identical to last year's redesigned iPhone 6, with the same ceramic metal feel and slightly protruding camera that means you can place it side by side with the iPhone 6 and not really notice the difference.
The only marginal change is the additional thickness, very likely to facilitate the new 3D Touch technology on the screen.
Compared to other phones on the market the iPhone 6S still manages to mix that feeling of premium build with a light and thin phone - it's a joy to hold.
Apple's nod to the improved build with reinforced 7000 series aluminium is clearly a direct result of the iPhone 6's 'Bendgate', where the phone was slightly prone to changing shape if pressure was applied. While Apple doesn't need sympathy, it was still a bit harsh that it got singled out for this issue when many other handsets could also bend if you tried.
Either way it's now much less prone to changing shape even in the back pocket. Pro tip for all phone owners: don't apply force to the expensive object in your pocket, mmmkay?
iPhone 6s review: Storage, CPU, and RAM
Yeah, this seems like a no-brainer, but it is backed up by manufacturing facts. Apple’s A-series chip manufacturing partners, like Samsung, have moved on from the 20nm process found in the A8 to a 14 and 16nm process for the next generation chip. The smaller size means more transistors can be fit on the same surface area. More transistors mean the chip will be both more powerful while offering greater power efficiency. In other words, the A9 won’t drain your battery as fast as the A8 did.
Apple says its next-generation A9 chipset is around twice as powerful as last year’s model — the one inside the iPhone 6 and iPhone 6 Plus — and far more power efficient, meaning despite not having a larger battery, this year’s iPhones will boast performance improvements of an hour or so over their predecessors. Additional reporting claims the iPhone 6s and iPhone 6s Plus now feature 2GB of memory as well — twice as much as 2014’s models.
“A9,” said Apple in a statement to the press, “Apple’s third-generation 64-bit chip powers these innovations with 70 percent faster CPU and 90 percent faster GPU performance than the A8, all with gains in energy efficiency for great battery life. The A9 chip and iOS 9 are architected together for optimal performance where it matters most, in real world usage. M9, Apple’s next-generation motion coprocessor, is embedded into A9, allowing more features to run all the time at lower power, including “Hey Siri,” without iPhone needing to be plugged in.”
Unfortunately on the storage front there’s nothing new in the iPhone 6s. It still comes in 16, 64, and 128GB models. The latter two are fine, but the 16GB model is just stupid. You’ll use the space up in no time. As for CPU and RAM, the iPhone 6s gets its biggest upgrade ever. It now features the A9 chipset, which Apple says is 70% faster than the iPhone 6’s A8 and has an astonishing 90% faster GPU performance. It has also doubled the RAM to 2GB.
So how does this translate to real world use: well, frankly, it’s unbelievable. I only came from the iPhone 6, but even I can tell how much faster the iPhone 6s is. Apps open lightning quick–everything I do on the phone is lightning quick. Even graphics intensive games load in a fraction of the time that they did on the iPhone 6.
If the 3D touch display doesn’t give you enough reason to upgrade, the improved CPU and double the RAM is more than enough reason in itself. This is by far the fastest iPhone ever–some benchmarks have even pegged it as fast and powerful as the new MacBook.
Camera
The expected upgrade from the iPhone 6's camera has arrived: the iPhone 6S has a 12MP snapper and it looks like it'll deliver in spades. The need to jump in megapixels was rarely warranted for a brand beyond the need to impress consumers with higher numbers, but this year things are starting to jump forward.
The Samsung Galaxy S6 is taking stunning photos with a 16MP option, and Sony's Xperia Z5, packing a 23MP sensor and super fast autofocus, actually uses those additional pixels to good use... Apple needed to keep up.
While I've only tested the new camera briefly, there's no doubt that it's an upgrade. It still retains the speed of snapping I've come to expect from an iPhone while the clarity is there to see too.
The usual feature set - which is actually pretty useful - is also still present, with time lapse and slo-mo both present and correct. Apple still hasn't fixed the most annoying part of the camera (sliding the finger up and down to change the exposure as the only way of altering the photo, which is basic and actually quite hard to do) and I was hoping to see a manual mode here.
The new Live Photo option, which takes a 1.5 second photo either side of the shot, feels more like a gimmick than a really useful option. You have to remember to activate it, but it's really impressive that it doesn't seem to affect the shutter speed - it should take a while either side, but it buffers while you're taking the picture.
3D Touch but old screen
Now onto the biggest change for the iPhone 6S, 3D Touch. This changes everything for Apple users, and while it's not enough of a reason to upgrade from the 6, it's a pretty nifty trick that again promises to make current iPhone 5S owners feel like they're getting a real upgrade with their new phone.
The main difference 3D Touch brings is the ability to interact with on-screen instructions in different ways. It's too early to delve into all the ways that the new power will work, but the system (for those that haven't seen an Apple Watch or the new Macbook) is simple: you can tap like before, but press a bit harder on an icon or message and you'll get a new menu popping up.
Imagine it's like right-clicking the mouse to get a secondary menu, and you're pretty much there. It's a cool new feature, although one that app developers will need to work with for a while to really get the best out of.
The iPhone 6S screen, new touchy-powers aside, is pretty much identical to the one seen on the iPhone 6. That's not necessarily a bad thing... while it's true that Apple has one of the lowest-res screens of all the flagship phones, the way it's displayed (laminated to the glass, highly colorful) makes it still look beautiful
iPhone 6s review: Battery
The battery life is something I haven't noticed any difference in between my iPhone 6s and my iPhone 6. That's saying somethig too considering the iPhone 6s actually has a smaller battery (1,715 mAh) than the iPhone 6 (1,810 mAh). Matter of fact, in spite of the smaller battery, Apple says the battery life is just the same: up to 14 hours on 3G; up to 10 hours on 3G, up to 10 hours on LTE, up to 11 hours on Wi‑Fi; up to 11 hours of HD video playback; and up to 50 hours of audio playback.
Given that the iPhone 6s does have a smaller battery, yet has the same battery life of the 6, it's obvious Apple has saved some juice by using more power efficient chips (the A9 and M9) and better software algorithms to conserve power. That most likely explains why I haven't noticed any battery life difference between the two phones. That being said, I'm sure some people will notice some battery life difference. It just depends on how much you play around with your new iPhone and also how much you use some of the newer features like 3D Touch.
Battery Gate, however, changed all of this. According to multiple reports, the battery performance on Apple’s iPhone 6s can vary by as much as two hours depending on which chipset -- Samsung or TSMC -- it uses. This is a pretty big disparity and any iPhone launched wouldn’t be complete with some kind of insert-word-here-Gate disaster. Ars Technica broke the news, below The Guardian’s 2p on the issue:
“The A9 chipset,” reports The Guardian, “the lump of silicon that lies at the heart of the iPhone 6S and iPhone 6S Plus, is designed by Apple but manufactured by two independent contractors: Korea’s Samsung Electronics and Taiwan’s TSMC. The two chips interact with the rest of the hardware identically, based as they are on the same designs, but differences in their production is apparently having an effect on how efficient they are at doing their jobs.”
Even though Apple has achieved the same battery life with a smaller battery, it would have been nice if they would have kept the larger battery to give it even more juice–however, that wasn't probably technically feasable because they needed to make space for the Haptic engine this time and the battery is the bigest space hog, so that was the most logical choice of what could be shrunken down.
iPhone 6s review: Price and Verdict
The iPhone 6s, as expected, doesn’t look like much from the outside. It is exactly the same as the iPhone 6, save for the slight difference in weight, and Apple has largely left the aesthetics alone, meaning if you weren’t a fan of the plastic strip and nubbin-style camera sensor then, well, you’re not going to like this one all that much either.
The only physical change that is noticeable aboard the iPhone 6s is its new colour -- rose gold. Beyond this the handset is simply a refinement of what came before. Apple has improved the camera, performance in general, thanks to the A9 chipset, and added in a bunch of new functionality with 3D Touch.
Should current iPhone 6 users upgrade then? I’d argue no, especially if you’re still happy with how your iPhone 6 handset is functioning. Ditto for iPhone 6 Plus users. Nevertheless, should you upgrade to the iPhone 6s I do not think for one second that you’ll be disappointed. Apple has tweaked a lot of things under the hood and they’re all pretty palpable when you pick up and use the handset. Even more so if you’re coming from an iPhone 5s or lower.
iPhone 6s review
iPhone 6s and 6s Plus
Source - Apple Inc.
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