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iPhone 6s & 6s Plus Review
September is the month the new iPhone is announced and the Internet goes viral about it for good and bad reasons. Apple sure knows how to make a fuss, how to get people in lines outside its stores and how to break records.
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iPhone 6S Plus Review
Even without Steve Jobs. You must admit that, either you are a fan or not. I am Sakis Karpas, you are watching Unboxholics and this is the new iPhone. I had iPhone 6s Plus for days, but the day I shot this video another 6s Plus and a Rose Gold iPhone 6s were delivered, so I got the chance to show you both. Let’s start by saying the differences between them is the size, with iPhone 6s having 4.7″ display, while 6s Plus a 5.5″ one. Also they differ in battery capacity, but not on usage time and on Optical Image Stabilization, which isn’t present on 6s. There is also a difference in price, but I’ll talk about that later. Four colors are available, Silver, Space Gray, Gold and Rose Gold. iPhone 6s comes in an exemplary package as expected, including a pair of premium headphones. Apple said that “s” stands for speed, so there are no real differences in design with its predecessor, meaning all the goods and bads about it. It has the same round corners, the same high quality build with the wonderful aluminum, which slips wonderfully from your hand. I hoped the ugly antenna lines would be gone but someone in Apple loves them more than they deserve. Apple wanted to cast away the #BendGate nightmare so they build it with a stronger aluminum alloy, “7000 series” as they call it. Furthermore, it has Ion-X glass on the screen which we first saw on Apple Watch. It’s an extremely durable glass on scratches and cracks. Not many differences on other points, the speaker has great performance even though it’s not stereo, the buttons continue to be addicting and the Lightning port is there once again. The biggest upgrade and what impressed me more, is Force Touch, or as Apple calls it, 3D Touch. There are now different pressure levels on the display which have different functions. We’re not talking about a holding touch, but rather for applying pressure on our touch, which in fact is met with a small vibration. In that way the user gets shortcuts for apps, gets a preview on images, mails and messages and gets a brand new control tool in general. I think it’s a great innovation by Apple, which many more will embrace, as it adds essentially in the way we use our phone. It takes a bit getting used to, but once you do, everything runs smoothly. 3D touch is the reason the device is a bit thicker, from 6.9mm to 7.1mm and from 7.3mm for the iPhone 6s and the iPhone 6s Plus respectively, which personally doesn’t bother me at all. The new iPhones come with a Full HD IPS LCD display, which embodies once again the Retina technology. For better of for worse, when we have been accustomed to 2K displays with more than 500ppi on flagships, 401ppi on this phone level seem too little. Leaving the numbers aside, reality says the display is awesome. It’s sharp, bright and with good viewing angles, it has natural, not saturated colors, and provide a beautiful result in general. I must say though that this is the first year that the iPhone display doesn’t impress me. Mainly because I had some exceptional displays on my hands lately, such as Galaxy S6 Edge+ and LG G4. Inside Apple’s flagship we have A9 processor, built by Samsung and TSMC. It’s dual-core 64-bit on 1.84GHz. Before you say something about outdated specs let me say that it’s an incredibly fast processor, which surpasses the majority of 4-core or even 8-core processors. For the first time on an iPhone, RAM is on 2GB making the phone run everything smoothly. I really tried to complain about the low specs, compared to other flagships, but I really couldn’t and that means Apple has a perfect fusion of hardware and software. I noticed though that the phone gets hot on the back when recording 4K video or runs demanding apps. Not disturbingly hot, but noticeable. PowerVR GT7600 is on the graphics a six-core GPU, which is one of the most powerful at the moment. On storage we had a strange, or rather cunning decision by Apple. The new iPhones have 16GB, 64GB and 128GB of storage. 32GB is nowhere to be found and for me that should be the first step on storage, as the 16GB edition shouldn’t even exist on a phone that records 4K video and doesn’t have a microSD option. Apple says App Thinning on iOS 9 will do the trick as apps have become smaller in size, but barely convinces anyone. 16GB is a joke and I recommend avoiding them. Touch ID is much improved on the new iPhone and has already built a standard on speed in this technology. The use is instant and without problems. iOS 9 is the best software Apple had from the 4th edition and that’s why we had a smooth launch without problems, (like the ones on iOS 8) even on iPhone 4s, a 2011 device. We have an improved navigation on multitasking, much have been added, but overall it’s still iOS. You get a complete, fast and effective use on one hand, so you can’t really be disappointed, but still I would like to see bigger renewals as the years go by. I think Apple has stayed stagnant on this department. I am impressed by the battery life of 6s and 6s Plus. iOS 9 and the non-demanding Retina display help the devices last a lot longer than usual and a lot longer than their predecessors. I’d say they could last up to 2 days of normal use. For the record, 6s has a 1715mAh battery, while 6s Plus 2915mAh. The main camera of iPhone 6s has bumped from 8MP of its predecessor to 12MP and finally has 4K video recording capability. As I said before, iPhone 6s doesn’t have optical image stabilization. 6s Plus has this attribute and the results even on 4K video are impressive. In photography, the camera has great detail, true colors and great capabilities on low light conditions. But I did find some weaknesses, mainly on HDR, when we want detail on parts of the photo that don’t have much light. The selfie camera is also improved. The new iPhone 6s and iPhone 6s Plus have launched in Greece today, October 9th, and ask for €789 and €899 for the 16GB editions. Prices that you should rightfully expect from me to condemn. The same policy in pricing has been adopted by the competition too, but I think that Apple has taken it too far. Putting the price shock aside, I believe that the company this year has delivered something better than we expected. iPhone 6s is one of the best phones out there, it’s fast, beautiful, premium and offers a great user experience.
