The season of rumors is finally over. This time around Apple’s curtain raiser event at San Francisco has not only unveiled new phones, but a host of new devices as well, including iPad Pro and the new Apple TV. There are two new phones for Apple fans, namely iPhone 6s and iPhone 6s Plus – the update to last year iPhone 6 and iPhone 6 Plus. There are two new colors, an enhanced camera, a totally new “3D Touch” feature and a faster A9 processor. The looks are pretty much the same; however, Apple has come a long way in updating iPhone 6s features and specs. We will review iPhone 6s features, iPhone 6s specs and iPhone 6s price one by one in detail.
Design
The design is pretty much the same. Their predecessor phones had changed the design paradigm of Apple phones after a gap of several years and were made up of anodized aluminum. The new iPhone 6s and iPhone 6s Plus have raised the bar once again and they now boast of 7000 Series aluminum material – a material 60 % stronger than anodized aluminum used in last year’s iPhone 6 and iPhone 6 Plus. The ‘iPhone 6 bendgate’ scandal forced Apple to go beyond its own limits. The display glass has also increased in strength as compared to previous versions. The sizes also remain the same. There are two new colors though- gold and rose gold- adding to the already available silver and space grey colors.
So the new, tougher body material, stronger glass and two new body colors are the highlights of design updates in the new phones. Judging from the outset, iPhone 6s features have certainly evolved a lot in a year.
Processor and Memory
Apple has made their ‘tock’ part of the tick-tock cycle really impressive this year by increasing the iPhone 6s specs even better. The new phones have A9 chip with 64-bit architecture and embedded M9 motion coprocessor, compared to last year’s A8 chip and M8 processor. The A9 chip is 70% faster than A8 when it comes to performing various tasks (opening app etc.) and 90% faster in graphics performance- like gaming.
iPhone 6s specs have also taken the lead in smart phones market by making itself compatible for LTE Advanced, and if your service provider has the LTE advanced connectivity the iPhone 6s is the best device to enjoy the fastest Wi-Fi data rates yet. The RAM has increased to 2 GB and the device storage is now also available in 128 GB in addition to traditionally available 16GB and 64 GB version.
Camera
A hot addition in iPhone 6s features is the new 12 megapixel camera raised from 8 MPs in the last year’s phones. The camera still protrudes out a little from the body, but that has been done not to compromise on its performance. The front camera has also taken a huge leap, reaching to 5 megapixels from meager 1.2MP. The new improved camera can let you shoot 4K (3840×2160) videos giving a stunning video quality of 8 million pixels in one frame. Another camera related iPhone 6s feature is “Live photos” which gives you animated pictures by including sounds few seconds before and after taking your pictures and adding a series of images to it. Camera in iPhone 6s is definitely a winner this time.
3D Touch
The latest iPhone 6s feature which has a tinge of innovation to it is the new “3D touch” feature. The touch technology has evolved a lot and now after multi touch there are these various pressure sensors, which are layered under the touch surface to allow the user a varying degree of touch pressure. The sensors can read a user’s degree of touch pressure and then offer various actions to be performed. From a simple tap to “press” to a “deeper press” you can get various options, thereby combining various tasks in a single action and making the actions quick and easy to access.
Battery
While Apple has raised some iPhone 6s specs and worked iPhone 6s features pretty much high too, there is one thing which has remained below expectation. The official claim says a talk time of up to 24 hrs for iPhone 6s Plus and 14 hrs for iPhone 6s with 3G connected. However, the last year’s iPhone 6 had a 5 hours 22 minutes and this year’s iPhone 6s is not going to get any better. May be Apple is ready to pay the price of less battery talk time for the sake of fast charging feature, a trade-off we are not sure many users would agree to. But as it turns out fast charging is an iPhone 6s feature which is well in demand and works for many users.
Price
iPhone 6s price and configuration has been kept the same as the previous generation. iPhone 6s price will start from $199 for 16 GB model and iPhone 6s Plus will be priced at $299 for 16 GB model. Apple is planning to introduce an iPhone 6s price plan where you could pay $32 per month for 2 years and could extend the contract to receive the new model on each upgrade. The iPhone 6s price starts to drop down if you keep your phone for two years or longer.
The phones will be available from 25th September.
Apple event this year has been a true attention grabber like always and had the social media and internet abuzz with its mesmerism. To conclude the review, this year update has managed to roll out some really advanced features giving the smart phone industry and its customers a huge lead. As the Apple’s launch event tag line said, “The only thing we have changed is everything”, they have upgraded the iPhone 6s specs, they have given new iPhone 6s feature and they have kept the iPhone 6s price the same as last year. Such updates with same price can be no less than a winner deal.
Images: TechRadar, Engadget, Trusted Reviews, TechCrunch